3 practice walks on Stiperstones and Long Mynd - Easter 2012

Well I've just returned from a long Easter weekend in Shropshire shared with Dawn, Graham and Debbie. We took the caravan and motorhome to a site we've been to before called the Lilac House in Pennerley which is at the foot of the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve. Considering that it was reasonable weather when we left Leicestershire, you can imagine our surprise when we arrived on site to a foot of snow!! Thank goodness for Land Rover - otherwise I wouldn't have got the van onto the field. Graham arrived a few hours later and had to put the snow chains on the bus to get it on the field.

We had a great weekend starting with a decent walk - not sure of the mileage, but it took us 7 hours - over the Stiperstones and beyond. It was incredibly hard work - the first 2 hours spent wading through snow sometimes up to waist height (I kid you not) often up to our knees. Although strength sapping, it was great fun. 7 hours later we returned to the vans completely soaked and knackered!

The following day me, Graham and Debbie walked just over 20 miles up over the Stiperstones and eventually up onto the Long Mynd - a huge walk and equally huge challenge - still battling deep snow in places, biting cold and thick cloud and occasional driving rain up on the Mynd. Nevertheless, it was a great day and we returned to Dawn and the vans as knackered as the day before and I took comfort in a home made chicken curry and a couple of bottles of good French red!

The next day saw Dawn and I return to the top of the Mynd via Carding Mill Valley - absolutely stunning!

So, a great weekend with more miles walking than I can remember - I've added a few photos which I hope give you a flavour of the weekend and the walking in particular. These are ones I took with the Ipod, so not sure how good the quality is? I've taken about 200 with the Lumix and am happy to share. If you want to see all the photos or hear more about the walk just give me a shout.

Russ

09-04-2012 Practice Walk

Easter Practice Walk Number 1

Paul, Andrew, Simon and Hazel went for a walk this morning.

Easter Walk Number One

Kinder Scout Pics - Day 2

Kinder Scout - Day 2 (11.5 Miles)

Good Morning all,

Day two started with a crisp morning frost, sun shining and clear blue skies above. Jacob had discovered a blister the night before, so a compeed plaster was applied and he continued to proceed with the days walk ahead.

After hot showers for all, we packed our backpacks and headed down to the cafe for some breakfast.

The day was looking glorious, so we set off on our way back to Hayfield at about 10:20am all walking the first few hundred metres quite gingerly. Graham had mentioned the night before that we would be climbing up another brook, scrambling over rocks, which would be great fun. Being April 1st Russ suggested that Graham may have been playing an April's fool, and there would be another route to take...........this was not the case.

The start of the climb was up a rocky path to the side of the brook (Grinds Brook)constantly getting higher until we met the water and rocks that we had to climb. Ahead lied more and more rocks, and a pretty much vertical climb at the end, behind was Edale and the mind blowing views that were getting more and more dramatic the further we climbed. Having a few stops on the way up gave us a chance to take some photos of what we had done.

This climb was a bit different though and it WAS great fun, all went up this one with smiles on our faces and at the top a sense of accomplishment was visible to see :-)

So we were again at the top of Kinder Scout and proceeded to head towards Edale Cross and Jacobs Ladder (situated on the Pennine Way) where we would continue on a a route called Brown Knoll. This part of the walk took us past some quite interesting rocks that had been severely shaped from the ever changing weather over the last few million years.

When we hit Brown Knoll the wind picked up, but the sun was still shining and you could see for miles and miles around, inc Stockport in the far distance. Walking along we could see what lied ahead, which was a couple more accents, but advised that these were gentle compared to what we had climbed. Russ & I stopped for a bite to eat out of the strong winds, whilst Graham, Debi, Jacob and Lilly carried on to the bottom of the next accent. We met them again at the bottom of Mount Famine where they were also taking on some sustenance for the last part of the walk.

We stuck to the ridge along the top instead of taking the "tourist route" to Hayfield. This made it all the more worth while because again the views were spectacular and very dramatic with the small amount of clouds creating shadows across the valley. When we got to the bottom at Hayfield after an adventurous route down through the woods, we heard a familiar voice on the road above.......It was Dawn greeting us standing outside the Sportsman Pub which signified the end of our weekend. Dawn said she would have walked down the steps which we had to walk up first to get to the finish point, but Russ found that hard to believe :-)

The whole weekend was fantastic, stunning scenery, terrific company and more than we could ask for with the weather.

Andrew

Kinder Scout Pics - Day 1

Unfortunately not in time taken order, but here are some of the many photos that were taken over the course of day 1.

Kinder Scout - Day 1 (12.5 miles)

Good evening everyone,

After a 2 hr drive Saturday morning, I arrived at Little Hayfield meeting up with Graham, Debi, Jacob, Russ, Dawn and of course Lilly at 8:20am in the caravan site they were staying at. (unfortunately Richard couldn't make it due to illness).

It was a little drizzly but no ponchos were needed. Graham Smith's birthday weekend party set off around 08:30 for the first part of the walk of Kinder Scout, which took us up Middle Moor, and a hill Russ & I were not expecting to be as draining as we thought it would. (the long incline was the killer, not the steepness). We were then heading for Snake Path which runs parallel to "The Edge" of Kinder Scout. Before we hit Snake Path though we had a challenging adventure scrambling and criss-crossing up Hollingworth Clough which was lovely with Herron taking off up the ravine and the peaks in the background. This did also involve myself having a little "dip" in the water when crossing over on some slippery rocks (only my right foot went in) lol , and was very happy that the walking boots did the trick and kept my feet dry. We then had a 12' waterfall to tackle, which from looking at you wouldn't think anything of it......until going up the side of it with only soft peat to support you and heather to grab hold of! I actually thought my little dip earlier was going to become a bit more than a dip! Lilly was having great fun leaping from side to side.....along with Debi and Jacob. Once we had climbed up the ravine we headed for snakes path, which wasn't the easiest of walks through the thick heather of Mill Hill.

Snake path was a breathtaking walking with the presence of "The Edge" right next to you and Ashop Clough below you. The path started off on some paving slabs, laid down to help you across the very soft and boggy peat (can't imagine what it would be like if we have had more rain this year). It then narrowed to a single, rocky path above Ashop Clough and the further you went along the more the gorge shaped, and again the views were unbelievable(even on a cloudy day). The weather was holding off, and despite weather reports telling us of rain, we didn't get a drop, you could even see the sun trying to pop its head out.

The walk along Snakes Path ended at some woods and through the woods somewhere was The Snake Pass Inn, a very welcoming site to all.

After the half hr or so pit stop at the pub we ventured down to the beginning of wood moor where we stopped and had some Lunch by Fair brook. With the climb we were about to encounter the food/energy was definitely needed, but Russ, Jacob and myself were not realising the severity of it at the time. The further we went up the steeper it got and it was tough going for us all. (the pictures really don't give it justice) Once at the top though, again the High Peaks and surrounding views certainly made all the hard work very much worth it.

We were almost now on the home stretch for Edale, our halfway stop over for the weekend. This bought us round Blackden Moor, and by now the wind had really picked up, so made it a little more challenging going along the very edge at about 500m up.

Once on the home stretch for our first day we were coming down Ringing Roger and The Nab which was just stunning. We managed to get a view of where we would be walking the following morning, noticing that, a decent nights sleep would be very much needed. Before that though we had one last decent into Edale, and for anyone (inc myself before this walk) thinks that downhill is easy......well you will be in for a shock :-) By the time we got the bottom of the decent and onto a flatter part knees were shaking.... literally, this from burning off more calories than we had taken in. Edale is a very pretty village with all the houses built from stone and some fantastic scenery engulfing the village.

So end of day one, and what a day it was. Challenging, beautiful, intimidating, fun and tiring, but most of all it was thoroughly enjoyable. Everyone had now pitched their tents (some with improvisation) and had a bit of a power nap before the well deserved trip to the pub for some food and drink...once I eventually realised that there WAS actually more than 1 pub in this tiny little village after having to split from the group for a few mins :-D

I hope I haven't bored you all too much, but I couldn't just say "We all went to walk Kinder Scout had a great time, but shattered" The peak district just has so much to offer.

Pictures and Day 2 will follow soon

All the best

Andrew x

Lubenham and Foxton - Practice Walk

Today Paul and Richard spent a lovely, sunny morning tramping the fields around Lubenham and Foxton whilst the others were away on Kinder Scout.  The morning started out frosty.  Any shadows were deep in frost and Richards boots developed a layer of ice on them.  After about an hour the Sun started making the morning very warm indeed.  We took a break at Foxton Locks and put the gas burner to use making a couple of Earl Grey teas.

Lubenham and Foxton