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In the absence of either a safety officer or habitual wart-in-chief, it’s just possible we never took a head count. Nonetheless there was a surprisingly healthy showing – twenty plus – for a rather longer tour of Big Moor than many of us had anticipated. Possibly by dint of being the only attendee in possession of a 1:25000 scale map, or possibly as result of his impressive showing at the Long Cakes race the other week, Rob Cole strode out in front giving a fine impression of a night-time navigator … Sadly, his tendency to interpret county and constituency boundaries as footpaths soon proved his undoing, and we singularly failed to find either Lady’s Cross or the first Big Moor stone circle. We did, however, acquaint ourselves with some suitably poor ground. Thereafter, navigation improved – in large part due, I suspect, to the profusion of footpaths. Nonetheless, those of us on the two and a half hour extended tour managed to take in three stone circles, a barrow and the reconstituted rock art on Gardoms Edge, whilst the lighter-weight two hour tour settled for just the two stone circles. They did, however, remember to stop for some whisky. Rob and I, by contrast (and no doubt weighed down by the unexpected burden of leadership), forgot entirely to call a whisky halt for the extended tour, so the pint in the Grouse at journey’s end was all the more welcome. The track says it all, really.
And Rob responds: “I feel the need to make a couple of minor clarifications… We did indeed miss Lady’s cross, though only due to Coach Willy’s hard right turn upon reaching the wall, I had intended to carry on our bearing but the coach had other ideas. Also, from my track, it seems we passed within about 10 metres of the first stone circle… twice! Anyway, most importantly, for the record, sadly, my own whisky supply has run dry, however, I did upon at least two occasions make my best efforts to remind Coach Willy of the importance of the sharing the contents of his hip flask with the rest of our intrepid group, unfortunately he did not oblige us!”
OK; perhaps I was attracted to the alternative line to the Hurkling Stone – a much more romantic spot than Lady’s Cross IMHO – and the absence of whisky may have been pointed out on a couple of occasions mid-run … but it was simply my sieve-like brain, rather than innate stinginess, that led to my own supplies of whisky remaining in my bag for the duration; honest.