A Night to Remember

Or Black Combe Again.

The substantial track up Black Combe from the south.

Old friends J and A, MM and F, and UF had booked a cottage in Silverdale for the weekend.
Back in our Manchester days, UF and I went to a fair few gigs together. (Perhaps I should say back in my Manchester days, since UF still lives on the outskirts of Manchester). One of the bands we saw together way back then was The Men They Couldn’t Hang. We’ve seen them many times since, although none of those all that recently. But they were playing the Platform in Morecambe and hence the get-together.

Black Combe

I suspect that J and A do more hill-walking than just about anyone else I know, but they live in Aberdeen, so chances to walk in the Lake District don’t come around all that often. J had never climbed Black Combe and asked was everyone amenable to join him in putting that right? We were.

Bog!

There was a little miscommunication over where we were going to park, but the layby we ended up in was perfect for our intended route – a north-south traverse starting and finishing to the west of the hill. The weather was a bit odd – warm and sunny with lots of lovely blue sky, but heavy, low cloud to the south.
Black Combe wasn’t busy at all, and the people we did see were cyclists flying along on ebikes which seems to be becoming the norm for mountain-bikers.

The team by the large cairn on Black Combe’s south top. TBH napping.

I suggested this spot on the south top for a lunch break because it has terrific views over Morecambe Bay. Well, sometimes it has terrific views over Morecambe Bay, but not on this occasion sadly…

The view!

Looking back up to the large cairn.

As usual, I hadn’t brought any lunch, so had a little wander down to another prominent cairn to see whether that offered any better view, which it did to a very limited extent…

A partial view of Morecambe Bay.

The hills north of Black Combe.

On our descent.

Whitbeck

TBH and I then went for a refreshing dip in the sea at Silecroft. It was spitting with rain by then, but that didn’t detract I didn’t feel. The others didn’t join us, they were eager to get back to their cottage to get fed, watered and spruced up for our evening’s entertainment.
My old friend X-Ray joined us at the venue and we also bumped into another friend of mine, E, who was TBH’s work colleague many moons ago and who was at the gig with a relative of a member of the band. TMTCH were fantastic. We’re off to see them again soon, well UF and I anyway, in Barnoldswick of all places.

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