It had been a long time since we'd had a 'team' outing, so it was good to see seven of us assembled at the northernmost point of the hamlet of Cold Cotes, south of Ingleborough on this warm and sunny morning . Amazingly, we set off just a few minutes after the planned time of 11:00 a.m, although even this prompt(ish) start still was unable to prevent the exchange of details of the most recent ailments suffered by the more elderly members of the squad.
Chris , our designated pathfinder led us off (did he tell you that Brentford are going up? - is the Pope Catholic?), taking Lu (see later) and the Yorkshireman with him. This left Hazel, Kev, his Garstang mate, Paul and yours truly trailing in their wake. At this point I feel that as the slowest member of our little B team I must thank thank my three companions for keeping me company throughout most of this expedition - thank you guys. We did manage one full re-grouping about fifteen minutes after the 'off', but that was the last we were to see of the fast trio, until the pub!
This is two thirds of the fast group hightailing it to the top; photo by the other third of the fast group:-
The top of Ingleborough- 2,373 ft - is unusual for its flatness. There are two large untidy cairns, a fine wall shelter and a trig point, and here is the slow group, wandering and wondering which of these marks the actual top:-
You can see the flatness here, but not the features (photo Hazel). We roamed around the top a bit, so we were fairly confident we had visited the top - but who's to know.
This one seems to be a selfie, taken by Lu with her amazing invisible camera:-
From there we continued northwards, intending to visit Park Fell, but although Hazel and I found ourselves on the wrong side of a wall, Paul and Kev managed to pay their respects - but failed to submit photographic evidence.
We hit the B6255 just yards from the Station Inn - where we found Lu and Gordon; Gordon enjoying a pint and Lu insisting she hadn't. As soon as he had finished, Gordon gave Kev and me lifts back to Cold Cotes to retrieve our cars - a big thank you to Gordon, who had previously finished his run at Ingleton, before legging it back to CC to retrieve his car - well done that man!
Whilst we were on this errand, Hazel had a photoshoot with the viaduct - eat your heart out Glenfinnan:-
Then we all headed to our various homes - I'm told a good time was had by all - made possible by each and every one - thank you all.
