23rd February 2017 - Return to Gour Hall

With storm Doris on her way, I wasn't even sure if we'd get a trip in. A midday mail though from Tony confirmed that things weren't quite as bad as forecast and he was happy to make his way over from the Lakes. A lot of rain had come down though and so an all weather trip was needed. There was something about Mistral that was calling me back and I was pleased when Tony too was happy to return.

Even though we set off an hour later than last week, it was still light as we headed across the moor, the big difference being that Easegill was in full flow as we crossed it by Link pot. After the initial climb, Tony took over route finding duties and we were soon crossing through the Hobbit chamber on the way to Dusty junction.  Having to concentrate less on route finding allowed us to take in more of our surroundings and notice more of the lovely features that we had unwittingly passed by last week.

At the Hall of the Ten we briefly dropped down into the Pippikin streamway, but it definitely wasn't the place to be on this evening. At Gour Hall we dropped down to its end and tried taking a couple of pictures of the pools themselves.  Released from modelling duties and free to move again, Tony disappeared into the terminal digs, following the bang wire up a narrow tube. Once through we made only the briefest of forays along the two possible ways on. Tony quickly declared his option too tight, where as mine was too wet.

The gour pools in their eponymous Hall.

One of the pools.

Back in the main Hall I poked my head into what I thought was the way into Extreme Ways (reading up later it was), marvelling at the number of caps that had been required to gain just the first few initial feet of passage.  It was then back to the reps of stoop a bit, crawl a bit, all the time noting beautiful features, tucked away in inaccessible alcoves.

We've given up with the child lock on the gate and just climbed over, it's definitely beyond both of us.  We might not be able to cope with gate furniture, but we could definitely appreciate the now cleared skies. A myriad of stars shining down on snow dusted hills.  Every day's a learning day and it was great to be able to add another constellation to my limited knowledge courtesy of a sky map app. As a Leo, I'm not into things like astrology, but it's nice to be able to find the constellation.

Approaching the Barbon Inn our hearts sank as a gentleman in the doorway announced they were closed. We were just turning away when the air was filled with deep laughter and we were ushered into the warmth of the pub. There are some nights when it's a real pity we're driving, but even on lemonade the chat was superb. We reluctantly left the pub, both a little wiser, having been regaled with tales of race horse training, boxing and piglet suckling women.

Thanks to Tony for sharing the trip and John and the bar lady for rounding off the evening perfectly.