There was a bit of a theme of qualification on our wandering from Strines. Only one Wart out of the good turn-out of 14 actually qualified for a finishers medal, if we had them. The planned route was to visit the packhorse bridge in Mill Brook though it seemed that there was an intermediate checkpoint, Salt Cellar, which had been hinted at. Clearly the majority of the Warts had got the message but there were a couple of us who, after the Strines Moor boundary stones, merely ploughed through the heather to the edge path with faint regard to visiting Salt Cellar.
Photos of Salt Cellar thanks to Russ
Some Warts still looking for Salt Cellar!
So, the majority of Warts were still on course, at this point, for an imaginary finishers medal. The two or so disqualifiees headed down towards Dovestone Clough having first regrouped on the way.
Regrouping
Our inspection of the packhorse bridge confirmed it was in fine fettle, thanks, a few years ago, to Pete G’s intervention in informing the Peak National Park authorities of its then precarious condition and its subsequent repair by them.
Following last week’s exploration of a holloway, it seemed appropriate to explore another one from the packhorse bridge towards John’s Field Howden. These holloways do seem to have been constructed with a friendly gradient, as we were tempted to do a little bit of uphill running, which is not so usual in Warting circles (although we do run round in them often enough). John’s Field Howden, used in the twentieth century (?) for unsuccessful agricultural trials, is not the easiest feature to be found as its walls are overgrown and not very high. However, its south east corner was found and used for regrouping and torch lighting; after all the equinox is only a couple weeks away.
The majority of us thought that the next checkpoint was the Strines car park but two Warts thought that it was the Cakes of Bread, so the we took the line of least resistance to the edge path and headed over Foulstone Moor attempting to find the easier going of the mown and burnt heather patches back to Strines. Our search for these however was confounded by wailing in the wind from the direction of the Cakes of Bread. This became clearer as we approached Strines Dike, “You’re disqualified!” wailed Andy, because we’d not been to Cakes of Bread. As he joined us, it was clear that all four of us were septuagenarians bringing up the rear of tonight’s outing. It was suggested therefore that in order to avoid our general later position in Warts’ outings, there should be a minimum age requirement of seventy, which would allow us to continue our fantasy of being in front and therefore youthful!
The imaginary finisher’s medal could only be awarded to Andy as the only seventy-year-old to visit all the check points. By the time we got to the pub, all thoughts of an awards ceremony disappeared in an alcoholic haze also shared with members of the neoprene clad DPCWS who were also enjoying the post exercise glow.
A fine outing in part daylight and relatively clement weather. What has happened to us?!
Graham