Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

The Met Office’s long term forecast for the next few months looks drier, hotter and sunnier than the summers of last year and the year before. While hot sunny days may not be the most suitable for all day walking and that point is uppermost in my mind with the weather that we are getting now (previous wanderings on such days have left me feeling well rough), such conditions might be just the thing for becoming more independent with regards to overnight accommodation. After all, stormy weather probably doesn’t make starting out camping any easier.

When thoughts turn to shelter experimentation, the backpacker’s stalwarts that are the Hilleberg Akto or Terra Nova Laser Competition come to mind. While you are getting value for money as many believe, the cost of their acquisition can appear to be overkill for someone starting out backpacking, especially in these times when the need for frugality has been brought home very firmly to us. It is for that reason that the Coleman Kraz X1 caught my eye when I saw its test review on OUTDOORSmagic.com. For one thing, a price of just under £60 would be an attention magnet enough though various web emporia that I have explored are charging in the region of £70-90. Weight does not seem to be so excessive either at around 1.6 kg and the review itself was positive in tone too. Not wanting to spend too much of my cash at one sitting, I’ll keep the Coleman in mind should my independent backpacking ambitions ever become reality. After that, who knows where it might lead?

About this time last year, I was feeling a tad sore after a weekend in Scotland where I was surprised by some of the best weather that I had seen there in a while. It was as if I was taken by surprise and reluctantly left because I was of the opinion, rightly or wrongly, that a certain lack of planning meant that I may not have made the most of it. Looking back on it now, it may not have been as wasted an opportunity as I thought it to be at the time. After all, that Sunday sojourn on Kerrera sharpened my appreciation of island scenery and perhaps inspired the Hebridean island hopping session that occupied me for a week later on in the year.

This year, with various things that have been going on in my life together with a stretch of lacklustre weather, I would have been forgiven for being surprised by the weather yet again, just like last year in fact. Now that I think of it, the weather has behaved similarly on both times. The run up to the same weekend last year would have been no preparation for what eventually arrived either. However, there is an important distinction between the two years: the locations blessed by good weather. Last year, Scotland got it better and had a generally good May with the TGO Challenge seeing more dry sunny days than usual. England did better this time around but it all depended on where you were and when you were there; it turned wet in Cheshire on Monday.

Overall, Cheshire did well with a steadily improving Saturday that coaxed me out on the bike in the evening time after an afternoon shopping expediton. Sunday was even better and I spent my afternoon and evening on a stroll from Leek back home by way of Tittesworth Reservoir and Danebridge. On Monday, I popped up to Cumbria to hike the Cumbria Way from Coniston to Skelwith Bridge before skirting Loughrigg Fell on the way to Ambleside. That was the cause of taking me through a honeypot or two (Tarn Hows comes to mind as a particular fleshpot) but the quieter parts more than made up for this.

One plan did fall by the wayside and that was the idea of following the Derwent Valley Heritage Way north from Baslow until either Grindleford, Hathersage or Bamford; the end point was to depend on progress and the time of the next train home from either of these stations. The plot certainly was fluid but a late bus caused its abandonment on Sunday so it goes onto the ideas shelf for another time. Another route option is to go around by Baslow Edge, Curbar Edge and Froggat Edge, proper hill wandering if you will and a variation of the original theme, but that also still awaits its opportunity and goes beside the DVHW on that proverbial shelf.

All in all, I cannot declare 2009′s Spring Bank Holiday weekend wasted and, anyway, that’s not the way that I feel about it at all. Any period of time that allowed chances for walks and cycles can only have been used well and, as if that were not enough, it has sown the seeds for future excursions too so it has been more than fruitful. Having more good weather than was expected can be a test too because you need to pick where you want to go when the temptation is to go out and gorge yourself; having only so much time has its uses. Trip reports for the walks themselves should follow but there’s the prospect of good weather next weekend so that may cause the postponement of their appearance. Of course, that depends on how things come together and only time will tell on that score.

May this year has brought us a right mix of weather. Saying that, it seems that its bank holiday weekends didn’t fare two badly and the start of the month saw me head to the Appleby-in-Westmorland for a spot of wandering about the Upper Eden Valley in pleasant weather. The countryside, a mixture of the pastoral and the rough stuff, was as Eden-like as the weather. The route followed took in a number of public footpaths and I even got to fitting in a snippet of the Pennine Way too, all the while keeping the amount of road walking to a minimum.

The idea of reaching High Cup Nick was in the back of my mind but, due to delays to my journey, that’s where it has had to stay for now. If a delay to my departure weren’t enough, a malfunctioning train really finished off the prospect of it happening on my first visit to the area. It’s probably just as well not to overdo things on a first outing so I am far from bitter and, given the day that I enjoyed, being like that only would be a display of ungratefulness. The Upper Eden Valley is an area through which I had passed without stopping on various Anglo-Scottish journeys so a visit was long overdue.

When I got to Appleby, blue skies were very much in evidence but wads of cloud  were obstruct the sun from time to time too, a mere triviality. The exit from urban confines was swift and getting over the A66 was no trouble either; I simply walked straight across the dual carriageway, not at all as foreboding as it sounds. Public rights of way conveyed me without a bout of confusion all of the way to Flakebridge with only a short spell on tarmac. Field crossing was followed by woodland walking through Flakebridge Wood before more fields were traversed without too much perturbation of the livestock, sheep in places with cattle in others and a mixture elsewhere, or they of me. There were empty fields too but the ground, with the exception of the boggy stuff around Keisley Beck, remained sound as far as Keisley.

Passing Keisley, not at all a big spot and a hamlet really, I kept on with the public footpath shuffle until I reached the Pennine Way. It was at this point that I to start thinking about fitting plans to fit the available time. It was enough to get me as far as Peeping Hill and allow for a bit of poking around on the access land. The reason for my probing was to see if there was quick way down to the floor of High Cup Gill but I was going the wrong way about it so I returned to the Pennine Way in the interests of time. Looking at a map while spewing out these words, I can see better possibilities but they must awaited a future visit, perhaps with a newer map that actually shows the extent of the access land hereabouts.

Unobstructed sunshine was to accompany me as I returned to Appleby. While I did largely reprise my outbound route, I stayed on the Pennine Way to reach the road passing through Dufton. With an eye on the time, I skirted Dufton but followed part of the road for Appleby before making use of a public footpath returning me to Flakebridge. It had by now become a wonderful evening for photographic exploits so I just had to stop and make use of the opportunities, though without overstaying my welcome. Beyond Flakebridge, I heard the sort of hubbub for which I often don’t care so much but it was reassuring this time around: road traffic noise. It was coming from the A66 and told me that I was making good time. As it happened, I was at my train station with maybe fifteen minutes to spare, never a bad thing, but my progress had been steady rather than rushed, a travesty given the eveniong that was. The visual delights weren’t done with my train taking me past plenty of gloriously lit hill country before it reached Leeds. Two changes of train later and an untroubled journey home was completed, an appropriate end to a good day out in the countyside.

Travel details

Return train trip from Macclesfield to Appleby-in-Westmorland (the station gets called just Appleby for some reason) with changes in Manchester and Leeds.

For some time now, I have been tracking the photos that have been bringing people to the gallery that you find here and the results slightly surprise me. For what it’s worth here’s the current top 20 in order:

1.  Cenotaph, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England

2.  Caha Mountains, Adrigole, Co. Cork, Éire

3.  Valley Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England

4.  Bridge End Hill & Capper Law from St. Mary’s Loch, Borders, Scotland

5.  Ross Castle, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Éire

6.  The Roaches, Leek, Staffordshire, England

7.  Slieve Mish Mountains from Maherabeg, Castlegregory, Co. Kerry, Éire

8.  River Arkaig, Achnacarry, Lochaber, Scotland

9.  Shutlingslow and Sutton Common, Cheshire, England

10. Lackabane, Lauragh, Co. Kerry, Éire

11. Kinder Scout, Hayfield, Derbyshire, England

12. River Ness, Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland

13. Conwy Castle, Conwy, Conwy, Wales

14. Innisfallen Abbey, Killarney, Co. Kerry, Éire

15. Y Garn, Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales

16. Meall na Cruaidhe & Glas Bheinn, Kinlochleven, Lochaber, Scotland

17. Shutlingslow from Tegg’s Nose Country Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire, England

18. Ben Lomond, Rowardennan, Stirling District, Scotland

19. Sgurr a’ Mhàim, Glen Nevis, Lochaber, Scotland

20. Holy Island, Lamlash, Isle of Arran, Scotland

Search engines clearly have their hand in this because the appearance of Harrogate photos at and near the top would make no sense for a site concerning itself with explorations of the countryside as much as it does. It also highlights that while I head for the remoter parts these days, that wasn’t always the case and urban photos appear in the gallery as if to prove it. Strangely, photos taken while I lived in Edinburgh and on return visits to that wonderful spot are conspicuous by their absence but it may be that there’s plenty from which to choose and not so many get as far of this website in search of them.

Apart from the urban interlopers, the largely rural feel of the list should come as no surprise and may even lead to a more critical appraisal of the images in question. That may end up giving me ideas for visits to places where I have not been for a while, never a bad thing. Éire tellingly punches above its weight here but Scotland gets a good showing too as does Cheshire. In no way am I going to let these observations dictate my future plans but ideas are always invaluable.

Of course, using modern technology can allow better image processing but it still leaves me thinking that the output from my scanner is not as friendly to the likes of Photoshop Elements as that from digital cameras. Add to that the fact that I am scanning prints and you might discern that I am putting myself at the mercy of the printing process. Scanning negatives might be a way around this but previous efforts were not so successful but that might have been with an older scanner. This line of thought is causing me to wonder if digital is on the cusp, if it hasn’t already passed it, of finally surpassing film photography. That’s never to say that the latter will not retain its place (niche?) but film is far from being my main photographic medium nowadays and I am even being led to challenge the need to bring a film camera with me on my various and enjoy the weight saving. A decision on that one is something that I’ll postpone for now but it may never go away.

This posting started with a simple list and sent my mind to places that I would not have expected. As if it wasn’t enough to get me thinking about how the destinations for my excursions have changed, I have been let to consider trip ideas and even wonder whether my film photography is worth the upkeep. Inspiration can come from anywhere and an inconsequential list will more than do the trick.

That trip report that was promised last week has been delayed by my main home PC developing the computing equivalent of engine trouble. The remedy is the computing equivalent of the putting in a new engine into a car and that’s as far as I am planning to go with the technical description on here. Suffice it to say that progress hasn’t been as smooth as I might have liked and I am getting to wonder if I somehow have managed to acquire an inverse Midas touch. An older machine has been pressed into service as an alternative and I have been grabbing bits and pieces like most of my digital photos, a process that involved mucking around with computer hardware using a screw driver. Now that I have decamped to some sort of stability, my mind can turn to crafting blog posts accompanied with photos and other more pleasant stuff. After all, there’s a bank holiday weekend ahead of us and who knows what it might offer. From the various fiorecasts, it’s unlikely to be as fantastic as it was in Scotland around the same time last year so it’ll be a matter of taking whatever chances are available. Last weekend was no stunner either and it allowed me to sort out a few things while popping for a local stroll round by Prestbury and Tytherington and continue the running in of my Meindls.