Old Photos #1 2009

There’s a small hiatus, so I thought that intimes of hiatuses  (or whatever the word is) I would show some old pictures. Nostalgia is not just a pain in the nose, y’know. These are from 2009.  No comments are available. I may do 2010 the next time there’s a gap. Big walk due in a few days…. (click on the small pics for a bigger pic)|

Eight Years of A Shivery Walk To The Border–(Brrrrr)

Years and years and years ago, in the company of Rothman’s Walking Club (think cigarettes here…) – we did a walk across Burtree Fell on a lovely, sunny day in mid-winter with deep, hard snow. I suppose you might call it “neve”.

 

Now Burtree Fell’s walking is pretty rough in places – typical Pennine stuff with heather, sphagnum bogs, peat hags and tussock grass and progress can be quite slow. However, on this particular day, the walking was spectacularly easy on the hard snow, and it was veen deep enough to cover the walls and fences which might have impeded progress. The downside was that we completed the walk a couple of hours earlier than we should have done.

Rothman’s Walking club eventually fell apart and time moved on to a period when I was volunteering for Durham Voluntary Countryside Ranger Service – mainly stewarding guided walks and, later, leading guided walks.

And I revisited Burtree Fell and encountered exactly the same condiions as on the Rothman’s walk. I decided at that point that should these conditions be repeated, that it would make a fine guided walk for Durham County Council, and so it came on to the programme, each early January, for a few years at least.

Later, in a strop, and because I was a bit bored, I stopped leading DCC guided walks but the walk appeared on the Wednesday and Saturday Walking Group programme (aka the Wednesday Walkers Walking on Saturdays)

So far, on both groups, we’ve now done this walk 8 times since 2012 with a total of 137 participants and several doggies.  We’ve never had the conditions for which it was designed, although there’s been snow 4 times – mainly thin and icy, cold and frosty twice and mild and drizzly the other two times.

Last Saturday was the latest and it was cold, with a few icy bits, but no snow.

Ho hum. 

I’ve changed the route a bit and, instead of sticking strictly to the rights of way and staying in County Durham, it now crosses the border into Northumberland (adventurous or what?) and visits the summit of Middlehope Moor at 2007 feet. This is marked by a small cairn and, as a high point is a remarkable anti-climax.

And I’m fed up of low-level mud and barky farm dogs, so I varied it a bit out of Blackdene.

It’s 8.5 (ish) miles and 1400 feet of ascent.

Pics are from some previous visits to the route and to Middlehope Moor.

2019 Global Warming and Pieman’s Walking Plans

Just to say that my plans for 2019 walkies do not take account of sea-level rises, a hot summer, a wet summer, a hot and wet summer, a cold summer. no summer, an average summer or a warm autumn with lots of conkers.
In 2018 I managed 1351 miles and a quarter of a million feet of up, and, since I’m exactly where I started, also, logically,  a similar amount of down. This included a few backpacking trips, some campsite camping and a holiday near Llandovery, plus a TGO challenge, substantially in the company of John Jocys, who talks to people , which I now realise, I don’t. New Year’s resomolution #1

Plans now include a TGO challenge with my son. And, if I get to the end, this will be my 15th and my 2nd in a kilt. Our route has some adventurous bits in it, which is why I’ll be organising a 20+ miler each month between now and then and, probably continuing afterwards.
Plans also include attempting to join the Marilyn Hall of Fame. Thius means that I have to bag 22 Marilyns before the end of 2019. This may not seem much, but the nearest unbagged ones are miles and miles away from Pietowers but I’m hoping that trips to East Ayrshire, Fife, Beddgelert, the Isle of Man and Exmoor may resolve this particular challenge.


Another target is to complete the Nuttalls. All my unbagged Nuttalls are  in North Wales except one, and one is also a Marilyn (double bubble). But there remains the issue of Pillar Rock. I’m going to have to bribe somebody to drag me up this one. I could hire a guide, but they’re feckin mad and will EVEN climb in wet and greasy and I have an aversion to wet and greasy with big drops below. I’m not yet having nightmares about this, having done nothing positive to make any arrangements. Chances are that sheer cowardice will avoid any unpleasant confrontations with looming heights.
And I have in my diary, several walks to lead for Wolsingham Wayfarers and the Wednesday/Saturday walking group. so leading walks will continue for a while…

Pics are from my final walks of 2018 – A 10 mile trundle around Stubbly Pike with one of my more talented rellies and an 8 mile recky of next Saturday’s walk with the Wednesday Walkers Walking on Saturdays group up the top of Weardale in astonishingly mild conditions.
Plans for 2019 may also include something to do with The Ramblers. Watch this space------------------------>   not that one, this one<---------------------  Nudge nudge , say no more….

Long Walks–Waskerley Wabbits

Ashley, there’s only one wabbit involved – one with Mixie that LTD grabbed but then let go…

Anyway – this walk is 20 miles, although some GPS readings claimed it was 21. It also has 2250 feet of ascent, which probably isn’t all that much for 20 miles.

We began at Wolsingham Railway Station aka ice rink being well iced following a cold night – and a dawn start, obviously.  “We” being me, LTD, six other peeps plus Captain the dog,  either from previous walks or as a result of info provided on Wolsingham Wayfarers Faceache account..

It was Very Cold. In fact, the night before had seen freezing rain and just a dusting of snow. This meant that all of the footpaths and tracks were liberally coated with a thick..er…coat .. of ice. This made the paths impossible to walk on, specially the steep bits where hands and knees had, sometimes, to be employed.

However, this did not seem to influence our pace, which managed to remain fairly brisk throughout at about 2.5 mph including the stops.

Our slippery route went through Wolsingham City Centre to Thistlewood, passing County Durham’s #1 dogging spot and WW2 ammo storage facility at Salters Gate  (much too cold/early for any hanky panky today I would have thought), on to the Waskerley Way all the way to Parkhead, Stanhope Dene, the public conveniences at the Dales Centre and road and riverside paths back to Wolsingham, where we arrived just as it went dark. The route would be obvious should any reader care to consult a map – it’s pretty straightforward and has little in the way of actual navigation. The mind is also able to wander at will on several sections, either to warmer places , or trying to remember if one has completed all of the Christmas shopping.

And, as proof that there really is a Father Christmas, he was seen to be in consultation with some peeps on the Train To Christmas Town as it passed us by as we finished.

We seem to have managed to increase the attendance at these long walks somewhat. There’ll be another Long Walk on 13 January 2019, should anybody feel like it. I’ve not decided the location yet, but, given the lack of daylight etc, it probably won’t be all that far away from Weardale or Teesdale.

An Outbreak of Inaction and Delay

It’s not that I’ve not been walking, because I have, but there’s been an outbreak of inertia at Pietowers since the crushing of the knipemobile’s door by the X1 Arriva bus to Tow Law.
This is partly because LTD is Not Allowed in the courtesy car (it’s a bus as it happens), so a few informal trips up the Dale have not happened and trips further afield won’t be taking place till a dog-friendly vehicle is accessed.

I did go to Kendal without lTD and me and The Bro and June (the lass I went to junior school with) had a wet walk up four minor fells ranged around Tarn Hows. As it chucked it down all day, this was a blessing in disguise for LTD cos he would have been miserable in the rain.

I went on the bus, though, to join the Wolsingham Wayfarers Christmas Special walk at Wolsingham and LTD came too. And, as  neither me nor LTD were driving, we were able to wait for the return bus in the Black Lion in Wolsingham where a reasonable amount of beer was consumed. This was very nice. The Black Lion is a fine bus shelter, and very friendly. A very enjoyable walk, too, with mulled wine and some nice beer at the Black Bull in Frosterley.

On the Sunday, we joined Crook and Weardale Ramblers for a walk from Crook Market Place. This was almost exactly the same route as the walks I’ve previously lead for Durham County Council and for the Wednesday Walkers group but for which there wasn’t a space on this year’s programme. Nice walk which is always muddy at this time of year, unless it’s frozen, of course.
Speaking of inertia – during the week I attended a Ramblers meeting in Darlington on Tuesday where I was surprised (or, maybe, not so surprised) to learn that the North Yorkshire and South Durham Area Committee is “in abeyance” – having no Chairman or officers. There seems also to be a problem with the management of at least some of the local Ramblers groups in that the work of running the groups is falling to fewer and fewer stalwart and committed individuals. There’s a perception, I think that the Ramblers groups locally are a group of walking clubs – because they arrange walks. People who join the Ramblers for the walking are, in fact, funding the real purpose behind the Ramblers, which is Campaigning so the walks are important. But, as there’s no Area group, there seems to be little or no campaigning happening and I’m not aware of much else other than walks and bus trips going on; there’s certainly no actual evidence of much in the way of local efforts to recruit members. (I did see a poster in Durham Market Hall encouraging people to join-up, however). Generally, the profile is low and the campaigning aspects are probably best co-ordinated at least at an Area level, specially for Crook and Weardale since many of the potential recruiting grounds are outside Weardale/Teesdale which only have relatively small populations.

There’s an urgent need to recruit a younger cohort of members to replace the venerable stalwarts have been supporting the local Ramblers for years, ensuring it’s survival for whatever may come.  One of the responses to this has been to introduce shorter walks, presumably to encourage people who don’t do much walking. There’s links to Health Walks in some areas, which are by necessity very short. But people who like to do long walks are neglected and, I believe there’s a constituency for these people. But if I happen to mention it, I’m told that the Long Distance Walkers Association do long walks, the inference being that it's not in the remit of the Ramblers. This may well be because a majority of RA members are uncomfortable walking more than half a dozen miles.  I don’t think the LDWA have a monopoly on walks over 14 or 15 miles, though. I remember joining Craven Ramblers on a walk many years ago, and, my recollection is that it was quite challenging and fairly long. Some of that energy needs renewal, I think.
But this is what happens in all organisations, specially very old ones like this. Thinking out of the box is required. County Durham’s Ramblers groups are not walking clubs and it would be great if more heed could be paid to the pro-active aspects of The Ramblers social purpose and, of course, it’s distiguished history.
Click for more info ramblers campaigns Pics are from the three walks…