Category Archives: Hiking

DofE 6: Silver – White Peak

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Day 0: A nice warm evening to set up camp at Hulme End for the first couple of days. My group would walk here from their start point. The sun is shining and I can relax while I wait for the boss to bring kit (tents, stoves and paperwork). Next to me were staff from Lichfield Cathederal School with their team the other side of the field.

Here is an especially interesting job. I have a single group from a school to Supervise and Assess for Silver Expedition. TN brought trackers to issue to the group. I’ve not used this one before, it seems especially neat and runs off an app on my phone.

Moorlands near Leek

Day 1: Meet the minibus at the start. They were late because one of the boys wasn’t ready. There are two boys and the rest were girls. Getting ready seemed straightforward, they seemed to know what they were doing. With all issued, they got away at 10.15am.

Problems arose before the first checkpoint which was about 3km from the start. They were to follow a bridlepath westward near the bottom of the map. They phoned me after 2 hours saying they were stuck. And they were – they were off the bottom of the OS map and needed interception, I could see on the tracker.. The tracker located them south west of their route so I send them SE to catch the bridlepath. In fact, they’d strayed off the bottom of their map.

Day 2: The planned route was far too long at 27km. After yesterday’s progress it’s obvious they need less, considerably less; so I met the team in the morning and set them off planning changes. A new route can be more or less as the crow flies North East. Even so, they faced a 20km walk, though with a much earlier start. Even though the new route followed bridle path, they were back in the routine of crossing field after field. Each time they had to set direction, check where the cattle were and go. After maybe ten fields, there’d be a road or a turn. Then another ten.

Finally, a change of terrain on entering a lesser gorge Lathkill Dale. Later, they talked of their enthusiasm about this section. Many photos were taken. I waited at camp because this was the last leg, but then the phone rang. They were stuck. Apparently, their path was closed and one of the girls was in no fit state to go back. I set out to meet them.

The photo shows a footpath gates with the sign indicating the end of Open Access land. The group had read this as no access. They were tired, not surprising after over ten hours of travel.

A misread sign.

Day 3: to finish. Another radically redesigned route. They’ve come to the White Peak area, famed for upland farmland, white limestaone and cut with numerous gorges of geological interest. Their route was more fiddly field hopping with no recognisable purpose beyond running up the miles. Another day like Friday and I can’t see how they could pass. It could go either way.
Today’s new route took them down Biggin Dale onto the Manifold trail. Here is a dramatic change of scenery and a relief from endless rural field navigation. There was a chance that they could finish early but after two very long days, they all deserve it.

Going home: on the more eventful trips, I come away turning over thoughts in my mind. This time, I really felt for this group. I had spent all of my time thinking of ways to get them through to a Pass. I never wanted them to Defer, and I beleive I handled them well. They do have a pass but it hung in the balance for a few days.

Pennine way taster.

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Warm and sunny, upto 22°C, dry with a brisk southerly.

This trip marks some interesting health issues. I had my second Astra-Zenica jab the morning that I drove up here. Like last time, I had a head-ache over night and a mild aching feeling all over. On the morning I started walking, I too 2 ibuprofen.

Anyway, I pressed on without entirely losing that side-effect feeling. The route is quite long, half of it is in farmland. There was a problem on the Pennine Journey leg with herds of cattle. I got encircled in one field and had to vault over a fence. That got the adrenaline up, I headed back and along another track to rejoin the road.

It’s fortunate that I did because it soon became obvious that the next field was filled with cows, this time with calves. I’m glad that I didn’t get stuck there with only a large field of cows ony escape route.

I suspect that I’ve had a mild dose of long-covid since Christmas. It’s no more that a low-level can’t be bothered feeling. Normally, when I skip a bike ride, I’d get the agitated fizzy legs feeling; not so this year.

After this trip, the old feeling has come back. I’m stronger and feel more ambitious physically. There are reports that discuss the possibility that a vaccine can switch off long-covid

DofE 1

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Cold nights and warm sunny days, bone dry.

The campsite has a shrine!. It even lights up when you walk up to it.

In some ways, spring is similar to last year. Bright, cloudless skies and cold nights. Both nights saw frost on the tent which would have been a problem for all groups. We can’t really expect kids to take winter bags. It’s a shame that he kids can’t camp (due to Covid rules). For many, it’s the best part of DofE. Some will not have camped before and this would be a good way to start.

I’ve made fun of the campsite here, but really, it’s an excellent site. More so when the shower block is finished. There is a railway line next along the camp which often has heavy freighters passing in the night. I noticed these in the first night but not over Saturday night. According to other staff, there were just as many. Few people sleep as well on the first night out.

DofE 10, Atherstone.

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Chilly at night 7°C to about 12 in the days. Mostly dry.

Day 1: The second group were cobbled together after spells on sepf-lockdown. There is a lot of this going on during this phase of the pandemic. Both groups have the same route but it was too short. Their route card had errors on some legs that were way out. So the kids were very early to checkpoints all day. The funny thing was the location. The villages around here are familiar from all this bike rides from Lichfield where I used to live.

Day 2: a day of drama. One parent had, apparently dropped off her daughter then driven home. They turned out from the campsite drive and then crashed. It was a head-on. The driver had asked us to keep this even from his daughter so she could get on with the expedition without worrying.

I went out to lead them over a blind humpback bridge. Ambulances and police cars shot over the bridge while an air ambulance circled. I didn’t find out till later what actually happened.

It wasn’t untill the end of the job that I heard what happened with that crash. Spoiler alert – nothing.

DofE 7 & 8: Princethorpe Qualifying expedition.

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23°C, light breeze and bright sun.

Camped at the same site as in July; the campsite the expedition is using is rather tatty. The showers still have an Out Of Order sign, even 2 years after the first time I visited.

Group A, 5 lads. A group I’ve met before who got on well and had no difficulty at all. It was warm and sunny both days. The plan is to walk with them for part of day 1 and check their competance. I ended up leaving them later than ideal because there was a risky road section further on that I wanted to escort them down. As it turned out, the road was held in check by HS2 works a few miles down.

A long checkpoint on by a grassy verge. I was there about an hour, enough time to brew a coffee and get the tent dry. I guy walked past and asked if I was ‘doing a spot of wild camping?’. I answered him politely, he seemed to have little knowledge of what that entails.

Group B, a week later… 6 girls this time. More fine September weather and a very able group. They only made mistakes near lunchtime when they got hungry. I could see their confidence inproving over the hours I walked with them. As last week, I left them slightly earlier to get my car for a few final checkpoints. They travelled safely enough but had rather more rest-stops than is ideal.
Group 14 arrived at camp last and were determined to prove their ability to erect tents AND cook in the short hour remaining before pickup.

Unfortunately for both trips, they couldn’t camp the night because of Covid-19 restrictions. Many kids see camp as the highlight of the expedition- it’s a time to relax, look back on the day and for many – stay in a tent for the first time. It’s a shame they miss out on their first camp.

Howgill Fells.

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15°C, rain. This is a replacement for a trip to Scotland recently cancelled (this morning actually). I woke this morning with a strong feeling that I couldn’t face a 6 hour drive to Kintail. After some suggestions from friends I settled on The Howgills. A quiet range of English hills only 70 miles from home. Ideal.

Rain set in during the evening but a spectacle came late in the night. I got out of the tent about 3am and was stunned by clarity. The Milky way arched overhead behind vivid stars. A couple of planets were in plane sight too.

Sunday; 6h 12 mins walk time. The Howgill Fells are a distinctive range sandwiched between The Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. My campsite lies to the east of the hill which is near the waterfalls of Cautley Spout. Climbing here put you up neat the main summit of Calf Top.

Cautley Spout

The falls were spectaular, more so after recent heavy rains. From this view, the land was laid out below in geological layers, glacial moraines and deeply cut river erosion which reminded me of Bohuntine .

Before the rain really set in.

Monday, walktime: 7h 15′ /sunny and warm after a cool start. I had time in the morning while waiting for a phone call, to plot a route up Baugh Top. A convenient carpark is at the north, Rawthey Bridge by 2 bridlepaths which gives gives a long lead-in and out. This turned out, in contrast to yeaterday, to be a most beautiful day.

This was a long walk over relatively easy terrain. There was no exposure and height gain was never huge. There could have been more wildlife, I saw mostly voles and a few raptors. The only real impediments were boggy ground and frequent flooding. Saw two hikers on the hill, they were on the horizon about a kilometre away. That was all, nobody else. How ideal is that!

Narthwaite farm.

I’m really taken by the North Pennines, I shall revisit!
Once back at the car, hunger set in but I had enough camping food to make supper in the carpark before the drive home.

DofE 6: Princethorpe practice.

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22°C, full sun, light W.

Arrived at a campsite the night before. Even for a Sunday, the motorways were relatively quiet. I didn’t rush down and got 71mpg. This is a 1 day practice with no overnight camping, COVID conditions apply.

Sunrise, 5am.

Day 1: a long route for bronze training is the conclusion. 18km meant that we had less time for training skills. Good for endurance but not mapreading techniques. It got worse later as rain set in. Actually, the boys group sped up then while feeling the pressure to get back to base on-time.

Day 2: this the, a group of girls who were a delight to work with. They were keen to learn and had good stamina for the somewhat shortened route. It t was about 15% shorter which helped tremendously. The weather held out after a grey but dry morning.

Day 3: another group of lads. These were less boisterous and more serious. They had a wide range of previous experience from none to extensive international trekking. They’ll have no trouble with their qualifying expedition in September.

End: the only disappointment was cloudy nights stopped me seeing Comet Neowise

Blencathra

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24°C, light breeze, full sun.

This was the first proper walk of the season. As you can see, the weather was perfect, 24°C lowland with very little breeze. The time on the picture includes at.least 1 ½ hours stops, food, nav etcetera. It’s been such a long time since the last quality mountain day. THe focus was on Sharp Edge scramble which was fun but over too soon. There is some variety in the routes up there so a return trip is not out of the question. However, there is probably more variety on Tryfan, another 100 mile drive from home.