Outdoor Discoveries

Collecting ideas…

The weekend before last saw me head to the Howgill Fells for an out and back trot from Sedbergh to The Calf. While the sky clouded over during my walk and there was an unintended deviation towards the end of the return leg, it remained an enjoyable affair with my having traversed no fewer than five hilltops along the way. The first was Arant Haw with Calders, The Calf, Bram Rigg Top and Winders all following in succession and Calders being crossed twice. Much of it was on access land too so it didn’t matter much if I veered away from rights of way and, in fact, much of my course deliberately took advantage of this.

After getting in at least an outing a month since May, I would like to continue the pattern. Over the last few weeks, I have been dredging a few from previous outings that I made in the last few years. In its own, that visit from to the Howgills was born of this strand of thinking but there are others. A return to Ingleton for a circular hike featuring Twisleton Scars and Ingleborough with some sunshine and blue skies is but one of these others. Revisiting Teesdale is another and it took the world of Twitter to remind me of that part of England. My sole visit to the dale so far also happened on an overcast day so getting a day with better lighting and more interesting skies would be good too; that would make photographic endeavour all the more appealing. After all, someone has a very appealing image on their Pinterest site and I wouldn’t mind having my own photos of Low Force (and High Force too) in similar conditions as well. The passage of the Pennine Way along there brings to mind the idea of exploring High Cup Nick near Dufton on the western side of the North Pennines. Again, there only has been a single outing in the Eden Valley so far and I’d like to complement it with another. The weather was good that day though travel issues curtailed the time that I had available, hence why I’d like to go back again.

There should be enough to be pondering from the above by catching up with a few issues of TGO while on a trip to Ireland added to them. They brought to my attention possible crossings of Lingmoor Fell in the Lake District and Beinn a’ Chrùlaiste near Glencoe, both of which making use of roaming rights that we now have. The latter traverse reminds to me that having a few Scottish trip ideas would be handy and I was reminded of my pondering ascents either of Bynack More in the Cairngorms or a tempting Munro near Blair Atholl. Re-walking the West Highland Way between Bridge of Orchy and Kinlochleven was yet another. One new inspiration had caused me to recall older ones.

Maybe, I need to collate the various brainwaves in a permanent if ever changing list somewhere so that I can inspect them in moments when nothing particularly can be extricated from my imagination like during the latter half of 2010. Long standing Welsh ideas like walking Ysgyryd Fawr near Abergavenny or returning to Pembrokeshire (featured in the current issue of Discover Britain, as it happens) would belong on there too. Maybe I need to re-read these prospective pieces more often than I do.

As it has turned out for me, the ideas that I have been using so far this year have treated me well and all the inconvenient weather that has come our way doesn’t seem to have stalled my hill wandering greatly at all. Now, I need to sit down and write about a few of them in place of thinking about possible new excursions, good though that is. The coming weekend looks not too promising for an outdoors excursion so that may be a chance. That’s not to say that other matters may not intrude though…

More outings since last time

This past weekend saw me stay at home after a few weekends away. Saturday turned damp all day around Macclesfield so a spot of domestic tidying and rearranging was a good escape from the conditions though a necessary shopping excursion had me out of doors for a little while too. Sunday may have come better but other matters occupied the day.

The Jubilee bank holiday weekend saw me return to Scotland for the first time in nearly twelve months and I have thoughts about not repeating that again. My base was Pitlochry in Highland Perthshire and I ventured to Dalwhinnie for a trot along the shore of Loch Ericht and to Blair Atholl for an incursion into Glen Tilt. Transport arrangements were such that I got to potter about Pitlochry too before heading off elsewhere for a few hours, with much of that time being spent beside Loch Faskally and River Tummel.

One unusual aspect of this Scottish getaway was that I only decided what I doing up there on my first night away from home. More usually, I leave home with ideas in mind but the weather forecast was such that I only could decide when I saw what I was getting. As it happened, I seemed to escape the deluges that fell elsewhere so I count myself thankful for that. Sun may have been obscured by clouds for much of the time but the only dampness I met was a light dusting of rain on Monday morning.

Temperatures weren’t so high either and that made for pleasant walking conditions in wonderful alluring countryside. The incursions only may have been a taste of what is there but that did nothing to dispel a certain sense of satisfaction from what I had savoured. This contrasts with how I felt after spending a few days in the area nearly six years ago; then, it seemed that I was leaving unsated. Was it that I might have spread myself too thin or that hazy July days didn’t offer much for photography that was the cause of this? If so, it amazes me that I left so much time go before making a return that more than dispelled that previous sensation.

The last weekend of May didn’t have a bank holiday this year and hot sunny weather that visited us. Not only were many of us tempted out of doors to enjoy a brief experience of summer but events such as horse racing at York and the Edinburgh Marathon ensured that train services were far busier than usual too. It was an outing to Alnwick and Warkworth in Northumberland that was the cause of my discovering this for myself. The hot weather dissuaded me from a longer walk so shorter strolls taking in Northumberland’s castles and a little of its coastline seemed a good option, especially after the cold that came my way the previous weekend. Overdoing exertion didn’t look such a bright move to me and taking an easier less hurried course had its rewards too. Sometimes, a slower course reveals more of the character of an area.

Now that we are in June, it is tempting to look ahead to ideas for summer outings. When looking at my annual leave allocation for this year, I decided against an expansive escapade such as heading to the Western Isles. Those days have be rationed so shorter outings will need to be in order. There are no firm ideas in mind and I am grateful for those opportunities that have come my way already this year. Hopefully, there’ll be a few more yet. Could a return to Perthshire’s hill country be among them?

And so to 2012

Having had a few days to catch up with a few recent issues of TGO, a realisation has popped into my mind: maybe basing myself somewhere on a trip away might allow me to get more from it, especially for those places that take a little longer to get to them. Using Dunoon as a base for exploring Cowal worked very well in 2011 so I need to spend a little time pre-assembling some designs so that they have some hope of becoming reality. Along with the wilder parts of Scotland, Northumberland also comes to mind with the longer travel times needed for getting there and because of my whetting my appetite for its hill country during the summer of 2011. Parts of Wales such as the countryside round about Brecon or the Heart of Wales railway line also come to mind as do the eastern fells of the Lake District in Cumbria and the Cairngorms in Scotland. Methinks that setting aside a little time to think these over might be no bad idea and there others that I could list here too but there are enough mentioned for now.

The end of one year and the beginning of another is as good a time as any to take stock of things. One of these that comes to mind pertains to loose ends outstanding in my hill wandering from the last few years. The biggest of these is the Pennine Way, along which I haven’t walked for a while, and it now looks like multi-day trips are need to add to the mileage already completed. The mention of the Pennine Way also reminds that unused plans exist for walking Derbyshire countryside too, both new and already frequented. Then, there’s the prospect of extending what I have walked of the Rob Roy Way and the perennial desire to savour more of what my home country, Ireland, has to offer the hill wanderer. Those should mean no shortage of trip ideas like what I felt to be the case at the end of 2010, at least until I started to catch up with then unread issues of TGO anyway.

2011 has been a busy year for me and my hope is that 2012 lets me out of doors more often though the future will decide that when it first becomes the present and then the past. After all, there’s hill country near Macclesfield that needs to be revisited and other possibilities may come my way. Unlike the end of 2010 when I felt that I had ran out of ideas, a year later sees me pondering a fair few options as the blog goes into its seventh calendar year although its actual birthday is at the start of May; 2012 will see the sixth one being reached. Any designs that I concoct may not be as grand as those of other folk but having a few of them manage to come to pass will more than do me. Hopefully, 2012 will turn out to be a good outdoors year for you, dear reader, too.

Reassembled

After last weekend’s bout of madness on the web hosting side of things, this place is more or less back together again. Along the way, there may have been a lot of poking around backups to get things sorted but there are also were reminders of places where I haven’t been for a while as various entries saw reinstatement. In some cases, I ended up asking myself if it really was that long ago when I last was in some areas. The Brecon Beacons is one such hill wandering destination that hasn’t been savoured for quite a while and Pembrokeshire and Perthshire fall into the same category as does Galloway. Maybe I should poke around here more often whenever I run out of ideas though the likes of TGO should keep replenishing them, especially as I am catching up with a few issues of the magazine at the moment.

These inadvertent reminders have had me recalling how things were when I first started out blogging and how far things have moved since then; those early postings were more pithy and there may a point in returning to a little bit of that, especially if it means that you hear from me more often. There was a lot of talk about motivation and hibernation even in those days and those haven’t gone away though interruptions by work and family life make their intrusions known too. In one respect, seeing what I have already written should stop me repeating myself too often but being confronted by unfinished business is another counterpoint to those occasions when it is too easy to say that I have seen enough of hill country. After you, there always are new sights to see even if it is different light falling on a familiar location.

Rob Roy Way: a tempting proposition?

On one occasion when I was out walking during my stay in Highland Perthshire last summer, some people that I encountered asked me if I was doing the Rob Roy Way. I think that they were disappointed when I said that I wasn’t. At the time, I had been walking from Kenmore and was nearing Aberfeldy, my final destination for the day and where I was catching a bus back to Pitlochry, the base for my visit. That meant that I was in a rush at the time but I did manage to make time to stop and share a few words with them. Nevertheless, I still had five minutes to spare when I reached the bus stop, not bad going.

Recently, in preparation for my most recent stroll on the West Highland Way, I bought a new OS Explorer 348; I know that the WHW is well waymarked but it’s better to know your exact position at all times. And a map is good for telling you what’s around you as well. However, on the top left hand corner of the map, there was another green dotted line: that of the Rob Roy Way. A spot of further investigation has revealed it to be a trail starting at Drymen and heading across the Trossachs on its way to Pitlochry. Along its length, it passes places such as Aberfoyle, Callander, Strathyre, Lochearnhead, Killin, Kenmore, Amulree and Aberfeldy. Between Killin and Aberfeldy, there is a choice of routes: one going round by Amulree and a shorter more direct course. The latter is described in the Rucksack Readers guide to the long distance path while the former is only described on its official website, a truly useful calling point for planning a trek on the RRW.

The trail has only been in existence since 2002, making it a mere youngster in comparison with the 27 year old West Highland Way. In fact, unlike like other trails, it has yet to be waymarked. That, and the fact that that mapping presented in my OS Explorer 379, dates from 2001, explains how I had been straying along the way between Tombuie cottage and Aberfeldy without realising it. And it hasn’t been the only section that I have encountered either. In 2002, I followed part of the RRW when I went for a walk up the slopes of Ben Ledi by way of the section between Callander and Strathyre, though it may be that this ramble pre-dated the RRW. Moving away from this somewhat accidental approach seems an appealing proposition. The key attractions of the RRW for me are its passage through the Trossachs and skirting of Loch Tay. So far, my walking in these areas has been limited and the RRW would take that forward a great deal and there is definitely much to commend the area.