Narradale

April Fools?

 

Monday, 1st April, 2013

 

On Sunday morning we got an email from Dorothy.  "We think if we meet at the Sulby Claddagh and go up Narradale first with the plantation last as it might be better under foot that way.  Trevor will have two nice little dogs.   Whippet's I think."  Trevor has occasionally brought Teddy, a friend's greyhound, on the hikes but we hadn't met the whippets before.  They also belong to one of his friends.

 

I intended leaving all our dogs at home because there were plans for a joint celebration for the March birthdays at Dorothy's house after the walk.  I am the only two-legged hiker in the group who wasn't born in March - the odd man out.  Also the Schippies don't take kindly to strange dogs and are convinced that the best method of defence is attack.  But when we were getting ready, Danny put in such a passionate pitch to go with us that I weakened. 

 

We parked at the Claddagh by the Sulby River and it was obvious from the start that Danny didn't share Dorothy's opinion that the whippets were nice little dogs.  They were very friendly but unfortunately they were the same colour and shape as one of the Schipps mortal enemies (the larger riding school dog).  When the whippets approached to greet Danny, who was still in the car, he appeared to think that he was seeing double and that the riding school dog (possibly shrunk in the wash) was coming to attack him - and he snarled viciously.  The whippets, which have incredibly sensitive faces, retreated, hid behind Trevor and looked as though they were about to burst into tears.  When Danny emerged from the car they had come to the conclusion that he definitely wasn't a nice little dog and barked at him.  We set off with all the dogs attached to leads and Danny a safe distance from the whippets. 

 

First, we walked along the back road towards the Ginger Hall, a pub on the TT course.  Then we turned up the Narradale Road, a narrow road leading up into the hills.  It used to be a route followed by the miners from the Sulby area who worked in the mines above Laxey.  The first part of the Narradale Road is tarred but higher up it becomes a stony track.  At the edge of the moors there is a gate and then a very rough, rutted and eroded path continues until it reaches the Millennium Way.  But our route turned off to the right above the gate to the moors, following a footpath at the edge of the moors in a westerly direction and then turning north along a hedged track through the fields until we reached the Ohio Plantation and the way down to the cars at the Claddagh.

 

The beginning of the walk along the road was uneventful, apart from the whippets barking at Danny and Danny giving them the evil eye.  Daffodils were flowering along the side of the road and most of the snow on the lower slopes had thawed.  We turned up the Narradale road and gradually walked up the hill from spring back into winter.  A snow plough had cleared the road but as we climbed higher the snow banks at the side of the road also got higher.  A couple of young men drove past in a Mini but soon returned down the road and said that it was blocked further up by a ten foot wall of snow.  We thought they were exaggerating - after all it was April Fools Day.  But they weren't.  The snow plough had given up the battle above the last of the houses and this is the scene that confronted us.

 

 

The snow wasn't deep in the surrounding fields, in fact most of it had thawed.  But the traditional Manx lanes, between banks topped by gorse hedges, make wonderful snow traps and the rest of the road was buried under drifts.  We battled on.  The surface of the snow had thawed slightly during the days and then frozen again at night so there was a bit of an icy crust.  It was reasonably firm if we trod in the prints left by earlier walkers but occasionally we would choose the wrong place to step and sink in up to our knees.

 

 

 

 And it wasn't flat snow.  It had been blown into deep drifts and we had to clamber up and down steep snowy banks.  One bank was too smooth and icy for Danny to climb, his feet slipped and he ended up sliding back to the bottom on his tummy, spread-eagled.

 

 

 

I let Danny off the lead when we reached the snow but he was still a bit annoyed by the presence of the "nice little dogs" on his hike and started teasing them.  He realised that he was safe because they were on the lead and made little threatening darts in their direction.  Then he strutted back to me - "well chuffed" at having frightened them!  So he had to go back on the lead for the rest of the walk. 

 

 

 

Shortly before we reached the edge of the moors, we came across a snow bank that was so high that Danny refused to climb up it.  I dropped his lead and he followed the others into the field and I joined them.  Eventually we reached the top of the slope.  This is the gate from the field leading to the top of the track and the gate to the moors.  Snaefell is in the centre background and doesn't look as snowy as our walk!

 

 

The footpath along the wall at the top of the fields wasn't too bad - but when we reached the gate and stile above the Ohio track there were more deep drifts.  There are signs on some of the gates asking walkers to please close them but it was rather pointless and obviously impossible today.  The gates up here were very nearly completely buried. 

 

 

 

The only aspect of the walk which was easier than usual was walking past the large, permanent puddles on the flat part of the track.  Usually we have to climb up the bank at the side of the track to get past them but today they were frozen solid and the ice was covered with snow.

 

We thought we had passed the worst of the conditions but as we walked down the slope towards the plantation, we encountered more drifts; similar to those at the top of the Narradale Road.  So we were happy to reach the plantation and find that the road through the trees had been cleared for the farmers who needed to reach sheep in the fields.

 

 

After the walk we drove to Ballaugh for the celebration and were surprised to see that Dorothy's garden was still covered by a few inches of snow.  The snow in our garden disappeared a couple of days ago.  The dogs were tired after their walk and were happy to wait in the cars.