I blame, wrongly or rightly, climate change. The extraordinary warm, record-breaking recent weather trends have encouraged plant growth, with lettuces going to seed, rhubarbs becoming giants, raspberries and blackberries prolifically producing bumper crops and, most critically for us, bracken reaching ever greater heights, not to mention the bilberries and heather: heaven for Harmerian fans, perhaps?
We were to find out almost immediately from the start of a hybrid outing from Westend. Roger, Tim and Pete plus an earlier starting Jim, were brave enough to take on the Way Out West Summer Series race and the five remaining Slow Warts, all over 70, tackled the very steep Banktop Plantation, not only steep but well blanketed with bracken and the brittle and springy dead and live branches. We survived, to briefly check the remains of the farmhouse, to continue our climb unhindered by bracken or branches but hindered now by the inevitable tussocks on otherwise open ground.
Our thoughts and talk somehow drifted to access, no problems here, and on, therefore, to Bob, who was mentioned (“the Great Bob Berzins”) in the Houses of Parliament by MP Olivia Blake, as reported in Clive’s WhatsApp comment about it. Meanwhile, we had to move on and unlike last Wednesday, there was to be no dithering decisions about where we were going (Andy had planned the route), this time across the head of Linch Clough, then to the two cabins in Lower Small Clough and into Westend for a track finish to the cars to avoid the steep Bank descent. However, our crossing of the moor and, particularly Linch Clough had not been speedy and so resulted in a rethink, now missing out the two cabins which would have involved yet another moor crossing. Our decision was perhaps influenced by our struggle through the combined forces of deep bilberry, bracken, a steep hillside and some loose scree in Linch Clough.
So, after this, a right-angled turn was called for, back to the disused drain of Black Dike which was easier underfoot and was even wet, meaning Andy could enjoy dabbling his new (!) shoes there before we all, lemming like, headed to the cliff edge over Westend. The fun started here! Apart from rain and snow (we did have wind and sun), there’s not many other conditions which slow the Slow Warts down (our motto is we always run to summits!?) but today we had more than enough vegetation to contend with to reach the Westend valley. Even Andy was tempted by a short but difficult descent to the track whereas we remaining stalwarts ploughed on, only to be outrun by him, roadrunner!
Tonight, it was a relief to be on the track which had some relatively soft verges to ease the bone shaking but, oh, what a pleasure. The WOW racers had finished by now (led in by Roger then Tim and Pete, all reporting the necessity to walk, rather than run, down through the giant bracken in the fire break} and although Jim had been seen on route, he’d not arrived back. Our concern for him heightened at the YBI and we were about to draw lots for who should go out and search for him when he appeared, looking very pleased with himself. Well done, Jim.
I think we all enjoyed the outings, after all it was sunny and even cool enough, to put on an extra layer. However, it was a contrast to last week when there were complaints apparently about the use of too many paths. We put that right tonight, or did we?
Thanks to all.
Graham
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