We’re off to see Bellowhead!

Just booked two seats at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh in November for more of this fun.

More Bentley Beetham, Tea with Chrissie and Dixie and the TGO English Gathering

Quite a full weekend, as you’ll probably agree (I’m not really bothered if you don’t agree as it happens..) .
We did the Bentley Beetham meets Hannah Hauxwell walk in Baldersdale on Friday – with a car full of camping equipment and, most importantly, two bacon and egg breakfasts and with a car alarm that prevents me locking the car…  But they’re obviously very honest in Baldersdale and the knipemobile was unsullied by thieving paws..

Thirteen people turned up including the stewards Shiela and Neville. Neville was the guardian of a piece of intelligence on the whereabouts of a cup-and-ring marked stone, which we found and gazed at for a bit. But the howling Pennine drizzle meant that lunch had to be had in the bird hide. I’m lead to believe that I got a lot of points for this.
 
Then I went to Derbyshire, to the Snake Inn, put up the Karrimor Ultralight (wouldn’t like to get the akto pinched) and repaired to the bar for some elbow exercises. These went well, to such an extent that I didn’t particularly notice the gale blowing down Snake Pass, rattling the tent, or the severe angle of the hill I’d pitched it on. In the morning, though, I was in a heap almost out through the side and with a sore nose from the alcohol-induced snoring.
 
So I went and bagged Axe Edge, which is just the other side of Buxton, providing, that is, that you’re on this side and not the other…  And this was followed by a misty Axe Edge moor, a long trek over heather and bog and the Whetstone Ridge – a hill who’s name I have to keep looking up. Finally, a return along good paths for Cheek Hill, apparently the highest point in Staffordshire. I missed Shutlingsloe due to a brief attack of  Camping Lassitude probably brought on by a bad cheese sandwich. Or something. Anyway, I’d got up a bit late and was behind schedule, if I ever had a schedule to be behind.

And then it was time for tea and  home-made double chocolate chip cookies and chinwag with Chrissie and Geoff in Hayfield. Chrissie’s dog Dixie didn't think much to me at first but came around after a short snooze. Tilly the lab, on the other hand, was enthusiastic.  Chrissie’s blog is here http://chrissiedixie.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/a-visit-from-the-pieman/   Its nice to be asked for a cuppa and after tussling with the Axe Edge tussocks, a nice slurp of tea is always welcome. (This is not a hint for other blog readers by the way)
Onward and sideways and it was time for dinner at The Snake. Tonight’s beano had been arranged by veteran TGO chellenger and dinner-organiser Alan Hardy. Thanks to Alan and the slightly nervous staff at The Snake and it all went very well. I had the steak pie Because It’s National Pie Week.
Further quantities of loopy juice ensured a peaceful night of supercharged snoring from the tilted blue tent.


Sunday was for the bagging of Alport Moor, which was done in bright and warm sunshine from the spot where the Pennine Way crosses the road to Glossop. It was such a nice day, in fact, that I extended my stroll to include Bleaklow Stones and Bleaklow. A bit sloppy underfoot, but the peat was gently steaming and should be completely dried out by Christmas. It would seem, though that judging by the large numbers of big white bags full of heather brash, and the apparent damming-up of some hags, that the National Park peeps are intent on making Bleaklow much heatherier and wetter. This will be fun for mayflies and things that eat mayflies (such as curlews and grouse). And things that eat curlews and grouse…
Altogether, I did 24 miles and nobody robbed the car. So it was a win-win weekend. But the peak District , eh? Innit noisy? Aeroplanes and traffic noise miles from the roads and curlews… dhuhh…tch…

Burnswark, Warbla’ and Potholm

I have this list y’see , of the hills I’d like to bag in 2012. And to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. And yesterday it was time to go a-bagging in the Borders.

Bag 1 was a little way up the M74 from Carlisle quite near to Ecclefechan. This was to be the ancient oppidum or Head Office of the Selgovae, a British tribe local to Annandale and the Solway Firth before, during and after the Roman period. Burnswark hillfort is remarkable in that it has two Roman camps or forts attached to it’s slopes and on the Southern slopes, there are three ballista platforms from which various missiles could be launched at targets on the hill above. The theory is that this was, in fact, a Roman training camp for teaching troops how to use artillery.

There’s a small parking area in the forest on the South side, occupied today by a lad with a tractor, mending the road. I asked him if I could park and he said “nae problem” and went on to say what a nice day it was….

So we parked (we being me and the dog) and climbed the few contours between the car and the top. there’s a fine view of the Solway Firth and Cumbria from the top and a long view Northwards towards the Highlands. Its a very distinctive flat-topped hill. If you were looking for it, you’d see it easily from the motorway, just before you run into the back of that truck…

Ten miles to the East (much too far to walk there and back, so I drove..) is the little town of Langholm. Langholm truly nestles in the hills and has a lovely free car park next to the River Esk which today was occupied by a few cars, a lot of ducks, some oyster catchers, some people with their doggies, and a heron. And some noisy gulls.  The heron refused to move when approached by doggies and when I went to get a picture, it eventually lifted off and landed a few seconds later on the other side of the river. Very little effort was involved. The ducks laughed, like they do.

The first hill to attract the attention of the Knipe boots and paws was Warblaw, affectionately and locally “Warbla’” (a bit lazy, that – they just missed off a letter. In other places, they’d call it Warlie or something…) Warblaw has a wireless mast on it and so it has a road going almost to the top. The actual summit is defended by a few acres of soggy tussocks. There’s a cracking view of Langholm form the top and the surrounding hills, including Burnswark….

 

We descended. The weather threatened a bit. The car’s alarm wasn’t going off and the heron was still ignoring doggies, so we passed through the policies of the Buccleuch eastate and climbed the long ridge of Potholm Hill. This was occupied by a small herd of Galloways, more intent on their hay supply than any dog-chasing frenzy.  Potholm is a beautiful Howgill-ish long and grassy ridge. You could have lots of hillwalking fun up here given more time as it links to a huge wild area just to the North.  You could spend days wandering happily up in those hills with your little akto and some dehydrated curry….

As for us, we completed the ridge and descended to the woodlands, lodges, and estate buildings of Buccleuch. It seems that they’re unconcerned about people wandering through and, indeed there are benches to rest on and waymarker posts and  cheerfully friendly people in camouflage who say what a nice day it was this morning but it’s spoiled itself now. Posh English sporting estates could learn a thing or two about manners here…

We went home. We’d done 8 miles with a magnificent 2500 feet of upness. The heron is still there, apparently.

 

Waskerley and Weardale

Our old dog, Incontinentia aka Tammy got me up early with her need to visit the back yard, so , it’s an ill wind, as they say in places where they always think Everything is For The Best and so, me and the dawg were in the Demesne Mill car park at Wolsingham in less than promising drizzle and with a faulty car alarm on the knipemobile which started sounding every time I got more than thirty metres away. If I stood next to the car, it was silent. If I moved, it beeped. I thought, maybe it didn’t want me to leave it and I told it that very soon, other cars would be along and it wouldn’t be on it’s own. This had no effect. So I left it unlocked.  The problem seems to have resolved itself in the meantime.

So me and superdawg hoofed it up to Baal Hill where the drizzle became light snowfall, and on to the North Moor, which, incidentally, seems to have suddenly come to the attention of those twats skilled drivers who ride around in 4x4s churning up bridleways. We pushed on to Saltersgate, South West Durham’s highest and bravest dogging spot, although it was perhaps too early and maybe a bit too bleak for any of that kind of thing today.

Onwards we plodded, not stopping to swap the paramo windproof for a paramo waterproof (a bit of a mistake – put right an hour or so later just as the cold was starting to get uncomfortable) – on past the WW2 ammunition depot and over the snowy and soggy moor to Waskerley where we joined the old railway track which is now the CtoC cycle route. Here, it was specially bleak with snow not falling at all but driving sideways.

We didn’t stop at Park Head cafe because there was no way I was going to abandon the dog outside in this wet snow blizzard just so I could have some hot soup, hot tea, hot bacon butty and a sit down in the warm. Was I bothered? 

Lets not answer that one, but march on up the track to Collier Law where hunger finally overcame the desire to push on. We sought a sheltered spot for coffee and cheese butties but failed to find one, so lunch was hurried.

From the top of Collier Law we crossed the soggy moor down to the green fields of Frosterley and along the riverbanks back to Wolsingham. A walk which is usually pleasant enough but not today. Bruno enjoyed finding sticks, running about with sticks, placing sticks to be thrown, chasing sticks and chewing up sticks. He’s going in for his Basic Stick Skills for Dogs NVQ shortly, so the practise is important.

Advanced Stick Skills for Dogs involves working with sticks longer than the dog and your canine is assessed on Stick Balance, Narrow doorways and stiles, Navigating your stick through groups of ramblers legs, Shaking your stick, Long stick entry into the back seat of a car containing a baby in a child seat  and Effective stick destruction. None of this is available via the Open University by the way..

We did nineteen miles and two thousand feet of Up.  I got wet socks. Dawn’s supply of orange chocolate drops received quite a bit of hammer. Nineteen miles is quite good for anybody thinking of taking part in next May’s TGO Challenge, but a while back I said I wasn’t going to mention this.

It was nice to be home this time…!

There May be Trouble Ahead (reprise)

Some of you may remember that around Christmas time, I did one of those adopt-a-path walks and discovered various stiles in a state of dereliction and one barricaded up with barbed wire…

Well…. the other day I got an email from Nick in the Rights of Way section at County Hall to tell me that various stiles around Crook had been repaired and that other paths I’d reported had work in hand or where priority was lower, or they weren’t around Crook etc etc…

So today, being at a loose end, and the fact that it had stopped raining and the sun had come out and that Bruno needed a long walk, I went for a look at some of the Crook/Stanley Crook paths and discovered these before-and-after situations on the pics below.

I’m a bit chuffed about this, to be honest.

 

I’ll be back for another look at these particular paths in July.