Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

There may have been wonderful sunny summer weather visiting us over the last few weeks but goings on in my professional life have meant that I haven't made the kind of use of it that is habitual for me. That's not to say that there haven't been restive escapes during the hurly burly. In fact, lengthening my cycling commute on the homeward leg has afforded the spending of some quality time among still fresh greenery.

Not inappropriately given the prospect  of a major change to my work circumstances (a change of job is looming on the horizon), some of those peaceful interludes have had me poking around the National Trust property surrounding the escarpment that is Alderley Edge. The result was that some aimless exploration took me directions that I mightn't have followed while if I had a map with me! Even so, no harm came from them and you need to break out from the constraints of modern life from time to time anyway. The area is a confined one that I know well enough so not too much can go awry. Still, there's plenty to paths for a stroll and it's under tree cover much of the time too, a perfect antidote to the hot bright strong sunshine than occasionally makes its appearance around this time of year. Trees may be things with which I have a love/hate relationship but they have their plus points too and the National Trust's broadleaved collection near the edge offers plenty of shade when it gets as warm as it has been on the way towards midsummer.

Looking further ahead, it doesn't look as if this summer will get the customary longer break that has tended to happen every year in recent times. Nevertheless, there are some days' leave coming to me that I plan to use as well as I can. It's a matter of using what is available rather than having all that I'd like to possess. Ambitions may require control (the sort of Hebridean adventure that I enjoyed a few years ago is out of the question for now but you never know what the future might bring) but one or two possibilities are coming to mind regardless. Despite the constraints that I face, I should get more out of the summer than I did during the one when my career was first set on its faltering course a decade ago. Its next phase is ahead of me and I hope to keep up my wanderings through hill country. They have afforded respite from life's toils up to now and it is unlikely that the need will disappear.

Last Saturday should have seen me go further afield but another matter meant that I stayed at home. However, I didn't waste the wonderful weather that came to us entirely because I got out my bike and travelled along some of the local lanes; it's not the first time that the handy machine afforded a quick escape for a few hours and I suspect that it mightn't be the last either. Places like Prestbury, Wilmslow, Adlington, Pott Shrigley and Bollington were encountered on the way as I took in some new lanes too. Prestbury's parish church invited another photo while newly weds were being photographed on their special day elsewhere in the churchyard; I didn't disturb them and silently wished them all the best. Rhododendron bushes were in bloom and that's why I went around by Pott Shrigley. Well, there's certain view of Pott Shrigley that I have had in mind for a photo of the picturesque village so I hope to get there one morning before their time expires; my evening arrival had the sun in the wrong place while it was being engulfed by cloud so another trip is warranted. Well, having another excuse to get out in the open air never can be faulted.

Last weekend, I crossed the Irish Sea for a more social visit to the southwest of the island where my parents live. While there was a spot of lawn-mowing, hedge-cutting and other bits and bobs to be done, there were chances for limited immersion in hill country too. Friday saw us heading to Gougane Barra in West Cork. The sun was playing hard to get until later in the day but that didn’t spoil any enjoyment derived from poking around Coillte’s forest park in the Valley Desmond. There remains one trail that I would mind doing but it’s best never to exhaust the possibilities of anywhere. In any case, having had good weather for photography on a previous visit meant that it didn’t matter on this occasion.

If I had been dissatisfied, Saturday was going to rub it in with its cloudless skies and strong hot sunshine but I wasn’t to be bothered. The sun did change my colour as I attended to lawn edging and other tasks but it was nothing that a rub of after-sun soother couldn’t sort. It turned out that Sunday was going to offer more of the same so hat-wearing and sun screen were my defences against the attentions of strong sunshine. Letting down my guard wasn’t an option.

Though many were heading for the coast, we struck on for Killarney. With the heat that was to be felt, it wouldn’t have been the wisest to embark on a long hike without acclimatisation but it was not going to be that sort of day. In fact, the time was taken up with driving from spot to spot and strolling around them too. The locations included Looscaunagh (where the old disused pub is now for sale; who’s going to buy a derelict building in the middle of nowhere in these times?), Moll’s Gap, a stop to the west of Ladies’ View, a lunch stop by the Upper Lake and Muckross House and Gardens. Though there were coach parties being conveyed, Moll’s Gap didn’t feel overrun and it was only as we came downhill again that more and more other folk were being encountered.

Though there was a suggestion of haze, no cloud occupied the sky. Not was that a complete change from the last time that I was around there but giving the sun unobstructed access to the countryside had a dramatic visual effect. In fact, I really have to think back in time to pick out a visit to Iveragh that was blessed with such good weather. The last one must have been of a Sunday in September not long after the turn of the century, when we were celebrating a family occasion with a ride out from Ross Castle around Lough Leane on the Waterboat. Before that, my memory is taken to 1995 by photos that I took that long ago. A few years before that, there was a drive down the rough track into the Black Valley and on to through Gap of Dunloe. Maybe I need to visit more often so as to even up the odds of getting optimum weather.

With my luck with the weather around Killarney, it might be that 2010′s visit will stick in the memory for being a photographic sweet shop. Only the chance of having an earlier start or a later finish would have made it better. As it was, I had to contend with high sun and the risk of lens flare but I came away with something better than anything that I got before regardless. The viewpoints were by now familiar to me so I had ideas as to what to do with them and there was no fumbling in the ever strengthening sun. That’s not to say that i wasn’t open to anything that came my way and I now have quite a few photos to organise.

Apart from a longer out and back walk down the spit of land that separated Muckross Lake from Lough Leane. It was all short strolls for me but that was no bad thing with temperatures hitting up to 25º C. That’s not to say that some weren’t embarking on longer journeys with a charity cycle in progress and a good of folk out on (hired?) bikes. Some of the latter were later found with their feet in the cooler waters of Muckross Lake and who’d blame them? Others were loafing around in front of Muckross House as I caught it catching the sun for the first ever time.

As good as the day was, I left with ideas for the future with the main one being the prospect of a walk all around Muckross Lake. That would need more time than I had and figuring out something to occupy less patient souls while that is in train will be a must; I ended up most of half an hour late on returning from my walk and it sounded as if every minute was an eternity for someone, not good but I was at peace and I didn’t let it get to me. An ice cream stop in Barraduff put that behind us and I got to capture a view of the Paps between the more urban paraphernalia too.

The day after couldn’t have been more different with its foggy greyness but things got ever brighter as I continued north to Dublin as I commenced my eastward return. It had taken over well by the time that my flight took off into the air. On the way over Wales, I spied the hills of Snowdonia and made out gashes like the Ogwen Valley and the Llanberis Pass. They were helping me to draw distinctions between the Carneddau, the Glyderau and Snowdon itself. In the midst of all this, I even tried looking for Moel Siabod but without certainty as to whether I had picked it out from the surrounding bumps though the Conwy Valley was unmistakable. Apart from recollections of Welsh hill outings, all this was reminding me that I am in the middle of giving the Snowdonia photo album in the photo gallery a makeover. That’s not finished yet and new photos of Kerry already are in mind as is doing something with the uncertainties of the bank holiday weekend that is upon us. All this is the sort of activity that has to take second place to the necessary tasks of everyday life but it never stops in its own way either.

Those Irish strolls may have been short but I was left feeling so at ease that I ended up thinking that I don’t go over there often enough. That’s an old problem but resolving it could be interesting if perusals of recent issues of Walking World Ireland are to have any effect.

After a bank holiday weekend spent expanding my explorations of the Isle of Man, last weekend allowed a getaway to a part of the world that I haven't really visited for nearly four years: the Scottish Borders. Since then, a new long distance trail has appeared on OS maps, the Borders Abbeys Way, and caused to me to look at the copyright date that was on the one that I used when I last got to sample the area around Peebles and Galashiels. With the legend "2002" peering back at me, I began whether a new edition was needed but I persevered with the older one while up there.

It was sufficient for the task of hiking from Selkirk to Melrose via The Three Brethren and, from there, the Southern Upland Way on an ever improving afternoon and evening; I left the Borders Abbeys Way with its requirement for remembering where it went for another time. The Eildon Hills were catching the light from time to time as I grew to realise the distance between Galashiels and Melrose. Very deceptively, the proximity of Galashiels, Tweedbank, Darnick and Melrose would lure you into thinking that everything is close together but the whole conurbation put together is at least five miles long!

After the exertions of the previous day, Sunday was left as an easy day before I returned home again after a stay in Melrose. That energy expenditure made for tired legs so I contented myself with enjoying the impressive sight of Melrose Abbey (yes, a camera was set into action too but it's often what gets me out and about in the first place) on a day that kept improving after a damp start. There was an uphill potter along St. Cuthbert's Way to take a closer look at the Eildon Hills but time constraints put a stop to any potentially foolish designs that may have lain in my mind.

A look at a map since then has popped an idea into my mind: using St. Cuthbert's Way for a walk from St. Boswell's to Melrose that might grant me glimpses of Dryburgh Abbey and would pass over the Eildon Hills. Those hills are crisscrossed with paths but there are other possibilities with sections of the Borders Abbeys Way allowing for sampling of the countryside around places such as Kelso, Hawick and Jedburgh. All in all, it looks as if there is plenty on offer to the passing wanderer in search of pleasant countryside with a smattering of low-sized hills.

After all, this is countryside that I should have been exploring when I lived in Edinburgh but for a combination of succumbing to the attractions of a very nice city and being blinded by attractions further north. Then, I would have considered cycling and the practicalities of getting a bike out into the Borders with no car would have raised their heads too. Until the restoration of the rail link to Galashiels and Tweedbank, that one will persist because I saw no evidence of bicycle carriage on any buses that I used over the weekend. In a way, that's a pity because there is the Four Abbeys Cycle that echoes the intent of the Borders Abbeys Way and there are quieter roads about the area too. That new railway could make things interesting but the prospect of its packing the area with visitors is hard to envisage with all of the space that there is for everyone.

One thing that struck me over the weekend was how quiet everywhere was and it is an area where you unleash your reverie without too much fear of intrusion. Of course, you still have watch where you going but that effectively is the limit of things. Those ideas that have come into my mind already should keep me returning and I do hope that it's more regular than it has been.

Every year in the second half of April, nature does its act of greening up any bare branches with delightful hues. Some years, this change creeps up on me no matter how hard I try not to miss it until it's nearly done. This year, I seem to be catching it as it progresses. The apparent order, from my less expert observations anyway, seems to commence with hedgerows before small trees with their larger counterparts bringing up the rear. This may be a misimpression but it is how it looks to me.

What compliments all of this is the weather. While there is haze and cloud from time to time, this April has been a month with blue skies and sunshine for much of its time with us. It is true to say that yesterday and today saw temperatures that were incompatible with sunbathing but two weekend visits to Wales have seen me encounter very mild temperatures. Personally, I can cope with cooler temperatures but I tend to enjoy the countryside while on the move, therefore generating my own heat as I go. Well, it's not for nothing that the saying advises against casting a clout until May is out and there's another about keeping well covered i there's an "r" in the month (in its name, of course).

Still, this largely settled spell of bright weather only can improve one's mood and put a skip in your step. At least, it does that for me and might explain a run of walking weekends too. In fact, it might be the cause of my taking a diversion around by Nether Alderley, Alderley Edge (the geological feature and not the village of the same name) and Over Alderley while cycling home from work. Well, you shouldn't be wasting a pleasant evening, even if it feels a bit chilly. Seeing all the paths around the National Trust's property around the Edge has planted an idea in my mind of having a stroll around what's there. When I see well maintained paths, my curiosity is aroused and the prospect of a bit of exploration is very tempting. Thus, I have placed the idea of spending a few hours exploring around when time doesn't allow me to go further afield. Until now, my visits have been fleeting and mostly in fading light so its time that I did it some justice and it might reward me with some pleasing photos too. The age of daffodils may be fading but bluebells (or wild hyacinths as I was reading in a copy the The Scots Magazine on the way back from Dyffryn Ardudwy; apparently Scottish Bluebells are not what you think) are around the corner. Let's hope that whatever weather comes to us allows for some enjoyment of their splendor.