Porthmadog

We made it here by 6 pm and then enjoyed a 6 km walk to Tremadog and back, via the fish and chip shop.

These pictures are in a random order, but that doesn't really matter - I'm just a bit rusty with mobile postings as I've not been 'mobile', apart from two nights, for well over a year.

I'm experimenting. Trying to use 'Blogger' with an Android phone.

Here's Porthmadog's stone circle. I've no idea of its age. Perhaps it's a modern replica!?

There were fine views tonight, from just outside our house to the Snowdon massif and Cnicht.

The walk back from Tremadog goes through a lovely wood.

Next to a cow, keeping warm by lying in a pool of slurry, this tractor appeared to be copying the cow.

After we had finished our fish and chips, we enjoyed fine views towards Cnicht and the Moelwyns on our walk to Tremadog.

Our house overlooks the harbour. Here's a view from our deck. Magic.

Friday 30 April 2021 - Around Longridge

Bowland Climber (BC) has written on several occasions about his walks around Longridge - see here - so I thought I might take a day off planning my own route and ask BC to join us on a walk around his home town. So he kindly did that, and a lovely walk it was as well, in the fine company of Graeme, Cary, Alastair, and of course Sue.

It turned to be nearly 17 km, a shade over ten miles, with less than 200 metres ascent. Taken at a leisurely pace, it took rather longer than five hours.

There's a good selection of fine stiles around Longridge - fortunately not all of them have been replaced with the all pervasive metal kissing gates.
 

However, we soon passed a particularly dreadful manifestation. I'm not sure about this - Health and Safety gone berserk, perhaps?

Then we passed this sight. I don't like magpies, but this treatment seems a bit extreme.

Next to the birds, a Renault for AlanR, who sadly couldn't join us today due to the 'Rule of Six'.

However, the walking was very pleasant, in dry weather and no wetness apart from a bit of damp grass.

We passed numerous gates that provide access to the line of water pipes from Lake District reservoirs to Manchester. I wrote about the Heaton Park to Wheelton section of the Thirlmere pipe here.

There are some impressive structures on the course of the pipelines.

Manchester's coat of arms features strongly, and our host was keen to point out various aspects of these plaques - the Manchester bee, a clipper, the pipelines, and a chain, the reason for which I can't remember. A separate posting is needed!

 

We passed through the yard of a factory that manufactures joists, floors and other house parts - duly marked up with the relevant building sites and plot numbers. Great to see something being manufactured in the UK. (I am still miffed about buying some socks yesterday and finding they had come all the way from China!)

Lunch was taken in a graveyard. The seats were comfy, and allowed for social distancing. Local fauna included hares and oyster catchers.

BC recalled 'Ginio' Ferrari - a local restauranteur who drove around in a Jaguar, registration number GF1, apparently purchased from George Formby's family.

We were curious about two lambs, trapped in a weighing machine (naughty corner?) with their mum looking on.

After a while, the well named town of Longridge came back into view, and BC prepared us for the climb back onto the ridge behind the town.

En route, a pretty bluebell wood and a footbridge in the dell.

Eventually we found ourselves looking back down to Spade Mill Reservoirs. Far to the left, Pendle Hill cut a distinctive line on the horizon.

Back at the start of the walk, Sue and Alastair both had futile attempts to climb an overhanging crag.

BC (a climber) explained how the BMC had managed to purchase the strip of land with the crag, from the errant property developer whose planned holiday homes morphed into over twice as many family houses.

Some climbers arrived with their mats (for when they fall off - they just bounce on the mat - apparently).

Then we went home, after thanking BC for his excellent company and route finding skills.

[Hey ho - that was done in a bit of a hurry as we go on holiday tomorrow - for the first time for many, many moons! I wonder whether I can remember how to do mobile postings?]

BC has also written an excellent piece about his encounter with 'The Cheshire Set' - see here.

Thursday 29 April 2021 - This and That

There's not much to report. 

What a contrast with the River Mersey just a few weeks ago, when it was almost up to the level of the bridge in the distance in the above picture taken last Sunday at Northenden weir. Children were enjoying sliding down the weir.

Around here, and in Fletcher Moss Park, the Marsh Marigolds are flourishing despite the dry weather - areas of marshland are still available!

We plan to teach Isabella all about flower identification in due course. For the time being she's quite happy to stick with identifying the shafts of sunlight that filter through the increasingly leafy trees.

Cycling beside the Mersey, I passed numerous canoeists and kayakers taking advantage of the benign conditions.

A walk into Sale today revealed a surprisingly quiet towpath. Was everyone at work? It also confirmed that spring has well and truly sprung. It's very leafy despite the cool weather at present.

Tonight one of our local hedgehogs arrived to hoover up the food left out for the birds... I hope the mealworms don't make it ill! 

We rarely get starlings, but a trio of those birds has come through the garden the last couple of mornings.

TGO Challenge - Wild Camps (No 63: 14 May 2015)

After a ten hour day crossing the Monadhliath hills, we were tired enough to stop a little short of our target. We chose a lovely grassy, sheltered spot at NH 770 155, just below Carn Caol, at 630 metres.

Camping high like this is fine for us - the tent is warm and our RAB Quantum 400 sleeping bags keep us warm. Apart from our outer waterproof layers, we have little need to update our equipment. I see that I was back to my old Karrimor Jaguar rucksack on this trip, more modern rucksacks from GoLite and Lowe Alpine having failed after fairly short periods of use.

Slide Scanning - 1 January to 3 February 1980 - mainly a Lomond Trip

Well, I've scanned them and binned all but a few of the slides, so I may as well do something with the scanned images.

I must have returned from the Wasdale trip to see in the New Year in Manchester. New Year's Day must have seen a break in a tradition of visiting the Lakes or Snowdonia. Instead, I paid a visit to Delph, probably with Nell and Mark. That accounts for the first two images, labelled 'Delph' and 'Oldham from Grains Bar (sunset)'.

On 6 January, a visit to Monsal Dale generated this picture of Ruth.

On 13 January quite a large group of us visited Rivington and Winter Hill. Here's Bob Selig at Rivington. Bob may feature in earlier escapades, but won't appear much after this due to his move with Annie to Denmark. 

I wonder how much of this you remember, Bob?

We passed the Pigeon Loft, built in 1910, and with Lady Leverhulme's sewing room on the top floor. It was renovated in 1974 and re-roofed in 2005.

The next slide appears to have deteriorated with age, but it seems that Laurie (RIP) and Bob accompanied me, Nell and Mark, and a family of three whose identity I can't recall. Perhaps Mark will remember? That's Rivington Tower in the background, and some very icy bog in the foreground.

A visit to Kinder Reservoir on 20 January generated another slide with bizarre hues.

On the weekend of 26 and 27 January, Ian Carr, Laurie, Dave and I enjoyed a weekend based at the campsite at Ardlui, beside Loch Lomond. This was one of several such trips. I've already reported on those that took place in 1985, 1986 and 1988.

On this occasion, we were blessed with wonderful weather on the Saturday, when we climbed Ben Vane (3004'). These pictures have come out much better, and I hope they speak for themselves. If you click on one of them, as always if you are using a PC, you'll see a better image and have access to a slideshow. The captions below are below the relevant images.

At the summit, with Ben Lomond.

On the summit (with the Trossachs behind Laurie).

Lunchtime.

Looking back to the summit of Ben Vane.

The view north.

Sunday's weather was cold and overcast. Our transport at this time was my second company car, a Ford Cortina Estate, which performed pretty well on the whole. We went for a walk up Glen Falloch and got some good views from above the snow line.

My memory is unclear, but I suspect this may have been a trip when the pleasures of the hostelry at Ardlui, and the cold weather, dictated a late night after a lot of fluid. So the nursing of hangovers may have inhibited us from reaching any summits. I certainly didn't record any Munro ascents.

Here are two views in Glen Falloch.

The final trip in this little series was with the Cragrats in the Brecon Beacons, on 2 and 3 February 1980. This was a connection with Martin Elliot, who I had met two or three years earlier in Torridon.

I don't remember much of this, but we clearly had a walk on the Saturday, with some interesting sploshing across rivers. Dave may have been with me on this trip.

We were in the area of Fan Hir, which we ascended in the mist. The descent to Llyn y Fan Fawr provided the best photo opportunity of the trip.

Lower down, there was a good view towards Gwyn Arms.

On the Sunday, a trip to Ystradfellte saw us crawling through a rather wet cave, which I do remember. Here we are, at base, with Martin Elliot pictured on the far left.

That's all for now, I hope those who feature in this dive into the archives enjoy the memories as much as I have done.

Coming soon - 'Torridon 1980'.