head in the clouds

A hell of a walk

2012-03-05T19:00:00.000Z

And the day started out so well. We were up before the alarm even pinged, shower, coffee and out at the bus stop before eight. We were headed for a day on Mount Teide, at 3,718m or 12,198ft, the pointy bit in the middle of Tenerife is the highest mountain in Spain.

Mount Teide in the distance

We'd planned the day like a military operation: checked and double checked bus timetables, pre-booked permits to allow us to walk on the rim of the crater, packed fleeces and woolly hats along with the suncream and shorts - what could go wrong?

The first niggle of doubt arose when, in my very schoolgirlish Spanish, I told the driver of the first bus that we were planning to connect with the bus to Las Canadas. I dismissed his stricken look as incomprehension and sat down. Thirty minutes later we were still tootling in and out of the resorts and I began to think it wasn't incomprehension at all, more like "not on your nelly". Eventually though we pulled into the bus station in Playa de las Americas at 9.10. Phew - 5 minutes to spare, now where's the stand for Mt Teide? It was curiously quiet, in fact there was nobody there at all. They were all on the bus that had left at 9 o'clock not 9.15 as the guide book, the 2012 bus map AND the bus company's own website had stated.

Hey ho now what? A quick regroup and we were back on the bus, this time heading for Adeje, a little town perched above the coast. Ignoring the bars with their beers and their cafe con leches (hard to believe I know) we climbed the steep main street to the start of a popular walk through the Barranco del Infierno, Hell's Gorge.

A large sign greeted us - "Barranco del Infierno sendero cerrado" - footpath closed. NO! Back down the street to the tourist office where a very patient long-suffering woman explained, clearly for the 42nd time that day, that "Si, barranco cerrado" and "No, not because it's Tuesday, peligro de muerte"
What? - danger of death?

"Si, muerte - falling rocks" she explained but then went on to say that even though the authorities had closed the route we could, if we wanted to, enter the canyon at our own risk. Clearly the Health and Safety mafia have only dipped a toe into Tenerife waters.We tootled back up the street and found that sure enough although the entrance gate was shut and padlocked someone had removed a couple of fence posts and we were easily able to squeeze through.

The walk itself was amazing, a 6.5k round trip to the highest waterfall on the island, something of a trickle after the very dry winter.

It's a walk of two halves, the path follows the side of an arid ravine...

The start of the walk

A little rest

Getting greener ...

before dropping onto the valley bottom where the vegetation gets greener and lusher...

...and greener...

...and wetter...

...and more overgrown...

until finally we came to the end of the trail...

El Cascade!

where we joined the other law breakers for a picnic and a last look up

before agreeing that Mount Teide could wait for another day and heading back to those bars.

A great walk on my own doorstep....

2012-02-19T16:18:00.000Z

...and it wasn't even me that walked it!

Mike Brockhurst aka the Walking Englshman did this walk on Friday. Tony joined him for the first section but sadly I couldn't go. Gutted - I followed every step of Mike's 1,000 mile walk last summer and would love to meet him.

Read Mike's account here.

Des Res

2012-02-17T19:51:00.000Z

Did you see Restoration Man this week? Gorgeous George was in Settle with Mark and Pat Rand and their Water Tower. If you missed it you can catch it on 4od and if Victorian station architecture doesn't do it for you there's some fab shots of Pen y ghent and Ribblehead Viaduct.

2012-02-17T19:33:00.000Z

Thirteenth of February already. I'd better get a post in quick or you'll all be expecting romance and I'm right out of hearts and flowers this year.

The ride2stride festival is still consuming loads of my time. When we first had the idea back in September it was all fun and buzz and what if's. Then the hard graft started and the never again's kicked in. That's all behind us now as we have printed programmes to hold in our hot little hands and a functioning website to add news and views to.

The only thing left to do now is to make sure that people know about it (oh - and pray long and hard to the fair-weather fairy). The publicity machine kicked into action yesterday as 3,500 programmes were sent off to FoSCL (Friends of Settle Carlisle Line) members with their quarterly newsletter. FoSCL have an amazing system for packing newsletters and saving money. Four times a year on a Sunday afternoon a group of volunteers - yesterday there were 30 of us - meet to stuff the envelopes. The addressed envelopes are coded and sorted into post office delivery areas all over the country - Basildon, Burneside, Bognor Regis - and each pile is bagged and labelled. By the time the post office gets the mail half the job of sorting it has been done and they charge accordingly. FoSCL saves thousands of pounds a year thanks to the willing volunteers who do it for the love of FoSCL, the chance for a chat and a slice of cake at half time.

Slip slidin' along

2012-01-29T12:47:00.001Z

Bloomin' weather forecast! For days the meteorologists had been predicting that Friday would be the best day of the week so despite low cloud we set off early to check out another of the "ones that got away".

Leaving Settle - a grey day

This 9 mile circular from Settle follows ancient trade routes across the moors above Long Preston. It was never going to make the book as the route runs south of Settle and the parameters of Dales Rail Trails are walks between Settle and Kirkby Stephen. It's also outside of the great limestone walking routes of the south western Dales but it's not without interest, offering long distant views and almost guaranteed peace and quiet. We never saw another soul all day.

We left Settle up an old moor road called Mitchell Lane, which was the main trade route between Settle and Long Preston until the turnpike road (now the busy A65) opened in 1750. Whilst I love walking in open countryside I do get a buzz from following the thousands of feet and cart wheels that have passed before me over the centuries.

There was snow underfoot as we crossed a couple of fields - but this wasn't the deep and crisp and even sort. The snow was light, the ground was sodden and we made a bambi-ish clamber up the only real ascent of the day.

Disguised mud

Back onto a rough track we headed south with great views over Ribblesdale and the Trough of Bowland.

As we neared Long Preston we had a choice - into the village and the Maypole for a liquid lunch or keep going and look for a sheltered spot to eat the butties. The butties won - the pints could wait for the end - and we headed east to start the circular return. We found a perfect lunch spot by a footbridge that crosses Long Preston Beck - a stream that starts life high on Rye Loaf Hill, runs east as Stockdale Beck then plunges over Scaleber Force before continuing south as Scaleber Beck, then Long Preston Beck before finally joining the river Ribble.

A sheltered spot for lunch

More fields brought us to another beck - Bookil Gill Beck which is usually easily crossed on a couple of large stones. Not today - the melt water from the fells had swollen the beck to a torrent and we were forced upstream to look for a crossing point. A fallen fence post provided a precarious tightrope that wobbled ominously - luckily the dog ran ahead to test its safety!

Trudging

By now horizontal snow was creeping into every orifice and we trudged, heads down, along Langber Lane, an ancient drove route that in Elizabethan times linked Settle with Otterburn and Skipton. We took a short detour into Scaleber Woods, where the waterfall of Scaleber Force made a fine sight in full spate, before dropping back down into Settle and that waiting pint.

Scaleber Force

Despite the weather it was a grand walk, not very taxing but (until the white out) with rewarding views in both directions.

The following morning we got up to blazing sunshine which just goes to show the only reliable way to forecast the weather is to open the curtains and peer out.

The ones that got away

2012-01-23T20:37:00.000Z

The hardest bit about writing a walk book is not what to put in but what to leave out. There are so many ways up the mountain or routes down the valley that sometimes it's hard to know which ones to choose.

Our latest guide book is a collection of walks that can all be done from stations on the Settle-Carlisle line. Walking the fells, selecting the routes and creating the maps took most of last year. Inevitably there were artistic differences - disagreements about what went in and what was left out.

I'm a bit of a fan of a tea shop and any walk that includes the possibilty of a scone gets my vote.

The path to Crummackdale - not far from Elaine's tearoom at Feizor

My co-author likes the open fells, the wilder the better, so long as there's a pint at the finish.

Looking south from Great Knoutberry - only the sheep for company

We got there in the end and Dales Rail Trails is finally ready to face the world - 18 circular, 14 linear walks and one long distance trail through the western Dales. There are easy routes through Ribblesdale and strenuous climbs over Wild Boar Fell, classic ascents of Ingleborough and secluded paths to Crummackdale. Together they give a comprehensive coverage of the area between Settle and Kirkby Stephen. There are loads of routes we left out though so we've decided to put them on the Dales Rail Trails website as Out-takes - the ones that got away!

Escape at last

2011-12-21T16:32:00.000Z

Its been almost a month since I've written anything on here and what a month its been! A month of proofreading and spellchecking and chasing down those damned apostrophes - and that's only the Christmas cards!

Today, finally, we stopped - the new book is at the printers, the ride2sride programme is designed and ready to go, the website is up and running (have a look at www.ride2stride.org.uk if you don't believe me) and yes - the Christmas cards are written.

It's December 21st and the shortest day so we escaped from the computer and took ourselves up onto Ilkley Moor to the Twelve Apostles stone circle where Yorkshire men and women have been keeping an eye out for the sun for the last 3,500 winter solstices.

Like most of them we failed to spot it so we skipped the dancing naked round the cairn bit and legged it down into Ilkley for that other age old tradition of partaking of mind-altering substances. Cheers!

It's a tough job ....

2011-11-24T18:00:00.000Z

..... but somebody's got to do it!

In our house no walk is complete without a decent pub at the end of it. In fact we have been known to slow down the last couple of miles and "Whoops, just missed that train - better have a drink while we wait for the next one"

No surprise then that many of the ride2stride walks will end in pubs where the lovely Jeff and his friends will be music making. Today I had a ride up and down the line just checking out the facilities.

The Crown, Horton-in-Ribblesdale

The Station Inn, Ribblehead

The Moorcock, Garsdale

Like I said - tough job but someone's got to do it!

I think we got us a festival

2011-11-14T11:14:00.000Z

Walkers on Hangingstone Scar, Mallerstang

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the twinkle in our eye that was ride2stride: the Settle - Carlisle Walking Festival. Well it's really happening!

A little group of us met to talk about the idea and decide whether it really was a goer or just a figment of mine and Tony's wine-addled brains and one of the first things we asked ourselves was "what would success look like?"

We decided if over the course of 7 days - May 1st to 7th next year - we could offer 12 walks from different stations between Settle and Carlisle, 3 music events somewhere along the line and 2 talks on relevant subjects we'd think we'd cracked it.

Well - so far we've got 16 walks ranging from easy strolls around bluebell woods to strenuous hikes over Mallerstang Edge; 3 guided walks around the construction site of Ribblehead Viaduct and Settle Old Town; talks on the part that railways have played in getting people from the grimy urban centres to the heart of the Dales AND music in the station pubs at the end of most walking days.

Jeff and his singing partner Di

Jeff, from the 3 Peaks Folk Club, is setting up the music sessions. He's an organisational genius who's middle name should be "Sorted". In fact I'm seriously considering offering him to Italy for a couple of weeks.

You can follow our progress at http://www.ride2stride.org.uk/

The best Yorkshire puddings in the world - probably!

2011-11-13T18:23:00.000Z

Allotment life

2011-11-07T20:18:00.000Z

Poppies on my plot

There's only 26 plots on our allotment site and we're a pretty healthy lot so the 45 people on the waiting list can find themselves hanging about there for a very long time.

On Saturday we had a clean-up day followed by a bonfire and I asked a couple of hefty looking chaps to help me clear a patch at the top of my plot. It was covered in small trees and bushes - a couple of self-seeded oaks, some box, a few ashplants and a spiky fir-tree sort of a thingy (the people who had the plot before me had a gardening business and used the allotment to grow shrubs to replant in their clients' gardens).

I thought there might be enough space to make a seating area but when the ashplants and the spiky thingy had been dragged off to the bonfire we found that there was a clear square about 12' x 12' that will make a very nice mini-plot. So - if you're at the top of the waiting list you'll be my new neighbours at Number 26a Canalside Allotments. The other 44 of you will just have to be patient.

ride2stride

2011-10-28T10:13:00.001+01:00

Tony and I are writers with a very small "w".We've written two guides to the Dales High Way long distance walk and last year we worked with Colin Speakman to update his original Dales Way book. Our next project is a book of walks from the Settle-Carlisle railway. It's called Dales Rail Trails and it's due out in January. There - advert over but you need to know the background!

Anyway, one evening about a month ago we were half way down a bottle of red and chatting about the new book.

Him - We'd better think about a book launch

Me - What about a party?

Him - What about a party on a train?

Me - With live music

Him - And a walk first

And before we knew it it was sounding like a festival. We dropped the idea of it being a book launch, got some other people involved and there we have it. Ride2stride, the Settle-Carlisle Walking Festival will run from May 1st to May 7th 2012 with walks, talks and music from stations and in pubs along the length of the line. Aaaah - what have we done. I blame the bottle of red!

A Grand Day Out

2011-10-16T15:12:00.000+01:00

Just look at that sky!

After the murky weather of the last week we couldn't believe our luck when the sun came out for the first ever Friends of A Dales High Way walk. You can read all about it here.

More Apple Day

2011-10-11T10:18:00.000+01:00

It's eleven years since we held our first Apple Day event.

It was a modest affair in the local college with a handful of volunteers baking apple-y treats and selling unusual varieties. Over the years we added games, competitions, a stall where you could identify varieties, cider tasting, pruning demonstrations and finally when we began selling trees we moved out of the college and onto Bowling Community Orchard. Last year we served food to over 1,000 visitors in our field kitchen.

The field kitchen before the rush

So, what's it all about? Well, the official line is that Apple Day celebrates the diversity of English apples and the pub quiz facts are shocking - over 6,000 named varieties are known to have been grown in the past. Go on - have a go - cox, russet, granny smith er, er... At Apple Day you can taste the different varieties, both raw and cooked, and we label the dishes with the type of apple used - not so much Apple and Ginger Cake as Lord Lambourne and Ginger.

Identifying apples

What I like about it though is the coming together. I like meeting my mates to drink cider and talk about menus, I like cooking with other people and serving alongside them on the day. I like getting to the orchard at 7.30am and finding everyone already hard at it - the stalls, the competitions, the kids games all being set up, the apple press being installed and the cooks getting their priorities right - proper coffee for all the volunteers. No-one has to worry about anyone else - you do your bit and you know they'll do theirs.

Juicing

By 11am the public start to arrive - in their hundreds. It's a family event and I sometimes wonder if it hasn't taken the place of the traditional harvest festival. A celebration of the food we love to grow and cook and eat - together.

Apple Day

2011-10-10T07:36:00.000+01:00

I mean - what is the well-dressed cook to wear to serve lunch to 500 people in an orchard?

Happy Birthday Dales High Way

2011-10-05T14:27:00.000+01:00

Tony and I left home in September 2007 to walk A Dales High Way for the very first time. We'd walked it all before of course - every single step had been gone over a hundred times. Paths had been selected, rejected, altered and rejigged but we'd finally got there. We took a week to walk the 90 miles from Saltaire to Appleby in lovely autumn sunshine and we returned in the wink of an eye on the Settle - Carlisle railway. That was 4 years ago. This year we decided to do it again but this time in reverse - from Appleby to Saltaire. We did it in three sections and we finished it last week - again in glorious sunshine. You can read my account of the trip at http://daleshighway.blogspot.com/2011/10/settle-to-saltaire.html

Me and Jess on A Dales High Way last week

Fame-ish at last

2011-09-13T11:10:00.003+01:00

A bit windblown at the end of our walk along the Dales Way in yesterday's gales. We were recording "Ramblings" for Radio 4, with Colin and Fleur Speakman, the lovely Clare Balding and yours truly.

It was great fun to do and once we forgot about the hairy microphone it was ok - just like having a walk with mates. Clare was really natural and chatted all the time about where we were going and what we could see. She caused a bit of a stir in a cafe in Burnsall as people recognised her from the telly.

I'm SOOO excited - we'll be on at the beginning of October

Trains and trains and trains

2011-09-09T11:04:00.002+01:00

A grand day out on the South Tynedale Railway

Sorry for the long silence - I've been riding the rails.

All good things come in threes and this last couple of weeks I've been to the opening of Kirkby Stephen East station; for a ride on the South Tynedale Narrow-Gauge Railway and up and down (and up and down and up and down...) between Settle and Carlisle with a clipboard asking passengers cheeky questions on behalf of Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line.

And what links all this together - apart from the trains that is - is volunteers. Passionate, dedicated, some might say obsessive people who spend years of their lives putting back what previous governments destroyed - or in the case of the Settle-Carlisle line, came very close to destroying.

The Settle-Carlisle railway has always been part of my life. When I was a little girl the line ran through our farm. As tiny children we thought that the steam that came from the blow-holes in Blea Moor tunnel was dragon's breath and ran screaming every time we heard a train whistle. When we got older woe betide anyone who was late home for dinner - when that 12.10 went over Arten Gill viaduct every kid at the top of Dentdale knew to run home.

My dad feeding sheep above Arten Gill viaduct

Today the Settle-Carlisle line attracts thousands of passengers - commuters, tourists, walkers, mums taking their kids into Carlisle for school shoes - all these and more took part in my survey last week. It may be the most scenic line in Britain and one of the top ten railway journeys in the world but it's also an important part of the rail network, public transport for rural communities and an essential link between the urban centres of Yorkshire and the Western Dales. What other area of walking country is served so well by a mainline train. Get out there and get walking.

Cheers

2011-08-21T13:49:00.001+01:00

It's Jam Central in our house at the moment. After a flurry of activity in early July, when it was a daily race between me and the pigeons to see who could get to the blackcurrants first, the allotment has been a fruit-free zone.

Sudenly everything's ready at once - the autumn raspberries, (don't they know it's still August?) plums and two sorts of apples are all begging for attention.

Rasps and plums are easily dealt with - jam, chutney and my all-time favourite - raspberry gin. Just stuff equal quantities of ripe raspberries and white sugar into an empty bottle and top up with gin. I like 200 grams each of fruit and sugar to a litre of gin but you can add more sugar if you prefer it sweeter. Turn every few days until the sugar has disolved then put away in the dark till Christmas. Strain out the bleached raspberries and top up the raspberry liquer with sparkling wine - it's better than any Bucks Fizz or Kir Royale I've ever tasted.

Ok - it's not Christmas but what the heck....

The apples are more of a problem. I inherited two apple trees when I took on my allotment. One is a Cox and the small, sweet, eaters keep well both on the tree and stored in the shed. The other is a nameless nightmare - huge, bright red apples that turn from tongue-puckering to cottonwool in your mouth in the space of 24 hours. Horrible. The only solution is to cook them and after filling the freezer with enough stewed apple to keep us in crumble till Easter I turned to the Cottage Smallholder for inspiration. Fiona Neville's recipes always work and her chuck it in and taste it methods are close to my own heart.

I stewed 2 kilos of apples, washed and chopped, with the bad bits cut out but the skin and pips left in, with about half a litre of water and 2 chopped chillis.

Makeshift jelly bag

When the apples turned to mush I strained them overnight and the following day boiled up the resulting juice with sugar.

The juice was cloudy but it cleared ok

Most recipes call for equal measures of sugar to juice but these apples are really sweet and I was after a savoury jelly so I added about half sugar to juice and boiled it for a good 20 minutes. It was a bit trial and error but it worked and I'm left with half a dozen pots of spicey, appley jelly to eat with cheese or cold meat or stir into curry and chilli con carne.

Success

Horrible apple tree I think you've just redeemed yourself.

A Tale of Two Railways

2011-08-13T11:47:00.001+01:00

Merrygill Viaduct spans Hartley Beck in Cumbria. Ribblehead it’s not. Merrygill is a mere 9 arches on the disused Stainmore Railway but still it makes for fine walking on a summer’s day.

Merrygill Viaduct

We went up on Tuesday, travelling from Saltaire on the Settle-Carlisle line. The train was packed, mainly with walkers using this fantastic way to get out into the Western Dales. At Settle, Horton, Ribblehead and Dent – off they piled, heading for the hills in the sunshine.

We stayed put and enjoyed the ride all the way to Kirkby Stephen. The station is remote, a good mile and a half from town, but a newly constructed path keeps you off the busy road.

Traffic-free - hurrah. Tarmac - boo

We were heading for Stenkrith Park and the start of the Northern Viaducts Walk, a section of the old Stainmore Railway which has been restored for walkers and cyclists by the Northern Viaducts Trust.

The view from the footbridge at the start of the Viaducts Walk

Our route took us along the railbed, past platelayer's huts and the site of the signal box, until a privately owned section forced us to detour via Hartley village.

Old signal box

Although parts of the disused Stainmore line are walkable, including the wonderful Smardale Viaduct, now a Nature Reserve, there are still gaps.

Eventually the Trust hopes to fill those gaps and complete the route from Newbiggin-on-Lune to the site of Belah Viaduct, in it's day the highest railway viaduct in England, making almost eleven miles in all.

I hope that they do. The best railway lines are the ones that are open and working like the Settle-Carlisle but if that's not possible then let's at least preserve something of our railway heritage and enjoy these paths through the countryside.

The end is nigh

2011-08-01T19:09:00.001+01:00

David King, Dave Shaw and Roger Clarke arrive home

Last week I joined these three lovely chaps for the last few miles of a 210 mile walk. Two of them, Roger and Dave had walked from New Lanark in Scotland to Saltaire in West Yorks on a route of their own devising. David, the 3^rd musketeer, provided sterling service as a baggage carrier, accommodation seeker, occasional walker and general cheerer-upper when the going got tough.

All three are keen historians and wanted to celebrate the two World Heritage sites of New Lanark and our own Saltaire by attempting, in their own words,

“A 200+ mile walk/run/stroll/limp through beautiful countryside, reflecting on the lives and achievements of Robert Owen and Titus Salt. Was it worth it? Yes! Do it again? Yes! An increased appetite for walking? Yes! Nice meeting other travellers along the way? Yes!”

Roger happy to be back in Yorkshire

Also coming to the end of his own personal journey is Mike Brockhurst, the Walking Englishman, who has just 100 of his 1,000+ miles to go and is expecting to reach the Lizard on Aug 9^th. Remarkable.

Mike Brockhurst - the Walking Englishman

All these walkers worked out their own routes, picking bits of established paths and veering off as the mood took them, altering the way to suit the weather, the terrain and anything they fancied seeing along the way.

And that’s how it should be. One of the joys of walking, especially multi-day walking, is the freedom to go where we want, when we want and not be judged.

So, in answer to the person who asked why we called our route “A” Dales High Way not “The” Dales High Way. It’s because the route in the book is only one way to go – alter it, add bits, take a detour - but above all, make it your own.

Don't you just love allotments

2011-08-01T13:08:00.000+01:00

Before

After

Mmmm

Art attack

2011-07-21T14:59:00.000+01:00

David Starley is a Saltaire artist who works in oils. He creates fabulous, textural paintings of landscapes - great big canvasses with the paint layered on so that the light changes and moves across the scene just as it does in reality.

Ribblehead Viaduct by David Starley

David is working on a series of paintings inspired by A Dales High Way. I’m so excited about this – the walk has already developed a life of its own and now it’s inspiring people to write blogs, take photographs and make art.

The Dales High Way Art exhibition will be at the Anstey Gallery in Ilkley this summer. Dave and I will be there on August 6th so do drop in and say hello.

Dave’s paintings aren’t the only artworks associated with the walk. A few months ago I read a post from a Dales High Way walker on a walking forum saying “Look out for the Hound of Windgate Nick” and we thought we’d better take a look and check it out. We climbed up out of Ilkley, past houses to die for, and soon were high above the Wharfe valley on a clear path across moorland.

Cup and ring markings on the Piper's Crag Stone

This is a really ancient route and it passes the remains of settlements dotted all along the escarpment. Bronze Age travellers passed this way with their flint tools from the Yorkshire Wolds and their stone axe heads from the Lake District, trading their way from east coast to west. Maybe those were the tools that were used to carve the cup and ring markings into the rocks that line the path.

A couple of miles on and we were close to Windgate Nick. Where was this mysterious hound? We crossed a stile and began to climb towards a rocky outcrop and there, perched on the skyline was a sculpture of a wolf baying at the moon.

Hound or wolf?

Woven from willow, it stood stark and proud above the valley. No-one knows who made it or how it got up there, or if they do they’re certainly not saying. It’s taken a bit of a battering in the winds since we first saw it but it’s still there and it’s still recognisable.

Guerrilla art – don’t you just love it.

A relatively good walk

2011-07-16T13:21:00.000+01:00

When I was growing up each person in the extended family was described by, and clearly labelled with, their relationship to each other - your grannie, his auntie, my husband’s nephew and even the dreaded second cousin twice removed. Most of it went over my head but those strange descriptions came back to me this week when I went walking with a new friend. He’s the son of my mother’s cousin and although we’ve no recollection of each other as children we’ve met recently when he’s been staying in the Dales.

This week he helped me test walk a possible route for a future book. We headed out of Settle on a clear path towards Stainforth, quickly leaving the riverside and heading for Stackhouse. Behind the hamlet we turned sharp left up a couple of fields, quickly gaining height until we reached the top of a limestone outcrop with fine views across towards Pen-y-ghent.

Pen-y-ghent in the distance

There wasn’t a soul about and although we hadn’t climbed far at all we felt on top of the world. The walking was easy, the weather was fine and ahead we could see Ingleborough and the outline of the Eastern Lakeland Fells.

As the path dropped towards Feizor we took a detour up the hill to Dead Man’s Cave and on to the strange structure known as the Celtic Wall.

Don't know who died here

The Celtic Wall stands alone in the middle of the moor, a short length of wall made of massive stones. There’s been speculation about its age and purpose but no-one seems quite sure what it was all about although the current thinking seems to be that it’s medieval.

The Celtic Wall

A short but precipitous path took us down towards Smearset Scar

Smearset Scar

and an easy walk into Feizor and Elaine’s Tearoom. I remember this popular cafe a few years ago when it was just a collection of plastic tables outside the farmhouse where walkers and cyclists could get a very welcome cup of tea. Not any more. Now you can get anything from an ice lolly to a full blown Sunday dinner and it’s regularly heaving. I was glad to see my old favourite – the mug of milky coffee – was still on the menu and we enjoyed a short break in the sunshine.

Our return route took us out of the hamlet and up to Buck Haw Brow where we followed Giggleswick Scar back towards Settle. Again we had fine views, this time across the Forest of Bowland to the south west and all too soon we were back at the start.

Altogether a very enjoyable afternoon so J – I’m not quite sure what sort of second or third or removed cousin you are but you’re a fine walking companion and that’s all that matters to me.

A walk doesn't have to be long...

2011-07-14T14:48:00.000+01:00

...to be lovely

The towpath near Saltaire this morning

Hello old friend

2011-07-04T11:05:00.001+01:00

Like many people the first long distance walk I attempted was the Dales Way. It appealed for a number of reasons. We could walk straight out of our door in Saltaire and onto the link route from Bradford to Ilkley. The route is way marked and the sections looked easily achievable even for newbies like ourselves AND we would pass right by my old home at the top of Dentdale.

Me at home on the farm

I grew up on a farm in Cowgill at the top of the Dale and my first introduction to walking for pleasure was watching weary Dales Way walkers heading for the Youth Hostel in the late afternoon. We walked alright. In the days before quad bikes became the must-have piece of kit for every shepherd and his kids we managed our flock on foot.

Dad feeding sheep on Wold Fell

Our sheep spent their days on the fells and so did we. Wold Fell and Whernside were as familiar to me as my back garden is now.

It’s many years since I left the farm and discovered for myself the pleasures of walking the fells just for fun. It’s also a long time since that first walk that got me hooked on long distance trails. I’m just about to set off on the Dales Way again. This time in a series of day walks with a friend. And as we trudge our way down into Dentdale at the end of Day 5 I’ll be keeping an eye open for farm kids. I’ll give them a wave and I’ll tell them it is fun – really it is.

You'll never walk alone

2011-06-19T19:01:00.000+01:00

Seven years ago this week we went to the RSPCA and came away with a little scruff-ball we called Jess. She wasn’t our first choice. Oh no, we’d got our eyes firmly set on another – a sweet little puppy with take-me-home eyes – but when I knelt down to say hello, Jess jumped onto my knee and she’s never got off.

Jess 10 weeks old

She was the oddest looking pup – huge head, short legs, bent nose and when she walks her back legs wander along a good six inches to the right of her front ones. She looks like a bendy bus or Slinky from Toy Story. She’s also the happiest little dog I’ve ever known. Every day’s an adventure, everybody she meets is her friend. She goes pretty much everywhere we go and last week tramped from Edale to Haworth on the first 60 miles of the Pennine Way sharing a tent and the odd sausage with Tony. When she got out of her basket on their first morning home Jess staggered to the door on legs as stiff as fence posts.

Now you know how I feel Jess. Here’s to the next 7 years walking together.

One foot in front of the other ....

2011-06-15T17:39:00.001+01:00

Mike Brockhurst’s Walking Englishman is one of the most popular walking websites there is. There’s always something to enjoy as he shares his old favourites and new discoveries. This time Mike’s really gone and done it. He’s about 3 weeks into a 3 month trek from the far north-west of Scotland to the most southerly tip of England, or as Mike calls it, his 1,000 mile walk in 80 days.

A thousand miles! I’ve never done anything like that. The furthest I’ve walked in one go is the Coast to Coast path. It took us just under a fortnight and it rained every single day. Even so the whole experience is right up there in my top ten of the best things I’ve ever done. There is something about setting off and not coming home that is quite different from even the greatest of day walks. You leave home and your everyday life behind and around day 3 something happens – to me at least. I stop worrying about whether I’ve left the gas on and what my boss said and everything concentrates down to the single fact of putting one foot in front of the other. Walking becomes who I am - what I do. Nothing else matters.

Friends have asked me what I think about when I’m on a long distance trail. The answer is not a lot. Occasionally the thought of a mars bar might float into my head but mostly my mind just empties and the rhythm of the walk takes over. A kind of detachment sets in and I end the walk calmer, more relaxed and at peace with myself and the world.

So Mike, I wish you the very best of luck and if you’re anything like me, by August you’ll be so laid back they’ll have to hang on to your backpack to stop you slipping off the Lizard and floating out to sea.

Chance encounter

2011-06-10T08:17:00.002+01:00

We’re still quite new to this writing lark and I’ve often wondered what I’d do if I actually saw someone with a copy of one of our books. What do you say? What’s the protocol? Do you stroll nonchalantly by or rush up shrieking? Smile and nod or run in the opposite direction? Well that moment has finally come. The other day we were walking from Settle towards Malham on a lovely route that started with a steep climb out of the town and headed past Sugar Loaf Hill to the foot of Attermire Scar where it joined the path of A Dales High Way.

Warrendale Knotts and Attermire Scar

Ahead we spotted a lone walker and soon caught up with him when he stopped to consult his map – our map! And yes – we spoke to him. Well, we had to didn’t we – if only to make sure he wasn’t lost! I was so excited. It turns out he was from California and was walking the DHW backwards having joined it at Appleby after spending a week on the Cumbria Way. What a trip.

We walked together for a while, parting above Malham Tarn where we joined the Pennine Bridleway for a lovely walk down to Stainforth. It was easy going all the way with the most beautiful views of all 3 Peaks ahead of us for most of the way. A picnic by Catrigg Force was followed by a welcome pint in the Craven Heifer in Stainforth. It’s a great little pub that gave us a fright earlier this year when it suddenly closed for business. It’s always a worry when village pubs close. Without pubs and schools the heart is knocked out of a village. Welcome back Craven Heifer – we missed you.

My first post

2011-06-07T12:01:00.002+01:00

Hi

This is the first post on my brand new blog head in the clouds.
There that's the scary bit over so I'll just say hi. My name is Chris and I love to walk.

Sometimes I look like this:

but often I look more like this:

The dog's called Jess and she's usually around somewhere. Thanks for reading.

Back soon.