Route

Keswick - Brundleholme Woods - Low Naddle Fell - St. John in the Vale - Castle Rigg Stone Circle - Keswick.

Weather

Apart from the last 400 yards, dull, blustery, a bit damp - not too bad for December. Last 400 yards - exceptional; hailstones, buckets of water; "someone turned the fire hose on"; bad for Siberia.

Walkers

Michelle, Michael, Evelyn, George B, Lance, Julie, Ashley.

Apologies and Excuses

George G - fishing

Bernie - at the football

Carol - had a cold

Ron, Sandy & co. - Beth's nativity play and Ron's work do

Philippa - at a medical do

Heidi - could not be traced

Comments

Passed the swimming pool and station building. Tricky navigation at the start - Julie found the steps. Dropped down to the river - saw some kamikaze canoeists.

Ground squelchy in places. A whole field of cowpats. A very smelly farm with a nice house, and cows in the shed. A lot of stiles, and a lot of water in the rivers.

Good 'bijou' sheltered lunch stop, with good aspect to the north, and no facilities (a host of people turned out to see Michael's *****). Apart from that, not many people around. When we were leaving the damp and windswept Castle Rigg stone circle, a group of Japanese tourists arrived in city clothes - some of them left before we did.

Wildlife: We didn't see any grey squirrels, or red ones for that matter - the lack of squirrels was disappointing - but we memorised the phone number of the Squirrel Preservation Society. Two friendly golden retrievers on the railway bridge. Two uncommunicative black ponies. A long-tailed tit, great tits, blue tits. Michael can't tell a squirrel from a sparrow. A white-water duck (mallard). A wet dog on the last bit of railway track kept Michael company while he put on his waterproof.

Tea, coffee and cakes at Melmerby. This was the walk with the most locations of the year.

Evening meal

Carts Bog. Opinion - very good. Lance says that the sweets would have been very nice if we had had them. First time ever that Ashley had no pudding. Followed by AGM at Mike and Michelle's house, but voting deferred until website up and running.

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