TGO Challenge Food and Drink (hmmm, drink….) Planning

It was bound to happen eventually – there comes a time when yer prospective TGO Challenger and Leg End Extraordinaire has to finally get around to doing a bit of proper planning. I did the route and ordered me TGO Challenge fleece, attended the English gathering at the Snake (very nice, all thanks to Alan Hardy for organising this) and I’m about to have a little trundle around various bumpy bits of Wales as a kind of shake-down - (pause for breath) – which might sound a fair bit of preparation, but, in reality, a lot more needs to be done. (Oh yes, I got the train tickets a s well…)

So, wot I done today was a Food Plan. I like to do a food plan as this often prevents me from running out of food, a circumstance fraught with fraughtivity and noisy bubbling noises from the belly area – so I did the plan and this is it:

It starts with Strathcarron. Shall I stay in the hotel, or will it already be fully booked by more enthusiastic and better organised challengers? Or, i found two B&Bs. Camping at the hotel seems to be a no-no, although some people say I could camp, whilst others point out that the hotel stopped letting people camp. There seems to be a fair number of wild campsites nearby, though. The reason for this, as yet, unresolved quandry (which I may sort out in the next day or two) is that if I stay in a proper bed, I get breakfast and if I don’t , I probably won’t, so I’ll have to carry it from home. I’ll sort that one out soon. To be honest, I want to save the money and camp…

The first part of my route goes from Strathcarron over a couple of Corbetts and a Munro (this is a fine-weather alternative) – to Loch Monar and to Struy and from thence to Drumnadrochit. Drumnadrochit provides the first opportunity for retail therapy and the purchase of noodles, or pasta, or whatever. I should be able to eat and drink at Struy, and all of this means that I have to carry 2 or 3 breakfasts (prolly porridge) – 4 days trail snacks and 2 evening meals. I’ve enquired on a B&B in Drumnadrochit and had an email exchange with Mr Menzies, the skipper of the boat that will take me across Loch Ness.

The next bit is across the Monadhliath Mountains to Aviemore and then to Glen More. I’m not staying overnight in Aviemore, but pressing on after lunch. So, at Drumnadrochit, I need to buy 2 breakfasts, 2 days trail snacks and 2 evening meals. I will eat lunch at Aviemore , dinner at Glen More and breakfast at the cafe with the squirrelarium at Glen More. I will shop at Aviemore and buy 1 breakfast, 3 days trail snacks and one evening meal. This will see me to Cockbridge where there’s a pub with a bunkhouse. I’ll probably try to book a bed in the bunkhouse. I should be able to get an evening meal and a breakfast there.

The next day is to Tarland, where I’ve booked a bed at the Commercial Hotel. Dinner and breakfast sorted.

I have one more wild camp – somewhere on Hill of Fare and then my route goes through Peterculter to Aberdeen, a civilised section well provided with opportunities to eat and drink.

And thats it. There’s a few I’s to underline and t’s to dot and apostrophies to misplace and, provided the old ticker stands up to it all, and I don’t set fire to myself or anything, I should be able to spend a couple of nights carousing in Montrose before time for home.

This is the plan. There is a strong possibility that it will only make sense to me.

Incidentally, I also carry 50cl of scotch which is classed as in-tent entertainment and not food. This can be topped up at Drumnadrochit, Aviemore and Tarland.

	number of meals Date From To accom breakfast trail dinner 11/05/2012 travel to strathcarron ?camp or b&B   home on train strathcarron                 12/05/2012 strathcarron poll buidh camp   1 1 1 13/05/2012 poll buidh loch monar camp   1 1 1 14/05/2012 loch monar struy camp   1 1 struy 15/05/2012 struy drumnadrochit b&b   1 1 drumnadrochit meals to bring from home 4 4 2 16/05/2012 drumnadrochit glen mazeran camp   drumnadrochit 1 1 17/05/2012 glen mazeran allt ghiuhais camp   1 1 1 meals to buy in drumnadrochit 1 2 2 18/05/2012 allt ghiuhais loch morlich camp   1 aviemore glenmore 19/05/2012 loch morlich glen avon camp   glenmore 1 1 20/05/2012 glen avon cock bridge b&b   1 1 cock bridge 21/05/2012 cock bridge Tarland b&b   cock bridge 1 tarland meals to buy in aviemore 2 3 1 22/05/2012 Tarland hill of fare camp   tarland 1 1 23/05/2012 hill of fare peterculter b&b   1 banchory peterculter meals to buy in tarland 1 1 1 24/05/2012 peterculter aberdeen camp montrose   peterculter     25/05/2012 spare day

 

Gear Review – Sinistromanual Navigation Systems for the Complete and Utter Navigator

Being left-handed, I was really pleased to receive the Beta-test version of this specially developed navigation equipment from http://sinisterlynav.co.sw. This has been developed over the last two years by cack-handed scientist Dr Jacob Vansterhant of the Institute for Locational Studies at the University of Stockholm, initially for military use by the Swedish army but now being developed for commercial use by hillwalkers and ramblers all over the world. It is perhaps a reflection of the respect attached to hillwalkers, ramblers, hikers, wanderers and bloggers in the United Kingdom that we have the honour of being chosen from amongst all the other possibles to undertake a full review of this revolutionary kit – revolutionary in the truest sense of the word and, indeed, a true mirror of whatever it is I’m trying to get at.

The kit consists of several separate pieces or “Segments” of equipment which together form a complete set of everything the left-handed hiker will need to find his way about with a fairly high degree of accuracy.

Segmentet A –The Silver Trekmeister II - The Sinister Compass . To the uninformed walker, at first glance, this looks just like an ordinary compass and apparently behaves in the same way as the normal right-handed compass. On closer inspection, however, it will be noted that the compass needle always travels in an anti-clockwise direction prior to settling on a bearing.

The second difference is that whereas a right-handed compass always points to magnetic North, this one points to magnetic North-East, which is close to the small town of Lulea in North-east Sweden, which, by coincidence, is quite close to Dr Vansterhant’s’s countryside summer hut. This may be a snag that will get sorted out in the proper version.

On the model sent to me, West and East were also apparently transposed but this minor development issue can easily be rectified before manufacture, as can the instructions which are only available in Swedish at the moment. For all intents and purposes, though, this is exactly like your usual walker’s compass and has all the usual features (see pic)

There was also something else quite odd about it, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Anyway, it has all the usual stuff- a lanyard, a base plate with inches down one side – or , rather, in Swedish (obviously) – Sehcni, and MM down the other (this must be the same in Swedish) and a romer or remor, designed for KU dirg, whatever that is. I except the OSGB version will be out in the next release..

It all seemed OK, but I still got lost a bit, but that’s probably just me. Back bearings seemed to work well, though.

Segmentet B – The Carte Sinisterre. The plan is to present this to the ordnance Survey for approval prior to printing, but in the meantime, for the UK market, one useful left-handed map of Hamsterley Forest has been produced as a mock-up. At first I had some difficulty in deciphering this map, but once I’d got the hang of viewing it through the minimirror which is attached to the top left-hand corner by a lanyard (cleverly using left-handed scouting knots, I noticed – nice touch, that, I thought.) This helped a lot but then I realised that the printing on the map was almost entirely in Cyrillic script and not back-to-front at all (which would have been silly if you think about it) The reason is, apparently that printing costs in the diminutive ex-Russian republic of Slabovia are very reasonable at the moment. The plan is for the actual printing to be done in Calcutta when it comes to proper production. I can’t put a picture on as it’s copyrighted, apparently. Shame.

Segmentet C – The GP Sinistaire. This is just like a Garmin except that the buttons normally on the left hand side of the GPS are placed on the right on this unit and the buttons on the right hand side of the GPS are now on the left. I found the performance of this unit a bit shaky although I did manage to pick up Radio Teeside which was useful as there had been an accident on the A19. I couldn’t make it work properly, though but if they were to print the instructions in English, I expect this would help a lot. Whilst I am not electronics expert, I hope they will take the advice I provided to them in the spirit it was intended and that they will soon lay off with the threats (which I found quite sinister !! (arf arf)

Segmentet D – Map case and gloves.With the map case, I couldn’t tell the difference to be honest. The gloves were a joke to be honest. I mean who has two left hands?

Look, I’ve tried to be nice, and it’s great to get free gear, but …

Anyway, here’s a pic of the sort of conditions I’ve been testing this stuff in…

Pennine Way Bowes to Tan Hill (and back)

This is the very last reccy of one of the summer guided walks routes, although I’ll have to reccy all the fifteen walk routes the week before they happen. I’d delayed this one till after the clocks sprung forward last weekend – mainly so I had enough daylight. The walking is quite easy, though, so it would have been OK, really…

Anyway, I’d warned superdawg that this walk was a bit longer than the others, so he’d had a few extra doggybix and a drink of tea, and we’d arrived at the village hall car park in Bowes to discover a couple of chaps from Sunderland and Ivy, one of the regular DCC guided walks customers and veteran rambler extraordinaire. (she’s 78 and doesn’t use those new fangled map things….). Ivy was intent on having a ten mile ramble and set off a few minutes before me and the dawg.

We headed off towards Edale, up past the castle and through the lambing fields where we caught up with Ivy who declared her intention to accompany me for a bit to make sure I didn’t get mugged by a ewe or become lost or attacked by a starving band of disorientated ramblers (such as the ones who live in Crook)

So, we wandered up (or is it down..?) the Pennine Way not looking at maps and only going wrong once. At Sleightholme, where the Way turns off the road to follow Frumming Beck, Ivy turned and headed back towards Bowes, intent on doing “a loop”. She reckoned she’d have done her ten miles for the day. I suspect she was probably right. Interestingly, when you work out the “doggy years” thing, she and Bruno are the same age. Bruno is slowing down a bit, or , at least, calming down a bit, but is still, very much, a daft pup.

We lunched by the beck and trogged easily up the path over the moors to Tan Hill. This path is notoriously soggy, but not today. Progress was quick and easy over the parched moor and we were soon relaxing in the cool of the Tan Hill bar with a pint of Black Sheep. I copperred up (as my granny used to say) and discovered that I had just enough for a second pint of the same, leaving just twenty one pence for emergencies. Since there were no likely emergencies which would involve spending money between here and Bowes, I opted for the second pint. Had I had more money…..

A bit later and in a happy mood, I took the Foul Weather Alternative which involves walking down the road and a track back to Sleightholme – just to see what it was like. I may do this anyway on the actual walk just to introduce a bit of variety and the possibility of a fatal accident with a speeding motorbike. Another option is to use a deep gill running North from the road to join up with the PW below the soggy bits.

The return route was just a long plod in warm sunshine – all very pleasant. I got back to Bowes at six o’clock, which was just about eight hours – seven hours walking and one hour nursing a Black Sheep or two. It was 17 miles and 1500 feet of uphill.

Quite good, really….

 

North Pennine Fun in the Sun

In view of the fact that there seems to be a fat ole sun in the sky that keeps falling….  I decided that after a day of my plans to be tramping through the heather with my best girl on my arm (ashley, it’s a dog..) had been frustrated by domestic duties and in view of the fact that the clocks had been interfered with for the summertime season, I would, in fact, escape to the Pennines. My afternoon bagging target was Harwood Carrs – a 502 metre heathery flat that had somehow missed out on the delicate caress of the knipe boots and paws. The late afternoon plod up the shooters track to a handy jumping off point for the shy little summit cairn, in , frankly, hot sun, and dressed in shorts and a short-sleeved base layer, was an absolute joy.

As the evening crept in, my second target was to be Knockshield Moor, a 574 metre flat-topped heather moor just a bit North from Killhope law. I marched along Jacob’s Tea Trail, noting dawn’s bootprints from the other week…. and, as I rounded the hillside, the object of my attentions came into view. From the summit sprouted a huuuuuge cloud of white smoke. There were vehicles moving around and people, apparently jumping up and down on my summit. It was on fire. They were burning the heather. I could come back later… Instead , I visited Three Curricks – that is three or maybve four cairns on the hillside, and, later, watched the sun go down behind The Dodd, the sky colours changing subtly each minute. It was quite remarkable (which is probably why I’m remarking on it)



Summer evening birds were calling (curlew, snipe, oyster catchers, plover, lapwings, skylarks, meadow pipits and grouse). Thats enough of Pink Floyd anyway…

So this afternoon, I met Brian at Bowlees and we abandoned the knipemobile in the car park there and drove up to Swinhope Head, at the summit of the road between Teesdale and Weardale. The objective for today was to have a look for some possible rock art, in the form of cup and ring markings at a bouldery outcrop on the side of James Hill, at just around the 2000 foot contour. As we were starting a hundred or so feet higher than this, the walk to the boulders would be downhill, as would the six mile return trip to Bowlees, a cracking plan I’m sure you may agree. I’d heard about a possible hoard of cup and ring marks from one of the walkers on the last DCC guided walk and I determined to go for a look. (He also gave me some interesting hill routes through the Co Durham Pennines which taken together form a chain, so when I get time, I’ll be looking at those, too. Thanks Eddie.


We strode over the tussocks and sphagnum, noting the wildlife in and around the boggy pools (a lizard, some water boatmen and beetles and a large party of frogs, apparently having a party. We soon came to the boulders and discovered that they were indeed covered in cups, but no rings. In fact, there were more cups than you could shake a walking pole at. It would seem, though, that the gritstone seems to be in two or more layers and the softer, top layer (which is still relatively hard, should you collide with it) is worn into cups by some natural process. It could well be, of course , that some of the cups are natural and others are man-made. But there’s a lot of cups. No, I mean loads of them. Really.. a lot of cups. Some had water in them. Others had stones or a layer of grit. I don’t believe I’ve seen so many of these things in one place before. We thought they were probably natural, or mainly natural, but, to be fair, I have no idea. If anybody has any views about this group of rocks, and whether or not this is the hand of man, I’d be more than interested to hear.

We also had a look for some millstones which Brian had found hereabout on an earlier visit, but we found none, and, later decided that the outcrop with the milstones was a bit further along the contour.
We returned via Flushmere – which has lots of hushes and holes and bell pits and spoil heaps as it happens, and Broadley Gate farm which doesn’t.
The first trip was about 9 miles and this one was about 6…
Distant bells, new mown grass smells soo  sweet…  (stoppit)
Is this the summer? Will it last till summer, or will winter be back next week?

Tunstall Again and FP176 Trubbles

There were nineteen of us (nananana nineteen) on Saturday afternoon’s six mile guided walk from Wolsingham to Tunstall and back. It was a nice, warm summer day and there were lots of new lambs in the fields and the curlew’s were curlewing and so on…  And we seem to have managed to attract one or two new walkers, so that was good too..

But Kathy, the steward, told me about some problems with a  path at Crook which she intended to use as a Health walk for one of the local villages (I think she said it was West Auckland, though I might be wrong) – and this path was one of my adopt-a-path paths and also one I’d used on a guided walk  a short while ago) – So, on Sunday, I went for a look.

A stile on Footpath 176 had indeed been barricaded off with barbed wire and the stile removed, AND the signpost altered so it no longer pointed in the direction of the path, and the gate replaced with a smaller one which was padlocked with (wait for it…) a  padlock.

Apparently, Kathy and her group had been approached by a woman from the farm up the field with the well-known phrase “Do you know you’re on private land?” (I don’t think she said “Can I help you?”. What she didn’t know, of course, was that Kathy is a Ranger  and knows all about definitive maps, their legal status, the responsibilities of landowners and the names of several friendly individuals in the rights of way office at County Hall.

So, I wasn’t all that surprised that the barbed wire had been clipped. However, this isn’t really good enough and, whilst the gate is easy to climb over, and the signpost was stroked back into position by me and a big lump of timber, the stile needs to go back.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one I think. Its a nice walk anyway, finishing as it does over Dowfold Hill which has really good long-distance views and a few of those squiggly brown countoury things.