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BB2118
: Towards and Fromwards
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Wednesday
15th June 2022
Most
people will know of Melvyn Bragg
as the erudite radio (In Our
Time) and television (The South
Bank Show) broadcaster.
Many
will know that he has been ennobled
and taken the title Lord Bragg
of Wigton, his home town just
outside the Lake District.
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Some
might know that he has a daughter, Marie-Elsa
Roche Bragg (half French, half Cumbrian)
who, amongst her other interests, is an
Ignation (Jesuit) Spiritual Director.
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Others
might know her better as the
author of a novel entitled “Towards
Mellbreak” which describes the
lives of several generations
of a Lake District farming family.
One
reviewer describes it as
A
hymn both to the landscape of
Cumbria and to a disappearing
world. Poetic, beautiful
and tragic, it gives an account
of the struggle to preserve
traditions and beliefs in the
face of change.
I
confess I found it bordering
on tedious until a sharp change
of focus in the last few pages
suddenly made sense of the previous
200 pages. Others I know had
given up long before the epiphany.
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Anyway,
not armed with that book, we were today
heading Towards Mellbreak. In fact
we were undertaking more-or-less the same
walk that Stan and I did in 2010 and for
exactly the same reason. It was one
of the few we had left to do to complete
this current round of Wainwrights. Indeed
we expected to knock off 5 of them, bringing
our outstanding total down to just 14.
Like
last time we (Stan & I, on this occasion
supported by Martin and Robin) parked at
Maggie’s Bridge and set off, through the
Loweswater hamlet on the approach to Mellbreak.
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The
route up could clearly be seen and looked
daunting. It is hard
work. Very. There seemed to be a lot more
loose stone than we remembered, verging
on scree. I thought I remembered being
sections where we had to be hands-on scrambling.
Stan took a different line to the
rest of us and had that experience. We followed what seemed to be a well-used
route where there was no such problem. Just
the unrelenting steepness and awkwardness
of foot placement.
Loweswater
seemed a long way down.
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It
was a relief to reach the top and a superb
viewpoint looking over to Grasmoor with Crummock Water and
Buttermere in the valley below.
As
we dropped down near the only tree specifically
named on the OS map, we thought punishment
was over but the ascent of Hen Comb proved
equally tiring but for a different reason.
The initial climb is very steep alongside
a fence that helped with wire netting onto
which you can hold. However the ascent
is made additionally tiring by having to fight through
bracken. Fortunately I attracted no
ticks- others were not so lucky.
To
reach the
next hill, Gavel Fell, first you have to
cross a huge meadow of hare's tail cottongrass.
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Then
you are provided with a different
sort of challenge on the steep bits- deep
heather.
We
added a bonus top- Carling Knott. Some
folk think that Wainwright should have included
this rather than the lower Burnbank Fell
which we visited subsequently It may be coincidence but The Western
Fells book is volume 7 and rumour has it
that by this stage he was under such time
pressure from publishers to hit his required
number that he was somewhat cavalier about
which tops he included. My theory
is that Betty was waiting for him at the
bottom so he took the quickest route down
to Loweswater.
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Walking
back to Maggie’s Bridge, we could see the
complete round.
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We had clear sight of the
route we had taken up Mellbreak. It
still looked distinctly scary!
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Nonetheless,
the views had been magnificent and we had
had a great day, however it was time to
drive towards home, fromwards Mellbreak.
Don,
Wednesday 15th June 2022
Comitibus:
Don,
Robin, Martin, Stan
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