Meet Boris

I was innocently checking my emails this morning when this chap ran past.

Here he is hiding in the dusty bits behind some books.
He left quickly shortly afterwards.
he’s hiding somewhere now. Waiting to jump out, I shouldn’t wonder.
Big bugger eh?

Ettrick Camping Before During and After

 

Before…….

During…….

During:

Number of child/stream incidents involving partial or complete changes of outfit:  4 (shoes still not dry)

Number of times the naughty step in the car was used: 5

Time taken to settle to sleep:  93 minutes including one incidence of incontinence.

Number of tomatoes scoffed by sprog #2 : 5 (seems to like tomatoes)

Number of times sprogs disappeared from sight causing rising feelings of panic: 2

Number of squirrels spotted: 1

Midge bites: 47

Cuts: 2

Bruises: 3

Emotional trauma: 6

Contact with chicken poxed toddler: 0 (but close)

Thanks must go to Aunty Becky and Uncle Morgy for their timely arrival, distracting the toddlers, fierce discipline (That’ll be Becky)  and supply of a couple of calming beers.

The Honey Cottage campsite at Ettrick is a beautiful spot surrounded by specially cracking countryside. I may go there with just superdawg for a few days next summer.  It’ll be fab.

After:…….

‘Tis a far far better thing……

Ok, I admit it. It was a foolish thing even to consider. Tomorrow, I’m taking these two little tykes camping. These are grandsons #1 and #2. They have strange Southern (Derbyshire/Nottingham) accents. They are very very noisy, disruptive, resentful of authority, hungry, energetic and quite, quite mad.

We are going to Ettrick, the Kielder campsite having wisely arranged a 100 mile bike ride for hundreds of cyclists and the Bamburgh campsite “claiming” to be full (They must have heard about us)

We are to be joined by Uncle Morgy and Aunty Becky, sophisticates from Edinburgh bringing our tea in the form of a pre-cooked chile.

And we have to deliver Uncle Morgy’s birthday presents.

I will provide a substantial and unhealthy breakfast and evening merlot out of plastic cups.

We may be back.

We may visit the Minotaur Maze at Kielder on the way.

Otherwise, one of us may go mad.

Prayers are encouraged…….

Anything could happen….

Great Shunner and Lovely Seat

We’ve been up Great Shunner Fell on a previous Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot tops walk (it was covered in snow) – but not Lovely Seat.
So, rather than just bag Lovely Seat, which can be done in half an hour from the top of Buttertubs Pass, I determined to make a bit of a walk out of it.

Unfortunately for superdawg, he’s not allowed up Lovely Seat till May 2015 and, such is the short life of even the most super superdawg, I fear that he’d never make it. So I distracted him with a handful of biccies in his molecky ball He has to extract the biccies from inside the ball, which he does by dragging it around the floor fairly violently. This is usually fairly successful.
So me and the knipemobile were dogless as we parked just outside Thwaite in Upper Swaledale.

Apart from a short section of path beside a tea-coloured beck, I followed the Pennine Way to the top of Shunner Fell.  This is typical PW, with lots of stone slabs. Its a gentle climb and, due to the perishing and energetic North-Westerly (a gift from Iceland for all the fish), a sweat was not broken into. In fact I had three layers on and me winter hat.
Shunner Fell and Lovely Seat have rather a lot of “beacons”.  On inspection, these turn out to be shepherds’ cairns. I doubt if this many beacons would have been required – although several hills in England do sport beacon sites, mainly dating from Spanish Armada and/or Naughty Napoleon times. But these aren’t beacons, they’re cairns. Somebody is avvin a larf.



Lunch in the cross-shelter was a shivery affair. I seem to have persuaded a coupe to climb Lovely Seat too, and they set off along the fence line to find the start of the Lovely Seat path at the top of Buttertubs Pass. I followed shortly afterwards and passed them just before the pass.
The Lovely Seat moors are, apparently, closed at the moment “at the land manager’s discretion”. That means grouse shooting. Its closed for four weeks excluding weekends.

Anyway, I soon made it to the top, realising about half way up that the reason I was climbing hills so easily today was that I’d forgotten to take my daily selection of various blockers and inhibitors…..  makes yer wonder….. 
The way from the top – which does have a seat on it by the way, although a better description would be “draughty” rather than “Lovely” – was to head towards a patch of light –coloured ground on the far horizon. This is the lead-mine wasteland above Gunnerside Gill, but a line directly heading towards this hits the bridleway from Thwaite spot on. This navigation strategy will be ineffective in hill fog and in these conditions, finding the bridleway exit through the intake wall could be an interesting navigational challenge. Heading North would probably get you home after a while…..

As it happens, I diverted to follow a deep gill with some small waterfalls and came at the bridleway from the West. Various lanes and bridleways lead back to Thwaite.
But what of Lovely Seat? Its an easy climb of about 500 feet from Buttertubs. The top is dry and grassy. North, South and East, though have miles and miles of mossy moors – the South and East being a grouse-shooting estate. Its a dog free zone.
Today’s walk was 9 miles and 2100 feet.

Peebles to Moffat the Counter-Attack

We may well have been sent homewards tae think again from our ill-fated expedition up the Moffat and Manor hills last April.
And having been home for a while, and having thought again, and remembering that we vowed to have another crack at this, I am confirming the dates for Round 2.
This will begin on Saturday 25 September 2010 in the Bridge Inn in Peebles and continue to Moffat, or at least towards Moffat.
A return journey from Moffat to Peebles will be made beginning on Tuesday 28 September 2010 and this will veer sharply towards Tibbie Shiels Inn, not because they treated us so well last time (which they did) but purely because it is there.

Invites by email went out some time ago and many replies received. One or two people’s intentions still remain mysterious, but there has been a certain amount of fresh email chatter and some snatched car park conversations which confirm that there’s likely to be a bunch at least.
Note that if your old man is a dustman, we’re still not sure if you’re coming.
I will be sending a soothing confirmation email out shortly with meeting times and places and a proposed timetable.
If this doesn’t turn into a farce, I might well organise it again in September 2011.