Friday 13 to Sunday 15 August 2010 – A Camping Weekend with the Pixies in the Yorkshire Dales

Friday 

By lunchtime our jolly little band had assembled in a large field at Redmire.  Nick and Margaret, our caterers for the weekend, provided an excellent lunch, after which we headed off with the Pixies to Castle Bolton.

The village is dominated by Bolton Castle!  Home of medieval banquets.

After a visit to the Castle and a stroll in the gardens during which some got lost in a maze and I managed to pull a muscle during a vineyard race, we returned via a southerly route. 

This path revealed that it would be unwise to be reincarnated as a mole hereabouts.

Alastair and Sue, with assistance from assorted Pixies, managed to combine their culinary and pyromaniacal tendencies to assist with the catering, though we did think it rather unfair on Margaret that she was shrunk and magiced by her devious son into the bubbling pot.

Luckily she survived the ordeal and our resident magician converted the pan’s contents to ‘diced brains’.  They tasted much like potatoes.

Saturday

Some of the brains survived until the following morning, when breakfast could be described as ‘sumptuous’.

Morning exercise was up nearby Penhill, which emerged from the mist as we ascended, taking late evasive action to avoid an imminent volley of bullets that would no doubt accompany a fast approaching line of ‘beaters’.

We had forgotten that this was the first weekend after ‘the glorious twelfth’.  That explains the early morning baying of hounds…

A couple of cows took refuge on the campsite.  They were remarkably clean!

The afternoon saw us transported to the mysterious world of Forbidden Corner, “a unique labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, follies and surprises created in a four acre garden in the heart of Tupgill Park and the Yorkshire Dales. The temple of the underworld, the eye of the needle, a huge pyramid made of translucent glass, paths and passages that lead nowhere, extraordinary statues - at every turn there are decisions to make and tricks to avoid.”

Here, the Pixies chuckle at those progressing down a deceptively narrowing pathway.

The garden sported a profusion of flowers, and ice creams.

After another fiery cooking session, copious quantities of red wine, and the sleep of the contented, we woke on Sunday morning to Alastair’s tending of a roaring fire below a ‘full English’.

The cows soon abandoned the camp site, then the rest of us strolled off to explore the banks of the River Ure around Redmire Force, part of which can be seen below.  It’s just a little down river from Aysgarth Falls.

Here’s where we spent the weekend….

… we walked all of 10 km!

The sunny afternoon continued into the evening, when, after a pleasant journey home via Wharfedale, we enjoyed a stroll to Marsland Bridge with Julia, who was on holiday here in Timperley.

The above images are just a small selection from the weekend, the participants of which (and anyone else interested) can view a full set of about 80 images, including many from Forbidden Corner, here.

A Short Journey in the Peak District - Part 2

Yesterday’s return from Bonsall to Marple was as enjoyable, if less eventful than the previous day, which featured sections of bridleway almost impenetrable by humans, let alone a human with a bike.  The bike was slimy from the all over spray I’d applied before setting off from Graham’s house in Marple, and the act of lifting it over gates and fences, together with having to deal with the disintegration of my front mudguard, transferred much of that slime to my body and clothing.

So I hope I didn’t transfer too much grime to Ken and Anne’s house in Wensley, or to Sue and Phil’s in Bonsall.

Yesterday’s route saw me flying down the hill to Cromford on a steed cleaned by the grassy meadows north of Tearsall Farm the previous evening, and with no technical problems at all I remained pristinely clean until I had to load the bike into the car at the end of the day.

Intake Lane took me up to the incline plane that marks the start of the High Peak Trail.  Up the incline, and two further inclines, and along the trail for about 10 km (pictured above) seems easy enough.  But a moderate head wind made sure that I worked hard to make progress, even on this easy terrain.

Leaving the trail by Minninglow Hill, I pottered along country lanes to Biggin Dale, and through lots of gates to Hartington.

The Beresford Tea Rooms provided coffee and a huge piece of chocolate cake.

A mixture of quiet lanes and enjoyable bridleways drew me north west over undulating terrain.  A band of rain enabled me to test my waterproofs.  The trousers ripped.

The day had started in bright sunshine, but by the time I came into view of Shutlingsloe gloom prevailed, though by 4.30 pm I was enjoying tea in the sunshine in Graham’s stunning garden.

Here’s the first view of Shutlingsloe, as it appears from Tagsclough Hill.

Today’s bridleways were a delight compared with some of yesterday’s; all good fun, especially the swooping descent on the edge of Macclesfield Forest to Trentabank.  Just beyond here I stopped for lunch at 2.15 at the Leather’s Smithy Inn.  They had no food, so I zoomed on down to join the Macclesfield Canal at Gurnett.

A leisurely pootle up the towpath to Marple concluded this enjoyable two day outing.

The route is here.  A slide show (61 images) is here.

Here’s the route – approx 50 miles each day, 2200 metres ascent on the first day, 1800 metres on day 2.  Day 1 took 10 hours (including over 2 hours of stops); Day 2 took a little over 8 hours (including about 1 hour of stops).

A Short Journey in the Peak District - Part 1

Just a taster tonight, as it has been a longish day.

Setting off from Graham's house in Marple worked well (Roman Lakes having refused to accommodate the car for a night) and by 9 am I had joined a local postman in admiring the canal in the morning light.

Then it was down past Roman Lakes to Strines, before heading up to join the Peak Forest Canal.

Swing bridges and the sweet aroma of the sweet factory graced the route to Furness Vale. Up and over then, to Whaley Bridge, before rising to Taxal, from where a steep path leads up the Goyt Valley.

The route to Derbyshire Bridge was closed, so I headed up the footpath directly to the Cat and Fiddle Inn, not bothering with Shining Tor on this occasion. ("Wimp")

Three Shire Heads proved a good venue for lunch (part 1). The extra calories were soon used in reaching Flash - a tedious walk on a path of soft sand strewn with small boulders, then a horrible descent to an alpaca farm and then an energetic hill to Flash.

Waylaid by a café that provided a welcome mug of tea. Then on along undulating lanes with fine views towards Chrome Hill and its mates (pictured) to Glutton Bridge, beyond which the duck pond at Earl Sterndale proved an excellent venue for lunch (part 2).

Over the top, with more fine views, before heading on to the busy High Peak trail at Sparklow.

Easy going, with refreshments at Parsley Hay, to Friden, then fun along Long Dale and Gratton Dale before a stiff ascent to Elton.

Another hill led to Upper Town, before a relaxing descent to Darley Bridge.

Tea and cake with Ken and Anne in Wensley. Thank you, it was great.

Over the top via a wayward bridleway to Bonsall, near Matlock.

Too late to get home from there today. Anyway, after washing off a bit of perspiration and enjoying food and wine in good company, it seemed foolish not to succumb to Hospitality and accept a bed as well.

Thank you, Sue and Phil, you are stars.

75 - 80 km today, with 2200 metres ascent.

Just as well I brought a bike...

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Sunday 8 August 2010 – A Bimble around Tideswell

Sue W organised this bimble (thank you, Sue), and nine of us turned up reasonably on time at the car park just south of Tideswell.

Sue and Phil eventually arrived, church bells being utilised as today’s excuse.  No matter, Sue and I had enjoyed a coffee at the Vanilla Kitchen (for sale, a fine establishment) in Tideswell, and Andrew had held court during the ‘wait’, from the boot of his car.

The path down Miller’s Dale to Cressbrook was lush and dry, with coots and a heron busy on the river; then we rose steadily up Ravensdale before pausing for elevenses with a fine view of Tansley Dale.

Chatting as we tottered along, the time flew by.  Before we knew it we had for some reason passed the Bull’s Head and were lunching beside the duck pond that graces Foolow’s village green.  The Aylesbury ducks weren’t interested in our sandwiches, preferring to dunk themselves in the oily green water.  The ducks were two tone – white above, fluorescent green below!

It was a short walk, so the Bull’s Head did receive some business before we staggered off to Peter’s Stone.  It’s a scramble up to the summit, so some staggerers became more like crawlers.

I was trying out a new camera (a basic Canon Ixus) that I’ve got for wet weather, mountain biking and ‘shirt pocket’ use.  Today’s images were taken with that camera.  It’s not a patch on the G10, but does seem fit for its intended purpose.  Practice shots included the Harebells and the Six-spot Burnet moth included below.

 

We strolled slowly on, through Tansley Dale, Litton Dale and Tideswell Dale, before a lovely avenue of trees led us back into the car park at around 4pm.

Here’s the 16 km route (500 metres ascent, 5.5 hours), and very good it was too – award a route planning medal to Sue W!

A full slide show is here (23 images).  The title caption is ‘waiting for Sue and Phil’.

Monday 2 August 2010 – Dunham Massey and a Banded Demoiselle Damselfly

After noting recently that the ‘rare’ Banded Demoiselle Damselfly is the emblem of the Mersey Vale Nature Park, it was still something of a surprise to see one today by the Bridgewater Canal.

According to Wikipedia it is “a large damselfly with a total length of up to 48 mm and a hind wing length of up to 36 mm.  The male has translucent wings which each have a broad, dark iridescent blue-black spot (or band) across the outer part. On immature dragonflies the spot is dark brown. The body can be a metallic blue or blue-ish green.

Our very active specimen certainly fitted this description.

Sue, Dot and I had enjoyed a short stroll around Dunham Park, where the ‘fountain’ was conspicuous for its green-ness rather than for its fountain.

A large group of Fallow Deer bucks lazed near the entrance, seemingly weighed down by their new horns.

The house was still standing proud, with the coppiced trees that were bare a few weeks ago now looking like dark green lollipops.

After a tour of the grounds and a luxuriant coffee, we headed down to the Swan with Two Nicks and onto the canal towpath.  The weed below – perhaps a Black Knapweed, was busy with insect life. Mark would probably identify the bee as a Red-tailed Bumble-bee, Bombus Lapidarius, but I can’t ‘sex’ it as I can’t see whether or not it has a collar!

Then we saw the Damselfly.  Quite exciting really – we watched it for ages, though we failed to get the desired picture of it flying.

The images below were the best I could manage.

All in all, a very pleasant little excursion.

Thursday 29 July 2010 – A circuit from Wrenbury

Our jolly little band of five assembled in the busy Cotton Arms and waited.  “Trekking Britain (aka Jamie) might arrive” I pronounced.

We waited.

“Hello” said a familiar voice.  It was Anne, an unexpected addition for tonight’s stroll, the venue for which had shamed this resident of ‘near Nantwich’ into joining us for the evening.

Next time, perhaps, Jamie – a bit closer to home.

Most of the evening’s photos were blurred due to poor light, so there’s no picture this time of the wooden bascule (lift) bridges, raised and lowered by counterbalancing beam weights, that are a feature of this stretch of the Llangollen Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal. 

There is also a selection of shapely single span brick bridges like ‘Number 13’ above.

We followed a route described in Jen Darling’s ‘More Pub Walks in Cheshire and Wirral’ (Page 100).  I won’t describe it in detail, as you should be able to work it out from the image below.  The first half was through pleasant enough farmland on well marked paths blighted only by frisky cows and electric fences randomly placed without any consideration for users of the footpaths.  Andrew’s jacket served as a good insulator, even if it did bring some of the fences down.  Another example of inconsiderate Cheshire farmers – it’s really so simple to cater for footpath users and electric fences, but they seem to prefer to have their fences pulled down.

The frisky cows were friendly enough, even if Jenny didn’t appreciate their attention, but a picture of an angry bull on a stile as we exited one field served to further incriminate the local populace.

Andrew (‘concerned resident of deepest Cheshire’) vowed to file a report.

After that, the stroll along the canal was very easy and jovial.  Just as well.  It got dark.

Here’s the flattish 9 km route – it took about 2¼ hours at a very gentle pace.

Thursday 29 July 2010 – A Trip to Lyme Park

“A little less than 50 years ago the Marple Aqueduct was close to ruin. After gradual decline due to lack of maintenance over many years, water began to seep into the stonework. During the long cold winter of 1961-62 this froze and caused severe damage to the walls of the Aqueduct and a large section fell into the River Goyt below. At this time the canals were already un-navigable due to the sorry condition of the locks and it looked like time might be up for this magnificent structure, once described as "a wonder of the age" by author George Borrow.”

I’ve extracted the above words from the full story of the 200 year old aqueduct.  During my days in Manchester the canal has been lovingly restored and, like many others in the area, is now unrecognisable from its former disreputable state.

Sadly, this morning I didn’t have time to wait for a barge and a train to enter the frame (another time, perhaps), but you can see that the towpath is accessible by bicycle.  There are more pictures in this posting.

Sue had wanted to visit Lyme Park, so whilst she drove there I cycled by a route intended to avoid any roads.

The Bridgewater Canal leads easily to the Mersey Valley, where I paused by Chorlton Water Park with a couple of wardens, trying to spot families of Whitethroat and Bullfinches that they assured me lived in the woods by the golf course.

On the approach to Stockport an information board next to a giant wooden fish explained that this was the site of Heaton Mersey Bleach Works, dating from 1784, one of over 100 industrial premises built in this area from the late C18 through to early C20, many of which presumably got their power from the river.

Over the past 60 years the river has gone from being one of the most polluted in Europe, to being a home for a variety of freshwater fish.  The rare Banded Demoiselle Damselfly is also reputed to be here; indeed it is the emblem of the Mersey Vale Nature Park.  I didn’t see any!

My ride progressed along the river bank at a leisurely pace all the way into Stockport, where a closed path ushered me into a trading estate that drove me inexorably into the centre of town, which luckily is pedestrianised.  I’d thought that the route of the Midshires Way would draw me nicely along to the Peak Forest Canal.  I was mistaken – the footpath through Vernon Park is just that, a Footpath.

After pushing (literally) on to the slightly more spacious Woodbank Park I gave up on the Midshires Way and cycled through Offerton to renew my acquaintance with the River Goyt at Chadkirk.  A quiet lane then took me to the canal, which I joined just after passing St Chad’s Well, which is marked on the OS 1:50000 map.

Local tradition says that this is a holy well associated with Chad, the seventh century Bishop of Lichfield, who came as a Christian missionary to this area.

The practice of Well Dressing apparently dates from Celtic times.

There’s also a tradition of making a votive offering to the gods; this could be a small coin or even a bent pin.  Or half a pork pie?

Anyway, a short carry up a flight of steps brought me at last to the towpath.  I soon had to leave it to go over a tunnel, but then it was a straightforward ride over the aqueduct, up the long flight of locks to Marple, and on along the Peak Forest Canal to the outskirts of New Mills.  I turned right up to Seven Springs and Brines.  This would be better in the other direction; my limited ability on the bike meant that I was unable to find the necessary traction to negotiate the steep stony track any other way than on foot.  Which made me a little late for my rendezvous with Sue in Lyme Park.

So ended a pleasant morning’s ride, in gloomy conditions.  Next time I may choose to follow the Trans-Pennine Trail through the Mersey Valley and on to its junction with the Cheshire Ring Canal system, which I would follow to a track leading into Lyme Park from beyond High Lane.  That may be a better route.

Here’s today’s 28 mile jaunt, including 650 metres ascent, which took a leisurely 3.5 hours.

Wednesday 28 July 2010 – Goodbye Swifts

Our swifts arrived in mid May whilst I was walking across Scotland.  They’ve been living in our eaves just above the study window for about ten weeks.  Long enough to produce a family and feed the youngsters for about six weeks, after which time the young fledge and are immediately ‘on their own’.  They live their lives on the wing, and will fly continuously for about four years, before returning to breed.

We’ve had them for many years.  The pairs mate for life and return to the same nesting spot.  Last year ours returned very late, so perhaps we gained a new pair.  This year they arrived on time.  They have headed off to Africa – south of the Sahara I think; I wonder if they have reached there yet?

We will miss them.

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.

Some Evening Walks

Just in case any of the local (to Timperley) bloggers may be interested, a list of our evening strolls for the rest of the year is here.  There’s one on Thursday.  Apologies if you have already received an e-mail or Facebook message about these.  But if you haven’t received an e-mail, and would like to in future, please drop me a note using the ‘Contact us’ button on the above link.

There’s no prize, but can you spot where these people were on 29 April 2006?  Before they retired from their active lifestyles!

Three Weeks of Sunshine

It’s nearly a week since we returned from our sojourn in the sun to the world of anaemic coffee and disintegrating sun tans, though nobody has complained about the gap in transmissions!

The image is of our evening view from the campsite at Trafoi.  The glacier was visibly melting during our time there.

This posting is really just by way of a dummy entry to which I’ll add an index and links to any slide shows of our trip, should I ever get around to that.  In the meantime, there are various other jobs higher on the list, and the continuing exercise of helping Mike to decorate his house.

Ah, I forgot, some images from the Piz da Lech Via Ferrata trip on 15 July, principally for Pete and Nicola, are here.

But I do enjoy blogging (hadn’t you guessed?) so am bound to find time to add something to these pages.

When in Treviso last Monday, Gillian and Nick told us the swifts had gone from Venice.  We were therefore pleased to find that ours had not left; indeed I can hear them outside the window as I write this.

I must learn the ins and outs of my new ‘phone – I upgraded (on impulse as I passed a Carphone Warehouse shop) a couple of days before leaving for the Alps.  It’s a Bold 9700, and seems to transmit more quickly than the old Curve. 

But I’ve noticed that not all the images I send from the ‘phone appear using the Firefox browser (it doesn’t seem to pick up all the images from Alan’s HTC phone either).  Perhaps a problem with our desktop computer?  Internet Explorer seems to work fine though.

I’ve also noticed little ‘suns’ on many of our file icons.  Here’s an example:

Does anyone know what these mean?

Piazzo dei Signori - Treviso

We enjoyed a short, sunny, sedate journey, then booked into the Continental Hotel (where we have a comfortable air-conditioned room, albeit with a worrying footprint on the ceiling!), took precautions against the battered Clio being towed away, and strolled around Treviso with ice creams in hand.

The main piazza is too big for this gadget's flimsy little lens, hence the two images.

We are told that it's much cooler than of late around here - a mere 29C or so. We are glad that Chalet Angelo was up at 1700 metres - it was hot enough up there!

Treviso has an ancient centre, surrounded by walls, gates and a moat. The moat is a mixture of clear watered rivers and canals, with a profusion of different birds on weed control fatigues.

The Duomo (Cathedral) is large and almost completely lacking in ceiling decoration, unlike many other churches we've visited. But it was nice and cool and had a reverent atmosphere.

The evening was spent in the excellent company of Gillian and Nick, with Toni del Spin providing superb Trevisan cuisine, thus bringing this trip to a most pleasurable conclusion.

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Our Last Day in the Dolomites

Whilst Sue enjoyed a flower bagging foray from Chalet Angelo onto the Pralongia plateau, I enjoyed my final day here with Dan from Collett's and eight other guests, on the standard traverse of Sassongher.

Our numbers had been boosted by the cancellation of today's Via Ferrata plans due to early rain. Setting off in waterproofs cured that problem. They were soon discarded in favour of t-shirts, though later fleeces were deployed for the first time since we arrived in Italy three weeks ago.

Edelweiss and Ruby, a red deer, accompanied us to Col Pradat, from where we took the pleasant route through low shrubs to the junction where #7 heads across the face of the mountain. It's actually quite a wide terrace compared to #7 up Monte Cavallo; nobody encountered any difficulty, other than Alfred, the Alpine Salamander, whose black body was badly camouflaged by the white rock, requiring him to hide in a crevice.

We reached the 2665 metre summit in around three hours after our 1100 metre ascent, losing only Mark (to a bout of vertigo) on the way. A cold breeze scoured the top, where a coach load of day trippers had bagged most of the sheltered spots. I tried to capture the moment (see previous posting), with limited success. My subjects obviously didn't realise that the photo would immediately be disclosed to Eddie and the world.

Some of us lunched on the summit, with excellent views despite a cloud base of around 3000 metres. The air was much clearer than of late.

The rest lunched near the col, below a short wired section that caused no significant difficulty. The most photogenic diner was the gentleman pictured above, Charlie Chough, taken from our lunch spot with our ongoing route down appearing just below the crags in the distance.

'Just around the corner' beyond those crags lies the shyly positioned Rifugio Gherdenacia, which looked closed when it eventually came into view.

Dan narrowly avoided a mutiny. The Rifugio was open. Drinks all round.

Path 11A then zigzagged the merry band down a steep gully before depositing them on lovely woodland and meadowy paths past Melancholy Thistle and Clove-scented Broomrape.

Further down, on the road to Verda, a resident had clearly made a poor calculation when exercising his road crossing skills. Adolph, the ex-adder, made such an impression on Dan that he produced his lunch box, muttering something like "I think Alice would like this".
[Alice is the host/chef at Chalet Angelo.]

The riverside path led us gently on to Chalet Bracun, where the others collapsed into heaps resembling the piles of washing in Angelo's laundry, whilst Stuart and I strolled back up the 150 metre slope to Angelo's waiting sauna.

Another lovely day out (16km, 1300 metres ascent, 8 hours) was followed by a sociable evening with only a short diversion for our self-catered dinner, comprising scraps.

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Collett's (Corvara Section) 'A' Team summits Sassongher!

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