LAST DAY OF THE SHEPHERD'S ROUND

Wednesday 20/01/2010. I was a bit reluctant to exit my sleeping bag this morning as outside my Terra Nova Laser tent it was snowing and the prospect of packing up in the wet is never attractive - but it must be done and so it was. Eight thirty am seems to be my natural starting time on this walk and today kept that routine, the snow and sleet continued for an hour or so but after twenty minutes of walking with some uphill I was nicely warmed up but once more in hard going, the constant crashing through the snow crust up to my knees is decidedly wearing on the descent to Honey Hill. From here I managed to create my only confusion of the walk regarding route finding and although I didn't go far off route I managed to waste half-an-hour or so before I got it sorted, this is annoying as I want to get back to Osmotherley in time to catch a bus to Stokesley and so get home tonight, at this rate though I'll be spending anohter night wild-camping in the Osmotherley area. Fortunately the route south-west down to Moor Gate about a mile from the village of Hawnby made for faster progress. There is an option to reach Hawnby by negotiating the west side of Hawnby hill but I chose the faster road option and romped a quick mile (making up some lost time) into Hawnby where I stopped at the pub for a pot of tea and rang Joy to warn I might be out for another night. However, it's a low level road walk to Arden House where the old quarry track is climbed up onto Kepwick Bank Top. From here and along the old drove road on Black Hambleton the snow was deep, the going tough, it was wild and cold and winter-lovely (see my picture) and I made it in time to get home by seven pm. My walking time over three days with two nights wild camping was eighteen hours and fifteen minutes. Not too bad for an old man.

MOORLAND WINTER

Tuesday 19/01/2010. Up to a cold but bright start to the day after a good night's sleep, keen to get away at 8.30am as I want to cover as much ground as possible today. And what a grand day it is, the sun is up and the skies are clear and blue with a trace of thin white cloud mirror-like over the snow hardened moor. I have never seen these moors so lovely nor have I known them so empty of people, the North York Moors are certainly not as busy as the Lake District, but this escarpment up over Urrah Moor and Round Hill are among the most popular of the moors many footpaths and today I have them entirely to myself, save only for the ocassional scurry of a red grouse, I am the only obviously living thing on the landscape. No complaints about that. Sadly as I was on the top of the plateau I could see clouds rolling in toward me from all horizons fortelling of a coming change in conditions - soon to arrive and to rob me of these wonderful wide-open whitness & brightness views, but I had a great hour or two enjoying it and took quite a few pictures to remind of the moor in winter colours, it would be marvellous to have cross-country skis up here. From Round Hill I dropped down to Bloworth Crossing and then turned South along Rudland Rigg, by now the cloud was down and visibility shrank to 50yards or so. After passing the Cammon Stone the main track is forsaken and a rough crossing made to Bransdale where I visited (yet) another tiny dales church - St. Nicholas' perched on the hill beneath Bransdale Lodge at the head of it's lonely dale. A mile or so road walking (not a soul or vehicle seen) and again the route turns south and west, to cross the imaginatively named moor called "Botany Bay" not that there is much more than heather and rough grassland to admire here at the best of times and today the going is very hard due to the deep snow cover, unfortunately not quite frozen enough to bear my weight and I kept falling through the crust which makes for very slow progress, especially troublesome along the course of Weatherhouse Beck. I am getting lots of navigation practice as on the high ground visibility is never above 50yards and much of today I have been walking on compass bearings in low visibillity. Despite my intention and a lot of effort, I only managed a distance of 13 miles today between 8.30am and 4pm when I camped above Malkin Bower Quarries not wanting to risk carrying on over the moors without enough daylight to reach the low ground near Hawnby. A good hard day's winter walking and my camp was wonderfully comfortable (see my picture) and a brew-up banishes all concerns.

WALKING THE SHEPHERDS ROUND

Monday 18/01/2010. This is my latest route in the North York Moors and I am slowly improving my knowlege of the geography of this least visited of our National Parks whose northern boundary lies a few miles south-east from my home in Ingleby Barwick. The Shepherd's Round, has like it's sister walk; The Hambleton Hobble been devised to take some of the pressure of the famous Lyke Wake Walk route from Osmotherley to the coast at Ravenscar. This latter route I have now walked three times with another partial completion a couple of years ago when I abandoned the route after losing a couple of hours searching for my tent! which had dropped off the top of my ruc-sac, teaching me an important lesson in the process. Like the Lyke Wake Walk my route starts in Osmotherley and being circular finishes there completing a loop starting north along the Cleveland Way to Bloworth Crossing then down Rudland Rigg, across the valleys of Brandsdale and Bilsdale to Fangdale Beck and then Hawnby and back to Osmotherley via Arden House and the ancient drove road over the Black Hambleton. This is given as 36 miles in length and my GPS recorded 37.2m so I managed to keep pretty much on route despite some difficult walking conditions caused by the surfiet of frozen snow beneath my feet and low cloud levels above my head, limiting visibility.

As usual I travelled to Osmotherley by bus via Middlesbrough and Stokesley and started my walk at 11.30am exactly. As I had not previously visited Lady Chapel half-a-mile out of Osmotherley, I took the short detour to have a look at it, worth the effort. From the chapel I made my way over Beacon Hill to Scarth Nick Wood then the up and down rollercoaster of the Cleveland escarpement taking in Live Moor and Carlton Bank, (coffee break at the Lord Stones Cafe). From the cafe I took the low route passing The Wainstones through Broughton Woods and camped for the night where the track comes down from The Wainstones to meet the road at Hasty Bank. It was a cold night with termperatures dropping well below freezing point, but I slept well and had the company of podcasts of some of my favourite Radio 4 programmes to listen to on my MP3 player, having just mastered the process of podcasts it was good to have this in-tent entertainment during the the long hours - I camped at 5pm, till Tuesday morning's start at 8.30am. My MP3 radio also picked up a clear signal but my mobile phone could not so I was unable to ring Joy. It's a bit counter-intuitive, ten miles from home and I get no phone signal on my local hills but can ring home from Lake District summit. And so to sleep with the first ten miles completed.

BITTERN WATCH RSPB SALTHOLME

Thursday 14/013010. It is almost a year since the reserve opened and it has been a much better than expected success not only in the number of visitors to the center but in terms of the birds and the habitat enhancements achieved. The Common Tern nesting sites on the island off Paddy's hide is my own favourite and I'm sorry that I missed the work party when all the cockle shells were ferried onto the island, still with a successful year behind them the Terns will be back in the spring so I will try to get in on the site preparation for 2010. My picture shows Barbara Keville and Adam; fellow volunteers on the reserve. Adam has been down early to set up the solar powered camera over the Haverton Pool reed bed where a couple of Bitterns have made at least a temporary home. Yesterday one of them was well observed walking on the ice! and today Adam is in for a couple of cold hours having set up the camera system in the hope of capturing good pictures to be relayed back to the viewing screens at the visitor center. Barbara and I will be completing our security round in opening up the reserve before opening time at 10am, and Adam has been left strict instructions to notify us (radio) immediately if the shy and secretive Bittern comes out for a walk, that really would be something wonderful to see.

BRIDGES OVER ICE

Saturday 09/01/2010. My wife Joy wanted to see the ice on the River Tees so we took the bus into Stockton-on-Tees and had a walk around, making our way from the High Street across the Millenium footbridge over the frozen river to the Uninversity of Durham campus and on to the new Infinity footbridge. The pictures shows Joy on the Millenium footbridge with the Tees Princess cruise boat and the replica of Captain James Cook's boat the HMS Bark Endeavour behind it. Captain Cook would have been familiar with the docks and warehouses that would have been here in his day but I doubt very much if he would have seen the river frozen like this, but maybe the weather was colder then, even so this is a very rare sight for modern man on the Tees.

SKI TOURING ON THE RIVER TEES

Friday 08/01/2010. Set off at 9.30am to tour the river Tees. Last Wednesday was my first outing on cross-country skis for fifteen years or so. I need to get some practice in and with the wonderful frozen conditions I want to make the best of the opportunities while they last. Yesterday I had to take my ski-boots to our local cobbler as the sole on the right boot was separating from the upper and the left was showing indications of doing the same thing. It cost me a fiver to get them glued down which is quite reasonable (if they stick) and I am now back in action as can be seen in this picture taken by a nice lady photographer, on my camera after she had taken several pics of me coming downhill off the Jubilee Bridge on the Queen Elizabeth Way - I should mention that I am skiing on the cycle paths which are wonderful for winter sport, for sure there are no cyclists on them today! My route leads on to Bowesfield then over the Surtees bridge at Stockton-on-Tees, passing the Durham University Campus to reach the Tees Barage, where the river is completely frozen on the up side of the barage, speaking to locals confirms that nobody can remember seeing the Tees completely frozen over as it is today. I know that most people hate the cold and can't wait for it to pass, but I love this sort of weather and today met plenty of similar souls out enjoying the great freeze, every season has it's joys and I'm not in the least guilty about making hay while the snow covers the land. I crossed the Tees at the barage and carried on to cross the Newport Bridge then returning to Stockton on the opposite side of the river. For variation at Bowesfield I stuck to the Tees riverbank, with a bit of a struggle at the Jubilee bridge! Got home in a total time of four hours and fifteen minutes but I was in no rush. The distance covered must be a good ten miles and my confidence grows with each succeeding mile. Quite a few folks were interested in chatting to me about skiing and I noticed four or five taking pictures of me so it's nice to think that I might be Stockton's poster-child for our eastern chill!

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY

Wednesday 06/01/2010. The winter weather is breaking records, we have now had a covering of snow since before Christmas Day and with continuing fresh showers and constantly freezing temperatures overnight the conditions are amazing. The countryside is transformed and made beautiful and I feel very healthy in the cold but not everyone is as welcoming as that. When I was involved in winter ice climbing I (and all climbers) prayed for weather like this, I still relish it and envy the guys who will be doing good winter routes on The Ben, there will be some wonderful climbing done in Scotland this season and I wish I could be part of it.

Still, I have been motivated to get my cross-country skis out of the loft and see if I can still keep upright on them, amazingly I had no trouble at all and spent three good hours skiing from my doorstep down to and across the river Tees and on to Preston Park where I joined in with the kids on sledges and a couple of men on snowboards. I had a great time and began to feel at home on the skis after such a long gap though I am no nearer to mastering telemark turns now than I was 20 years ago, but you can manage fine without that degree of skill.

If the weather keeps up I will try and get a longer route done, it would be good to ski to the RSPB reserve at Saltholme, a good ten miles each way, but I could carry spare boots, leave my ski's at the reserve and come home on the bus if I'm not up to the double journey, we shall see. The photograph was taken on the summit of Chapel Hill on my way back from Preston Park.