statcounter

Thursday 2 December 2010

Crook Around the Compass – East

superdawg thinks its funny
I’ve had all I can stands, I can’t stands na more.” Popeye.
So, today me and superdawg braved the blustering blizzards to go and have a look at the second of the Crook Around the Compass walks – this time it was East. This starts in the same place as “North” and suffers the initial indignity of having the route description and the map not matching at all.
look over there ya bugga
But the rest of the walk, which is a complex route of many turns and various nooks, not to say, crannies, that the route description could best be described in exactly the same way as John Donohue, TGO vetter extraordinaire once described my attempts at Gaelic place names. Brave, but futile.
wear valley in snow
The route was made al the more interesting by the fierce and protracted blizzards of snow and hail which batterred me and superdawg for most of the morning. Then there was the matter of the outrageously deep snow. Most of the time this was merely knee deep, for those of us blessed with a fine pair of primate legs. Shorter, more canine legs left delicate bits of the anatomy deep under cold snow. Bruno didn’t seem to mind. I would have complained a bit more.
"hilly" field
In fact, Bruno thought the whole adventure a bit of a jape and bounced around like a puppy. The idiot. 
crook
The route itself is fairly complex (I may have mentioned this above) but is interesting and has a short but quite fine high-level traipse across pastures with an ariel view of Crook.
It also has, believe it or not, a bit of avalanche debris in an old quarry or delve. I expect this is temporary and fairly unusual.
For those concerned with such things, there is NO barbed wire (there is an electrified fence at one point) and , as the centre of Crook is visited, it does have a selection of pubs. More pubs than you can shake a pair of doggy antlers at, in fact.
crook east 023 crook east 019
Which brings me to Bruno’s Christmas outfit. Supplied by Rachel whilst I was out shopping for wor tea and trying to push a car out of a snowdrift.
Crook East is 3 miles and 500 feet of ascent. I did four miles, so, that’s one louder.
That deep snow doesn’t half get your calf muscles. The case for snow shoes strengthens.
crook east

8 comments:

icklebigsis said...

Oh Bruno is missing his wand. lmao

Mike Knipe said...

I confiscated the wand after he turned the cat into a tin of meatybeefychunks.

Dmarie said...

incredibly lovely pics. thanks for sharing!

Alan Sloman said...

Looking at that map of yours it occurs to me that you could cut a huge chunk out of this trudging through the white stuff if you stuck to the yellow roads.

You could cut even more out of it if you stayed in one of the pubs, by the fire, looking out of the window at the winter wonderland the other side of the frosty window.

And that way Bruno's dangly bits would stay nice and warm. Cruel, that's what it is. Cruel. Poor little Bruno.

And... there would be no risk of death by electric shock either.

And... you could be supping a fine ale or three...

There's too much nonsense about this outdoors lark, you know.

Mike Knipe said...

Thanks Dmarie - its the new camera, I expect.
Alan - What you describe is very true and, in fact, quite a popular way of spending an evening in Crook as it happens. This is, in fact, the main source of Crook's GDP. Note also that "CH" also has a bar. You don't have to play golf, apparently.

Laura said...

I love the antlers Bruno (oh, and the wings!) - I hope you've bought some for yourself Mike...

icklebigsis said...

So this walk sounds like a bit of a pub crawl really. lol.

Mike Knipe said...

I have my own Santa hat (with lights) and red jacket, Laura. But I think Bruno suits the Christmas gear. I might do a review...

Pub crawl, Rachel?.... the very thought.....