Lonely in The Clouds

Stennerskeugh Clouds

Let’s walk The Clouds.  Speaking at Kendal  Library on 1st April, I  focused on the catchment of the River Eden, taking in Wild Boar Fell and The Clouds. So next day we headed for the Clouds:  Stennerskeugh Clouds, Clouds and Fell End Clouds. The rain never let up and  it was cold, with a bracing wind and low cloud.  Not surprising that we saw no other walkers all day.  Alone in The Clouds. ‘ Not a soul but you and me,’ I said.
 

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'Yes, there is,' he replied.  Through the wind and the rain we listened to lark song, watching curlew in flight and marvelling at their bubbling call. In spring, their music brings The Clouds alive.  Soulful creatures with whom we share The Clouds, and are glad of it. 
Not a soul but us.  How could I speak in contravention of my most profound belief.  Caught  out, for a moment, in an anthropocentric view of the universe-  mankind  first and foremost,  mankind  only.  With a view so ignorant of ecology we’ll neither Save the Planet nor survive as a species. Thank Heavens we aren’t alone.  The air is full of birdsong and we glimpsed a beautiful red squirrel as we set out from High Stennerskeugh.  To suggest we are alone denies all the creatures  that make my day, all that we see and the abundant life that is hidden from us in the clints and grykes of limestone pavement.
There was no one else on The Clouds. No other people, that’s what I meant.   I love solitude, peace and tranquillity and   I’m not alone in that.  Whilst  writing Cumbrian Contrasts that’s something I’ve discovered- how many of us share a need for solitude and peace. 

Stennerskeugh Clouds, Clouds, Fell End Clouds.  The names are poetry.  A mass of rock, that’s why they’re called Clouds.  Patterns of limestone pavement that I could linger over taking photographs, if only the day were brighter.  But absence of strong light suits my camera and, if we can keep the lenses free of raindrops the images turn out better than we might expect.  Those broken-up ribs of limestone look like something out of a mincing machine , we both think so.
I ‘m interested in working out river catchment:  with Scandal  Head  north off Wild Boar Fell and  Scandal Beck flowing north to join the River Eden. Clouds Gill flows west as a tributary of the River Rawthey.  The map shows a scribble of blue that disappears down into a cave.  There are caves and shake holes, swallow holes and pots: underground hydrology.  The Clouds is patterned with ribs of limestone pavement, interspersed with tiny tarns and deep red vegetation of sedges and sphagna.
The name of Fell End Clouds is enchanting and here limestone terraces sweep around into a natural amphitheatre.  Cleaning the camera  lens, again, I’m picturing how this might look on a day of strong sunlight and shadow.  In the mean time----

Fell End Clouds and limestone forming a natural amphitheatre

Clouds. Look up the word in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary and the first definition is -  a mass of rock, a hill.