A tunnel, a sore head and a missing treasure
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/15/lake-district-buttermere-tunnel-shore-path Version 0 of 1. The walker was deep in the tunnel under Hasness Wood when he forgot the warning posted at the entrance to beware of a low roof. "Ouch!" he cried as his scalp grazed the rock, the shock sending the iPhone he was using as a torch skittering into the sudden darkness. Loth to leave his beloved gadget, he stood transfixed by a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully somebody would arrive and help him search the floor. Until then he alternated between massaging his bald pate and licking blood from his fingers, and remembering other Lakeland shore paths blocked by crags – though only Buttermere's impasse is breached by a tunnel. Ullswater, Windermere and Thirlmere have rock-girt coves where paths along the water's edge are interrupted. Below Angler's Crag the path skirts the base of the crag just above Ennerdale Water's silvery shield, prompting walkers to follow an ascent to the crag top instead. Wastwater has the most lethal shore-path. It is inescapable. Boulders piled higgledy piggledy block the way; the way across the Screes brings walkers to the brink of the black depths of England's deepest lake glinting below. Wasdale Mountain Rescue has more than once had to launch an outboard powered inflatable from the roadside across the lake to go to the aid of cragfast walkers on the verge of tears. For the rambler in Hasness tunnel, however, no help arrived as the glimmer of daylight faded. He would have to return with a flashlight. Reluctantly, he stepped forward, ducking low to avoid more nasty impacts, and inadvertently kicked an object that triggered a glow. With a sigh of relief he picked up the phone and made his way out into the gloaming, with High Stile and Red Pike silhouetted high across the steely water. |