Rain radar thingy

A chap who calls himself "Peakbagger" on http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/ pointed out this site yesterday http://www.raintoday.co.uk/Which I think is rather good.

So I put a link to it over in the "some websites" rectangle on this very blog.

Innit wet, though? Some very big puddles on the roads into Crook yesterday....

It was so wet, I went swimming, albeit in the local public pool.

Hadrians Wall day 1 part 2

And so, after nursing a pint of Scruttocks Old Dirigible for a while, subsequent to which it seemed to have evaporated or something, I continued along the very attractive riverside path past the coal staithes where Carter (as in “Get Carter”) started to chase one of the villains around with a shotgun and a bottle of whisky till they got (in the space of a couple of minutes) about 20 miles down the Durham Coast where Carter done him in and dumped the corpse in a coal-hopper.

Then to Elswick, where, apparently, the early 20th century Japanese navy was built and along the Scotswood Road (yer shoulda seen us gannin) through Lemington (welcomes HW walkers to it’s shopping centre) and finally to Newburn, where, exhausted and dehydrated, I was forced, by a deliberate navigation error, to visit a second public bar – The boathouse. (v nice pint by the way)

I sat out in the sun, stroking the landlady’s poodle (ahem) and gazing across the river to ..er.. the other side of the river. This was where, in 1640, which is just was just before teatime in those days, the naughty Scots under the highly experienced General Leslie and his 20,000 enthusiastic soldiers and 100 pieces of artillery, faced a few thousand reluctant, under-equipped, safety-concious, untrained and generally pissed off English defenders and battered them till they ran away. Thus, the Scots outflanked the Northern defences of Newcastle, approached it from the direction of the Metro centre (which was doing special offers in tattie scones and crates of Tennants lager that week) and persuaded it to surrender. The English parliament refused to pay for another army to eject the Scots from the North-East and quite a lot of trouble ensued, during which King Charles went on to lose his head.

General Leslie invented the electric organ and retired to the Winter Gardens in Blackpool.

I know a lot about history, me.

And so, refreshed, I continued along the riverbank, which was now unmetalled and had, in fact, unknown to me, been diverted, and then along another old tramway as far as George Stephenson’s birthplace. George Stephenson’s family lived in one room of the cottage and George, of course, went on to invent station announcements, the refreshment trolley service and signal failures. So the lad done well, even if the London bankers took the mickey out of his Northumbrian accent. He’d always had an ambition to visit the train museum in Darlington , so he built a railway to it.
Unfortunatelty his train was delayed and it was closed when he arrived.

As I say, I know a lot about history.

Next there were contours. Aaargh. Eight or nine 10 metre contours are encountered on the walk up to Heddon on the Wall. Some of them are rather too friendly with each other which results in the hill being a bit of a slog at the end of a day and what with the legs being full of amber nectar as well.

West to East walkers should be encouraged that once they get to Heddon, virtually all of any uphill work is behind them. Its downhill or very flat from here and very very easy walking.

As I had missed the bus by approximately minus eight minutes, I went into the Three Tuns pub and bus stop and had a quick three or four pints of the local brew before the next bus came and hour and eight minutes later. The 685 took me swiftly and cheaply (£2.80) back into Newcastle for the train back to Durham.

As the station announcer said “Bing Bong! This is a cuzzmer sevvis annment. Would passger (sound drowned out by passing goods train) contact iz fammly immedittlie on a vey urgent peznal matta. Az I say, this is vey urgent . Fangoo”

“Bing Bong. Pazzgers waity on paffoam four for the ninetin farty chain to Bergam Noo Steee shudd be away that the chain iz now leavin fom paffoam six. Fangoo."

The next Hadrian's Wall day, From Heddon towards Corbridge (notice the careful wording here) is due to happen on 27 July 2009. I can't wait, Day 1 was such good walking.

Hadrians Wall Day 1 (pt 1)

This is the start of my exposition of the Hadrian’s Wall path from Wallsend to Bowness on Solway. I’ll be doing this in day walks over the next couple of months.
Its not a guide to the walk, but, maybe, readers planning to do this walk from East to West might get some idea of what its like.
Readers intending to travel West to East will need to read it backwards.

Day 1 – Wallsend to Heddon on the Wall 14 Miles and (a mere) 450 feet of uphill.
Mainly riverside, Newcastle Quayside, Alang the Scotswood Road to Blaydon, more riverside, and a golf course. Pretty much all on tarmac or pavement. And flat. You don’t need hill boots for this. Take some cash to spend.

I used public transport to get around. Apart from the walking bit. I walked the walking bit.

I was lucky that I’d taken the median time from all of the clocks in the house and not just the mode. If I’d used the mode, I’d have missed the ten past eight bus from Crook which leaves at three minutes to seven. As it was, I was early.
This didn’t matter too much as the train was late.
As the station announcer announced

“Bing Bong! The necks chain at parterm too will be the delayed nine chirtneer to Enber Wavlie calling at NoooCASSSSle, Mor’eth (glottal stop used), and Enber Wavlie. Chain is appomatly ther mizz late due to sinlin dicklies at Doxtah. We appljize for this dlai. Fangoo. Was that allright? (second voice in background) "Better. Try it a bit quicker next time. Or when there's another train going through”

Anyway, it turned up eventually and the Tyneside Metro took me efficiently to Wallsend (announced as “Warlzend”) in about a quarter of an hour.

I progressed slightly self-conciously down to the start of Hadrian's Wall, the excavated and partially recreated roman outpost of Segedunum, with its visitor centre and general “stuff” It’s a big site. Apparently it was very a very popular posting for roman soldiers due to it being very near the shops and not too far from Whitley Bay, where they could take the kids to the sands at weekends.

I followed the “Hadrians Way” brown signs past the cranes and slipways and semi-derelict shipyard buildings of Swan Hunters and on to the tarmacced strip of an old railway line. From Segedunum to Newburn, Hadrians Wall path doesn’t follow Hadrians Wall (which goes through backyards, school playgrounds, factories and sandwhich shops) but sticks to disused railway lines and riverside promenades until it escapes the city when it turns north to join the wall. This part is known and signposted as “Hadrians Way”

It’s a fine walk, though and starts well with a long, wild strip of feral woodland, thick with all kinds of wild flowers, the scents of which mix with the city smells of fresh coffee and new bread and the seaweedy River just over there. There’s also willow warblers and chiff-chaffs mixed with gulls and factory noisies and police cars and childrens playgrounds. They've even got a rich cover of almost ripe brambles and dozens of cherry trees full of cherries. And buddleia with butterflies. It’s a heady, exciting mix. I found it immensely enjoyable and I marched along easily and happily. There are no difficulties. There’s even a tea van (“get Stuft”) which does a very nice sausage butty for a couple of quid. But there’s pubs and cafes as well.

Just one word of warning for those having a late start, or maybe late Eastwardly walking people - some parts of the path show clear signs of a number of fires, probably, I would guess, the local yoofs destroying stolen cars. This might not be such a good area to walk through in an evening without a large dog or a pal called "Basher", or , possibly "Crusher" who constantly asks the question "Can I 'it 'im now, boss?" (daytime Geordies are very friendly, however)

Ultimately, the path leaves the line and joins the riverside at Walker and follows this into the middle of the city where I decided to sit and take it all in for a while. I sat in the sun at the Quayside pub amongst the lunching office workers.

To be continued…..

More Brecon Pictures

Whilst we're waiting for the first trip along Hadrian's Wall to start (see below), I just thought I'd fill in the gap with a few more pics of the "main" Brecon Beacons ridge. Inevitably, most of these involve the camera being pointed towards Pen y Fan which draws the eye magnetically, (not like an etch-a-sketch yer great daft wazzock*). I'm showing the pics coz I finks its nice.

Really attentive readers may well note that one of the pictures is a tree and not a hill. This is one of the very fine oak trees encountered on the approach to Sugar Loaf, an almost 2000 foot hill just next to Abergavenny. These trees are in the care of the National Trust and you just want to hug and kiss them and have their saplings. I fawn over their acorns. I stroke their gnarly roots and I rub myself against them in a rather embarrassing manner.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics.

Notes: Hadrian's Wall - I start tommorrow at Wallsend and, hopefully, end at Heddon on the Wall where the 685 Stagecoach bus will take me back to Newcastle. I'm really looking forward to this. I might pick up a bit of latin, or maybe a Gregg's Cheese salad sandwhich.

* Wazzock - A colloquial Yorkshire dialect word invented in a bus queue in Batley at 11:30 pm on a Saturday night in February 1967 when, due to an over-enthusiastic night of beer swilling, one chap dropped his wife's fish chips and peas in a mucky puddle and ruined both the supper and his chances of a bit of rumpy-pumpy on Sunday morning.Use as in "yer great wazzock" A "little wazzock" is a child who has just covered your new trousers in chocolate fingerprints or has had a toilet accident in the back of the car despite being told time and time again to have a wee before you set off..

Add this to your dictionaries.

Next week, we'll be exploring the words "Spawny Wart" Maybe we could get all this translated into latin.

Brecon Bagging Bonanza

In order to prevent repetition, and for space to move on to new things next week, I’ll just make the one posting about the little trip to the Brecon Beacons.
I must say, though, that in terms of the number of things ticked off the list and, generally, “things to be achieved”, this was quite a successful expedition.
It started out in the usual unpromising kind of way with a specially easy bag of the spectacularly unexceptional but not unapproachable but possibly underrated Long Mountain, somewhere quite close to Welshpool in the rain. I expect that if you live in Welshpool and have more time to explore, that this fine ridge would be just the thing when its not raining
Then, after putting up the tent and festering for an evening, the time came to bag a Hewitt. In view of the driech wetness and general clamminess all round, Carreg lwyd was chosen and this, in turn repaid the effort by being a bit dull. I bet it would be nice on a warm summers day in, say, early July. But not today.
And then came Corn Du, Pen y Fan , Y Cribyn and Fan y Big. Anybody visiting these parts should be minded to visit evil and unpleasant things (ribbet, Rachel!) on any person even thinking about suggesting that these hills ought to be or even could be missed out of a visit to the Brecon Beacons. They really do just have to be done. They’re great. Fantastic. The highlight of the week. I’ve only included one pic, just for illustration. They’re very popular, so I expect that vast swathes of the readership( hah!) will have already been up these, so you won’t miss a few photos. I might use some later on when an irrelevant picture about something or other is called for.
And one of them has a rude name, so even more reason to go up it. (Not Corn Du)
Fan Lia and Fan Fawr with a few other grassy things came next, and then Waun Fach and a little Dewey by the name of Brian or something, followed by a plunge through oakwoods due to a path disappearing when it shouldn’t have. Some people find this kind of thing a bit annoying. I quite enjoy the challenge. And a decisive approach gets things done, even if you turn out the other end just a bit scratched. There’s always a danger that you might get shouted at, though, by some irate farmer or the occupant of a bungalow who is just getting ready for his bath. Or something.
Lastly, I had a day Marilyn bagging near Abergavenny. Sugar Loaf was done in mist and a bit of rain, but through superb and spectacularly beautiful oakwoods, with quite a few “veteran” trees. I followed this with the diminutive but green and also beautiful Bryn Arw, with mewing buzzards, a man scything bracken in the old-fashioned way (with a scythe!) and showers queuing up along the valley.
Lastly was Ysgyryd Fawr (The skirrid), a steep lump which seems to be a volcanic plug, very similar to all of those Central Scottish plugs. Steep and wooded and brackeny with a bit of archaeology on the top in the form of “St Michaels Chapel” St Michael being the patron saint of ladies pants and had his chapel, apparently on the top of an older cairn. Two ladies were looking for this place and we had a nice chat. They remarked on the fact that the view was now from the Gower to Shropshire. I couldn’t confirm or deny this. I expect they were right.
These little border hills are just the thing for a jaded hill bagger, though the thigh-muscle wrecking properties of the steep little buggers shouldn’t be underestimated. Fab stuff. I’ll be back.

43 miles, 11000 feet of uphill , 10 Hewitts, 7 marilyns and 3 deweys bagged. + 1 lamb Balti and 1 fish and chips (apologies to the lass in the chippy who thought I asked for two fish and chips. Sorry, pet)