Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

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.

The year is fast coming to an end as if often never fails to do on me. Posts still await writing for July excursions so I am knocking in some photos so that I can make something of them over the Christmas and New Year break from the everyday, instead of nearly forgetting one of them as I did until a few days ago. There’s a repeat visit to the Isle of Man, a first trot around Anglesey and a combined reconnaissance that took in the Heart of Wales railway and the Gower. Both of those offer prospects for future visits and it’s a good way to end a year thinking that there’s always more to see. 2011 has been a busy one for me and I hope that 2012 lets me out of doors more often. Hopefully anyone coming across this piece will have a good Christmas and New Year. Maybe a few walks may come about for you. As usual, I have no grand designs on such things though surprises can happen. During the slow start of a year that is January, there hopefully will be a chance to gather a few ideas before the frenzy of spring comes out way.

A recent poke around the SYHA website revealed some sad news: hostel closures. In total, there have been 46 but 5 of them are facing closure. There’s Canisbay near John O’Groats in Caithness, Arden near Loch Lomond and three in the Scottish Borders. These are Broadmeadows, Kirk Yetholm and Melrose. The latter losses will leave the network looking very bare between Scotland’s central belt and its border with England.

A weekend in early July had me staying in both Kirk Yetholm and Melrose. Both seemed well used though neither was completely full. Both are near long distance trails so that should explain their locations. St. Cuthbert’s Way goes by both of these and that’s how I chose them as places to stay. Kirk Yetholm also is the northern end of the Pennine Way and both the Southern Upland Way and and the Borders Abbeys Way pass Melrose. That makes both of these a big loss for long distance walkers who now need to make alternative arrangements unless others take them over and run as independent or affiliate hostels. After all, Melrose also is useful for cyclists.

In the article on the SYHA website announcing the news, the reason given is one that will be eerily familiar to those who have witnessed YHA closure announcements. Yes, the cost of refurbishment has been mentioned in concert with the standards expected by hostellers these days. The upgrades to Oban and Lochranza are mentioned and I can vouch for the one on Arran being a good job. However, it sounds like it took a dedicated husband and wife team to make it happen.

The announcement has me pondering the future of youth hostel associations and it’s a line of thought that may spawn another entry on here regarding the subject yet. There are those who consider that youth hostels are on borrowed time. At Kirk Yetholm, I met a grandmother taking her grandchildren hostelling before she felt it was too late to do so. That Kirk Yetholm now is facing closure makes here views sound prophetic.

After a little break, I am back cycling to and from work again. In the mornings, it is possible to revel in the way that everything has come to life over the last few weeks. That we have what feels like summer weather only can have helped. This year, it seems that the display of cherry tree blossom is better than ever. Whether this is because I wasn't looking in previous years or this is a bumper year is hard for me to say. Regardless of that little triviality, there certainly are plenty of trees in bloom for many of us to enjoy. Regardless of whether flowering trees are putting their display for a while, it is the freshness of the green foliage at this time of year that always delights me, especially in golden morning light.

These are sights that soothe the soul and induce a certain reverie. They also draw thoughts of walking and cycling trips into the mind and the fact that there are a series of long weekends coming our way offers opportunities for doing just that. So far, no firm decisions have been made though Cowal and the Isle of Man have come to mind when I left my mind wander earlier today. Not being a royal watcher of any sort of fervency should help me to get away when many eyes are focussed on televisions. Trains and buses may even be quieter away from London but the day itself will tell its own story.

While it sounds simple to say that it's just a matter of making plans and then making them happen, it's been something of a weakness for me in recent months due to one very big distraction in my life. For instance, I had designs on heading to Caernarfon and Beaumaris in Wales last weekend but it never came to pass. In the event, I contented myself with an hour or two on my bike wandering around Sutton and Langley. Sights of surrounding hills were taken in and the low level of Bottoms Reservoir noted, a consequence of a largely dry March and April this year. With good things on your local patch, it's easy to feel consoled.

Saying that, going away somewhere is good too. Last year's Easter Sunday walk from Baslow to Bamford had me wishing that I'd booked somewhere to stay so I didn't need to leave for home that evening. With the prospect of savouring the countryside between Buxton and Ashbourne that is something that applies to such a venture too. While on the subject of past Easter escapes, there was a stay in Leeds that allowed me to fan out into the Yorkshire Dales. While I am sure that you wouldn't have chosen that base for those purposes, it did what I asked of it. Both of these trains of thought are revealing possibilities for getaways that aren't so far away from home and they have their place too. Then, there still is that aborted trip to Caernarfon and Beaumaris too. Ideas are queueing up for anything, not a bad state of affairs at all. Time needs to made for planning so that something can happen.

If you have been here at this part of cyberspace before, you may have noticed a navigation bar at the top with an indication of where you are on the website. In spite of the glorious weather that has been with us over the last few days, I didn't have the opportunity of celebrating its arrival with a trip away somewhere. In fact, I more needed a rest at home after the hectic demands of work over the last few weeks. It was during my little recuperation that I made the little modification that now appears at the top of every page in the website. Hopefully, it helps to make getting around here that little bit easier.

That isn't to say that I never got out at all. As it happened, I stole out of the house for a few hours to stroll from Bollington back to my abode again. What that granted me was the chance to look over familiar hills whose sight I haven't been able to enjoy for longer than really should be the case. My course took me from the top of Bollington into Ingersley Vale and from there to the White Nancy by way of the Gritstone Trail. Surprisingly perhaps for terrain that I have trodden a good few times already, the route had plenty of new twists and turns for me to explore. Given the vantage point that it is and the glory of today, it came as no shock to me to find folk lounging around the White Nancy but that is never to say that the place was overrun. As it turned out, there was plenty of time for undisturbed stopping and staring.

That sense of space for relaxation was very much a feature of the afternoon escape. It meant that details such as my camera batteries running out of charge before they should have done or there being quarries to my right on Kerridge Hill made no inroads into my sense of enjoyment. Again, neither the haze over the Cheshire plain or the drifting sound of a horse show PA system from below me had no impact on how I felt either. The familiar hills to my left were what was holding my attention as I wandered along the Saddle of Kerridge. The sights may have been seen before before they also were a little different in the glorious sunshine and with fresh green foliage in the process of emerging.

Being drawn along the ridge of Kerridge Hill was the cause of changing my intended route. By now, my camera batteries had completely run out of power but I stuck to recharging my own internal batteries instead of getting grumpy. It seems that having to commit scenes to the photographic plates of the mind was a help too. Any sights of freshly emerged greenery or cherry blossom against a bright blue sky were treated much in the same way as scenes savoured of a glorious late July evening on my first trip to Skye. One upshot of that was that an evening cycle from Dunvegan to Portree from quite a few years ago still remains in my memory now.

It didn't take long for me to be dropped on the side of the B5470 Macclesfield-Whaley Bridge road at a saddle between Rainow and Higher Hurdsfield. From there, I followed that road down into Macclesfield with a deviation onto the Middlewood Way and a short section of public footpath on the way home. This had been a walk that never was far from civilisation but there was plenty of time and space during which to relax too. The peacefulness of the evening must have had something to do with it and has put me thinking that I need to get back to sampling experiences like this again. It's just no good feeling as if you are being kept away from enticing areas of hill country while watching BBC programmes on the iPlayer like Country Tracks (the recent one on south Cumbria, for instance) so a spot of re-balancing looks to be well needed.

Travel arrangements:

Bus service 10A from Macclesfield to Bollington.