**** Author’s note ***** For some obscure technical reason, this post failed to publish last week here on Sun in Gemini… and I’ve only just noticed. It did publish on the Silent Eye. For completeness, and ahead of the publication of the next part here on Thursday, I’m sending it to the printers, now!

The Saturday morning of the Silent Eye’s 2023 ‘walking workshop’ – Circle-Water+Cross, began in glorious sunshine. The photo below, taken the previous evening, had shown us – vividly – the first part of the ‘big day’s’ route – a south to north traverse of the ridge line of Claife Heights, coming down to rejoin the lake at a mysterious location as yet unknown to the companions.

But first, as we had done on the day of arrival, we needed to cross Lake Windermere on the chain-link ferry. But today it would be a one-way journey.

It’s worth considering the importance of the chain-link ferry to the region. Lake Windermere is England’s largest lake, at just over 10.5 miles long, and stretches from Newby Bridge in the south, to Waterhead, near Ambleside in the north.

The lake was formed in the ice age – more than 13,000 years ago, by two glaciers. One of these flowed from the giant ‘bowl” (Corrie) that is now the Fairfield Round. The other flowed from what is now the Troutbeck Valley and created what is now the southern half of the lake; the part that is south of the line of the ferry.

The Ferry Nab service runs across the shallowest part of the lake, the place where these two glacial formations met. The group of small islands scattered across the waters near Bowness are the remains of this glacial meeting place. The chain-link ferry from Ferry Nab links the narrowest points on the lake shore, and provides a uniquely short crossing for both vehicles and pedestrians.

The first chain-link ferry, powered by steam, began operating in 1870. The route was immediately popular and bolstered by a new boat in 1915 and, later, in 1954, when the boat ‘Drake’ was introduced. The current ferry, named Mallard, was constructed in 1990. It can carry up to 18 cars and over 100 foot passengers.

After the short voyage we left the ferry behind. With some humour, we considered the last toilets for five miles – considerately placed at the ferry point. Not to take advantage of them would have been reminiscent of the famous death’s head caricatures saying ‘You’ll be sooooorry!” used in the Warner Bros, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons…

We used them.

The whole day was constructed around a careful set of timings that two of us had worked on and tested in the few weeks prior to the event. For reasons that will become clear, it was critical that the group reached a certain point on the map by a certain time…

Despite this, there were certain risks to be taken. The first of these was that, for the camaraderie of the group, we needed another mug of coffee from Joey’s before beginning our ascent of Claife Heights to the ridge.

Such decisions may seem trivial, but they can alter the whole mood of the day… as anyone who’s organised a walking tour will tell you!

The other reason I wanted a coffee was to give time for us to reflect on a major decision. The previous day, one of our number had sustained a muscular sprain in one leg. He was strong and well-capable of judging his own ability to carry on, but, faced with the difficult assault on Claife Heights ahead of us, I wondered if we could smooth that process … and give him (and the rest of us) a gentler start to what was going to be a demanding day.

I sipped my coffee and considered the map…

To be continued in Part Four

This is Part Three

Part One is here….

Part Two

©Stephen Tanham 2023

Stephen Tanham is a Director of the Silent Eye, a journey through the forest of personality to the dawn of Being.

http://www.thesilenteye.co.uk and http://www.suningemini.blog