Day 1 - Ulverston to Torver (15.3mies)

The B&B at Ulverston was really nice, and I was staying in a converted coach house adjacent to the main building.  There were three twin rooms, plus a large kitchen diner and upstairs lounge, so the whole unit can also be rented out as a self catering let.  The breakfast was superb (I was even offered smoked salmon for the only time on the trip), but too large for me.  I took some bacon and sausage back to Poppy.  The only other guests were a young couple who had climbed Scafell Pike the previous day, but had been forced to change their return route because of ice and snow on the summit.  Winter had clearly not released its grip on the high fells just yet.



Ulverston




Following the signs to the start



I left the B&B at about 9.15am, but wanted to take a few more photos of Hoad Monument in better light before setting off, so it was nearer to 9.45am when I finally arrived at the start in The Gill car park.  The weather looked promising with some light cloud in the sky. 



CW Sculpture in Gill Car Park



Poppy at the start

I accosted the only person around at the time to take our picture at the CW sculpture.  He managed to cut our legs off, which was rather unfortunate, bearing in mind we had about 75 miles to walk over the next 6 days! I haven’t included the picture as (in addition to the missing legs) it was a particularly hideous one of me.  Instead I’ve included the one of Poppy at the start plaque, which is much nicer.



Pottery display along the Gill path

After a brief walk on a tarmac path adjacent to a gill, I soon reached the fields.  Taking a leaf out of Anne’s book, I was stopping quite frequently to take photos.  It wasn’t just views I wanted, but also pictures to get a flavour of the walk in total. 

Poppy negotiates her first stone stile of the walk

View south back to Hoad Hill monument and Morecambe Bay

At Old Farm we had to negotiate our first stone stile, and Poppy managed admirably with a little help.  After climbing above Bortree Stile, there were some good views back towards the start of our walk.  Reaching the lane at Higher Lath Farm, we turned right and walked for ½ km down the lane before turning north again at Windy Ash.



Higher Lath Farm




There was a variety of waymark signs



Whilst trying to work out the route through Stony Crag Farm, two young men caught me up.  They were also walking the Cumbria Way.  Once we found the correct path, however, they forged ahead as my photo taking was slowing me up somewhat.



St John's Church, Osmotherly



I continued for about 2km across fields and along quiet lanes, passing the isolated church of St John’s, to reach the hamlet of Boughton Beck.  Leaving the village, I briefly took the wrong path, through a very muddy gateway, but realised almost straight away and retraced my steps (and got the boots muddy again).

Poppy in stand off with cat in Boughton Beck

Knobbly trees by Boughton Beck stream

At Knapperthaw the route continued along a stony track to Keldray.  I walked with Poppy on the grass to save her feet.  At this stage of the walk I didn’t know what sort of paths we would have to contend with over the route, and I wanted to protect her feet from possible damage as much as possible.  I had a quick bite to eat near High Stennerley.  The views north towards the Lake District fells were fantastic. 



Crossing a lane between Knapperthaw and Keldray



Poppy takes a break between Low and High Stannerley

The route continued past Kiln Bank Farm, then climbed towards Tottlebank Farm.  Here we left the farm track and climbed a grassy path round Tottlebank Height (hill).  Here I had a navigation crisis.  After a few minutes I realised I was walking a slightly different route to that on my GPS.  I didn’t think I had missed any paths, but I took a slightly cross country route to see if I could find the correct path.  There was a very faint track through the dead bracken, but following it, I ended up at the same point anyway, near Cockenshall. Looking more closely at the OS map now, the path on the ground is marked on the map as a black dotted line, rather than the green dashes of the right of way.  Sometimes the GPS can cause unnecessary moments of panic, but I do like to have it as a security blanket.



View back towards the farm whilst climbing Tottlebank Height




Views on the approach to Beacon Tarn



There was then a fairly stiff climb up to Beacon Tarn.  I passed a youngish couple on the hill - the woman was struggling a bit, even though her partner had the rucksack!  At the time I mistakenly thought this tarn was the wonder that is actually Tarn Howes, and had been a bit disappointed.  I was gratified to read in my guidebook later that I would not be reaching that until tomorrow, as I had hadn’t found Beacon Tarn anything more than pleasant.  My guide book was correct when it said that the route up the west side of the tarn was boggy and wet.  Still, at this point I thought I had better keep to the official route where possible.  There then followed a long and quite steep descent past the Blawith fells.

Family picnic at Beacon Tarn

Blawith Fells

Near Stable Harvey Moss I am embarrassed to report that Poppy chased a sheep!  I had let her off the lead to cross a tricky beck, as I couldn’t see any animals around.  Suddenly she raised her head and sniffed the air.  I called her, but although she was pretty close to me she ran off and flushed a large Herdwick ewe from its cover in the dead bracken. Poppy chased it out of my sight over the ridge of a small hill, while I struggled to find the whistle attached to my rucksack.  BAD BOXER!  I then heard some strange barking and thought that Poppy had aroused some farm dogs and that we were now going to be in BIG trouble.  I hurried to the top of the rise, and was relieved to see Poppy a few hundred meters away, about 20 feet from the sheep.  It obviously decided it had had enough of being chased and was standing its ground.  The weird barking was Poppy’s excited attempts to get it to run again.  Once I could see her, I called her firmly, and on the second call she came back to me.  Needless to say she stayed on the flexi-lead for the rest of our trip unless I knew for sure that we were in an area that sheep never had access to.

Poppy before the 'sheep incident'

Torver Tarn

Once my heart had stopped hammering, I took a quick diversion to look at Torver Tarn, which I thought was much more attractive than Beacon Tarn.  Then it was a pleasant walk down a gill, alongside a bubbling beck to the A5084 Tover to Blawith road.  Although Anne had booked our first night at Torver (rather than continue to Coniston), the A-road was not a pleasant walking option.  Instead I headed for the lakeside path, and walked up the western side of Coniston Water for two miles before heading west of a footpath through Torver Common Wood and on past Brackenbarrow Farm to the Wilson Arms.  The path up from the lake involved a reasonable climb, and I met an older couple who were wilting a bit.  I too had a quick sit down before tackling the last mile as I was pretty tired by now.

On the path heading north alongside Coniston Water

Time to leave the lakeside and head to Torver

Once I reached the Wilson Arms (at around 5.15pm), I had a welcome pint of lime & soda in the tiny courtyard garden before retiring to my room for a shower.  I returned to the bar for a meal, and Poppy curled up beside me and slept the sleep of a very tired Boxer.  I retired to bed pretty early myself, but read up on the next day’s route first.  Writing this some months after the event, the rooms have all pretty much blurred into one, although I do recall that this one overlooked the back of the hotel and I was disturbed later that evening whilst trying to get to sleep, by the sound of a million glass bottles being emptied into the recycling bin!

View north from Brackenbarrow Farm, Torver

New arrival

Day 1 over and we were on our way!  The weather had been perfect (a mixture of cloud and sunshine and pleasantly warm), and my initial reservations about walking alone had been quite unfounded.  With Poppy to talk to (at least when there was no one else around to hear!), I had not been lonely at all.  Bring on Day 2.

Wilson Arms, Torver