A View in the Glyders

This picture was taken on 23 March 2006, on a wintry visit to the Glyders. I'll maybe post a few more pictures and a diary entry when I have time.

Cressbrook Dale

I finally managed to get www.topwalks.com back up and running this afternoon. It took ages, but I managed to avoid having to wait on a help line. Nor could I work out what was actually wrong - perhaps a Firewall issue - that was one of several things I fiddled with. 

Not that there's anything to look at on the website, but being unable to update it was annoying me.

So, being disinclined to spend even more time in front of a computer screen, here's today's random picture, taken in the Peak District. It seems that I've used it before, but never mind...

The Cantilever Rock

I'm short of time today, so a quick rummage through my pictures folder drew me to this, one of my favourite places. I posted the picture nearly a year ago at the height of Lockdown, here, but I'm more than pleased to return to the happy memory today.

Sassongher

We've had a busy day today - Dot (96 next month) got her second vaccination, so she is most relieved at that.

All I've time for is a photo from a 'Favourite Place'. The summit of Sassongher, where Jenny B is pictured with a backdrop of the summit cross and a Dolomitic view on a perfect day. 

Here's hoping that we'll one be able to return there...

The North West Highlands

At last week's funeral of Andrew's wife, Rosemary, there was a reading of a delightful 'prose poem' that gave a flavour of Rosemary's love of the North West Highlands:

Extracts from a prose poem posted from Red River Croft, Wester Ross, in the summer of 2016.

Midsummer: inner sounds and outer colours.

Annie O’Garra Worsley.

Since the summer solstice sunshine and showers have been passing quickly across the croft, hills and sea. The bright warmth of recent weeks still clings to the North West Highlands and the air is filled with countless trillions of tiny water droplets; when the sun bursts from behind the clouds they sparkle and dazzle, so all the world seems to be filled with effervescing light. 

Rainy days have come sharply and gone floodily, their showers soaking into the dry dusty ground and then releasing, in a shamanic sweep of aromas, the sap-green essences of growing and the black-peat juices of bog and hill. Breathe in and the mind fills with colour and scent, breathe out and the body releases its stress. 

Even when storm clouds and showers gathered across the Minch and Inner Sound hiding the horizon with dark, thunderous banks of cloud, the sea waters have glowed and pulsed with energy, eye-aching in their formidable beauty. As clouds and showers drifted north west they covered Skye and the Hebrides in drapery of mauve, indigo, and grey as if voile curtains were being pulled gently across by unseen hands, perhaps to shield the islands from the coruscating light. 

There is much magic in this elemental place; crystal-bright light is seeping into every living cell while myrtle-scented and resinous breezes swish around us all like balm. Land, sea and air are suffused with enchantment; it is hard not to become infused oneself and laugh with sheer pleasure of it all. 

The romance of midsummer will pass. This beautiful edgeland, where sky meets sea meets land in a maelstrom of inner sounds and outer colours, will quieten and soften. Although the nights will be high and white for a while longer, change is on the way; the days have begun to shorten and in a few short months these moonstone, mother-of-pearl and turquoise days will have diminished and I will rely on memory, photographs and paintings to bring them back.

It turns out that this prose was part of a blog entry from Annie's excellent blog, Red River Croft. Well worth a read.

Sue and I also love this part of the world, though in recent years we haven't got as far north as we would like. I have many memories of the area, including numerous sightings of sea otters.

The picture at the head of this posting is of Dave Oliver on Quinag, looking down to the Lochinver road on 22 March 2005. A picture of John Clark in the same spot in better light won me a photographic competition (and a shiny new Zenith camera) about 30 years earlier. That was on slide film that I must get around to scanning!

The picture below is of another favourite view of mountains lined up on the horizon - Canisp, Suilven, Cul Mor and Cul Beag, with Stac Pollaidh just out of view to the right..

What a wonderful part of the world...

Where was I then?

Here’s a pleasing image to look at on a cold February morning, looking out onto one of my favourite places.

More pictures to follow below when someone identifies the location.

…well, it took Conrad less than an hour and a half, probably much less if he had seen the posting earlier.

The above picture was taken on 24 August 2005 from the tunnel windows of the Sentiero de Luca/Innerkofler via ferrata on (in) Monte Paterno. I was accompanied by Sue, Ken, Ian and Megan.

The following pictures were taken at Forcella Lavaredo and Rifugio Tre Cime-Locatelli on 16 July 2007.

Happy Days…

NB – Tre Cime is also known as Drei Zinnen – it’s part an area that has a turbulent past.

Wednesday 2 November 2016 – Shutlingsloe

We’ve been here many times before, though it’s a while since I did this exact walk. Previous descriptions are here.

I wasn’t intending to go out, but the sunny weather drew me to parking near the Leather’s Smithy in Langley and setting off on this familiar 12 km circuit. No map was needed.

I was not alone. The top picture shows a number of folk wending their way up the normal ascent path. Looking back, the autumn colours of Macclesfield Forest glowed under a bright November sun.

There were various folk gathered on the summit, admiring good views in all directions.

It was fairly cool on the summit, but no windproof was needed as I descended to the Crag Inn, trying to maintain 10 minutes per kilometre pace. The Crag Inn ‘serves hot food’, so it’s still going strong. I seem to recall a threatened close down and conversion to a private house being thwarted by planning permissions.

After some well marked field paths with friendly signs from the farmer, and a short section of tarmac, the path ascends to Oakenclough, from where you can look back at the side of Shutlingsloe. A small terrier came yapping after me but ran away when I tried to engage it in conversion (a familiar experience, perhaps it had human genes?).

The next picture is taken from the top of the path that leads down to the Hanging Gate pub. It’s one of my favourite places, with fine views over Greater Manchester and across to Joddrell Bank and the Cheshire plain, backed by the Clwydian Hills. I always come armed with a flask and a banana as an excuse to pause for a while here, before heading on down the often boggy path. It was dry today; the lack of rain means that trail shoes can be worn with impunity until the autumn rains eventually arrive.

The Hanging Gate would be a good place to stop, if time permitted.

Below the Hanging Gate, a grassy path leads to the Gritstone Trail.

Good signposting on the Gritstone Trail leads walkers through fields of livestock and past private residencies, with good views across to Tegg’s Nose.

Whilst the Gritstone Trail heads down to Clarke Lane, those returning to the Leather’s Smithy turn sharply right over a footbridge to go past the end of Ridgegate Reservoir.

It’s a brisk couple of hours for the 12 km circuit, with about 450 metres ascent. A lovely outing. I’ll be there again soon.

Wednesday 1 June 2016 – Another ‘Big Macc Ramble’

I’ve written about this bike ride before, going back to 2005, but I was surprised that my last visit was in 2014, so here’s an annotated pictorial story of today’s route. It’s surprising how at different times of the year, or simply on different visits, the eye is caught by different scenes that are absent from previous reports. Though some, such as landmarks like the Cat & Fiddle, usually feature.

I parked outside Trentabank Visitors Centre and started by zooming down past the Leathers Smithy pub and into Langley before heading beside Alan Roberts’ old house and up Holehouse Lane to a quiet spot between Teggsnose Reservoir and Bottoms Reservoir. The houses on Clarke Lane are seen the other side of Bottoms Reservoir (top photo).

Teggsnose Wood was delightful, despite the overcast day, with the last of the bluebells lining the path that leads to Clough House.

A steep pull leads to the main A837 road at Walkers Barn, where this ride enters the Peak District National Park, where it remains until exiting the Park at Nessit Hill.

After a few metres of main road a right turn returns the rider or walker to the quiet solitude (on a Wednesday morning in June) of Charity Lane.

Once the tarmac is left behind, the lane becomes a superb mountain bike track that leads to a high point that is one of my favourite places. Today low cloud meant that the summit of Shining Tor and the buildings of the Cat & Fiddle were both hard to discern through the gloom.

Forest Chapel was in use, for a funeral that would be adjourning to the Peak View Tearooms, just visible in the picture below after a tarmac ascent.

If you need sustenance just now, you need the tearooms (only open on certain days) as the Cat & Fiddle…

… is closed, and has been all this year.

Presumably the owners are waiting for someone suitable to contact them.

After that sad sight of the closure of the second highest hostelry in England, the cotton grass lined track past Danebower Hollow was a delight, especially as it brings back dark memories of a horribly boggy route before the path was re-built.

A kilometre or so along the main A54 road passed in just a few seconds as it was downhill with a brisk tailwind. I could nearly keep up with the motorised bikes!

The descent past Sparbent to Cumberland Clough, and onwards to the Wildboarclough road seems to get rockier every time I use it. It’s what some may describe as a ‘technical descent’. Great fun.

Here are two pictures taken near the path junction at SJ 997 699, where I paused to despatch a pint of tea and some chocolate before tackling some of the bigger boulders and a stream crossing further down the clough.

The rocks get bigger. You have to divert your eyes from Shutlingsloe (on the right in the picture below), or risk disaster!

Once in the valley, beside Clough Brook, I was astonished to see how green everything looked today, even under dark clouds.

My usual route up a steep lane was blocked, but the tarmac via Bottom o’th Oven and Forest Lodge was much more gentle on the thighs. I think I’ll use it in future although it does turn the ‘circuit’ into a ‘figure of eight’ shape.

The views within Macclesfield Forest, with Trentabank Reservoir in the picture below, seem to be continually changing as forest management dictates harvesting and replacement of the trees. I’m sure this is much greener than when I’ve been here before.

All too soon the National Park is left behind, Nessit Hill is summited after a sharp ascent, and here there don’t seem to be any regulations preventing the installation of sparkling new benches with fine views towards Tegg’s Nose and away over Greater Manchester.

On this occasion I took a steep descent route marked for bikes – slightly shorter than the old route on which pedestrians may have felt terrorised by fast paced mountain bikes. The path I took was deserted, so no such problem today.

The 23 km with 800 metres ascent took me 2 hours 50 minutes (moving time 2.10). A most enjoyable morning’s outing that substituted for a planned walk for which nobody turned up at the allotted time at the Visitor Centre. Luckily my bike was in the car, or this would have been a (solo) walk report.

Here’s the route.

Tuesday 2 December 2014 – Shutlingsloe

Yesterday I popped up Shutlingsloe on a recce for a walk that takes place a week on Sunday – a lovely route that I’ll report on in due course.

Vienna and Adam, at the Cat & Fiddle, told me the pub had spent the last ten days in a cloud, so I was lucky to get clear views, like the one above towards The Roaches.

It was a shame that Gayle couldn’t join me, as she’s failed to find clear days on Shutlingsloe on recent visits to the area. Actually, today would have been even better, with perfectly clear skies after a frosty night.

But I’m glad I went yesterday as I had the pleasure of bumping into someone I hadn’t seen for over ten years (though we have been friends for around 45 years). It was lovely to see you, ‘Posh’!

Shutlingsloe…. come to think of it this is one of my most visited hills, at the top of the list along with The Wrekin and with Beinn Alligin. Views from both are pictured below; I’ll leave the reader to work out which is which!

Happy Days!

Friday 23 July 2010 – The ‘Big Macc Ramble’

Hello all, apologies for the recent hiatus.  I’ve been taking a break.  I’ll now try to catch up…

Some ten days ago I revisited this excellent mountain bike route, details of which I don’t need to bore you with, as I reported in more detail on 21 September 2009.  The route is described here.

At this time of year many of the hedgerows are lined with a garden weed that looks quite colourful in the countryside - Rosebay Willowherb, pictured above, and this very week (the last week in July) is the time to harvest the bilberries that abound in Charity Lane, the rough track that links the hamlets of Walker Barn and Macclesfield Forest.

A Favourite Place

I wasn’t equipped for the bilberry harvest – I left that to the lady with a large vehicle and a fancy Norwegian ‘bilberry collecting gadget’.  But I did pause at the summit of Charity Lane, at around SJ 967 727.  This is a ‘Favourite Place’.  It’s a high point of the ride, at 475 metres – nearly 300 metres higher than the starting point by Ridgegate Reservoir.  It follows nearly 40 minutes of fairly unrelenting ascent and is a good spot to pause with a cup of tea before tackling the sporting descent that follows.  The views aren’t fantastic, but do stretch across to Shining Tor and the High Peak (top left), and over to the second and highest high point of the ride – the Cat and Fiddle, at 515 metres (on the horizon, top right).  The track is a brilliant mountain biking surface, as shown on the lower images.

The groove of the track slowly deepens and the rocks get larger as it continues towards Macclesfield Forest.  Care is needed, but one of the beauties of this entire route is that dismounting is necessary just once (for a non-expert like me), near the start, to ascend some steps on the track below Tegg’s Nose. 

Care is needed on steep gravel though, so don’t be afraid to get off, but that would deprive you of the chance of testing your skills…

On reaching the A54 road a view of Three Shires Head is soon gained.  This is the junction of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire, shown in the distance beyond the field of sheep.

With no punctures on this occasion, it was a fairly quick buzz around the circuit, with an exhilarating final descent.  Home in time for lunch.  [Sorry, Geoffrey, I only decided to do this after breakfast – didn’t have time to order any of your coffee!]

Here’s a reminder of the route.