Low Fell, G/LD-042 - 423m ASL - NY 137 226 - OS Explorer OL4 - 1 SOTA point            

The second summit on Bank Holiday Monday 4th June 2012 was Low Fell G/LD-042. Low? Ha! OK, not in the same league as Mellbreak G/LD-036 early this day, but Low Fell is quite a prominent hill.  We started by parking just north of the village of Thackthwaite at NY148237, then walking back through the village to a residence at NY148236. From here, a PROW leaves the road, actually signposted "Low Fell". The walk climbs up a narrow passage between trees before opening out into a field, and now Low Fell comes into view just left of centre.

   

At the top of the field, the path turned right, and followed a gently graded line contouring steadily upwards around the right hand side of Sourfoot Fell. We crossed Watching Crag then hit the main summit path to Low Fell. This was slightly exposed in places, and I made a mental note to avoid this on descent. We were tired, and one slip could have resulted in an unarrestable slide!

   

We soon hit the summit of Low Fell, and were again enjoying the panoramic views over Western Lakeland in glorious weather. Jimmy 2Q0EYP was setting up very close to the summit cairn, but Liam had wandered further and found a lovely sheltered spot with a wonderful view over Crummock Water.

   

On 40m CW, I recorded 25 QSOs, after which I switched to SSB to make a further 17 contacts - so 42 contacts on LD-042 for me!  Jimmy had no trouble in making 9 on 2m FM. The descent was powered by motivation to get into a pub and go out for a curry! Firstly, I walked around the west side of Low Fell's minor north top to avoid the brief exposed bit, then it was the steady graded descent all the way back to Thackthwaite. A pub was found on the road back to Cockermouth for refreshment Jennings-style, before hitting the town itself.

   

Now for the real fun! We made for the Spice Club restaurant in Cockermouth for some dinner, and very much enjoyed the fayre on offer. The establishment was clearly a seafood and fish specialising restaurant, and so I opted for the Spice Club Fishcakes, followed by the Chef's Special fish and prawns. Along with all the other stuff like sag paneer, keema rice, garlic & chilli naan, tarka dhal and lager. It was superb.

       

Towards the end of the meal, a very fat middle-aged man (no not me, way beyond my statistics) began causing a scene and complaining about the service. He was incredibly rude and loud, but utterly useless at attracting support from the other diners in the packed restaurant. Not content with the lack of attention he was getting, he then went and stood in the doorway of the curry house shouting "Don't come in here, the food is lovely but the service is rubbish". It had to be seen to be believed.

Back at the youth hostel, some cyclists and their support vehicle team were preparing for a ride from Carlisle to Sunderland in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. All the hostellers were in bed for 11pm, even the complainant from earlier, so sleep was definitely on the menu.  It wasn't the intention at this stage, but the summit for the next morning would be Black Combe G/LD-030.