Today we awoke to grey skies and very wet conditions. Our walk today was from Blawith, Beacon Tarn to Coniston an 8.1 mile challenging walk made even more challenging by the terrible weather conditions, small streams not even noted when doing the recce, were now great raging torrents of water, these proved very difficult to cross, and would certainly have been so without the help of all of our club members.
We travelled by coach to Blawith the start of our walk, on leaving the coach it was heads down, hoods up as we set out to head for Tottlebank where we joined the Cumbria Way, we then headed to Cockenswell and up over Wool Knott to head for Beacon Tarn. On the journey to Beacon Tarn there were some nice views, but most of the scenery was hidden with cloud and mist. After a short stop at Beacon Tarn we continued on the Cumbria Way , over Stable Harvey Moss to Torver Low Common then carried on over the moor to Torver Back Common and the banks of Coniston Water, where we finally had our lunch stop, by this time the rain had finally stopped. We were able to enjoy our lunch while sitting looking out over the lake, at last able to take off our hoods and hats.
After lunch we walked further onto the common until we reached Torver Common Wood. again conditions were not in our favour, as when walking through the wood we had to be very careful because the ground and roots of the trees were very wet and spilly. We carried on along the Cumbria Way alongside Coniston Water until we reach the Village of Coniston and the end of our walk. A long and very difficult walk but enjoyable none the less, but so glad it was over.
After changing out of our wet clothes and boots we had our usual social stop in one of the pubs in Coniston Village. We then travelled back to our hotel at Grange-over-Sands where a lovely hot bath awaited us before we were again downstairs for dinner and piped in for our very well deserved meal. After our meal tonight we had a special celebration, Archie our piper was celebrating his 70th birthday, so he was presented with a birthday cake, and later he played the pipes so we could dance some well known Scottish dances, i.e. Gay Gordon’s, & Strip the Willow great fun, thanks Archie for waking me up.