Another early start meant that we were up and over the Wrynose Pass without even seeing another car, which made the drive much less stressful than it might have been later in the day (it’s a very narrow, steep road over the mountain, that is just about suitable for cars). The bluebells in the Duddon Valley were superb and still in full bloom (they’ve been and gone already at The Cottage).

We had breakfast at the wonderfully named Wallowbarrow Farm before walking up to the crag in the cool morning air as the skies cleared.

We’ve climbed all the routes here before in the past, but they are so good, they are always worth returning for.

The route called ‘Thomas’ has a distinctive final hold at the top!

Wonderful climbing on super rock and in the cool of the morning shade…

As the morning progressed, the sun made it’s way around the crag.

After doing three great routes, we walked back down to the farm around noon, ready to meet the rest of the gang for part two of the day.

A short drive from the crag is the bridge at Ulpha, where we dived into the river to cool off. I took the snorkel in as well and swam with a few fish. Feeling fully refreshed, we drove a few minutes more to where I thought we were meeting the others. We had agreed that we’d meet in the valley in the afternoon, but no one could pinpoint exactly where we meant – each of us could only try and describe our memories of the place – no easy task as we were all talking about a range of summer holidays between 1972 and the late 1990s! We used to come here in the summers from Coniston as a family, when we were little and spend the days playing in the river – the question was were we all talking abou the same bit of river?!

The only (predictable in hindsight!), snag with the plan, was that it turned out that Mom and the rest of the gang were talking about and visualising a different section of river to me, which was located about twenty minutes drive away, back up the narrow roads towards the Pass! We each sat at our respective spots feeling relieved that we were in the right place… until the other party didn’t show up for the next hour or so. Ha ha!

A bit like searching for a missing DofE expedition group, Clare and I drove back up the Duddon, to all the most likely places, and eventually found the playing in the river at ‘The Right Spot’! After geotagging the official location for future use, we all got in the river again and snorkelled right up to Birks Bridge.

To celebrate the finding of ‘The Spot’, we returned home triumphant and celebrated with another super meal outside in the warmth of the courtyard.

A long day of many parts, that ended with a lovely sunset above the house too…

Climbs at Wallowbarrow Crag:

Thomas S 4a ***

Malediction Direct VS 4c **

Western Wall VS 4b **