View from Oban Bothy

View from Oban Bothy

Saturday 14 March 2015

Sunday 8th March, A Rainy Roaches Ramble

A Magic Midlands day walk exploring the ridges north of Leek

I’m not sure, but I think it was Skip’s idea that Yavanna should lead a walk for a group of mates who lurk on Outdoors Magic. Skip’s good at delegating!

Anyways, this was planned (wot?) to be a similar walk to the one Yavanna led in June 2013 – it was…..apart from the weather.

You can read about that walk here, and better still, you can see the lovely views that we couldn’t see on this walk. The area is one that Yavanna knows quite well, she lives just down the road from the Roaches.

P1030896 Heading to Hen Cloud….in the wet

Skip’s words on the day:

Well, that was a wet one!

We convened at the pub - the group was Yavanna with her mum and dad, Miko, Alex (racer66), Simon (Meravingian), John (JJ) and me. Our route took us over Hen Cloud then along The Roaches.

At Roach End Simon had to leave us. We continued to Lud's Church then looped  back along the ridge before retracing our steps over The Roaches.

All told, I make it 10.2 miles on mapping (Alex's GPX makes it 120.3 {eh?} so pretty much unanimous). We took it at a reasonably steady pace and had a short lunch stop.

It was pretty claggy and wet on the way out so no views to speak of. But the cloud lifted on the return leg and by the time we got back to the cars the sun was coming through - typical.

All in all, a very pleasant walk in excellent company - thank you all for an enjoyable day.

P1030895 Hen Cloud

P1030897

The Outdoor Magicians at Doxey Pool

P1030901

Simey's Mum's lovely cake demolition 

Simey (Meravingian) had brought some lovely mincemeat cakes that his Mum had made – the group made short work of them, they were a bit nice.

P1030902

P1030904

P1030905Yavanna's Dad looking for the ice cream van

P1030909

Lud's Church...and Yavanna's interestingly shaped bald spot.

P1030915Lud’s Church 

P1030925 Racer66...Alex, leading Yavanna and Skip

P1030926Yavanna and her Ma

P1030932Skip on his throne 

P1030935

P1030936Don Whillans Memorial Hut

Where we went:

Route 2

More pictures here.

It was wet but it was a great day out, I’m looking forward to the next one. Thanks to everyone, especially Yavanna and her parents for putting the walk on.

3 comments:

  1. Claggy looking stuff but it looks as if it was a fine walk.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shame about the weather and the views, but interesting rock formations. Looks like a good time was had anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was a bit claggy Dawn.
    Ilona, you're right about the rock formations, they really are spectacular - even in the wet.
    The Outdoors Magic lot are a good bunch - always great company :-)

    ReplyDelete

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