Remembrance Sunday 2005 (the good but serious bits)

What a wonderful day it has been. Absolutely glorious weather with warm sunshine and clear blue skies, not your typical English November day, that’s for sure. Not wanting to waste such an opportunity to spend the day in the ‘hills’, but very mindful of it being Remembrance Sunday, I managed to combine the two by taking in the short, non-denominational, remembrance event held on the summit of Great Gable some 2949’ above sea level. What a unique and moving experience.

As a bit of background the (Lake District) Fell and Rock Climbing Club have a small memorial plaque, to their own ‘fallen’ members, on the summit of Great Gable. Every year, on Remembrance Sunday, a very short event is held, followed by the two minutes silence. What I didn’t realise was just how popular this event is. There were literally hundreds of people there and the main paths up Great Gable were throng with walkers of all ages, gender, and sizes. It is an incredibly moving experience (in more than one way) and probably the nearest I will ever get to a ‘pilgrimage’.

Just before 11 o clock an RAF Search and Rescue helicopter made a flypast of the summit, the president of the FRCC gave a very short speech and the two minutes silence was observed.

The two minutes of quiet reflection brought to mind the following –
“When you go home, tell them of us and say: ‘for your tomorrow we gave our today’
And looking around at the people gathered there in the warm sunshine under a cloudless blue sky, and with fantastic views of many of the Lake District’s finest mountains, it reinforced just how precious life is, how much freedom we have and what a great debt we owe. I hope we never forget.

The link below has more info on the Great Gable Remembrance Service

http://www.wasdaleweb.co.uk/rememberenceday.html

and if they work, the links below should give an idea of how it all looked today.

http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/6466/salongwaydown2bi.jpg

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/6581/nearingthetop1hm.jpg

http://img452.imageshack.us/img452/388/summitcrowds3wk.jpg

 

Wish I had been there.

Had to settle for 2mins silence in Morrisons...well kept I might add.

The event has more meaning to me year on year and I do shed a few private tears thinking of the sacrifice of the fallen.

I meant to go to the Barnsley service this year but circumstance contrived to prevent me from doing so.

 

Absolutely fantastic

Great thread. That first image shack photo is the best photo I have seen in a million and a half years. How I wish I was there. Well done fella, whoever you are.

 

Seconded - fantastic photos, thanks for sharing them n/t

 

That view is said by many

to be the best in all of Lakeland. I wouldn't really want to diagree - it is taken by the side of the Westmoreland Cairn, just below the summit of Great Gable and looking directly down, some 2700', into Wasdale.

Once sat on the ledge in the middle of the shot, legs dangling over the edge, with thin,wispy clouds blowing quickly past. As I sat still and stared out ahead, I could have sworn I was flying - one of those real but 'unreal' moments that stay with you forever.

 

Just remeber these people who would think Britain is for the British - and I am sure this is correct

 

I envy you experiences like that....

My wife and I are Lakes lovers but tend to stay at relatively low level - I keep threatening to take us up the Striding Edge but she won't have it! We stay just outside Coniston usually, trying to make at least one trip a year. There is something magical about the whole region and you would be hard pressed to better it anywhere. The views from the tops looking down are wonderful but just sitting by Coniston Water on a still sunny day is a seminal experience. One of these days I am going to see a ghostly Bluebird gliding across the water....maybe!

 

RE: That view is said by many

It's fabulous, it's my new desktop wallpaper! (raiseaglass)

 

RE: I envy you experiences like that....

I do prefer the views from on high and love to walk the high ridges - something almost spiritual about it all. But have to admit there is many a fine low level walk too. In fact one of my own favourites (Yorkshire Dales) is to walk from Kettlwell onto Buckden Pike and then return to Kettlewell alongside the River Wharfe, with the riverside walk being a fitting end to many a fine day.