MISPLACED IN MUD

SEPTEMBER 6  COASTAL LAKE DISTRICT

 

This blog is mostly photographs.

I select the heartiest breakfast at my Rosegarth B&B.  I’ll be going on a five mile walk by myself and need to be strong.  Marmite is available, but I pass it by. 
  

"The Cumbrian Classic Breakfast"

 It is low tide when I walk out the front door.  Turning left, I walk through the town of Ravenglass, where there is no ATM, no store.   Where do people go to buy food?

Home-grown sunflowers

After the town’s two blocks of houses, the estuary appears again.  The walk description says, “Continue across the tidal flats, following the shore line for one mile.”  The sand is wet.  I see a few other people off to the left.  Are they going on the same walk?  How long is a mile?  I attempt to follow these people but they all sit down for a snack.  

Ravenglass sits on an estuary of three rivers:  Esk, Irt, and Mite.

Are those people going on "my" walk?

 There are some pretty flowers and colorful lichens in the brush.  And a bench for the “twitchers.”

Bee on Knapweed (I think)

Seed heads of something-or-other

Could this be some sort of mouse-ear?

Aren't these gorgeous and complicated?  Fireweed (Epilobium) Thanks to H.N.

Cut-Leafed Crane's Bill

Herb-Robert

Bird's Foot Trefoil

I wonder what those poles are.

 “Eventually the path swings to the left and then passes under a railway bridge."  Is this a railway bridge?  Nope.  I think it’s some other kind of bridge.  I walk on by to see yet more flowers and walk in yet more soggy sand.

Is that the bridge before me?

That is Ravenglass back there.

Where did that couple come from?  They are really walking fast!  I will follow them; perhaps they are going on the same walk.  These are tidal flats; every step is a wet one.  A broken stone wall shows me how they are built in two side-by-side layers. 

Then ahead I see what might be the railroad bridge.  Has it been a mile?  As I photograph the aster, the couple disappears.  Now I become a tracker, looking for where they might have gone.  I see some flattened brush and go that way.  

Sea Aster

Did they go this way?

Hope this is the correct bridge.

Here is a gate.  That is a good sign.  Nice ferns live under the bridge.  On the other side are more tidal flats along the River Esk.  Is that the couple up there?   

Are those two little dots the couple I am following?

"Twitchers" would love this area.

Masses of birds are on the sand.  More flowers are in the brush.  The sand is turning to mud.  Where the heck is the path?  Grasses are deep and tall.   I’ve lost the couple.  

Purple Loose-Strife

Only the mud path shows me people walk here.

“Keep left at the T-jcn just beyond, then turn right soon after.”  I have seen no T-junction.  It doesn’t matter how many times I read these directions, I can’t figure out what to do.  I see it on the map, but don’t know where I am.   I will have to continue being a tracker.  Thanks to the mud, it’s possible.  My feet follow the muddy, hopefully well-used path following a beautifully constructed wall.  Maybe the next gate is part of that wall. 

Silver-back leaves are quite attractive on this tree.

Apple tree near the well-built wall.

“A gate leads to a field where the path is not clear on the ground, but head straight up to a gate in the top wall.”  Two gates are mentioned.  Hope this is the second gate. 

Looks pretty dark over there.

Lots of  invasive bracken fern here.  But then, how wonderful to see a sign! 

No wonder it is so wet here!

Bracken is a pest plant in Ireland and England.

  “From here a larger path skirts the foot of the gorse-covered slopes of Newtown Knoll to reach Newtown Farm.”

Oh dear, lots more mud.  Even when I walk around the outside of the big puddles, it’s muddy.  

“Take the public footpath opposite the buildings, signed to Muncastle Church and Castle.   This climbs through a plantation, then crosses a stile.  Slant up leftwards across the next large field.”  Where is a stile?

Is this where I am?  I can’t walk through those (gorse?) bushes but there may be a trail on the left.  And then cross the hill, I guess.  This might be Newtown Farm.  Lots of cows there.  Is that large brown guy a bull?  Hmmm, think I’ll move by quickly.  There is a gate. 
 

Can't go through the (gorse?) bushes.

I'll climb this hill and see what is on the other side.

Is that big brown guy a bull?

“The path is not clear on the ground.  Reach a gate in the top wall, situated in a saddle between 2 hills on a ridge top.”  Saddle?  Ridge?

OK, I’m lost.  I have no idea where I am in relation to the walk directions.  I will resume my tracking skills and follow whatever signs I can find from earlier walkers.  But first I have to get through this gate.  Except it won’t open.  As I climb to the very top of the gate, a walker from Poland, comes along from the opposite direction.  After trying to open it the way I did, he finally picks up the whole gate which opens it.  

I follow the roadway but have trouble with the really big mud swamp.  I am so glad I learned how to treat stinging nettle in Ireland because I can’t avoid walking on it.  I learned to wipe my skin with dock, a plant which usually grows nearby.  A grouse runs around me.  

This is an easy path so far.

I wonder what river that is.

Grey Field Speedwell

 How wonderful to see a sign!  Wherever I may have been, I now know I am somewhere!  I walk through an abandoned meadow.

Common Fleabane

 Here, finally, is a stile.  But is that the missing stile way back in the earlier directions?  Who the hell knows!  Am I lost again?  I am going to follow the boot tracks and hope for the best.  

Way in the distance I see a proper farm road.  And sheep.  And then a yellow arrow.  And another stile.  Good grief!  Will this walk never end?  I think I exceeded the five mile walk already and am not at Muncaster Castle.  Don’t panic; just plod along.   

I see a farm road past all this grass and bushy area.

A yellow arrow.  Goody!

Nice bee on thistle

Finally I get to the castle grounds, which are quite extensive.  I pay a lower fee to walk on the grounds (only).  I do not have the energy to walk through the castle proper.  [I later learn my friend Sally has family who lived in that castle generations ago.]  I admire the Muncaster insect-home construction.

A show about raptors is ending but I get a chance to see the final demonstration.  And read about the origins of the word "tomfoolery".  

Rapt audience hearing about raptors.

 Folks who live in the castle have a beautiful view of the hillside.

I head back to Ravenglass, enjoying beautiful flowers which are probably natives, judging from the large number of pollinators on them.  If I had more energy I would take the long route back to see remnants of the Roman bath.  I don’t. 

Some sort of saxifrage, I think.

Largest number of sheep I have seen so far.

Do you know what this is?

Marsh Woundwort?

Pollinator on Valerian

Enchanters-Nightshade

I wonder why this yellow composite is so popular?

I walk back home via A595. 

 After I take off my wet, muddy shoes and stretch out for awhile, I wander outside to enjoy the slant of the late afternoon sun.  Tide is out again.  Boats and birds are scattered on the tidal flats.  I am in love with the light and take pictures for an hour as the sun sinks.

That is the bridge I walked over yesterday.

Reflection in a Rosegarth window appeals to me.

Tomorrow I will take the little train up into the fells.

If you would like to comment, especially with any botanical corrections, please do so below or write me at rwoodel.woodel@gmail.com.