2019...A look back.

Its been a cracking year for walking, visiting many places both new and old..Heres a few photograph that I have taken on this years adventuring.

January.....

Holy mountain

Moel siabod

Conwy mountain

February....

Stainforth and Keadby canal.

March...

Chesterfield canal at Hayton.

April...

Nidderdale.

May...

Boulsworth hill

 

Wolds way ..East Yorkshire.

June...

Brimham rocks

Lathkill dale.

Alport castles.

July...

Staithes

Staithes [again]

Bradfield dale

Beck hole.

August...

Chrome hill.

Parkhouse hill.

Moss valley.

Froggatt edge.

September...

Peters stone Cressbrook dale.

Knaresborough.

Gardoms edge.

October...

Solway coast

Sandyhills bay.

Mull of Galloway

Back tor.

Lose hill.

November...

South Yorkshire Navigation 

Dovestone reservoir.

December...

Lads leap.

Local woods.

Hoping for more of the same in 2020.

16/11/2019

A route around the Rivelin valley.

Another wet day was on the cards, but 13 familiar faces [ including mine ] turned up at the Rails road car park in the Rivelin valley for todays walk with the Doncaster ramblers. Suitably kitted out in full waterproof regalia we listened to our leader as he delivered the walks briefing..It was going to be a grand day out..if a little damp.Leaving the car park we set off up the lane steeply at a cracking pace.Warmed up, the route levelled out and we enjoyed the path as it snaked its way through an area of woodland [ mainly Birch ] known as Rivelin rough.

Emerging from the trees we crossed the A57 to be greeted with the lovely sight of the Lower Rivelins dam reservoir, some lovely autumnal colour reflected in the glassy stillness. I don't seem to have done much walking this autumn, it seems to have passed me by..This makes me feel sad..never mind Winter will soon be here, the loveliest of all our seasons.

From here are route was to follow alongside the delightful Wyming brook on a popular path as it climbs out of the valley passing pretty little waterfalls. Sadly though today this was not going to happen for as we rounded a corner we were greeted with a path closed sign, apparently several of the bridges that cross the brook have been damaged in the recent bad weather, with one of them being actually washed away...Oh well....we reverted to Plan B.A quick perusal of the map and we found another route up to the car park on the Redmires road. We followed soggy wet paths and crossed even soggier meadows to reach todays pub stop, the Three merry lads. 45 minutes and a couple of pints of Moonshine later 8 merry lads and 5 merry lasses were ready for the afternoon walk.

  

This afternoon we were to follow a path that sticks to the high ground as it traverses the valley along its southern edge...Drizzle came then went, then came back again but we hardly noticed as we followed this entertaining undulating path passing many a fine viewpoint.The highlight of this section being the crossing of Blackbrook...A raging torrent today.[ a slight exaggeration ]

All safely across and it was more ups and downs to cross the road near the old Bell hagg pub..We were on the very edge of Sheffield now.

We dropped down steeply on wet slippery paths into the Rivelin valley were we were to follow the Nature and heritage trail back to our cars..for me this final 2 mile stretch turned out to be the best part of the walk..Waterfalls, weirs, stepping stones, mill pools, bridges and a rushing river all backed with some lovely autumn colour...Whats not to like.

Its been a cracker..

03/11/2019

A short walk from Edale.

This week i was lucky enough to get a rare Sunday night off work which is great, as it means that i can get out to do a decent walk. I let Karen choose todays walk "why not a quick jaunt up to Ringing Roger with a return over Grindslow knoll ?"..Good choice i thought..we pulled into the car park at Edale which was already half full. Not raining today but the last month or so has been a complete wash out. My boots were soaked through after yesterdays walk with the Ramblers around the Yorkshire sculpture park, luckily I had a spare pair in the car.A bit chilly as we set off as I am still wearing my shorts..i have been wearing them since March the 29th this year [obviously not the same pair]. I think it is almost time to get the trousers out. We passed the Rambler pub followed by the Nags head, maybe we could pop into one of them for a pint on our return...Before long we were free of the village and heading for the hills.

Todays walk was to be no longer than 6 mile, 6 wonderful miles over some of the best terrain in the Peak district. Its a steep path that zig zags up out of the valley, but after half an hour or so we had made it up to the fine crest of rocks along the little ridge of Ringing Roger...I don't know who Roger was or why anyone would want to ring him..I have an idea that the ringing bit comes from the noise the wind makes as it blows through those rocks and maybe the Roger bit comes from the French word for rocks "Rocher"...one thing I do know is that it always seems to be quite windy up there..i remember a few years ago we stumbled across a German choir up there belting out songs amongst the rocks...I remember it well...I remember it as one of the best things I have ever heard in my life...no singing todays just the rasping of my lungs as I left the path to enjoy a scramble over the rocks...Superb place

From here its just a short easy walk up to the path on the plateau of Kinder scout..Having walked many of our countrys mountains and hills, I consider Kinder to be up there with the best of them, It has dozens of routes up to the plateau .No one ever got bored of dear old Kinder, Ok it has its busy spots but there are also places to walk that gets away from it all especially along its northern edge.

We followed along the edge...Dawdling, taking photographs,  exploring the windswept rocky tors..just taking it all in..too good to hurry. It was great...I was surprised how dry it was up there after all of the rain we have had of late..We crossed Grindsbrook and changed direction heading for Grindslow knoll.The 1972ft summit seems to have turned its back on Kinder scout, its an independent peak, all alone, like its been left out of the party...Not much to.be seen up there today as the mists dropped down.

We found a rock to shelter behind, sat down for a drink and to eat the leftovers of last nights pizza along with a vegan sausage roll..Time to head back down..Mist fizzled out and we were treated to some nice views again over the Vale of Edale.

So that's 2 more tops ticked off my Peak 170 challenge..28 now done...Back in Edale we decided to visit the Ramblers inn for a pint..Farmers blonde for me while Karen chose the Ramblers Gold..Might as well have a bite to eat while we are here too..Nice way to end a walk.

08/10/2019

The day we climbed Criffel.

Its going to be nice today, well that's the information that I got from the Met office website..Unbroken sunshine between 9 am and 2pm, with a 5% chance of rain [but where that rain might come from with unbroken sunshine beats me] it cant be true? can it? we shall see..It certainly was nice at 9 o clock as we took the short drive to the walkers car park at Ardwall near New abbey.We were expecting a steep climb,someone told us it would be boggy, cant be that bad we thought. The summit rises to the modest height of 1870ft but it appears much higher..It dominates the views around these parts of the Solway estuary. Boots on and we were off.

Once into the forest we picked up a most inviting path that runs alongside the attractive Craigrockall burn.The well constructed path was a gem to follow and the Burn added interest to the climb,as did the numorous Fly agaric mushrooms and puffballs.

Gaining height quickly we were soon free of the forest, the open fell beckoned, its looked easy enough, we were probably nearly halfway up already. However what came next can only be described as "a Bastard"..We had reached an area of dreaded bog, Black ooze hindered progress. We slipped and slithered up hill at a snails pace, I was being pulled along by Alfie, Thanks Alf, but Karen was soon left behind floundering in the black grime.

After a while the going got a bit easier although a lot steeper..Lungs rasping and calfs fit to burst we pressed on heads down, eventually making it up to the huge pile of stones known as Douglas cairn. at the summit of the hill. I don't know who Douglas was or why he has a cairn named after him but he chose a good spot for it, looking out across the waters and sands of the Solway towards the English Lake district...

The views are stunning from up there, although a trifle windy today, I decided it was time to put a waterproof on to help with the wind..Imagine my dismay when I realised that a bottle of Lemonade had leaked in my rucksack, soaking my coat, oh well I put it on anyway, it will soon dry in this wind and whats more It smelt quite nice. Back to the views I dropped down a bit to get a good look at the view to the south across the Firth.I don't know what had happened to the wall to wall sunshine.

A quick visit to the Triangulation pillar before retracing our steps a bit to pick up the path heading for Knockendoch, one of Criffels satellite peaks, its closest friend...We followed the reasonably dry ridge, for me this was the highlight of the day... Standing at around the 1400ft mark its a grand viewpoint, to the north the Southern uplands while to the south Criffel itself dominated the scene.

All downhill now towards the forest, but first we had to deal with "the bastard" again, only this time it was twice as bad. several times I went in over the boots..My white socks turned to grey, who the hell would go out hillwalking wearing white socks anyway. I decided I may as well just walk though the bogs now as my feet couldn't get much wetter.

The views down to New abbey and Dumfries made up for the wet feet..Karen was struggling on this terrain..i was walking as slow as I could but I was getting further and further in front...I would wait for her when I reached the forest track

Nice to get back down to a solid track through the woods, No more mud..it seemed like luxury, black water squelching from my boots with every step..I need to get these dry for tomorrow but I feared that this was never going to happen..We made it out of the woods where we needed to cross a couple of meadows to reach Loch Kindar...But somehow or other we got lost and ended up crossing the wrong meadow, ending up at a dead end, we had to retrace our steps, I cant believe we got lost..we never get lost..Ok lets just say we went astray "just a little bit"..Then to make matters worse it started to chuck it down...Whats going on , its not 2 o clock yet...Anyway we eventually made it to the shores of Loch Kindar...Its a lovely place..Alf had a swim to clean himself up a bit.

Almost back now..An easy walk through the woods back to the farm at Ardwall...We hadn't seen a sausage all day although there were now half a dozen cars parked up in the car park. I wondered how many othere were up there floundering around...I had planned on going down to New abbey for a well deserved pint but looking like bedraggled tramps we decided against it..It wasn't all bad..In fact I loved it and I would do it again at the drop of a hat, Those that love the hills will know what I mean.