The main purpose of this blog is to keep in touch with friends and family, and maybe entertain others with common interests, particularly in relation to the outdoors. We hope you enjoy it, and your comments are valued....
Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019
Saturday 15 May 2021
Saturday 15 May 2021 - parkrunners at Wythenshawe
Friday 14 May 2021
Friday 14 May 2021 - Around Little Budworth (2)
This was another 'recce' walk for Jen Darling - the Little Budworth Walk number 17 in her 'Walks in West Cheshire and Wirral' book. Very few amendment to her route description etc since the 2007 edition are needed.
Sue and I met Graeme, Paul, Jeanette, and Rufus the dog, at Budworth Pool, after we'd parked further on and waited with this view into the Cheshire countryside from Mill Lane.
Tasty morsels provided by Jeanette went down well.
Thursday 13 May 2021
TGO Challenge - Wild Camps (No 64: 16 May 2015)
After a night in an Aviemore B&B, Sue and I walked over the Lairig Ghru in fair weather despite pessimism at Control regarding the forecast wind, meeting a first timer, John Sheffield (airline pilot, wearing a skirt!) - I note he's doing it again this year. Good luck to him with the midges that he'll no doubt encounter on the postponed to late June event. [In normal - non-Covid - years we would now be in the middle of the Challenge.]
We stopped well before the fleshpots of Braemar, choosing an excellent site in Glen Luibeg at NO 020 937. Pretty cool at 500 metres, but our Rab 400 sleeping bags kept us snug and warm.
Wednesday 12 May 2021
Great Granddaughter meets Great Grandma (3 May 2021)
Tuesday 11 May 2021
Meanwhile, back in Timperley
We enjoyed a lovely sunset from our window the other night, and the Canada Geese are entertaining us while assiduously guarding their offspring on the canal. So life isn't bad, even though the swifts haven't yet arrived, and Lockdown seems to be easing into a vague sense of normality, so I hope this may be the last 'Lockdown' posting.
Having said that, the pandemic is by no means over, especially in some distant parts of the world, and it will continue to restrict our activities and movements, but I hope we can just get on with life. A hundred years ago the 'Spanish' 'flu was killing far more people, and those who had a job probably got just one day a week off work, and one week a year for holidays.
Monday 10 May 2021
Snowdonia: 60 Low-Level and Easy Walks - Alex Kendall
Readers may have noticed the occasional reference to 'Alex' during last week's postings from Porthmadog. That's because we were trying out some of Alex Kendall's 60 routes, detailed in his Cicerone guides published in 2019 and 2020.
The eight routes we walked proved to be varied and excellent, and as Porthmadog is at the southern end of the 'North' book, and the northern end of the 'South' book, it's a perfect place from which to explore these routes.
The spring colours in the woodland were wonderful, as they would be in autumn. Whilst Alex doesn't go into great detail regarding the flora and fauna, he does add snippets of information about the places the walks pass through, so it's more than just a case of following the route descriptions, which we found easy to follow with occasional reference to the 1:25000 scale maps that are inserted in the text.
Cicerone also provide .gpx file downloads for purchasers of the books. I found these downloaded easily into Anquet's android phone app, but whilst I opened the relevant file on my phone before each walk, we'd have managed perfectly well without them.
So if you are a walker, not addicted exclusively to summits (although a few summits are reached on these walks), and plan to visit Snowdonia, I can heartily recommend these pocket guides by way of inspiration for getting you to scenic spots you may not have visited previously.
The nearby Llŷn Peninsula, a brilliant venue for walks in the area - especially when Snowdonia is engulfed by poor weather - is not covered in these books. I recommend David Berry's Kittiwake guide for another 30 walks in that area.
So that's 90 routes to choose from, plus those we devise ourselves, and all the mountain walks. We'll be back!
Sunday 9 May 2021
Sunday 9 May 2021 - (not)parkrun number 321 - and 122 for Sue
Where better to enjoy a (not)parkrun. I think this is my most scenic (not)parkrun to date, excluding some of the excellent walks we have had.
But this was a genuine run, during which we passed the 5 km mark in 32:42, a respectable time considering it was ten days since my last run, and nearly as long for Sue, and there were a few gates to open and close.
We started from home and ran around the eastern side of Llyn Bach, from where the 262 metre summit of Moel-y-Gest stands out above the town.
Our route headed along good tracks and paths to briefly join the verge of the A498 road on the outskirts of Tremadog. From there, we enjoyed the lovely woodland path that leads to Porthmadog by-pass.