Walking Weekend July 2001 |
PL/ APL Walking Weekend. 14/15 July 2001 This, now biannual, event once again took place in the lake district combining stunning scenery, 9 scouts, 5 leaders, 3 ventures and the infamous Mr Thorpe. Pie had arranged the meeting for 6pm on Friday just so that everyone had to rush their tea before setting off for the National Trust Langdale campsite at Dungeon Ghyll. The minibus was packed and the journey went as expected: the usual rowdiness, fighting, and window signs were as predicted, but the musical requests, by Rick Sanchez were horrific. Face it - Limp Biscuit are NO good. ( Ooh Controversial - ed.) However the minibus crew arrived safe and well, struck tents in the busy campsite and then we all settled down to our pot noodle supper and cups of tea. Mr Thorpe joined us bringing gifts in the form of twits/ventures, and then landed his 1965 Lockheed F-117 Stealth Bomber tent in the camp. The night also brought late discussions and route changes as we learnt of new Foot and Mouth restrictions. A quick rehash of the plans brought up the possibility of a summit attempt on Scafell Pike - the highest mountain in England. Anyway, to bed. John Jay Pie woke me up far too early and my lie-in plans were suddenly blown apart. Everyone was cooking breakfast (or should that be burning sausages) by 8 am. Nevertheless my tin of All Day Breakfast succeeded in making me feel worse. Still, the weather was dry and cloud predicted to rise so it was all systems go by 9am. We began the walk in 3 teams, 2 scout teams and a mapless Venture team of 3. First stop the Dungeon Ghyll pub and access to the hills. We had sterilised our shoes 4 times by the time we got to a proper footpath and were finally free on the fells. Due to F+M restrictions we were unable to get on the path we had planned so a short diversion to cut across to the path had been planned. We crossed the river easily by footbridge but then had to go cross country up hill to meet the path "the Band" and the summit of Bow Fell. My group -like Romans - decided to go straight up through fern and scree but ended up traversing a steep slope due to a confrontation with some large thick gorse bushes (we were easily outnumbered, so surrendered) Pies group went round and then up using sheep tracks, while we saw the ventures just wander off up the valley. Who knows where they were headed?? Regardless the scout teams met at the top but not without incident. Aunt Belinda was brought out again in my crew, Mathew Bostock realized his packed lunch consisted solely of cheese, and Duckworth slipped grazing his leg. After a short stop we trudged on to Bow Fell summit and lunch. As we climbed and played "Who Wants to Win 2 Pounds" mist decended and rain fell. The ventures met us and we plodded on through the mist till finding the rocky summit where sandwiches and tea were the order of the day. Navigational discussions took place and we decided to meet again at Esk Haus then decide where to go and whether a summit attempt was on the cards. This stretch took no time at all (it was all downhill) and soon everyone had met up at Esk Haus. The rain had subsided and cloud risen. It was 1:40 in the afternoon and Scafell pike looked on the cards - but could you sell it to the scouts? At first no. They were too tired or cold or couldn't be bothered. However, it is amazing what you can bargain with up there. We bartered with spare gloves and hats, fleeces and chocolate bars while pleading that this was an opportunity not to be missed, how could they let it go by? I am glad to say everyone saw the light and the extra 2 miles to the top well worth it. It was the best weather I have ever seen on Scafell - you could even see the view from the top. En route we laughed and joked though having been lost on Scafell so many times my mission was to make a point on the top of every cairn, hopefully I'll never be lost on there in the mist again. At around 3:30 we must have been the highest scout group in England and had our summit photo taken in good weather. We descended then to Angle Tarn, in a weary state. Mr Thorpe made sure we all knew he was king of the Thorpes in a running race, and Ducky entertained with his radio play concerning Melvin the magic wizard. Bostocks "ED" story was also re run for the 12th time. We continued our downward trend plummetting to the valley bottom then along to the campsite. Backmarker Duckworth said he'd walked through the pain barrier to get home, and the majority of scouts were glad to see their tents. Mr Thorpe excused himself giving a lame Party excuse because he couldn't hack it anymore and took a twit with him. A trip to Ambleside after tea then we tried to visit a lake. Not hard being in the LAKE DISTRICT but we could only manage a trip around the carparks of Keswick before we all got bored. So back to the campsite, more tea, and then the scouts went to bed, tired. Sunday was another early start and we were eventually ready to walk round elterwater at the request of a scout. It was one of the most useless walks I have ever been on (could have been the company? - ed.) and we ended up eventually by the side of a road nowhere near the lake. The usual Tognarelli Sunday morning running races had to be called off due to lack of steep terrain and we then took the same route back to the van. The weather threw it down for good measure but didn't catch me out. A wet minibus then drove to Ambleside for fish and chips before heading back to camp. Tents were finally packed and with the lack of space in the minibus John Jay managed to squeeze his stuff into 5 bags. Well done. So home. As standard on these events we listened to the top forty all the way home only to miss the top 5 as we pulled into the scout hut. An eventful weekend which was enjoyed by all, roll on the next time. Did I really just write that? John Jay Dawson - pie Mr Richard Thorpe Tommy Togs Blue Twit Adi Togs Andy Togs - Reporter Tom Ridgway Paul Humpherson Daniel Fidler Rick Sanchez Paul Duckworth Andrew Thorpe Adam Ollier Richard Ellis Mathew Bostock Robert Sandoe |