This weekend, thanks to some outstanding organisation on the part of our gigs team and one band member in particular, Batala Lancaster took to the hills and played a gig at Ingleton Falls in North Yorkshire. For starters I hadn't clocked Ingleton was in North Yorkshire so passing the sign welcoming me to the county of my birth was pretty fun but nothing beat the gig itself.
We played an initial set at the car park (and the sun shone! ALL DAY! It was absolutely stunning) then loaded up our backpacks with our drums (cable ties and a bit of genius) to walk up to the target falls for our gig - Thornton Force. I'd never been to Ingleton before and the walk up there (about 1.5 miles) was absolutely beautiful - walking through sun dappled trees in gorgeous sunshine, with a babbling river alongside to keep us company. There are a number of different falls on the trail but having seen the location of sthe others, Thornton Force was definitely the best (and possibly the only!) choice for getting our feet wet.Wandering up with fellow band members, chatting about this, that and the other and generally being stunned by the beauty of the surrounds and the amazing fortuity of the weather was a delight. And although a little awkward at times, having a drum on my back was pretty fun too.
But the gig itself...wow! Being a waterfall pool there were rocks and pebbles to navigate, and as you'll see from the video some band members snagged themselves a dry spot - but I have to say, being in the water suited me just fine. Even on the occasions I almost lost my balance (and the one occasion that I actually did and fell back into the water!) Although at the beginning of the gig I wasn't sure how our usual movements would work (stepping side to side, sometimes turning around, jumps and the like) once we'd settled in the movements just fitted in - although it was more swaying than stepping. The mis-balancing incidents were also somewhat courtesy of rather energetic dancing on my part - and the over balancing was watching a fellow band member chase after her beater and end up submerging herself (in the 4 inches of water...). It did, however, prove our organiser's statement at practice the previous week: "Don't worry if you fall in - your drum floats so just grab on to that!"
With the gig itself done a bunch of us ended up getting properly wet and swimming in the deeper part of the pool - VERY cold but totally worth it! Given how warm I'd got on the walk up I had every intention of cooling off properly before embarking on the descent - and splashing around in water is always good fun. As some people started to head back to the car park the excitement took a different turn as a young boy who'd been playing in the water had slipped and cracked his head on a rock. A combination of Team Batala (one of whom's a nurse, another had a good strong voice to cut through the hubbub asking if anyone had phone signal to call an ambulance, general concern and a certain Tigger-shaped entity who was one of two people who dashed up the side of the valley to get phone signal and call through to the emergency services) helped get him the attention he needed although it certainly changed the feel of the afternoon somewhat. With an ambulance called and first aid applied, I was then "casually invited" to go and put my trousers back on - when the call went out in need of signal to phone for an ambulance I'd just got out of the water so had gone up the hillside barefoot and sans trousers. All part of the nature of the beast, eh?
With the young lad being escorted to the ambulance (by this point he was walking along holding hands with his best friend so although scary at the time, as far as I know he's all set for a full recovery - and a very exciting story to tell his friends) I packed up my drum and ended up completing the trails (around 4 miles in total) with another band member and some others who'd come to enjoy the day. I must confess that by the time we got back to the car park I was looking forward to letting the car take the weight of my drum but having a chance to amble back through yet more beautiful countryside was fabulous.
The trails also had a number of "money trees" along the route, old trunks that people had pushed / hammered coins into which, at a distance, looked no different from any other log but up close were an amazing impromptu social art. There were even some little toadstool ones!All in all it was a stunning day - I still haven't managed to find the words to capture just how awesome it was, but they'll come in time. Certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience (I may play in a waterfall again - who knows! - but with such stunning weather?! The chances aren't that high!) and one that I'll remember for ever. Brilliant.
Oh, and this all came a day after we (Batala) played at the opening to the rugby league semi-final in Wigan! Batala - Hey!
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