Fountains fell and other plans

 

Its probably a good idea just to go over current walking plans, so that anybody who’s interested can do whatever it is you do when you’re interested in something.

There’s a theme running about climbing all of the Yorkshire dales 2000 foot tops. This is going well just now and the next victims to the Knipe boots and paws are Fountains fell and Darnbrook Fell this coming Sunday (29th)

I’ve also just decided a new theme for the winter, which will be local County Durham walks. this is my contribution to saving petro-chemicals and also my own petrol money at the same time. Walks will either be very doggy friendly or , at least, discrete. the dog is coming with me anyway. They’ll be easy for me to get to if it snows a lot, too….

There’s a couple of additional walks in there too, as special Christmas offers….

So, here’s the programme for the rest of November and for December:

27 November Elephant Trees from Wolsingham

29 November Fountains and Darnbrook Fells from Arnclife

6 December Slit Vein, Rookhope from Westgate

8 December Crookrise and Cracoe Fells from Embsay with Martin Banfield

13 December Dodd Fell Hill from Hawes

22 December Winter solstice Dead Stones howff from Killhope Cross (time tba)

24 December Drumaldrace from Semer Water

27 December Fell Head from Tebay

31 December Middlehope Moor from Cowshill

Everything starts at 09:30. If it snows a lot, or the roads are very icy or something, it may be a bit later.

Some of the walking will be after dark, so lights will be needed

TGO Challenge Route Planning

Frosty morning in Glen Lyon 2007

Just spent pretty much the whole morning, a part of the lunchtime and some of the afternoon drawing lines on electronic maps and measuring distances and I think I’ve finally cracked it – a joined up route across Scotland.

This year, unusually for me, and, possibly living in cloud cuckoo land cos the weather will probably spoil it – I’ve managed to work in a static camp in Knoydart for the relaxed bagging of Sgurr na Ciche and other delights – so my tent on Day 2 will move precisely nil miles and nil contours of ascent. (Although, hopefully, I’ll be doing a bit more)

A day or so later, however, does include lots of tarmac beside Loch Arkaig, so that’s the price.

I’ll then be moving South ish for Ben Alder Lodge (never been), Ben Bheoil (missed that one somehow) and then through the bumpy it in the middle with a couple more Munros and the odd Corbett for a boozerama at Braemar.

I’m also determined to do the ridge next to Glen Prosen which ends at Cat Law.

The finishing end is at Scurdie Ness.

Landing at Inverie

The total distance excluding the day’s static Munro bagging thing is 313 km, or about 196 miles. The longest day is 30 km and the shortest is 15 and the average is 24km or about 15 miles. I orta be able to do that….

A Wet Weekend in Borrowdale

 

Anybody who’s been watching the TV News or even read a paper recently couldn’t have failed to notice that there’s been a touch of flooding in Cumbria in the last few days.

Waterfall behind Derwentwater YHA

But, despite police warnings not to travel and, based on Cumbrian contacts saying that it was OK, really, I travelled hopefully over a windy A66 down to a big lake just outside Penrith that I don;t remember being there previously and which isn’t on my map.

The A6 was barricaded off. The sign said that the A66 was closed “after Keswick” I wanted to go to Keswick and then down Borrowdale for a bit. I could walk from Keswick, there’s a high level route above the lake….

I passed through a “road closed “ sign at the entrance to Keswick and parked in the deserted main car park. Roads out of the town were barricaded off too, including the Borrowdale road. But nevertheless, cars were going around the barrier and heading up… and not coming back. I walked up the road for a mile or so and saw nothing more than a few dubs of water. Derwentwater, however, was substantially bigger than it normally is, and the path by the shore was well under water.

Lakeside Path (!)

I went back to the car and drove it to Derwentwater YHA without much splashing at all.

A convivial night was had by those who’d made it.

More people arrived the next morning and went for walks. I’d been informed by the loved one that the dog was asleep on my Paramo and my map was on the floor – so I had no map not waterproof jacket  and had to opt for a paddle up to Lodore – just for a look – and a plodge down to Keswick and back for coffee and a look around before the predicted rain started again – which it did, unusually, around about the time it was supposed to.

Lodore Hotel car park

I spent the rest of the day drinking tea and snoozing.

The Over the Hill Club Dinner and general party-thingy was a fine and fairly civilised affair, but much beer drinking was done. The YHA staff did a fine job. there was a slide show about a trip to Stubai and one about Waggy’s trip to somewhere else I couldn’t make out for the noise…

In the morning (this morning) the AGM was held and there were contributions for Hamish Brown – and, well, general AGM type stuff, including my ratification as a member.

And , after a group photocall, mainly for the benefit of 101 year old OTHC President Jack Griffiths, who couldn’t be there (!) – we all slipped away home.

Over the Hill Club Incomplete Group

Its wasn’t possible to go West of Keswick and an attempt to circumnavigate the Lake by some members entailed a very long retracing of steps. The Borrowdale road is covered in debris – mainly stones and bits of trees and the lake is lapping at the edges of the road. Its a mess, to be fair. It will take quite a while to recover.

It was still raining as I left for the East.

A Meeting in Cumbria

 

I’ve just spoken to Barbara Dawes who is the organiser of the Over the Hill Club AGM and paddling weekend at Derwentwater YHA which starts this evening.

One of last year’s Weardale floods

TGO Challengers may well remember Barbara as the Voice of Reason on TGO Challenge Control. I think I last spoke to her several years ago from a phone box near Kirkmichael. She doesn’t do Challenge Control any more but the soothing tones are still there….

Anyway, its likely that most people will be aware that Cumbria has just had its biggest rain storm since the last one, with at least a couple of feet of rain falling not to far away from Derwentwater YHA over the last 24 hours – and the place is, generally, a bit of a disaster area.

But the Over the Hill Club AGM is still “on”. So, I’m going to try to get there. As the subject of my prospective membership is on the agenda, and I’ve paid money for meals and stuff, I think I should…    I’ll wait for a few hours for the water to recede a bit, though. A66, probably since the bridge at Langwathby is, apparently well under water

But, there’s  another 40cm of rain is forecast for Saturday. So I may not be back soon……

Three Birketts and a HuMP

After a fairly relaxed morning with a kipper and some shredded wheat, me and Superdawg packed a banana and a cheese butty (Lancashire by the way) and hurtled off over the A66 to Cumbria and the back door of Whinfell Center Parcs – or, as we know it in England, Centre Park. This looks remarkably like a very comfy prisoner of war camp from the back, what with the security fencing and the guards in high-vis jackets and so on.

Stalag Center Parc pooch on peripheral path partially parallel to private part

A footpath leads through very soggy woodland (perhaps its not always soggy, but its been raining a lot recently…) and up to the front entrance where there is a bus stop and a border post, and a sign, on the track I wanted to take up the HuMP, saying “Private Road No Public Access” So I sneaked around the back.

Bruno at the summit of Quarrystone Bank (This is proper bagging!)

The summit was well forested. I had bagged Quarrystone Bank. I returned from whence…. – about 4km altogether.

Warning! These vicious commie squirrels will nibble on your nuts, specially if you’re a capitalist running dog

The, after scoffing the cheese butty, I drove off and got fairly lost on the Cumbrian back lanes, eventually turning up at a place called Underwood, on the minor road from Watermillock to somewhere else.

Another very soggy and, this time muddy path, signposted for Aira Force, took me along an attractive fellside and through woodland to open fell, where a group of children in red waterproofs were doing something noisy, but, probably, harmless. I gained the fell top and headed North to bag Great Meldrum, a little, round, grassy thing with a great view and a cold wind.

Furry, ferny tree on the path to Aira Force

Little Meldrum followed but with a bit more difficulty. Its in a forest, y’see – but the summit is open fell and its a bit rockier than the Green Meldrum.

We struggled uphill to find a gate giving access to our final target for the afternoon – Watermillock Fell – another, slightly rock lump with a cracking view.

This is like Fell Walking, but without all the hard work. It would be a nice little trundle for a rest day, or a wet day when the high fells are splatterred and misty. And there’s a pub just down the road for shelter.

Great Mell Fell

A bit of a downhill road walk brought us back to the knipemobile.

Three Birketts bagged.

Impressive stuff, eh?

Total mileage was about 8 miles and 1200 feet of uphill.

Must set the camera to do higher quality pictures….

ASDA bargain camera

 

Readers of this and Martin Banfield’s blog ( he won’t be blogging about this by the way) may be aware that my camera has been poorly  and, well, basically, just not itself recently.

Then, last night, on the telly, I saw an advert which said that ASDA are selling digital cameras for Fifty Three of your Queen’s pounds.

So, today, I went and got one, plus a 4 mega elephant memory card thingy (sorry to be so technical by the way) for a total price of sixty quids. I also got a kipper for 86pence, but the wife paid for that.

Tomorrow, I intend to eat the kipper and then drive off to the sunny Lake District to bag a few little Birketts, and, maybe a HuMP and take some pics with my new camera.

The technical details of the camera are:  ……………..  

Well, , honestly, you’re not really interested, and neither am I.  Look, its a disposable camera. Its guaranteed for a year. It will last just over a year, unless it drowns in a cave, or gets eaten by an Ork or something -  and then I will get another one. Its disposable, see?

I took this with it earlier

Bruno really shouldn’t be in that armchair. He’ll be in bother.