Category: Europe
Not as roundabout a trot as I thought
25th December 2014 Hope and Edale are adjacent stops on the Hope Valley railway line that links Sheffield with Stockport and Manchester. As it happens, the expression "Hope Valley" is incongruous since the word "hope" once meant valley anyway. It is a collision caused by none other by the evolution of language and we need to live with that, a mere trifle in comparison with some of the trials of life.
Thinking back to 2013 makes this an apt thought since my mother's passing away in March still left me prone to its aftershocks for many months afterwards. It was if a newer and rawer life had begun and I needed to find my own place in it without someone who always had been there up to that point. Making my way through that period was the cause of drawing me out on evening walks in Macclesfield's Riverside Park and further afield to the hill country near Hayfield, Glossop and Bakewell as well as that between Macclesfield and Buxton.
The Peak District was becoming the setting for quieter moments and a Saturday morning trip to Hope's train station stayed with that narrative. Another motivation was the idea of improving on a photo of Edale that I had made on the August bank holiday in 2001, with my first-ever SLR (a Canon EOS 300) after a week spent gallivanting around Scotland that took me to Edinburgh, Fort William, Skye, Mallaig, Glenfinnan, Oban and Mull. There also was another hike that started on a rainy September Sunday in Hope before I took to reaching the top of Win Hill and blundering across heather to reach a track that took me towards my final destination of Edale. As ever, there were photos made then too and a chance to better them would have been a bonus too. That was all for there was a trot made on a Saturday in November of either 2004 or 2005 (my memory has grown hazy on this) that saw me up head by Grindsbrook Clough, round the edge of Kinder Scout and then down to Edale again via the Pennine Way.
For my June 2013 walk, I ended up both assembling those and varying the result too. Instead of a damp Hope station, I got a sun-blessed one and, aside from periods where clouds got in the way as they always can do, that was the weather theme for the day. Once I had passed Aston, it was sweaty work on the way up to Win Hill via Top Plantation before I followed a handy concessionary and loping track down from it in preference to the blundering on that Sunday of improving weather over a decade ago. Not only were there views towards Lose Hill and the Great Ridge, but Ladybower Reservoir was there to be surveyed too.
My way towards Kinder Scout took me over Thornhill Brink and Hope Brink before I found the line of an old Roman road, one of a few that go through the area. The one I met appeared to be a favourite for groups of young people undertaking the Duke of Edinburgh Award, or at least that's how it looked to me. There were other walkers too and more were out on mountain bikes and the weather had lured us all out of doors.
All of those were left after me for an informal path through access land that took me up Crookstone Hill onto Crookstone Out Moor, part of Kinder Scout. As I followed the southern edge of that, the line of the Great Ridge rolled by me as did named sections and outcrops. Ringing Roger was among the more well known of those that I passed, but it appears that every twist and turn of that edge gets a name, with ones like Upper Tor, Nether Tor, Upper Moor, Rowland Cote Moor and Golden Clough all appearing on an OS map.
They were all passed before I reached the top of Grindsbrook Clough. Though I had come up that way once before, I didn't fancy how steep the initial descent appeared, so another course was taken, one that even involved an ascent: Grindslow Knoll. Using my right to roam, I went for as gentle a line off it as I could though there was a final sting in the tail as I ventured onto a concessionary path that dropped onto a stretch of the Pennine Way on the final approach to Edale. Though my surroundings were alluring, the prospect of a nearing train spurred me onto the train station where I gained some moments to look towards Mam Tor from a platform with more folk than you'd expect for the location. Clearly, others were inspired by the weather to go exploring too, though there was so much space for all of us that we hardly got in each other's way and I gained my own much-needed stretches of quite solace. That and the photos that were made had become enough to make the journey home a contented one.
Travel arrangements:
Outbound train journey to Hope with a change at Manchester Piccadilly and a truncated reverse of the same, from Edale.
A possible project milestone
18th November 2014 This past summer has been one that has seen me revisit the Lake District after a gap of more than four years. In fact, there was more than one weekend visit too and the first of these could not have enjoyed better weather. The source of my attention was Buttermere, a valley that I have overlooked for far too long since my first visit there over a decade ago. Though I played with the idea of going over Seat, High Crag, High Stile and Red Pike in a single push, I saw sense and stuck with Haystacks instead. The next object of my explorations was Patterdale from where I trotted over St. Sunday Crag and continued to Grasmere via Grisedale Tarn. For at least two weekends on the trot, this part of Cumbria defied predicted weather doom with the second offering up a sultry opening that got me engaging in more rocky fell walking. The last outing was tamer following a delayed departure and took in Orrest Head and Loughrigg Fell before the evening grew greyer and damper.
All of this allowed me to capture a number of photos and that partially was the cause of me getting out and about in the first place with the YHA helping by having spaces in their hostels in the right places at the right times that I could uncover on their website. It was the quest for a better photo of Fleetwith Pike with Buttermere in front of it that drew me there in the first place and there was no disappointment, especially with a late summer evening spent in fading light with the only perturbation of a quiet valley being the tumbling waters of a gill. It was memorable bliss.
My St. Sunday Crag outing granted its share of photographic opportunities too with Ullswater and the fells about Helvellyn attracting my notice. However, my third excursions saw an envisaged photo of Grasmere denied by advancing cloud so that is one that could need repeating, and any excuse will do a hill wanderer when it comes to revisiting a pleasing location.
There are other possibilities, of course, with recent films made by Terry Abraham with Mark Richards and Chris Townsend drawing new things to my notice. An actual ascent of Helvellyn from Wythburn could become a reality yet as could a similar escapade to the top of Great Gable. The latter stunned me when I glimpsed it from Haystacks, and it looks manageable from Seathwaite too. In many ways, I am beginning to wonder if it is that little bit easier to get to the Lakeland fells than it is to their counterparts in north-west Wales. A recent promise of good weather around Anglesey and Snowdonia brought home to me how low my stock of trip ideas for those places is. Replenishment is ongoing.
One thing that might help with that is a perusal of my online Snowdonia photo album because it has been doing the same for its Lakeland counterpart that partly inspired me to return to Cumbria again year. In fact, a good number of photos from the past summer have found their way into the Lake District album during an overhaul that it received. That did take a share of time to do between selecting and processing photos as well as writing some descriptive text to go with them. Not unexpectedly, the time spent doing that took away from writing stuff on here so here is a list of the photos that I now have in this album (entry links to an actual photo too):
Looking towards Langdale Pikes from Orrest Head, Windermere
Red Screes & Wansfell Pike as seen from Orrest Head, Windermere
Caudale Moor & Thornthwaite Crag as seen from Orrest Head, Windermere
Looking towards Helvellyn from Place Fell, Patterdale
Looking towards Blencathra from Place Fell, Patterdale
Ullswater from Thornhow End, Patterdale
Helvellyn & Striding Edge, Glenridding
Dollywaggon Pike & Grisedale Tarn, Grasmere
Looking along Tongue Gill towards Grisedale Hause, Grasmere
High Pike, Low Pike & Red Screes as seen from Loughrigg Fell, Ambleside
Low Pike and High Pike, Ambleside
Great Gable as seen from Haystacks, Buttermere
Looking north from Scarth Gap, Buttermere
Fleetwith Pike & Warnscale, Buttermere
Whiteless Pike & Grasmoor, Buttermere
High Stile & High Crag, Buttermere
High Stile & Red Pike, Buttermere
Scales, Mellbreak & Crummock Water, Buttermere
Clough Head from Jenkin Hill, Keswick
Skiddaw as seen from Little Man, Keswick
Some of the above dates from I used to use film cameras and I fancy bettering the efforts on another visit, but digital photos dominate the album now that I finally caught up with various efforts from as long ago as 2007. Then, film photography was my mainstay and I only pulled out the Canon EOS 10D DSLR I had for making some photos for trip reports. The arrival of a Pentax K10D changed all of that, and I hardly use any film at all now. It wasn't the 2014 photos that took the time but the backlog from previous years too, along with enlargements of older photos originally captured on film. Hopefully, I will keep the album more alive from now on to avoid a backlog like this in the future because another hope of mine would be to keep visiting this wonderful corner of England. If anything, those excursions might be opportunities to correct any misimpressions that I may have as much as seeing new sights and improving on older photographic efforts.
Fitness
14th November 2014 Earlier in the year, I had grand designs on a return to cycling after a break of nearly two years. What scuppered the plan was a lack of road cycling confidence that extended beyond not wanting to go pell-mell down hills, which always was the case. Saying that, I have managed a few circuits from my home that took in Bollington, but that is a far cry from daily commuting or travelling as far as the likes of Tatton Park near Knutsford or Lyme Park near Disley. What really is beyond me at the moment is an epic that takes me as far as Northwich or Chester.
Still, there has been a circuit from home that took in Gawsworth during March, as well as a bimble up and down Longdendale in May. Both of those tried out the fold-up Dahon that I got last January, so I am not done with cycling completely. In fact, Sunday saw me go around by Bollington on a short cycle that substituted for an aborted planned trot from the Cat and Fiddle Inn back home via Shutlingsloe. That was on a B'TWIN commuting bike that replaced the mountain bike that did day to day road travel duties for more than eleven years. The new one came to me from Decathlon in April and is a very nice machine with 24-speed gearing and lights powered by dynamos on the wheels. It has mudguards (a remarkable rarity these days) and a carrier too, so it is the type of bike that my parents might have fancied in their time. It certainly reminds me of a three-speed example arising from the same well of inspiration that I had in Ireland once upon a time.
Though I no longer trust its brakes, the mountain bike has not retired either. However, its role is very different from the one it used to have, and the cause fits in with the title of this entry too. For years, its commuting duties kept me more trim than I otherwise might have been with round trips of around fifteen miles a day, if not more. However, these had an Achilles heel in that I was put off cycling to and from work on wet days by a soaking on the way to work early on in my career. That was on a road bike whose gearing self-destructed and caused the acquisition of the mountain bike in 2002. Before then, it had served me well around Edinburgh and Skipton and around Cheshire too as well as on a single incursion into Derbyshire that set me on the road to hill walking in August 2000; it took me from Macclesfield to Buxton by way of the A537, possibly the highest that I ever have gone on a bike.
Dark evenings are not such an issue around Edinburgh but pose a different challenge on country A-roads. The result was that my commuting left the bike aside for the darker times of year and was taken up in earnest during drier spells on longer days. It meant that the benefits were not to be felt year round as they probably should to ward off any middle age spread.
What brought all this to mind was the fit of a new pair of trousers during the past summer; it started me wondering if I was beginning to need the next waist size up, and I baulked at the idea. That was enough to spur me into a kind of action. Walking was all very fine, but it was not bringing my level of activity back up to where it once was. My remedy was the acquisition of a B'Twin bike trainer, again from Decathlon. The mountain bike was attached to this, and I began to ease into spending some time on it. However, it probably is not the best of arrangements for silent running even after changing the back tyre to a quieter one; putting gaffer tape over the original might have made more sense, for I am not buying another bike for this job.
Ten minutes on the thing were quite enough at the start, such was my lack of fitness. Since then, the sessions have grown longer, and they are around the half hour mark these days. To some, that prospect would seem very dull, and it was the same for a younger me. A spot of reading of magazines balanced on the handlebar is enough to address any sense of impatience, though. Anything that helps me to spend time sorting my fitness has to be a good thing, and I always reproach myself for reading nearly as much as I could anyway.
So far, there have been results and I reckon that I feel fitter, though I'd rather have lost more flab than I have, so that's enough encouragement to continue. That it has given me a spurt of exploring hill country is another bonus because it did feel as if I were restricting myself to lower heights, as nice as they are. The summer weather we had this year helped too, despite it being at times a little hotter for walking than is ideal.
Nevertheless, I was lured out to places like Buttermere, Ullswater, St. Sunday Crag, Grasmere, Loughrigg Fell and Orrest Head during a good few Cumbrian excursions. Welsh locations like Ysgyryd Fawr, Sugar Load and Gower also saw me, as did Loch Etive and Mull in Scotland. Maybe I felt it was time that I got back into hill wandering ways while my fitness was improving. On its own, the subject never really got me excited because I suppose that the world of competitive sport felt a little sterile to me. It actually took outdoors explorations to get me walking through hill country, instead of looking in on it as if it were some niche sporting interest. It only was when I got to see hillwalking as a way to get into special quiet places with an attractive quiet spirit of their own that I really took to the activity. Being somewhere unique when ravishing light falls upon it has led to many happy memories, too. Fitness is not for boasting but is a means to an end, a way of ensuring that hill country visits can continue, and I keep adding to those soothing recollections.
Thoughts of Killarney
11th November 2014 Earlier in the year, I was surprised to see a book on Killarney National Park featured in an issue of Outdoor Photography. It was Norman McCloskey's Parklight. Though some of the images chosen by the magazine were not entirely to my taste, I still ordered a copy of the book for my inspection and there are photos in there that are more to my taste so it was a delightful acquisition. Deservedly, it got airtime on RTÉ Radio 1 in the home country of it's Limerick born author so I hope it has had an audience for the gems found between its covers.
In fact, it brought back memories of day trips to Killarney made with my parents when they still were able to do such things. the last of these was on a scorching Sunday near the end of May in 2010. That had us revisiting delights such as Moll's Gap, Lady's View, Muckross Park and other familiar haunts. Looking back on it now, it was fortunate that the day came that the course that life has taken since then meant that such things are less thinkable than they were in those days.
During two decades of visits, there were a multitude of visits to the aforementioned spots but that was not all. There was a mad car ride (in the family Nissan Sunny no less!) on the gravel track through the Black Valley and the Gap of Dunloe in the heel of an evening while the jarveys were calling it a day. That was not all there was on that day for it was a long drive that was undertaken and cows needed milking after we got home. We celebrated our parents' fortieth wedding anniversary with a boat trip on Lough Leane that started and ended at Ross Castle; the golden wedding anniversary sadly was beset by my father's ever increasing frailty. Torc Waterfall was visited of a greyer and damper day but was none the worse for that and there have been many, many more.
Nowadays, gallivanting as far as Killarney or other beauty spots in Ireland's south western corner have to be put on hold but McCloskey's book got me dreaming a little of the hospitalities offered by a short hotel stay in the town. Ross Castle and Muckross Park are near at hand so old haunts could be retraced. Not having to worry about the patience of a parent not so interested in walking would be liberating too so trots as far as the Meeting of the Waters. Passing Torc Waterfall to follow the Kerry Way out around Torc Mountain and others surrounding it, such as Mangerton. Of course, there would be more than this near Ireland's highest mountains, MacGillycuddy's Reeks. For now, these are dreams in search of an opportunity but no one has excursions without there being ideas beforehand so that never is a bad situation.
News of Walking World Ireland
10th November 2014 Everyone can have a hiatus and there has been a long one on here for entries like this one. In my case, it is not as if I have been away from hillwalking. As it happens, I have had more trouble motivating myself to write stuff on here than getting out among hills and there is a growing list of Trip Reports to Come too. What has happened is that procrastination has got in the way of my getting those additional outings shared and it gets worse as the list grows longer. In addition, an old bike of mine has found its way onto rollers in an effort to increase fitness and reduce flab. The former has been a success so far and the latter needs more in the way of effort so the bike trainer will not be left to gather dust like another road bike that I acquired in April but that was taken out on a short cycle between Macclesfield and Buxton yesterday.
The inspiration for this post though is an email that I unexpectedly received from the publisher and editor of a walking magazine that I thought was defunct: Walking World Ireland. My impressions led me to join Mountaineering Ireland to received its journal, Irish Mountain Log, as a substitute. However plans are afoot to get Walking World Ireland back on newsagent shelves again, albeit under a new guise of Mountain World Ireland. Here is the text of that email:
An apology and announcement to readers of Walking World Ireland
From November 28th:
Walking World Ireland will become Mountain World Ireland
As a subscriber to Walking World Ireland, you'll have noticed that the magazine has not been published for almost a year now - since the 2014 Annual.
As editor and publisher I want to apologise sincerely for this. We value every reader very highly, and it was only after a prolonged period of business difficulties that the decision to suspend publication was made. Since that moment it has been my clear hope and intention to return WWI to the shelves as soon as possible.
The reason I'm contacting you today is to let you know that the magazine is indeed making a comeback. I'm delighted to be able to say that, and I hope it will also come as good news to you.
From next month, Walking World Ireland will resume publication as Mountain World Ireland. It's a small change, reflecting a slight but exciting change in emphasis - largely the result of the countless conversations I've had with readers over recent months.
Mountain World Ireland will remain at its core a hillwalking magazine, celebrating, as ever, the beauty of Ireland's mountain landscapes and the pleasures and challenges they offer. But more, it will celebrate the wider world of mountain sports - the people and activities that inspire us as lovers of high places.
I hope and trust that this rebirth will meet with your approval, and will continue to inform, entertain and inspire you as WWI did. I want to thank all of you for the patience you have shown, and for the many, many expressions of support we have received from readers and subscribers. I hope to hear from you again with any comments you may have on our future direction. Anything, in fact, that you have to say.
Finally, I want to assure all of you with unfulfilled subscriptions that we will honour all our outstanding commitments, and if you're unsure where your subscription stands, do contact me at [email protected] or on +353 (0)86 805 4590.
Sincerely
Conor O’Hagan
Editor
Copyright © 2014 Mountain World Ireland, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have previously subscribed to Walking World Ireland
Our mailing address is:
Mountain World Ireland
10 Kickham Road
Kilmainham
Dublin,
Ireland
Some of the sentiments sound familiar so I will wait and see what becomes of these plans. An improving economic situation may help the new venture so I wish it well while intending to savour what is on offer. If anything, the WWI offer had gone a little repetitive so a refresh was needed anyway and a break often can make for a good reboot as has been seen with many a movie franchise. My Irish travel horizons may have been narrowed by life events over there in recent years but there may be a chance to do some explorations of my own yet.
As for the future of this outpost, I hope to get more trip reports shared and the summers of 2013 and 2014 came good enough to lure me out and about on welcome and much needed escapades. Usual haunts like the Scottish Highlands, the Lake District and the Peak District saw incursions along the Gower, Monmouthshire, Yorkshire and Northumberland. The perceived need for better photos drove quite a lot of these and the Lake District photo album is being rebuilt at the moment too. Also, there may have been visits to other places too and there are musings that I wish to mull over on here too once procrastination has been banished.
