NYM INN WAY FINAL DAY

Wednesday 21st. October 2009.

A very wet and stormy night up on Newtondale Moor is followed by a wet and windy morning to finish the final 13 miles or so that lie between me and the end of the walk at my starting point of Egton Bridge. Today's highlight was my passage through Goathland - the fictionalised Aidensfield in the popular TV series Heartbeat - co-incided with the arrival of one of the North Yorks Moors Railway's engines running from Grosmont down to Pickering, this is a steam rail serivce now run by a charitable trust and the enthusiasts who do all the work have done a wonderful job of preserving the fabric and spirti of steam railway travel. I made this journey on the train about 20 years ago but today I am simply admiring it from the station, as indeed were lots and lots of others, all our cameras clicking away merrily. Quite a sight. Ah well back to the walk, and it's a steady plod over the moors and back into the Esk Valley and Egton Bridge where I arrived at 2.15pm very wet and a bit footsore. So my journey took a total of four days, one hour and thirty minutes. The rain stayed with me to the finish and beyond and I had real problems getting home. The next bus to Whitby was not until 3.27pm which was fine as it gave me time to wash and clean up in the public loos (all to myself out here) and get a warming brew of tea organised. Trouble was the bus did not show and it took me till 3.50pm before I found a kind fellow Scot who took pity on my situation and drove me to Whitby, a round trip of about 25miles for him and his wife soley for my benefit, this is the kindness of strangers in action, I thank you Sir. My travel problems continued as the Whitby Bus to Middlesbrough was delayed by 40 minutes as the passenger door would not close! What next, I feared missing my connection in Middlesbrough for home and having to walk another seven miles on top of the 101 miles recorded on my GPS. However, I made it OK. So another excellent walk, but now that I have sorted out the route finding problems I think I will come back next summer hopefully dry weather and give it another round.

NYM INN WAY - DAY FOUR

Tuesday 20th. October 2009.

I had hoped to complete my walk today but with over 30 miles still to go I will have to continue into Wednesday. The features of today's walking were the lovely Yorkshire villages the route passes through, Hutton - le - Hole, Lastingham, Levisham, (Where true to form I had problems getting down from Newton-on- Rawcliffe bank to locate the crossing over the river and railway to Levisham Station). My picture is of the village green in Fadmoor - this section of the route is co-incident with The Tabular Hills Walk which completes "the missing link" in the Cleveland Way by joining Scarborough to Helmsley, so this is not my first visit to beautiful Fadmoor). By the end of the day I was up on the moors and camped at the impressive Skelton Tower overlooking the gorge of Newtondale, famous for being the very scenic route of the North Yorks Moors Railway, which I will encounter at close quarters tomorrow, Wednesday.

NYM INN WAY - DAY THREE

Monday 19th. October 2009.

Still raining as I packed up and set off this morning heading across Bransdale and into Bilsdale again I had route finding problems which added distance and wasted time, the latter more annoying than the former! Going along the ridge of Boltby Scar to Whitestones Cliff is part of the Cleveland Way and so brought back some good memories, however todays weather is wet, windy and cold so that is not so memorable is it? The walking is quite easy today (which helps) as I make my way to Helmsley via the beautiful old ruins of the Cistercian Abbey at Rievaulx. From Helmsley my route follows the River Rye for a few miles then heads into the hinterland of Yorkshires many pretty villages, today I got as far as Wombleton where I camped on a field edge next to the Sports field, not the best place for a wild camp but a good night's sleep regardless. I passed the beautiful old church of St. Gregory's Minster in Kirkdale, this ancient Saxon church is an eccliseastical and architechtural gem of a building and I was very sorry not to be able to have a closer inspection as it is closed for renovations. Just look at the gates!

NYM INN WAY - DAY TWO

Sunday 18th. October 2009.

After an excellent wild camp on the old mineral railway line built to shift ironstone from the Rosedale valley mines to Middlesbrough' smelting furneses I dropped down into Rosedale proper and along the valley into the touristy village of Rosedale Abbey. I walked 12 and a bit miles yesterday which has broken me in nicely and today I am anxious to get up onto the moors, this section takes in a lot of valley with climbs up and over to the next one ( my picture is of the approach to Farndale) and I will be seeing a lot of Blakey Ridge, Rudland Rigg, Bransdale Ridge and Bilsdale East Moor before reaching Easterside Hill and Hawnby. I reached Hawnby about five pm and the weather has turned to rain, drat so I kept going till I could find a place for a wild camp and pitched in a grand spot in a hollow by a dry stone wall, a wet night but I slept well having now completed about 38 miles, some of them not on the route though!

NORTH YORK MOORS INN WAY

Saturday 17th. October 2009

Joy has gone over to Keswick for a short break and I have decided to walk another of Mark Reid 's "Inn Way" series of long distance walks, this one is more or less on my doorstep - the North York Moors. The official start of the route is Helmsley, but as that is rather difficult to reach by public transport compared with an approach from Whitby in the north I have decided to start from "The Village the Reformation Forgot" Egton Birdge, also home to the famous annual Goosberry Growing Championships.

The walk is given as 89 miles but I added quite a few extra due to errors and route finding confusions, much worse on this walk than is my normal error rate, but still if an 89 mile walk is a good thing then an 101 mile walk must be better!

The billy goat in the picture was encountered shortly after the start of the walk, the view is back over the Esk Valley, the sun is shining and all is well with the world.

AOTHER OLD CORPSE ROAD

Monday 12/10/2009.
Another fine day following a peaceful night on my own at the Mosedale Cottage Bothy. My walk today will retrace Saturdays route over the Gatescarth Pass to Haweswater but today I will be carrying on up the east side of the lake to tackle Branstree by way of the Old Corpse Road (from Swindale to Haweswater, though at the time of it's use it's destination end from Swindale would have been the drowned village of Mardale now beneath Haweswaters billions of gallons of Manchester's tea-making water). A steep climb up onto the plateau provides magnificent views across Haweswater to High Street, Riggindale and Kidsty Pike (to get the best of these the walk from Swindale is preferred, no need to stop and turn round to enjoy them!) and the weather is of the simply glorious-hay-ho-wonderful-to-be-alive, variety. What a joy to be out today. The tops reached are first; Selside Pike, then Howes and on to Artle Crag and Branstree with it's impressive stone pillars (two) and rather ordinary stone marker for it's highest point. From which an easy descent again down into the Mosedale Hawes and back to the bothy. So ends three of the best days fell-walking I have enjoyed this year, what a good decision to come. Tomorrow pack-up-pack-out.

LONG SLEDDALE'S EASTERN FELLS

Sunday 11/10/2009. My co-residents at Mosedale Cottage Bothy left quite early, my own departure for the quiet and lovley Longsleddale Fells was about quarter to ten, not exactly an alpine start but today's walk is of the order of seven and a half miles so I am not pressed for time. The walk down the steep and ancient track of the Gatescarth Pass leading into Lonsleddale is a delight, and the river Sprint with it's impressive series of waterfalls is particularly attractive and all-asparkle in the morning sun's stillness as the Stonechats flit and dance along the walls. This is indeed "a little piece of heaven fallen to earth" The start of the round (another Birkett outing) leaves the Sadgill Bridge and goes straight into a steep climb north-east to the summit of Great Howe giving good views south and west out over the Kentdale Fells to Morcambe Bay and wide blue sea. From Great Howe it's an easy walk along the plateau first to Grey Crag, I liked the cairn so stopped for a can of sardines for early lunch, then on north to Harrop Crag then west to bag the final top of Tarn Crag. From here an easy descent to Mosedale Hawse and back to the Bothy to enjoy the rest of the day. In the evening gloaming, I stood by the door of the bothy, mug of tea in hand watching a small herd of Red Deer, with the bull rutting and strutting somewhere out of sight but not out of earshot, wonderful sound of pure nature,and the first time I have heard it south of the border. The picture is of the "tarn" and the old survey tower on the summit of Tarn Crag.

RIGGINDALE HORSESHOE

Saturday 10/10/2009. Slept well in the bothy, being the only resident was just fine by me. Away about 9.45am to do the classic round of Riggindale Horseshoe starting from the car park at Mardale End. However that is about five miles from Mosedale Cottage with a climb up and then down the lovley Gatescarth Pass to reach the "official start" of the walk. The weather is beautiful and it would be hard to improve on the pleasure of being on the hill on a day such as this. My route climbs the long ridge to the summit of Rough Crag before continuing in the same line to the top of Riggindale followed by a simple stroll to the summit trig point of High Street. From here an easy walk along the delightfully named "Straights of Riggindale" to turn to the top of the distinctive Kidsty Pike, this is the first time I will have topped out on this impressive Peak.

Afther that it's back down to Mardale and then the little matter of a 1300' climb up the Gatescarth Pass and over the Mosedale Hawes to reach the Cottage. The picture shows the entire route as seen from near the top of Gatescarth Pass.

Later that evening a party of eight young men, 30's with three boy aged from 6 - 12 arrived from Kendal so I moved into the second bedroom to give them the "master" I've given up sleeping with strangers! They were a good bunch of folks though and it's good to see Fathers doing so much for and with their kids.

MOSEDALE COTTAGE

Friday 09/10/2009. Today I am travelling by bus to Shap and then walking in to the Mountain Bothies Association bothy, Mosedale Cottage. From the Wet Sleddale road end a mile or so south of Shap village it is about a six mile walk in to the bothy. My plan is to stay until my food runs out (it's a 15 mile round trip to the Shap shops) and do a few Birkett routes. In the event I had four nights in the bothy on three of them I had the Cottage to myself which was wonderful, as was the weather which seemed anxious to make up for the rain and mire endured on my last two visits to Lakeland, so as ever, if you want good weather, just keep going back!

ANOTHER DAY AT RSPB

Eight o'clock start with Barbara Keville this morning at the RSPB reserve at Saltholm and once again it seems we have a lovely day to walk round the reserve and open all the hides before the visitors come in and scare our birds away! After breakfast of bacon butties in the canteen we retired to the garden with Mike Wade and spent the day in green fingered mode. We still have lots of Painted Lady butterflies though they are beginning to look a bit worn now. Beautiful things, and we still have our resident hare in the garden he has obviously decided to stay, he moves out of the way when disturbed but keeps coming back, perhaps we could tame him, maybe not such a good idea.

THE RELUCTANT GARDENER!

My wife Joy is a marvellous gardener and as this is one of her main interests she is a wee bit reluctant to dilute her pleasure by employing me as an assistant meaning she would spend less time about her pleasure - additionally Joy points out with some justification that "you don't know what to do" True, I have not been an avid gardener thoughout my life but now that I have more time; gardening seems an acceptable junction for age to meet activity, so having my lack of knowlege referred to grates a trifle and I am prone to point out something along the lines of "there was a time when I didn't know the alphabet but I know most of it off by heart now" This rarely cuts much ice. However I am sometimes called upon to perform those tasks that require a bit of heft and muscle, and so get to hold my head up and feel that "I have done my bit" and I notice that a little bit of chest-beating always improves a man's self-esteem!

Today provides just such an opportunity, we have a fine specimen of a blue flowering bush, or is it a tree? can't remember it's name but it begins with a "C" growing in the front of the house by the window and that's the problem, it is now very well established and is making a decent attempt to get through the window and into our lounge so it will have to go. Joy is over in Keswick and will be returning in a day or two so I will be able to demonstrate that I have been doing more than keeping my nose in a book or a pint glass! Fortunately, the tree has a small root ball with a couple of deep tap roots so it was not too hard to get out. I cut off the main branches before tackling the trunk and roots and all this took a couple of hours to complete, the bigger task is reducing it to pieces small enough to be removed by the Council's fornightly garden waste collection, I have two days to get it finished and this time I must take care with the secateurs! Last time I did a job like this I took the top off my left index finger and finished up in the emergency department of James Cook Hospital, maybe Joy has a point after all. The picture shows the tree exturpated and reduced to twigdom about to set off on it's final journey. Sorted!

LOITERING WITHIN TENT!

Monday 28/09/09 I'm in my tent ruckled up in a warm sleeping bag, the day's walk has been good and tomorrow beckons with a fresh appeal, in other words all is well with the world and this is the height of contentment I get from my stravaigin around the country, travel light, on your own, stay where you will (within obvious reason). And then the rains come down and things change, rain lashing the tent is a good thing, it reaffirms the justification for having a tent and there is a sublime pleasure in being safe from the elements which are thwarted by a mere millimetre or so of protection, so have another brew and enjoy this high and lonely place. But then as the hours go by the thoughts turn to the morrow and what to do if it keeps on raining, well speculation is rendered to the sidelines as it does rain for about the next 18 hours! in the morning I (quite happily) resign myself to the prospect of an extended "fester" and at six in the morning give it another six hours to clear up, well of course this was wishful thinking and at noon in the pouring rain I broke camp, headed down out of the cloud to Coniston, had a pint in the Sun Hotel (expensive) and then caught the bus to Ambleside where the sun was shining, this is the Lakeland I love so much.

ON DROPPING CRAG

Sunday 27/09/09 Travelling by bus to Keswick yesterday took an exceptionally long time, my first connection at Stockton a mere three miles from home was late and my waiting time was nearly one hour, this knocked my Newcastle and Carlisle connections out of timely synchronisation and the best part of an hour was spent waiting there as well, still it costs me nothing which is great, but the background noise is humming that pensioners bus passes will be axed due to public expenditure shortfalls and the need to cut back on the psbr. Just my luck so I will make hay while the sun shines.

Today I travelled by the Pathfinder bus to Ambleside then on to Coniston to finish the walk I started on my last visit to this area but abandoned due to bad weather at the top of the Walna Scar Road. So that is where I headed, having completed the round of Dow Crag from Goats Water todays walk was from the summit of Walna Scar track to the nearby top of the fell then on to White Pike, the short hike east to White Maiden (a lovely summit and rarely visited) and then downhill to pick up the difficult to find top (coming from above that is, from below it would be quite easy), of High Pike Haw. All done in decent order but the location of the last top took quite a bit of time and I doubt if I would have got it right without the benefit of my new GPS toy, still got a lot to learn about how to use all it's features, but as it gives an accurate location for it's own position it earns it's keep for that alone. A short walk across the top of Torver High Common and back up to join the Walna Scar track and a 600' ascent to the top of the pass about a mile away and at the darkening of the night I pitch my tent on the very summit on a great bit of turf. Today has been dry and cloudy, not at all bad for hill -walking. Pitched and settled in then tomorrow the plan is the Dunnerdale Fells, and more Birkett competions. The picture is of the pass over Dropping Crag leading down to the lower valley and High Pike Haw.