Afoot in Two Dales

A walk in the warm..

The fine folk of The Irregulars have revived ‘Afoot in Two Dales’ , it could be more of a challenge than I was anticipating:

Still, it’s only 50 miles.

Gulp.

Entries are still open….

A Summer Solstice Backpack, 21st June 2018

For whatever reason I couldn’t embed this YouTube video, hence the hyperlink. Well worth a listen:

Pete Coe’s ‘The Wizard of Alderley Edge’ sung by Steve Mills. 

After last year’s total Summer Solstice Failure the 2018 Solstice caused me a little apprehension: Would the weather be better? Would the Metrolink tram system thwart my travel plans? Would Brexit continue to cause me a load of grief and worry?

As it happened I needed to keep my daily mileage figures up – July 2018 should see me taking part in ‘Afoot in Two Dales’, a 50 miles in 24 hours walking challenge in the Yorkshire Dales, and the Nijmegen Marches, 160km of ‘marching’ over 4 days in, er, Nijmegen.

An appropriate Plan was planned: I would walk from JJ towers to Alderley Edge, home to footballers, the odd coven, King Arthur and his knights, plus loads of other stuff – including the very fine Derbyshire Caving Club.

A nice little 10 mile route to Alderley Edge was plotted and so off I went, leaving home at 7pm and arriving on the Edge at a little before 10pm.

Alderley Edge is a magical, mystical spot – this YouTube video gives a flavour of the place.

I took lightweight kit: LaserComp tent, a short Thermarest, Caldera Cone meths stove and stuff like that. I thought I’d persevere with my SatMap GPS and take it along – just to give it another chance to redeem itself. It didn’t, obviously.

I’d arranged to meet my mate Anup on the Edge, he was intending to bivvy so he could stare at the stars all night….all night - less than 3 hours of actual darkness.

So, some photos:

Styal Country Park, en-route to Alderley Edge

Folk were wandering around the Edge, some were there to catch the sunset whilst others were just up there for a late evening wander around. Anup had arrived before me, he hunted round and found a nice little flat spot to lay his head.

Sunset from Alderley Edge

Around 10.45pm a group of curiously clad folk rolled up out of the gathering gloom. Some carried djembes, others carried staffs. It was all rather atmospheric.

I didn’t have time to grab my ‘proper’ camera so had to make-do with the phone camera – it didn’t take a very decent photograph. The druid-folk eventually wandered off to sit up the rest of the night around a fire in the man-made stone circle in the woods.

Home for the night

Brew time: my Caldera Cone

I spent a comfortable although not completely restful night in my tent. I was aware of some nocturnal wanderings about and the distant sound of occasional drumming.

Next morning:

Sunrise was forecast to be 4.38am. My alarm announced 4am although it wasn’t needed, the light on my tent and the sound of drumming was more than enough to wake me.

What witchery is this then?

8 minutes to sunrise

By 4.30am the Edge became rather busier, more spectators arrived to witness the sunrise. There were probably 20+ wandering around.

4.38am: Sunrise

The sunrise itself was quite something – although with the low cloud it could quite easily have been a non-event

As it became lighter the congregation began to disperse. Anup packed his bivvy and headed for home – he was off to do another overnighter somewhere else. Dog walkers and a couple of early morning runners wandered by as the sun rose higher in the sky. The Edge was returning to some level of normality.

At around 6.40am I was packed up and ready to retrace my steps to get back home. I rather foolishly gave my SatMap10 GPS yet ANOTHER chance to redeem itself – to no avail:

The maps were either missing or just wouldn’t load.

Route-finding wasn’t too much of a problem, I either followed the many signs off the top or just followed my nose.

My route home was straightforward, just a matter of retracing my steps: bits of the North Cheshire Way and the Bollin Valley Way plus some inventiveness to avoid as much tarmac as possible. I probably ended up keeping to footpaths for 75% of the time.

Manchester in the distance

St Bartholomew’s Church, Wilmslow

Henry Boddington: famous for beer and playing fields 

I stopped for breafast at a picnic table in Styal Woods, lots of dog walkers around plus some runners training up for the Wilmslow Half Marathon.

I arrived back home at 10am, feeling quite pleased with myself – I’d managed a nice little backpack but was only away from home for around 15 hours.

I returned to the Edge in the evening, just for the hell of it. The light was completely different…obv.

You should read ‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’ by Alan Garner if you’re remotely interested in Alderley Edge. It’s suitable for children of all ages – and it may even be based on fact. Maybe.

TGOC 2018, Day 13. To Brechin’s Co-op

In which we saw the sea for the first time

The previous day’s walk had really been the beginning of the end: we’d started the day in pleasantly hilly country but by the time the day was done we were walking through the sterile flatlands of Angus.

It was all a bit sad. My Challenge was by no means over but I knew that now I’d left the wild country my walk to Montrose would be virtually all on tarmac – and flat tarmac at that.

I woke at 7am to the sounds of cussing, swearing and the packing of rucksacks.

Keith, wondering what day it was

Keith & Co were away fairly early, they had an appointment at a pub in Brechin, we had an appointment in Brechin too – at the Co-op.

I packed slowly, really not looking forward to the tarmac trudge ahead. There were millions of ladybirds everywhere….well at least five anyway. They’d decided my flysheet looked like a cosy place to chill:

The day’s walk was to be virtually all on tarmac so we knew we’d make fast progress. We did move along – but such a featureless route would make time pass very slowly.

As it happened it wasn’t THAT boring. Mike had spotted some features that he wanted to tick off. They were easily accessible from the road: a Standing Stone, Noranside Prison, a Cairn, Killievair Stone, the Brechin underpass, and probably a few others too.

So here went the day, not many words and not many photos either, such was the day’s route.

In need of some remedial work?

Our ‘lunch-stop’ (more of an elevenses stop really) was enjoyed just off the road, a little way down a farm track. My food supply was running low so I made-do with some muesli, a choccy bar and a mouthful of finest corporation pop.

It was from this vantage point that we spotted the East coast for the first time: Montrose Basin: 

11.47am, Wednesday 23rd May 2018: Montrose Basin

After Brechin’s Co-op we magically and mysteriously appeared at House of Dun – a wonderful oasis of peace and tranquility that was first introduced to me by the loverly Brocklehursts on TGOC2012 – where Margaret expertly carried out complex and quite daring foot surgery on the hoof (so to speak)….

A little later another blessed miracle, we appeared in Johnhaven (wot?) in time to spot a couple Challengers wandering about the harbour area: Willem and Leendart from Amsterdam. After we filled them up with huge quantities of tea and pumped them for information on any scandalous activities they may have come across on their Challenge they wandered off, taking their fox with them.

I sneaked a soak in the bath and then we all feasted on a very splendid roast chicken dinner provided by the Knipes of Crook. What nice folks they are.

  

This was all very lovely, so lovely in fact that we had to wander down to Johnhaven’s pub, The Anchor, for beers to calm our nerves.

A fine end to the day.

Johnhaven Harbour on the way to the pub

Johnshaven Harbour on the way back from the pub.

Not one cuckoo.

Only two* (tame) Challengers….plus a funny-looking fox

*Not counting Keith & Co. They weren’t tame anyway.

TGOC2018, Day 8, Sexy clothing on the TGOC

In which Mike finds a phone. He was after a new one anyway.

It had been a cold and very clear night although I had been quite cosy in my cold-weather sleeping bag.

Awake at 3.30am for no good reason so made a cuppa and spent the next half-hour or so picking heathery bits out of my socks. Then I read for a bit and listened to the BBC World Service-type wireless. I think I need to get a life.

A lovely windfarm appeared in the East as dawn approached.

I drifted off to sleep and then woke again, this time with a thumping headache. Up and about at 7.15am and eventually set off on the leisurely walk to Abergavenny Aberfeldy, initially on a good LRT.

Mike spotted a big fat otter, it was quite a sight. We’d obviously startled it. It skitted around a pool and the scuttled off, up a bit of a waterfall and vanished under a river bank. I took photos but they weren’t much good – I can pick out it’s tail. Just.

Spot the otter

It was a long descent to the road and then we were on a very minor road, and a few short miles later we arrived in Aberfeldy in time for lunch.

Another Man in a Kilt

Fishing hut on the banks of the Tay

Yet another bridge over the Silvery Tay

Two fish & chip filled Challengers. Note my sexy garter.

We’d been warned not to expect much in the way of shops in Aberfeldy, yet all the essentials were there if you had time to look for them.

As it happened we managed to get (slightly greasy) fish & chips, cups of tea, pies, bacon and a few other odds and ends. And beer…or maybe it was vinegar. Although the landlord changed it for something fizzy without fuss I’d have preferred something proper.

Leaving town, initially by road, we were soon on paths – a mix of riverside paths and disused railway line. All very nice really.

Met up with a couple walking the Rob Roy Way and enjoying every minute of it. So they said.

Mike had earlier spotted a (locked) mobile phone hanging on a fence – nobody around, maybe it belonged to a Challenger? A bit of detective work later and we discovered that it belonged to one of a group of anglers from Ireland, up to their wotsits in the silvery Tay and trying to catch something. A cold probably.

Their gillie (Douglas – a nice bloke who makes walking sticks for beer money) helped us locate the phone-less fisherman and once again all was well in my little world.

Feeling thoroughly decent, having done The Right Thing, we trundled our way eastwards once more along the banks of the Silvery Tay and more disused railway.

Tempting, but we didn’t.

Our overnight stop was in Grandtully (pr ‘Grantly’. Obv.) at the Canoe Club campsite. The site was at the old railway station, now converted into a nice little place to stop….although the gents were a bit whiffy. Our footpath delivered us nicely straight into the site.

I’m not sure how this lot fitted into my Exos58

Grantly has a chocolate shop (that we didn’t visit) and a pub….that we did visit. Douglas, the gillie from earlier in the day, called in for a pint and ended up buying us beer too – I think he was grateful for us finding his client’s phone.

I was hungry (nowt unusual there then) and ordered a nice bar meal whilst Mike kept on his carefully calorie controlled diet and stuck to drinking beer.

We’d had quite a nice day. Apart from the tarmac and the smelly bogs, but there you go.

Cuckoo count: 3 (not very good really)

Other wildlife: 1 otter, a load of rabbits (on the campsite) and some random birds – not a clue what they were. No Wild Challengers…not even any tame ones.