Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Yesterday we spent the day walking in the Lake District. We'd camped over at the National Trust campsite in Great Langdale, which was quiet and almost empty (I expect the crowds will be turning up for New Year's Eve though) with only about 5 or 6 other tents on site. The morning dawned grey, but dry and not particularly cold. We set off to walk over Crinkle Crags (859m) at about 10:20am.


As we climbed up the (steep!) path passed Brown Howe up to Red Tarn (where we got 'meh'ed at by a local), the clouds began to look a bit thinner and we started to hope that there was a chance of some views after all.

Even so, I don't think either of us were quite prepared for this though...
Looking back to see Weatherlam and Swirl How rising out of the clouds.

Just the tops of Harrison Stickle and Pike O'Stickle were visible, so the top of the cloud layer was at about 690-700m. This is what is looks like on a clear day (photo taken on 4th October 2004).

Almost a White Christmas.

The Scafells

This was our view when we stopped for lunch on the highest crag on the Crinkles - we'd come up via the Bad Step. Although I know the Bad Step is not as bad as the name would make it out to be, it is something I've always avoided in the past, but decided to go and take another look. There was still a wobbly moment, but I hung on and, not looking down or thinking too much about the size of the ledge that the toes of my boots were on, I made it up.

Descending into the cloud as we came down The Band, back to the valley and home.

I took a LOT of photos, and this panorama video clip, although be warned, it isn't very good quality and is a bit sea sickness inducing as I couldn't turn round on top of the pile of stones I was balancing on very easily!!

Windy

Not me personally, but the weather!

The wind seems to have been a major feature of our weather lately, along with some clouds and rain. We had sort of planned to go away camping last weekend, but our usually apathy put paid to that and in the end it was probably just as well, I thought, as I lay awake in bed in the middle of the night listening to the howling gale outside.

We had gone camping a couple of weeks ago in the Lakes, with the idea of walking up on the Langdale Pikes but having nearly been blown over a dozen times when about half way up the hill, decided against it. This was then... That day, unfortunately, the batteries on Rob's windspeed monitor had given up the ghost, so we had no record of the actual windiness that forced us off the hill. It was probably slightly windier than Grasmore and definitely windier than Mam Tor (these are our previous 'very windy' experiences).

So, this Sunday we headed out for a walk around Dovestones reservoir (11.7miles) which is a local spot very popular on weekends and bank holidays as you can walk around for a couple of miles in the valley on the flat, but it is also possible to scramble up the hillside (if you don't mind steep slopes, rocks and a bit of slime and sheep poo at close proximity) to walk around the edge of the cliff-like edges overlooking the reservoir. We've been here loads, but it's still a nice place to come and blow the cobwebs away.

Blow is right, we measured a maximum windspeed of 51.2 mph up on the tops with an average blow around 20-30mph. These strength winds aren't enough to blow you over (unless perhaps you are a petite little thing, which I am not) but makes walking pretty hard work and I didn't want to get too close to the steep drop. I'm not scared of heights, but I am scared of hitting the ground at the bottom...

Wales Holiday

The first couple of days of our holiday proper were spent in North Wales, at Betws-Y-Coed, which is one of my favourite places. It has a nice campsite (the Riverside, open March till end of Oct), nice pub with outside seats and heaters, and lots of outdoor shops to browse.






















On Monday (while NOT AT WORK ha!) we caught the bus (with very friendly bus driver) to Capel Curig and walked back to Betws via Llyn Crafnant (always pretty) and The Grey Mare's Tail waterfall. The walk was 11,5 miles but not particularly hilly.


































We passed lots of old mine workings and relics of industrial days, all overgrown and reclaimed by nature. The men that worked in these places must have thought that their walls were so solid and the industry would last forever, and yet not so very long a time later, here I am wandering through their ruins looking at the plants and trees that have taken hold.

It always makes me wonder how long it would take for all the things we take for granted, like shopping centres, motorways and so on to disappear if the people did. I think I've seen too many films, as it's usually around this point that I start thinking about zombies and get scared... anyway back to Wales.

You can't really tell on this little picture, but the white blob on the left of the tree is a sheep that was taking a nap on a rock. So cute!!
















Saw lots of white welsh sheep and these two - which I think are Jacob sheep (although my sheep spotting talents are minimal to say the least.)

Holm Moss

Today we went for a walk around Holm Moss (11,5m). The walk starts from the 'Isle of Skye' Road between Oldham and Holmfirth - why it is called this I don't know but you certainly get to see a lot of sky.























The walk goes up Black Hill and we were amazed to see the new grass growing up there. Apparently the peat landscape isn't natural to the area but a result of over grazing by sheep and the harsh climate, so they sowed it with grass seed a few months back.

This is what it looked like about 2 years ago:























And this is what it looks like today:























Some difference, eh? I don't really know whether I like it with the green, it doesn't look quite right to me - but I suppose if that's what it's supposed to look like then that's ok, but I just have this feeling that it's one of those 'we've screwed something up, so we have to mend it' moments and in hindsight the best course of action would have been to leave well alone.



















The sheep took one look at us and went careering down the hillside at full tilt in a very alarming manner, but they made it down in one piece thankfully - well, three pieces.

A tranquil scene at the bottom of the valley - and my feet were much better today in my boots, which I was very glad to be wearing as a stomped through the bogs while Rob was having to pick his way carefully to stop his trainers getting wet. Ha ha :)

Ooh me feet!

I made a slight error in judgement during a visit to my sister's last weekend. As we were leaving, I called to my nephew to give his auntie a goodbye kiss, forgetting that my sister had informed me earlier that they were getting over colds and it was too late to back out by the time his snotty little face and plastered itself all over mine. Nice. Not. Bleugh. Needless to say, three days later I started with a sore throat, the voice went completely over the weekend and now it is coming back but I still sound like Janet Ellis.



















On Saturday, we decided that some fresh air was needed and headed out on to the hills not too far from here, following the Pennine Way across the M62 at Windy Hill bridge (by the big aerial on the tops by Jcn22 if anyone knows the area) up to the Aiggen Stone,
round the reservoirs overlooking Todmorden and back. It was a lovely day (although there were some ominous looking clouds further north for a while) although slightly spoiled by having to walk the last hour or so in almost agony because of stupid blisters on my stupid feet. Managed to put some tape on them before they caused any real damage, but it was really really slow and uncomfortable hobble back to the car. Today's Lesson: put the tape on BEFORE your feet start hurting.

Some sheep, because it's been a while.


















We were very lucky with the weather over the weekend, it is very unusual for Manchester to seem to have the best of it. And the day was rounded off by a spectacular sunset.

Peak District

On Saturday we drove over to Bakewell to meet up with my Dad and step-Mum who had brought their caravan up to the Peaks for a few days.

We got a guidebook of walks in the area from the tourist information office and set off for a nice three mile walk up to the Nine Ladies Stones, the four of us and dogs Holly and Ben. There were some interesting things along the way, such as a protest camp / squat in the woods where the council want to reopen a quarry, they had rope ladders, rope bridges and everything. We didn't see any eco-warriors, but they could have been hiding out in their amazing (but rather unsafe) looking tree houses. Also encountered on the way were some rather anxious cows, one of whom took an obvious dislike to Holly and Ben, thankfully there was enough room around the edge of the field for us to skirt around and there was a fence which looked easily climbable in the event of an emergency.




















After a couple of hours of walking, it became obvious that the walk wasn't three miles long - it was actually 5,2 miles and quite hilly - but everyone coped and later, over a nice cup of tea, declared it had been a good outing although I thought the Nine Ladies were a bit of an anti-climax - Avebury and Castlerigg it is not... I didn't take a picture of the stones as there were lots of people sitting on them.

Helvellyn

We decided to go camping in the Lake District this weekend, to get us out of the house, try out the new tent and do some walking. We were shocked to discover our newly found ‘quiet’ campsite was full! It’s not the biggest place in the world and these days tents seem to be huge palatial mansions – well, other people’s tents do anyway, if our current trend in tent purchasing continues we’ll be in bivvy bags next. So there was 20 minutes or so mild panic while we tried other sites. Thankfully the Bridge End Farm site had opened up another field for the summer season so there was plenty of room there - if quite a long walk to the shower block!

Saturday we walked up Helvellyn (950m), via Stake Pass and Lower Man.




























Some sheepses enjoying the summer.









Not many takers for the ski lifts!







The weather was hazy and pretty warm, quite windy at the top, with gusts up to 31.5mph that we measured and it started raining while we were coming back down to Thirlmere, but we were mostly under the trees at this point so it wasn’t too bad. Arrived back at site just in time to enjoy the final moments of the England cricket team whooping Pakistan and then we went for tea down the pub.

On Sunday we did some shopping in Keswick – bought some Smartwool merino socks and insect bite cream (!) and had brunch in the Wild Strawberry Café which was very nice.

Blencathra

The weather forecast said it would be cooler this weekend, which as far as I am concerned is much better weather to be having than that of late and we decided to head out onto the hills of the Lake District. On Saturday we walked up Blencathra (868m) and down the other side (10.5miles) and then to the pub for tea. It most certainly was colder, hood and even gloves were required at the top.
















On the way back, we passed a field with some llamas.
















Posing for the camera: llamas know they're cute.

Out and About

Last weekend was amazing. After the previous weekend of knackering myself out and having campsite issues I had declared that we were staying in and avoiding people. However, on Thursday night we wandered up to our local for dinner and a few pints and both confessed that we'd been thinking how nice it would be to go camping and that we ought to get back on that horse.

So we decided on the North Lakes as it would hopefully be a little quieter than the central area around Ambleside and picked a campsite that was new to us having been told that they weren't full but we would be 'up on the hill'. Up on the hill is a very accurate description. There was a small carpark, a toilet block and a few statics there - and a flat area the size of a postage stamp with dozens of caravans and big tents crammed on. The rest of the site would have been enormous had it been stretched out and laid out flat, but as it was a one in two slope with a few little flat ledges dotted around there was actually only about 6 or 7 decent pitches in the entire place. We could have pitched up near to someone else's space as theoretically there was room, but given that I would have had a hissy fit if someone had done that to me and it was still early evening, we decided to try our luck elsewhere.

Luckily, our Good Lucky Fairy had decided to join us for the weekend and we found a dead nice (and quiet) campsite that isn't on the map. It was by a river and on both evenings we got to see lots of bats flying around unbelieveably close to us. There were also some ducks, chickens, some cute little dogs and a big dog that cocked his leg on our tent but I screeched at him so he ran away, but the bats were by far the most interesting.
We had a lovely walk (about 10 miles) on Saturday around Derwentwater and back over Catbells (451m), a dead nice pub that served cheap beer and scrummy food and on Sunday I purchased lots of shiny new kit. Including a new spork for my collection!


Buy that Luck Fairy a beer!

Bank Holiday Weekend

Wales had been calling to me lately. So we went. Unfortunately we went on a Bank Holiday weekend. But it wasn't all bad. We had nice evening at the Stables in Betws-Y-Coed under their umbrellas, which had heaters during the warm afternoon and then switched off as the evening turned cooler, I got pushed out of my seat by a Norwegian but the scampi was nice and the beer went down well.

It was quite amazing on Saturday to see the hoardes of walkers getting off the buses at Pen-Y-Pass to go up Snowdon. There were people everywhere. Thankfully we were going the other way, to walk from Nant Gywnant back to Betws (15.5 miles) over Moel Siabod (872m) - in other words, bloody knackering.
















Looking back towards Llyn Gwynant with Snowdon topped in cloud in the distance. Just imagining the crowds at the top makes me shudder. We saw seven people all day while out on the tops, a family of three in the distance, a couple of blokes who were ahead of us during the slog up Moel Siabod and a (french?) couple who asked us to take a photo of them at the top.
















A bog! This just about sums up most of the first half of the walk.












And a welsh windswept sheep.

We tried a new campsite, which I think would be ok at any time other than a Bank Holiday, but then at any other time, the Riverside would be a little quieter too (I was quite surprised that there were any spaces left when we arrived on Saturday afternoon) and it's a much nicer site, so I don't know that we'll ever use this one again. The 'Site Full' sign went up on Saturday evening and the number of people on site was reasonable, but we ended up coming home early because of ignorant, rude people who arrived on Sunday, having no idea about being considerate towards others and put their tent up between our car and tent where there wasn't even enough space for them to pitch their tent straight, let alone put any guys in. I feel that we kind of let them win by leaving, but I really didn't want to spend the night knowing they were within 3 feet of me. So Rob drove us home and I slept till 10am in my own bed. Hurrah!

Holiday reminiscing (Dolomites)

In between all this knitting there have been a couple of holidays.
We went snow shoeing in the Dolomites in March which was great, although it was knackering and the flight times were slightly inconvenient.The pic below was taken on the last walking day, up on a plateau which was the scene of fighting during WW2. We were warned to not stray from the path for fear of falling in trenches! Rob is one of those little trugers... I was lagging behind to take the photo!