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Report on Keswick weekend
13 February 2009
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Club Meets Up With Old Friend Bobby Bundi in the Lake District
The Annual February weekend took place in the Lake District this year ? all told we had a group of nine club members in attendance ? Kevin, Irene, Julie, Bryon, Robin, Gail, Mark, Alan, Kathryn, plus we met up with our old friend and potential member Bobbi Bundi!
Kevin, Mark, Gail and Irene headed down on Friday morning in order to check into the Youth Hostel and complete a short circuit of Cat Bells before tea time.
On arrival at Keswick we were impressed by the facilities on offer at the Youth Hostel ? and the friendly receptionist even gave us a parking disk to enable us to avail of free parking ? little did we know!!
Bags dumped and gear on we headed for Cat Bells ? plenty of cars parked by the base of the hill so we parked up and headed off up the path. It was a little overcast ? but the views were magnificent. After the ascent we dropped down to the side of Derwent Water and headed back to wards the car. It was almost dark by this stage and we were the last car left ? what was that white plastic thing on the windscreen ? s**t ? a parking ticket! Grumbling, cussing etc commenced ? how dare the wardens give us a ticket ? were we not honoured tourists? There were no yellow lines! There might have been a few no stopping signs, but we hadn?t noticed those, and they weren?t near the car! We would appeal!! Cameras produced, photos taken for evidence ? excitement so intense that Kevin forgot whose shoes he should be putting on!
Once into the car we opened up the ticket pouch and it all became clear when we looked at the time of issue ? the ticket had been issued in Keswick while we were checking into the Youth Hostel and we hadn?t noticed it ? so beware ? the traffic wardens are ?quick off the mark? in the Lake District! We decided we had to take great care where we parked in future and always use the parking disk!
Back to the hostel via the Farmers pub in Portinscale ?then we met up with Bryon and Julie and headed out for our tea and to try out the local brews.
On Saturday morning Alan and Kathryn joined us for a free breakfast and a walk around the Coledale Horseshoe. The tops were misty but at least the rain stayed away. A steep climb up to Grisedale Pike where we had a quick lunch before desceding to Coledale Hause. Four of us headed up over Crag Hill and Sail while the rest headed down to Coledale Beck with some ice axe arrest practice on the way.
We all met up again in the pub in Braithwaite ? a few beers sustaining us until our return to Keswick. Cleaned up we headed for the Fox and Gun where almost all of us sampled the ?World Famous Hungarian Goulash? ? plus more ?liquid Love? refreshment to wash it down. A short crawl across the street took us to the George where we found a comfortable corner near the bar. The conversation was flowing ? along with the red wine and this is when our old friend Bobby made an appearance ?as ever he was philosophical, had wisdom to offer and was full of his usual puerile humour!
?Chips!? someone cried as we exited the George (just what we needed!) ? so toddling round to the chipper we placed our orders and Alan astounded us by blagging a free delicacy ? ?Fish Crumbs? ? yummy! His generosity knew no bounds as he offered up this new found delight to anyone willing to contemplate heart disease and an early grave.
Sunday morning started with another parking ticket for Kevin ? well so he thought (but it was only the cover of the first one covertly placed back on his windscreen). ?What?s going on!! I?m never coming back here!! This is ridiculous!!? he cried with much gnashing of teeth. The other members of the group keen to offer him moral support and advice at this point such as ? the other cars don?t have tickets, take some photos for evidence, maybe your parking disk is not set correctly etc. After five minutes of torment the game was up when he opened up the ticket to discover a ?Welcome to Keswick? leaflet ? he kindly offered his fellow club members a two fingered salute!
After all that excitement we decided to take it easy on Sunday morning ? a stroll round the shops ? we visited every outdoor gear shop in Keswick (and there are a lot of them!) ? Robin fooling the staff in one establishment into thinking he was a shoplifter. A midmorning coffee then we finished our afternoon by strolling up to Castlerigg Stone Circle and back down to Keswick.
DISCLAIMER - The club or writer will not be held responsible for any inaccurate information from this report. We are not a guide book and therefore don't follow us!
Mark Kinnon
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