Nine Standards Rigg

This was yet another – even, yet another (!) walk in the series of walks bagging the Yorkshire Dales 2000 foot tops – even though most of this one is in Westmorland – or Cumbria, if you’re into the modern post 1974 stuff….

We parked freely by Kirkby Stephen Cattle Mart, pausing only briefly to do an enormous poo by Frank’s Bridge – which I had to clean up using a bliddy sandwhich bag. Why superdawg can’t do a poo in a less sensitive place, i can’t imagine. he was in the doghouse about this for the next twenty minutes. I sulked and consulted the map, bemoaning my now naked cheese and tomato butty.

We progressed alongside a pleasant beck and then uphill through pastures to Lockthwaithe which may not be a farm any more – and ever upwards into the hard snows of Tailbridge Hill for a lunch by the beck. And then, more foggily, ever upwards again, handrailing a small snowed-in beck to the top of White Mossy Hill, which was white but not very mossy. It was bloody bleak, truth be told, so we buggerred off in a generally Northwards direction to Nine Standards which has a load of big cairns, supposedly being all very old, but actually, none dating back more than ten years (they were all rebuilt – I saw it happen…)

And then I had to navigate a bit to find the entrance off the moor to a lane, some 3 or 4 kilometres “Over There”. This didn’t go too well. I enjoyed walking on the hard snow, but drifted too far North and had to “adjust”, which was bloody hard work for half an hour over slippery tussocks. Incidentally, it did occur to me that “Slippery Tussocks” would have made a fine name for a very poor 1970’s pop group with long hair and sparkly stuff a la Slade. The drummer would now be working as a bus driver in Wolverhampton and the lead singer would be in prison in Tristan da Cunha for insulting the president.

But anyway, after a while, we got to the strategic gate with just 9 metres to spare. i thought this was close enough. Bruno demurred.

A short bit of road and lane took us to the old Tebay-Bishop Auckland railway line which is now a permissive path (what is the world coming to?) – which we followed for a bit to Hartley and thence back to Kirkby Stephen.

The A66 was quiet. The knipemobile reached a speed of 105mph on the downhill Durham, side, and, whilst still being passed at even more speed by , frankly, lunatics, I got scared and slowed down a bit.

Bruno slept innocently in the back.

We did 12 miles and 1800 feet of ascent.

It were cold but quite grand. I’d do it again.

Things We Found Today

Today was the second working party day at Barnard Castle.

Around eight of us attacked some defenceless shrubbery in a kind of amphitheatre which may well once have been part of Barnard Castle’s gasworks, when they used to make the stuff from coal and people could kill themselves by putting their head in the oven

(Note It had to be a gas oven, you had to turn the gas on, and it wasn’t a good idea to light the gas as this was dangerous.)

Anyway, now it has some fairly decrepit benches, a circle in the middle made from fancy bricks and some sculptures representing, I think, the river. It is, in fact, a meeting place for the local yoofs who drink alcohol there and then go for a fight in Barnard Castle.

So we attacked the place with pruners, saws, spades, forks garden not salad), a big axe and other metal things.

After about four hours and several thousand calories, it was 95% clear. We kind of ran out of steam at this point. To be fair, I ran out of steam after three hours and spent a while “tidying up…”

Archeologically, we found much evidence of late 20th and early 21st century entertainments viz – Somebody’s stash of cans of cider, still in date. – One pair of man’s underpants in reasonably clean condition (probably their lucky pants, I shouldn’t wonder) – lots and lots of empty beer, cider and fruit-flavoured vodka “drinks” (blech!) One used condom (small) containing something horrible (and it wasn’t fruit-based vodka drink) (blergggghhh) Three empty condom containers and a brick, I guess the brick was probably some kind of amateur form of anaesthetic for the female partner in the condom game as the vodka-based fruit drink (gag…. blurggg) was only 4% by volume and wouldn’t have been enough to stultify anybody enough… look, I can’t be thinking about this….)

Anyway – nice day – good company – positive feedback (apart from the chap who bemoaned the loss of the six buddleia bushes. I must admit, this did seem like vandalism. I mean- buddleia bushes….)

More of this to come at roughly fortnightly intervals until its all been done.

We did wonder about asking for high-viz jackets with “HMP”* on the back so we could go and scare the local yoofs who, noticing our presence, had moved their base so as to annoy people in the nearby park.

*HMP = Her Majesty’s Prison – there’s one just over the river. Its got some scary people in it, apparently.

Revolutionary sleeping bag filler material

 

What you do, apparently, is empty out the down filling from your sleeping bag and fill it with this stuff.

I am reliably informed by Someone In The Know, that it will keep you warm down to about minus twenty five although some users have complained about the filling “moving” about in the night and others have said they heard strange noises when they’ve rolled over in their sleep.

Its also best if the sleeping bag outer is made of waterproof material.

It is, however, breathable – or, rather, breathing and has a certain amount of intelligence.

I give you – Puppytex. Made from real fur from sustainable sources…

 

Lets Off-Road.. or Maybe Not, eh?

 

For some reason best known to himself, I got an email today from Bill gallon (see the list of other people’s websites for Bill’s website)

This email had attached to it a newsletter from the Yorkshire Dales Green Lane Alliance. (YDGLA)

Now the YDGLA are getting their rambling breeches in a bit of a tangle about a certain – shall we say “route?” (Yes! let’s say “route”)

Route

Which goes from Middlesmoor in Nidderdale to Arkleside in Coverdale. It transpires that this particular root…. sorry, route, is being used by 4x4s and motorbikes as a bit of harmless fun to get themselves over this peaty pass. Unfortunately, in doing so, they are really buggerring up the track and, generally, causing a bit of a nuisance. They don’t see it like this, obviously. they see themselves as simple “motorists”, apparently – according to their representative organisation – and motorists simply discharging their right to pass from one place to another on an unsealed road. The fact is that what they enjoy the most is overcoming difficulties, such as getting stuck in mud, being winched out of things and going up steep places in their cars. This inevitably causes a mess and a lot of noise and interferes with legitimate users of these routes such as farmers, shepherds and land managers – most of whom can actually drive and generally don’t do any damage.

Anyway, YDGLA are having a campaign to stop this method of using this particular route. Further and better particulars are to be found in their website at www.ydgla.co.uk

For balance, the off-roaders’ organisation’s website is at http://laragb.org/

Here’s a clip of some off-roaders enjoying their sport

..Might have a walk over this road, just to have a look.

Thanks for the info Bill, by the way.

 

Beadnell Bay

Sunday 7 February 2010

After another fine breakfast and much washing up, brushing things and packing, I left the OTHC Mounthooley meet for a visit to the Northumberland Coast, arriving, after some disorientation, caused by inattention to the map, at Beadnell Bay, where I paid for just one hour’s parking and trotted off for a walk on the beach.

Its a fine beach, even on a grey day like today. It is, in fact, enormous and flat and backed by dunes and, today at least, was only lightly populated by dog walkers and their dogs (Bruno would have loved this….(sniff…).

I walked southwards as far as Newton Links and returned on a less interesting route on a public footpath behind the dunes for coffee and cake.

Must do more on the Northumberland coast, cos it’s fab….

I did about four miles and no ascent to speak of. Some of the walk was below sea level as the tide was out. I love walking on the beach. Its a great place to get yer hair ruffled by a mischievous breeze…..

Maybe the walk back through the Newton Links reserve would be better in summer when there’s some birds and flowers to spot…..

And that was the Over The Hill Club Mounthooley Meet. Wot fun!

I now have the job of writing the report of the meet for the club magazine. I wonder if they realise what they’ve let themselves in for in allowing me to do this task?

The meet was enjoyable, even through the slight nausea of Tracy the cardiac Nurse’s latest prescription of calcium antangoniser or something tablets, what also give me a headache. I expect I’ll get use to them She did say that if I failed to take them my blood pressure would get so bad that one day my eyes would explode and ruin my OS map. Which isn’t what you want, really as they are quite expensive.

Anyway, nice to see a few old friends up in the Cheviots….