Category: Europe
A look back at 2008 Part 3: Beyond Midsummer
17th January 2009 Midsummer in 2008 might have been a time when I felt that the year had peaked, and the encroachment of unsettled weather may have had something to do with that view. Certainly, the year will not be remembered for having a sunny summer and many were disappointed, even if it did have its better interludes.
Personally, I reckon that it's best to try and enjoy what is visited upon us at any time of year, and seem to have come to the conclusion that the traditional summer holiday season is overrated. There may be more hours of daylight but, if the days get too hot, it may be worth sticking to the cooler parts of the day and that reduces the amount of time available for wandering through the countryside anyway, perhaps restricting the time available until it is not that much different from spring or autumn anyway.
Even with the feeling that the second half of a year feels like an anticlimax after the first, I continued to get out into attractive countryside. I found hot sunny weather in July, was extremely lucky with my visits to Scotland in August, had an easier September and October before taking advantage of numerous wonderful opportunities in November and December. There was much to behold, so here are a few recollections of it all.
July
In walking terms, July was another fallow month, with a sun scorched saunter along the Offa's Dyke Path near Welshpool at the end of the month being the main trip of note. Otherwise, time limited by other activities ensure that most of my major outdoor activity was to be cycling rather than walking. The month's mixture of weather contributed too, but I was feeling that the best of the year had passed by this time anyway, and began to wonder if the timing of the school holidays was more than a little nonsensical. I also got to mull over island wandering as a possibility for my now habitual longer Scottish walking break. My few hours on Kerrera in May may have had something to do with this inspiration coming upon me, and I felt the need for a longer break anyhow.
August
The main even in August was that island hopping trip to Skye and the Western Isles. Though, anyone surveying the weather and the weather forecast on the eve of the trip might have questioned my sanity for even considering what I was about to undertake. In the event, I struck the jackpot: while other parts of the U.K. and Ireland were getting a soaking, I managed to find wonderful sunshine and avoid those downpours. That was thanks to the belt of rain getting stuck across the north of England and the south of Scotland. Harris was to prove the highlight of the week, without Skye failing to satisfy or the peace of the Uists being forgettable. However, it does need to be said that South Uist felt a little like an anti-climax after Harris, so it might be best to journey in the northbound direction on any future visit. A social visit to Edinburgh followed, but I still got in a few hours among the Pentland Hills, an area that I surprisingly ignored when I lived up there in that city.
September & October
September and October turned out to be pivotal months for many reasons, the economic situation in the wider world being one of them. For me, it was a period lacking in longer walking excursions, but shortening days meant that walks at lunchtimes started to take over from evening cycles.
Another trip to Ireland in September allowed me to spend a few sunny hours around Gougane Barra. Even though I felt unable to add a fuller narrative for that trip, the photos found their way into the photo gallery very quickly.
Alongside this, the realities of writing a longer trip away were made plain to me as producing reports for my Hebridean trip began to take eat up their share of time. It wasn't just the writing that slowed progress, since choosing and processing the photos to be included as part of the descriptions nearly were more rate limiting than the actual writing itself. That experience had been happening throughout the year, but it really came to a head with the larger block of writing.
Staying with the subject of lessons learned, I started to cast more of a critical eye on the focus of the blog and came to the conclusion that much of the musings on public transport really belonged elsewhere. In time, another blog was spawned for that, but travel matters relevant to the exploring of wonderful countryside will continue to make their appearance here. In time, any old posting falling outside of this might get moved elsewhere as part of continued content reshaping, yet I'll leave things as they are for now.
November
November saw me re-emerge into areas well populated by hills again. The first of two trips to Cumbria saw me embark on an out and back trek from Windermere's train station to Yoke. I had gone north with a few ideas in mind, and this proved to be just as well when public transport and the available daylight constrained my ambitions a little. Neither did anything to spoil my enjoyment of the day.
A miscalculation on the following weekend had me walking from Ardlui to Butterbridge a day too early for good weather to do its magic on the landscape. In some respects, the hike echoed my February outing to the area in that showers got going to make things feel unpleasant as I descended towards the end of my walk. I may not have seen the countryside in its best light, but plans for potential excursions came to mind, and they may compensate for this at some suitable juncture in the future.
Dullness of a drier variety was set to dominate my walk from Ambleside to the top of Red Screes and back the next weekend. Some sunshine managed to escape from its cloudy prison towards the end of the walk, yet the intense cold remains in mind, particularly since the turning on of Ambleside's Christmas lights delayed my journey home.
December
December may be considered by meteorologists to be the start of winter, but my walking was not about to go into hibernation, especially with the possibility of sampling some snow. So, the first Saturday of the month saw me return to the Howgill Fells after the briefest of visits a few years earlier. The snow that I met got me wondering about winter skills and such like, but the experience was one not to be missed. The day after had me out exploring Macclesfield's hills with an out and back hike from my own doorstep. I might have been trampling familiar ground, but there were some new sides to be seen too.
A trip to Ireland for Christmas and New didn't stop my walking either, even if road walking took up the most of what I was doing. Nevertheless, I got to get off-road to explore around Springfield Castle near Broadford in County Limerick and even got to sample a little piece of the Dingle peninsula around Camp and Castlegregory in Kerry.
Sunshine enlivened both walks, but that part of Kerry was frequented by a biting wind while we were there; nevertheless, it didn't stop me wandering a little way along a track (used by a tractor to get winter feeding to livestock by appearance of things) through the dunes at Maherabeg (Machaire Beag in Irish) in the late evening sunshine, at least shadowing the Dingle Way if not actually following it. That brought a year packed full of walking trips and opportunities to a delightful close. 2009 awaits.
A look back at 2008 Part 2: Until Midsummer
16th January 2009 While 2009 has yet to see its first proper hill outing of the year for me, I have to say that anyone who doesn't make the most of the first half of any year is missing out on something special. It is nice to think that everything is on the up and your next outing could be more wonderful than the last. You are less likely to be overrun by hoards too, and there's much to admire, from the skeletal forms of the trees to the way that fine landscape is enlivened by the gentler light. I can see some being put out by such things as the shortness of the days or the lingering feel of winter, but I see wonder in these too, and it allows one to be ready for the annual crescendo that is April, May and even June. After that, I feel that the year passes its peak and regard the traditional summer holiday months of July and August as being ill-timed, but that means that we are more likely to have things to ourselves, never a bad thing. Here's how the first half of 2008 fared.
January
Casting my mind back to January, I remember expressing an inclination to stay home when the weather wasn't so inviting. Something that had been a tactical device for ensuring that necessary life chores got done had developed a less than desirable side effect: being too choosy about when to go walking among those wonderful hills. A sunny Sunday at the start of the month drew me out on a cycle between Macclesfield and Leek, with a diversion round by the Roaches on the way back. It was a good start to the year and I followed it up by strengthening my resolve to head to Leek for a circular walk through Staffordshire's muddy moorlands (encountering clay was rather apt given the county's fame for pottery production) that took me over Hen Cloud. The need for inner strength was prompted by the greyness of skies earlier in the day, but that soon evaporated to uncloak blue skies and unleash the sun to do its magic, a sort of reward for my endeavours.
February
That "get out there regardless of everything but personal safety and other much more important things" mentality was to serve me well in February. When a dusting of snow presented itself, I was off to Northumberland to explore more of the hills near Wooler. There was an ample coating of powder dry snow about, and that both enlivened the views and brought out a little of the inner child in mind as I bobbed downhill on my return to Wooler. The middle of the month saw that replaced by a settle spell of glorious if nippy weather that allowed me to narrow the gap between Haworth and Gargrave in my Pennine Way hiking project. In line with the "bag-of-nails" approach that I have been adapting, a southbound walk from Gargrave to Lothersdale came first, followed by a northbound hike from Haworth to Ickornshaw. The narrow gap between Ickornshaw and Lothersdale remains a possible irritation, but it's also another excuse to revisit those parts, even if public footpath signposting isn't what it might be. The end of the month saw me undertake my visit outing of the year in Scotland, with a ramble through the countryside by Tarbet and Arrochar. I needed my new-found resolve as the showers started to gang up on me with the ageing of the day; it was certainly good weather for any frogs that I saw.
March
In contrast to February, March was a much quieter month when it came to exploring the outdoors. A heavy flu was partly to blame for that, yet I felt a need to clear out some physical and mental clutter too, an activity that kept me busy over the early and white Easter. The latter fact should have drawn me out because a good walk is often good for garbage clearance, but I ended up looking out at the Maxonian (that's to Macclesfield what Mancunian is to Manchester) hills instead.
April
April's two excursions mean that I was among hills instead of looking at them from afar. The first of these saw me traipse along part of the Offa's Dyke Path near Knighton on a day that had me frequenting both Powys in Wales and Shropshire in England. I even dropped in on Church Stretton on the way home for a short sortie that preceded a heavy shower. Another weekend trip to Scotland followed with my exploring around the villages of Glencoe and Kinlochleven. The weather couldn't have been better and snow still lay on the mountain tops though I remained at lower levels. On the way home, I began to feel that I had seen enough of the pervading browns of the hills for one sitting.
May
May made another good month for wandering through open hill country, and its being topped and tailed by bank holidays surely helped. The first of these saw me exploring Teesdale on a grey if dry day, with the sun struggling to make any headway through the cloud cover. Even so, I got taken along another part of the Pennine Way, and it made for a good day out. The next day was a damp affair, so my next trip took advantage of the fact that normal weekday train services run on a bank holiday to get to Bethesda in North Wales for what turned out to be a linear hike to Bangor by way of the foothills of the Carneddau and the North Wales Path. Cloud broke to release the sun, even if sea fog somewhat curtailed the sunshine later on in my walk. Another Welsh outing followed, with my planned walk near Dolwyddelan being displaced by an out and back hike from Dolgarrog to Llyn Eigiau due to transport misinformation. It didn't matter because a good day of walking followed anyway. Scotland surprised me with perfect weather for the second bank holiday weekend of the month, so much so that I was barely ready to take full advantage of what was on offer, and I left for home with a certain amount of regret. That's not to say that a good tramp from Inverarnan to Dalmally or a few hours spent on Kerrera wasted the time that I had, but I would have preferred more extensive planning than was done. If I had known what was ahead of me, I might have booked some time off from work and made a longer weekend of it. Having Monday would have avoided the bank holiday traffic and allowed for some very enjoyable walking too. Maybe the weather forecasters were so taken up by what was coming to England that they forgot Scotland...
June
June started well with a walk along the Cumbria Way through Langstrath on my way from Borrowdale into Great Langdale. Though I had glimpsed the Langdale Pikes from afar, this was to be my first visit to Great Langdale and, though clouds got to obscure the sun as the day wore on, a return to these wondrous parts remains in order. A primarily social visit to Ireland followed, with my only snatching short strolls on a visit to Killarney on a damp day. Nevertheless, the sight of Torc waterfall retained its appeal, and I was sorely tempted by the idea of going further along the Kerry Way.
A time for adding photos
11th January 2009 The greyness of the weekend did nothing to shift my inclination to stay put at home. To be honest, I was in that mood anyway and I could have made something of yesterday and today if I was so determined. January hasn't had a bad start and I did get in some lunchtime walking this past week and my surroundings looked ever so enticing with that dusting of snow that was gifted to us earlier in the week. The weather over the Christmas wasn't so unkind to us either, even if it did require us to wrap up warm when going out of doors. I was in Ireland for that and got some short walks too, even if that meant tarmac bashing for most of the time. Some sunshine was visited upon us when the grey gloom wasn't about and we ended up on the Dingle Peninsula for a few hours. That meant that a number of photos were made in the late afternoon sunshine and some of these have found their way into the Kerry section of the photo gallery. There are some photos taken on a brief visit to Dublin's Phoenix Park before Christmas that are candidates for addition too once I decide which ones make the cut. Thinking back over 2008, I think that it has one of the better years when it comes to my taking good photos in the land of my birth. For now, I can only hope that 2009 brings more of the same.
Revisiting the subject of Irish digital mapping
9th January 2009 If you were to ask me about digital mapping for the Irish Republic this time last year, you would have been told about OSi's Trail Master DVD's. They may not have covered the whole country but what they did was nothing to be derided. Perhaps unsurprisingly, things have changed a lot since then. For one thing, it is now possible to find all of OSi's 1:50000 Discovery mapping available for free on the web. I must admit that I came across it by accident and after I had used the "City" zoom level (yes, that's what they call it). The quality of the rendition may feel imperfect but it is hard to argue with there being no cost involved.
What brought this re-visitation about was the announcement before Christmas that Trail Master mapping was coming to GeoLives. Then, I didn't have the time to explore what this meant because of the pre-Christmas necessities but I have been able to set that to rights now that we are in 2009. For many, the mention of GeoLives might demand some explanation. Put at its simplest, it provides digital mapping much in the same way that Anquet and Mapyx do it: while you used to have to buy Trail Master DVD's from OSi previously, you can now download the same data and more from GeoLives.
There is more to GeoLives than Irish digital mapping and it features Belgian, Dutch, French and Swiss data too. In fact, the organisation is based in Luxembourg and was established last year as a collaboration between a provider of geographic data (STAR-APIC) and a specialist in internet applications (Géomatic Ingénierie). Of the countries whose data are included, it is for France, Switzerland and Éire that there is mapping most relevant to walkers.
Like Anquet and Mapyx, Windows-only software can be downloaded for working with any downloaded maps. For users of alternative operating systems like OS X and Linux (that's the one I mainly use at home), there is a web-based application for performing the same functions as the Windows application and there's nothing to stop your using it on Windows either. GeoLives calls the former the PC Editor and the latter its Web Editor. The reason for the use of the word "Editor" here is the inclusion of route planning capability in both and I can vouch for inclusion of place searching functionality too. I cannot say that I have been testing out the route planning pieces so far but they look similar to what you find with offerings from the main purveyors of British digital mapping. With the Web Editor, there is the possibility of sharing your routes with other GeoLives users.
A €15 tariff needs to be paid before you can get going with the service. Since I already owned Trail Master mapping, I could use my OSi login credentials and even had pre-acquired Trail Master data made available to me online without need for payment above and beyond the subscription.
Buying mapping works on the principle of using up credit that you have purchased beforehand; it's available in €10, €20 and €50 denominations. Then, you can buy maps by the tile or bundled in Supermaps. Even if you don't make any purchase, certain large scale maps come as part of the subscription but these are little use to the walker. Once tiles are bought, they become available through the web application and can also be downloaded too within 48 hours of an email containing the requisite link being sent to you. Downloading the data for offline use is something that I have found troublesome with time outages blighting the experience; the fact that we are talking large files here doesn't help matters, even if they are wonderfully crisp in their appearance. GeoLives would appear to have some way to go before the process becomes as painless and that with either Anquet or Mapyx. For now, it's just as well that there is the web application.
In summary, this is an interesting service that I hopefully will continue to explore. As I intimated earlier, I have yet to try out the route planning side of things and I would like to see data downloads become far more reliable than they currently are. Despite this, it could be that GeoLives becomes a purveyor of digital mapping for all of Europe and it seems to have made a good start. Let's hope that it continues to grow and to improve.
A winter wander from home to hills and back again
21st December 2008 After my sampling of the Howgills the day before, the continuing run of fine if very frosty weather had me out again. This time around, I stayed local and ventured into Macclesfield's hilly hinterland. In fact, my walk started and ended on my own doorstep, and that happens from time to time. Even though my memory of them was far from photographic, the trails followed were ones that I have often trodden, but that was never to dull the satisfaction from being in the outdoors, even if non-completion of pre-Christmas chores did nag a little at the back of my mind.
My first task was to make my way into the country, and I left the streets behind to follow the towpath beside part of a frozen Macclesfield Canal for a little while. As it happened, I met up with a collection of characters trying to do some fishing. One spotted my walking poles and commented, jokingly I think (well, one of those with him was laughing anyway), that he could do with a loan of them for ice breaking duties. I carried on, noticing the difficulty that ducks were having on the ice, until the point where the canal towpath is shut following the collapse of a wall; there was a man out walking his dog when it happened, and he attributes his not being under the rubble to his mutt's slowing him down!
Following a now familiar itinerary, I then returned to tarmac again as I continued up towards the Macclesfield Golf Club's clubhouse to pick up a footpath that rounded both the golf course and the hill that played host to it before dropping down to Langley; that secured my escape from the urban confines of Macc. Shutlingsloe could be seen in the distance, with Sutton Common and Croker Hill bringing up the rear behind the village of Sutton. The ground was its customary winter softness at this point, and an eagle eye was kept out for any wayward greasy spot that would sweep the legs from under me. The descent took me through more sheltered parts where the overnight frost remained.
A hike right through the village of Langley was needed before I found another escape from civilisation. This led me towards the Gritstone Trail but, rather than following it up to the summit of Tegg's Nose, I opted for a different way. Picking up a bridleway that led me between Teggsnose Reservoir and Bottoms Reservoir, I continued to round yet another hill before starting on the ascent again after crossing a stream that feeds Teggsnose Reservoir, one of those that I had passed earlier. Another road crossing later, and I was on to a concessionary path named Saddler's Way for some reason. The gradient steepened and the views continued to open out until I made my way to a viewpoint at Tegg's Nose Country Park. A host of humpy stuff with Shutlingsloe among them lay there as a feast for the eyes.
It was at this point that I started on the Gritstone Trail proper for my journey to Kerridge. As I started crossing fields again, winter started to make its presence a little more obvious, with snow remaining along by stone walls. Someone had even fashioned an igloo of sorts, and the structure was still very much there to see. A crossing of the A537 saw me go down a rough slope that might have offered plenty of greasy mud had it not been for the fact that it was frozen solid. After the steep descent came an equally testing ascent; appropriately, a brook lay in the gash that I needed to negotiate.
That set me on my way towards Rainow and, soon enough, the said village started to come into view. Imperfect memories of the route were refreshed as I went, and the B5470 was reached without any navigational madness. The path on the other side of the road took a little finding with the signpost being a little away from the road and nestled between two houses, a combination that makes it easy to miss and goes to prove that you cannot remember everything.
Following that modicum of route finding, the last stretch of steep ascent for the day awaited, and it was on frozen east-facing slopes too. If the sun had ever got over Kerridge Hill, it wasn't managing it while I was scaling it. The reward for these exertions was a level stroll along a ridge replete with generous panoramic views. As if that is insufficient, the folly that is the White Nancy stands atop the Bollington end of the ridge. The landmark is a simple affair that has attracted its share of vandalism over the years; it is a hollow construction, but can no longer be entered thanks to the attentions of some. In recent years, there was a prank that involved painting the thing pink, an act not without its amusement value, even if it did wind up the locals.
More frozen slopes were crossed on the way down to Kerridge, and at a time when it could be seen that the day was coming closer to its end. One more road crossing took me onto public footpaths that led me back on to the banks beside a different part of a partially frozen Macclesfield Canal. Light was really fading by now, and I changed over to the Middlewood Way for the short distance to the well-lit streets along which I would complete my walk, with a call to a shop for provisions along the way.
Revisiting those familiar trails turned out to be a very good use of one of the cold, crisp, dry sunny days that can visit us at this time of year. Other folk were out and about too, but they weren't so numerous as to make the countryside feel anything like overcrowded; many good stretches of solitude were there too to soothe the spirit. It just goes to show that you should never overlook what can be reached from your doorstep.
