Monkeying Around Swaledale

I set off for Fountains Fell this morning. I was a little biut late due to having to rescue Bruno and Tammy from the claws of Tommy, next door’s cat, whom they’d somehow manage to corner in the back yard (not a good idea..) – then the petrol pump at the petrol station wasn;t working, then the roads were a bit flooded and all the local farmers had decided to drive around slowly with horseboxes – so by the time I got to Richmond, it was getting late.

I dredged up a plan B and went to Reeth where it was snowing.

Not a specially good start

But me and superdawg had a nice little trundle through the floods at Grinton (two feet deep) and over the moor to Harkerside, which has some kind of iron age defensive work on the top.

Harkerside earthwork

The path from Harkerside runs along the hillside for a couple of miles and has cracking views of Upper Swaledale. Eventually, after a draughty lunch of yesterday’s cheese butty and banana in a shooting butt, we crossed over the moor into Apedale. I really should have saved the banana for this bit.

Bruno killing some snow

Anyway, from the foot of Apedale we completed the circle (13 miles and 2000 feet of climbing).

It snowed soft, wet snow in short but fierce squalls on and off pretty much all day, but not much was sticking around. The only thing it really achieved was numbing one half of my face. Higher tops to the West and South were bright white under the hillfog, though – I expect FF had a nice white cover. (bugger!). Bruno likes to attack snow, and he did manage one short game of bite the snow I think it was beginning to freeze as we came down the road into Grinton.

Bruno, bell pit, Apedale beyond

Not Fountains Fell, though. Will FF turn out to be another Shelf (?Ledge) route? I won’t be having another go at it till at least February, cos I iz so bizzi, innit? I have a Christmas Tree to put up and dress tomorrow – its sitting in the back yard just now.

Apedale shooters huts

Anyway, if you’re ever in Reeth and at a loose end, this walk is a blast – easy walking, gentle gradients, easy navigation, nice views, no pub. Pity about the flooded path at the start.

The route on the map is anti-clockwise (doesn’t do arrows….)

A Foul Weather Alternative

Crook (aka Blogtown) Darren must be at home – all the flags are flying

Last night, I packed a cheese and tomato butty and a banana and all kinds of lovely things with the intention of carrying out my threat to go and bag Fountains Fell

The local MET office girl on The Beeb said that it would rain towards the Southern part of the Dales (ie not on Fountains Fell) and that it would be cold and windy and cloudy up here in the North Pennines.

The National weather forecast, however, given out just a few minutes earlier said that it would probably be wet and windy but that the heaviest rain would be elsewhere in the Pennines and on the North Yorks Moors and that it would snow on high ground later on.

Whilst, it would be really great if the MET office could give out the same weather forecasts, even if they’re wrong , on balance, its was probably what you might expect for late November, probably not too bad and I resolved to go.

But at seven this morning it was chucking it down. Poking the head through the door revealed icy rain. I spotted a gritter moving along the road up at Stanley Crook. Bruno looked at me with that kind of “you must be joking.. kind of look. The cat refused to go out. Breakfast for me and then see what happens. Would it brighten up a bit? Would it at least stop raining?

No.

So, I was fairly pleased by elevenish, over yet another hot coffee, with a warm and semi-comatose canine next to me on the sofa, that it was still raining. In fact it was heaving it down. There were splatters of sleet on the window.

An exploration of Crook in the early afternoon with an ever-so-slightly reluctant superdawg confirmed that the rain was on the point of not being liquid anymore and it was, frankly, quite ‘orrible. Brian rang and told me about the wet snow they’d had up at Nenthead.

I may go to Fountains Fell tommorrow.

I still have the cheese butty and the banana.

Or I may put up the Christmas tree.

In the meantime, I’m building up motivation to nip down to the Crook Boozerama for a bottle of vino collapso to cheer meself up.

Of there’s anybody out there reading this from The Maldives – I hope you’re bloody warm enough. You really wouldn’t like it here just now. (Its Tony from Sheffield by the way)

Brrrrrr……

Elephant Trees Again

It was last December when I did this walk before. I make no apologies for posting about it again, cos its a favourite trip. Its easy walking, not far from home and , basically, I don;t have to make much of an effort. And the views are quite nice too.

Bridleway to the Elephant Trees

The last time I did it was in me new Christmas undies, and, I have to say, that I had the same long johns on today and, yes, they have been washed.

The route goes up the Hamsterley road out of Wolsingham, along a bridleway which runs close to the scarp edge, down in to White Kirkley and along the riverside back to Wolsingham. Simple, really and , its possible to add or subtract little bits for interest or in the case of boredom or if you can’t remember turning off your headlights this morning.

Munch Bunch by the Intake Wall

The Elephant Trees themselves haven’t changed since the last time I was here – but then they haven’t really changed much since I first saw them in 1986. They’ve probably lost a few branches I suppose.

Elephant Trees carvings

The only different thing was the new bunkhouse which has opened just above Wolsingham at Carrs farm. If anybody wants a bunkhouse whilst bagging North Pennines or something then the website is www.carrsfarm.co.uk I had a look, it looks OK to me, if a bit near our house….

I allowed superdawg to witness the demolition of a cheese and tomato sandwich in the shelter of the intake wall on the other side from the Trees. I’m not sure he was impressed. . I did let him hoover up the crumbs from my blueberry muffin before we pressed on, down to Frosterley and along the riverside.

It was noticeably colder today. It felt more like winter, and it was a dark sort of morning but it got sunnier and a bit colder later. There’s snow in the air (according to the MET anyway…..)

Just a note for anybody who’s never seen a kingfisher by the way – the place to go is the Kingfisher caravan site, just East of Frosterley. Funny coincidence that, eh? The name of the caravan and..er.. the .… bird thing. I didn’t see one today.

I watched the salmon jumping at the bridge to the site. There were some really big fish in there, most of whom tried several times to get up a small cascade, but the river is running very fast and they were washed downstream again and again. One very skinny-looking fish wriggled upstream. I wonder if a kingfisher could manage one of these beasts…

For the extra thrill, run with your eyes closed

We collected wood, mainly ash, to light the fire. Bruno helped by running about with various sticks then destroying them. He had a nice charge around in the townfields which always seem to be empty of stock at this time of year.

This is a very easy ten mile trundle, which takes about four hours if you ramble and three if you don’t stop.

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.

 

Howgill Fells Cautley Spout, The Calf and Yarlside

This is the fourth walk in our series of Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot tops. Its pretty much a classic Howgills walk – a standard which many people do, except that I put in a couple of slight variations and , at the last minute, even varied the variations, possibly just for variety but more probably because we wanted a sheltered cosy spot for lunch and the unvaried bit of variety would have been too draughty.

Once again, Martin Banfield met me and superdawg for the walk. We parked badly just next to the Cross Keys at Cautley in a bit of dribbling rain but with some signs that the hillfog covering the hills was, perhaps, lifting a bit. The weather forecast was…well, least said, soonest mended is what my old grannie used to say. Actually, what she really used to say was “How’s your mum and what about a game of dominoes?” but least said soonest mended about that as well.

Cautley Spout – the top bit

So we climbed the thigh-bustingly steep stepped path which lurches pants and heaves itself up next to the mighty waterfall of Cautley Spout, the highest waterfall in Cautley. At the top, we crossed the beck where I ate a cheese and onion flan in celebration.

Some might consider this a quiche, but, in Yorkshire, we don’t have quiches, we have flans. Be a man, scoff a flan, is my motto. I couldn’t think of anything similar about quiches. Sorry.

Anyway, up we went, alongside the edge of Cautley Crag which has cracking views when its not as foggy as this. Compass time – for the route across the mossy top of Great Dummacks. My compass spends all of its useful life attached to my holy ortleib map case by its lanyard. It wasn’t there. Martin said he last saw it flapping in the wind at the top of the Spout. Bugger. Martin had a compass, though, and by skilled setting of the same, and then adding a few degrees, and taking some off again, we marched confidently over the tussocks to hit the summit of Calders spot on.

Not long after, we bagged Bram Rigg Top. – These two being fairly minor, grassy lumps on the way to The Calf, where we duly arrived a bit later. Hunger pangs panged hungrily. My compass was discovered hanging around the back of my neck, still on its lanyard and, obviously frightened about something. Maybe there’d been a sudden shift in the position of magnetic North or something. Who knows? Who cares anyway?

Bruno sending thought messages concerning lunch

So we followed the bridleway down into Bowderdale and soon found a cosy spot for lunch on some comfily arranged rocks. Mine had four different kinds of lichen on it, I noticed. And whilst i was noticing this, Bruno noticed that my chicken salad sandwich was unguarded, and took his chance by nipping off about an inch of it and swallowing this immediately, putting it well out of reach of The Boss (me). I remonstrated with him and he looked suitably guilty for a while till he noticed that the rest of my sandwich was now unguarded and…. but I was too clever for him. Too clever by half. Too clever by half a chicken salad sandwich, as it happens.

We progressed to the foot of a steep shoulder which climbs slowly and a bit tiredly to the top of Yarlside. Bruno had a short medical emergency, consisting of a yelp, a limp and looking a bit unhappy for a while. No idea what it was, but he recovered quickly and we hurtled uphill, stopping only briefly for about half an hour at a sheep scrape to eat bananas and pontificate on whether or not that hill over there was Dufton Pike.

Bowderdale from a little way up Yarlside

In gathering gloom, we passed over Yarlside’s summit and descended the east ridge, which is very steep and quite good for sliding down on overtrousers, although the speed achieved was a bit scary at one point.

Having finished our walk, we visited the Cross Keys and had coffee, sarsaparilla and scones. (Its a temperance house – a tea room, really… but there’s a fire in the range and a comfy settle and rocking chairs and its all very atmospheric.)

Cautley Spout from Yarlside (note fog!)

A short walk today – seven and a half miles but with 2800 feet of slugging uphill. Four tops bagged (possibly five?) – Great Dummacks (the possible one, although we probably didn’t find the highest point) – Calders, Bram Rigg Top, The Calf and Yarlside.

The next walk in the 2000 foot tops series is Fountains Fell and Darnbrook Fell from Arncliffe on 29 November

and

Me and Martin (Martin and Me…) also arranged a walk from Embsay on 8 December for Crookrise, Rylstone Fell and Thorpe Fell. No dogs allowed on this one, though.

These two both start at 9:30 am, if anybody feels they’d like to participate.

I fully expect Martin will be blogging about this Howgills walk on his Postcard from Timperley blog at http://phreerunner.blogspot.com STOP PRESS - In fact, its here http://phreerunner.blogspot.com/2009/11/sunday-15-november-2009-calf-in-cloud.html

I expect he’s got better pics than mine , most of which were shaky due to it being too dark and the fact that the screen’s broken. I’m trying to wait till the January retail desperation period before I buy another.

Prophesying Summer

There’s very little doubt, that with the onset of a very lively autumn gale, that the winter is about to begin. There’s already been just a little bit of snow.

So consider this.

This little video is an extract from the annual Padstows Owd Oss event – a festival which pretty much pressages summer.

There’s something deep and pagan about this event. Even though this is in Cornwall, I believe that its deeply English and a bit Celtic at the same time – there’s the relentless beat of the drums and the repetitive underlying song(although there’s a also a meaningful middle eight – not shown here) – and alongside there’s the uncontrolled evilness of the black ‘Oss, dancing and whirling and generally being quite scary.

This is to come. This is a festival welcoming and encouraging the summer. We’re just about to start the winter. But , like anything else,it will pass, darkly, damply and coldly. I’m quite looking forward to it, and it’s passing too. Watch the whole video, let it sink in a bit....

Stick with the video

I'm lookin forward to running off the black horse, in due course,of course, at the right time after lettinghim have his evil cold and black way for a while... But the bugger is doomed, right enough....

TGO Challenge Route Planning – That Sinking Feeling

A Challenge Stalwart Describes the Tick Currently in His Underpants

…that you’ve made an error. Its kind of been sinking in, from intelligence gathered on internet forums, blogs, conversations, and even the fleshpot of Settle (Poppies Tearoom ) that large numbers of people are planning to start their 2010 TGO Challenge at Lochailort.

This morning, whilst considering a slice of toast, I got a sort of sinking feeling about this.

Maybe its going to be a bit overcrowded – its not a very big place and I don’t necessarily crave much company till I’ve walked a bit and lost a few arguments with myself about something and nothing. I’m terrible at certain times of the month, apparently.

So, I’m rejigging , my route completely. I’m not going anywhere near Lochailort.

So much for having already designed the route.

Bits of it are still intact, though

Back to Fugawi

Attermire and Malham

I think it was at the traffic lights in Richmond when I thought I heard Bruno mutter something from the back of the car about “Did you remember the camera?”

I hadn’t. There’d be no pictures of today’s walk.

I met Martin (Phreerunner) Banfield in Booth’s supermarket car park in Settle. He had a camera, obviously. He’d let me use a few of his pictures.

Not far out of Settle

We repaired to a teashop where we coincidentally coincided with the Towers twins and a Lady From Tarfside having their regular morning tea and toast. The Towers twins having somewhere in the region of 30+ TGO Challenges between them – a certain amount of TGO Challenge talk ensued.

But, daylight being at a bit of a premium at this time of year, we pressed on with the walk and marched off up the Pennine Bridleway for a bit and then over the hill to the splendid limestone scars of Attermire. This is a fab area when its not so foggy and mizzly as today, and OK when it is a bit foggy and mizzly. The lumps of damaged iron plate on a stony mound are the remains of a WW2 anti-tank and light arms target range. The scree behind the target is full of little bits of lead. Must be great fun firing something that makes big holes like that…

Remains of firing range target

Attermire Scar

We abandoned the plan to bag Rye Loaf Hill because of the dense hillfog up there (there wouldn’t have been a view, which would have been the point, really) – and after a short but healthy snack at the trackside, we carried on through the gloom past Pikedaw Calamine Caverns which has a metal lid covering a 23 metre shaft and 3200 feet of explorable caverns and, a little way above Malham, we had a brief poke around in Miners’ Hole, a 240 feet long partially mined level cave. We didn’t get all the way in because the roof got too low for unhelmeted caving and it was damp and muddy. Bruno wasn’t very impressed, really.

Heathy snack, dog dribble on trousers

Outside Miners Cave

And so we repaired to the Buck Inn for a couple of glasses of Copper Kettle before breaking the rules at Malham Cove by having a picnic.

Malham Cove

Picnics are banned at Malham Cove, folks. What mean-kneed apparatchik thought up that rule, I wonder. The countryside is far too full of notices which begin with the word “No”. There ought to be one that says “No Notices starting with “No” By order.” Don’t do this, don’t do that…..rant….. No dogs no picnics no camping no parking no shouting no ball games no turning no climbing no fishing no fires no access no bouncing up and down going “wooodlie woodlie woodlie”….wearing a green hat with a stuffed parrot pinned to the top…..”

Sorry.

Bruno makes easy work of slippery stile

After butties, we climbed up beside the Cove and followed Watlowes dry valley up to the Tarn Road and then , in increasingly gloomy conditions, followed the easy track ( an unsurfaced County Council road) back to near Langcliffe, and this to Settle, where the lights were on and tea was in the pan. The best bit about this bit is the great view of Penyghent’s mighty prow. The worst bit about this bit is doing it in the gloom when you can’t see Penyghent’s mighty prow. But the track gets you back to Booth’s car park in short order and, if it hasn’t already gone dark, you can have a little bit of minor speleology in Jubilee cave, which, according to my guide book is a 300 foot Grade 1 cave, so you can take your kids in there.

Thats my car with the lights still on….

We did about 14 miles and 2700 feet of uphill.

All the photos and the map in this posting are by the kind permission of Martin Banfield. The pie isn’t a real one, obviously…just a cardboard prop. I never eat stuff like that, I only eat fresh lettuce and mung beans

I have no doubt that martin’s account will appear in due course on http://phreerunner.blogspot.com

Snow!

North Pennines with Snow

 

Just heard that there was a cover of snow on the North Pennines today.

And I missed it.

Bugger.

Must do better

Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot tops – Buckden Pike

The forecast for today was for a frosty morning and a sunny day with light winds.

As I poked my head through the curtains, I could see a rain-lashed Crook. I let the cat in. He was soaked and was muttering something darkly about the Met Office. The TV this morning announced weather warnings for heavy rain in NE England. I drove to Wharfedale through several deep dubs of water. It was till chucking it down as I set off on the walk.

Buckden Gill

The intitial probings went badly. It soon became apparent that any bare rock was as slippery as buggery. Only those deeply involved in buggery will appreciate just how slippery this can be – or so I’ve been told.

The route goes up to an impasse at a waterfall, backtracks a bit and then leaps up a little gully and along an exposed ledge for a bit. It does this twice.

The scramble that rejected me

Me and Superdawg got to the gully, which Bruno attacked with gusto and , promptly slithered off and almost tumbled down the hill. A second attempt went bravely wrong in a similar way. A third attempt, with me halfway up the gully for a push up the bum nearly had me off as well. A retreat was called.

We climbed Buckden Pike by an old trackway – then a path up to Buckden Gavel Mine – a hole I’d been in a couple of times many years ago and involving such fun as igniting snowdrifts with carbide and demanding three pints of bitter in the Buck Inn two minutes before closing time, whilst covered from head to toe in orange mud. (This wasn’t me by the way)

Buckden Gavel Mine entrance

We achieved the summit of Buckden Pike. It were right foggy on the top and quite sloppy. The old path from the top used to cross the wall and head South for a War memorial. This has now been diverted and a new path with new stiles handrails the West side of the wall which, despite being pretty boggy is much easier than it is on the other side of the wall.

Buckden Pike sloppy summit

Looking over the wall

We got to the Polish War memorial. The tale of how this came about is given here http://www.buckdenpike.co.uk/ Its well worth a read, but , basically a WW2 bomber crewed by Polish airmen came to grief at this spot in a blizzard. There were initially two survivors, one of whom crawled through the blizzard with a broken leg and a head injury to the inn at Cray, following the footprints of a fox. The second survivor succumbed to the blizzard. The memorial was built by the survivor and a service is held there by Keighley ATC and scouts and cubs and so on from Airedale. A bronze fox is mounted to commemorate the role of that animal. Read the website, though – its very moving stuff.

War Memorial

The Fox

The memorial and the help and funding from local people and the annual service reflect well on local people and local yoof in particular.

After a short visit to the memorial (missed the service by about an hour) – I wanted to bag the subsidiary top called Tor Mere Top (appears in the Bridge list) and also go down to Starbotton by the bridleway over Knuckle Pasture. With a bit of navigational shenanigans, I managed both. The path contours around the head of a great corrie and has been engineered long ago to service lead mines on the hillside. the mining here is very old and there are lines of bell pits as well as the usual spoil heaps and levels.

Bell Pits

On the way, I came to Tor Dyke – an ancient Brigantian anti-Roman defence, and on top of a mound which is probably artificial (being a qualified archeologist – I’ve see many episodes of Timeteam and quite a lot of Blackadder) – I found a large stone with some carvings on it. These were what appeared to be a number 8, and cross and a circle with a dot in the middle. I wonder what they mean?

Carved Rock

From Starbotton, we just followed the Dales Way back to Buckden.

12 miles and 2000 feet of climbing and, it eventually brightened up. I only actually fell over once, but in a fairly spectacular and very muddy kind of way. Some owd yows (translation = sheep), held up cards with numbers on. I got 9.6 for style, but only 3.2 for dignified recovery due to blasphemy and the use of horrible but unusual swear words, some of whoch are probably physically impossible for all except skilled ballet dancers. Bruno just laughed.

It was my birthday today as well. I got two cards. This is one more than last year, so I'm obviously starting to become more popular. The last time the wife sent me one was three years ago. I suspect that the magic has gone.....