Saturday 6th October, Fun in the Peak District

The first part of a busy day

If you’ve been paying attention you should remember that today was the day when I was going running with the Cheshire Tally-Ho! Hare & Hounds.

The venue was the Rose & Crown (Robinson’s), a fine pub tucked away in the hills close to Wildboarclough.

The Rose & Crown, Allgreave, with Steve – one of the trail-layers

I was rather worried about my lack of fitness and also the state of my dodgy knees. I had done some walking but very little running so far this year. With this in mind I determined to jog and walk the route, I was confident that I’d be able to get round if I took it easy.

I left the pub in the company of Ding Dong Bell, Whitworth, Fast Shipley, and Club President Park. I’ve run from this venue before and each time the route has headed north and dropped down to a muddy and very wet Clough Brook. Hopes of keeping clean and dry were dashed within a very short time, Clough Brook was as bad as ever. Oh well. 

In theory the club operates a ‘pack’ system of running: the pack sticks together for all but the last 2 miles of the run – this is the responsibility of the whip.

President Park splodging up towards Shutlingsloe

True to form, within a couple of miles of the start of the run our pack split into 3 groups: Whitworth & Park leading, me in the middle, with Ding Dong Bell and Fast Shipley bringing up the rear. I was quite happy with this, I didn’t want to hold anyone back because of my slow pace.

Sawdust Trail

Trundling off on my own I had to concentrate on following the sawdust trail, there isn’t another pair of eyes to look for you – miss a lump of trail and you could easily get quite lost. Fortunately the day was clear and the trail was well laid, I stayed on trail for the entire route.

Entering Macclesfield Forest

The Leathers Smithy pub on t’other side of Ridgegate Reservoir

Some stream crossings are cleaner than others….

Some of our route coincided with the Gritstone Trail

 

Coos in Derbyshire?

The heavy rainfall of the last few months had left the Peak District a little, er, soggy. Running with Tally-Ho! is never a clean experience, but today’s trail was muddier than most.

Running with Tally-Ho! can be a messy business

Sting in the tail, the last 400 metres may have been on tarmac but it wasn’t flat

A water-trough on the final run in presented at the right time to clean muddy feet

I arrived back at the pub at around 3.30pm feeling remarkably good. My knees didn’t ache and I certainly wasn’t tired. I’d been out around 2 1/2 hours, certainly not the fastest time of the day for a 9.6 mile run, but I was more than pleased. Just a couple of days ago I was doubting if I could run even half of the route.

Geoff, Mark, and Steve, just back from their run

The pub’s facilities were good: a hot shower and a place to change. Dinner was more than adequate: home made meat & potato pie with peas, followed by apple strudel for afters.

Post-run shoes

The day’s route 

Around 20 runners were out today, not a bad turn-out for a small club. A good route with plenty of variety, and a decent pub at the end of it.

The second part of a busy day – another ceilidh

Freaks in the Peaks are a group of dancers whose interest in dance is predominantly in Border Morris but also encompasses all manner of other traditions and styles: British, European – no holds barred. Every few months the group meet of for a weekend of dancing and fun. These gatherings are often held in the Peak District.

This weekend was the Youlgrave meet. The group descended on the village hall, using it as a base for the whole weekend, sleeping in it, cooking and eating their meals there, rehearsing their dances – and generally socialising.

I left Allgreave and drove over to Youlgrave in the early evening, the sunset was staggering:

Saturday night sees a communal meal followed by music and dancing. This is where I came in.

I arrived just in time to join the group for their evening meal. Although I had eaten at Tally-Ho! earlier, I just had a very light snack – it would have been rude not to!

After the tables were cleared, the dancing began. The band consisted of any musicians who wanted to play. Tonight’s band had me on melodeon, plus others playing melodeons, a fiddler, a piano, banjo, accordions…along with others too.

Freaks at dance

It was around 11pm when I left for home. I would have preferred to stay over but I needed to get back.  It was 1am when I got to bed….a bit pooped! I was planning to return to Youlgrave the following morning but family responsibilities got in the way. Oh well, next time!

Friday 5th October, A Birthday Ceilidh in Goostrey

Playing for birthday ceilidhs is great fun – everyone is there to enjoy themselves, especially the birthday girl or boy.
Tonight’s ceilidh was no exception, a lovely smiley birthday girl who had lots of nice friends – all determined to have a good time. Held in the village hall in Goostrey, not far from Holmes Chapel.
Playing with the Midgebite Ceildh Band is always a pleasure – we just have lots of fun, and I like to think that if the band is enjoying themselves then our enthusiasm infects our audience. Fun escalates: we enjoy ourselves > the audience enjoy themselves > we get positive feedback and so enjoy ourselves all the more….etc.  Not that this audience needed any more enthusiasm – they were seriously up for it!
I often worry about the future of folk music and dance, our modern ways of life seem to almost obliterate these traditions. It is something of a relief to see younger dancers enjoying themselves so much. I don’t know whether these youngsters had been previously exposed to e-ceilidh (English Ceilidh) but they really threw themselves into the evenings activities with energy that embarrassed much of the adult audience!

  Our audience having a ball

 

John (JW), plays things with strings

Emma, our demon fiddler, giving it some stick

Bill, our rather excellent drummer

The Midgies in action…with some bloke on a melodeon

 Our caller, Brian, with a smiley, happy….and rather tired birthday girl!

First day’s walk on the Via de la Plata

At 6.10am (the one in the morning) I left the albergue in the darkness of a cool morning. There was some road traffic but not a great deal. Passing the city’s bullring and heading north, the next 10km was predominantly tarmac although eventually it was possible to leave the road and follow a traffic-free footpath.

The sun rose at around 7.45am and I knew it was only a matter of time before the temperature would rocket.

Sunrise en-route from Caceres to Casar de Caceres

At 8.30am I rolled into Casar de Caceres hoping for coffee and breakfast. The pleasant village seemed to be mainly asleep – the cafes I passed were all closed. What to do? I knew it would be another 25km before there was any chance of refreshment. I was carrying 2 litres of water and a few muesli bars (Aldi’s best!), I was well fed after the previous evening’s excellent dinner….. not much choice really – go for it.

The route was now nearly all footpath or farm tracks. The ground was extremely hard and quite stony, bruising the soles of my feet through the thick Vibram soles of my Meindl walking shoes.

The heat got hotter, the ground seemed even harder on my feet and the route was actually further than I expected. The way had been diverted quite significantly to avoid works being carried out by the local water company and also road builders, it probably added a couple of km on to the already long route. Oh well.

Around 2.30pm I spotted a welcome sign directing me to the albergue. This was VERY welcome, I was running low on water and I was getting hungry (nowt new there then) – after all, I hadn’t eaten since 9pm the previous evening.

 

Albergue – 250 metres

The albergue at Embalse de Alcantara looked more like something from the Cold War than a hostel. In fact it was wonderfully comfortable. Within minutes of walking through the door I was sat down eating an excellent lunch of tuna salad and tortilla, all washed down with cold beer.

Albergue at Embalse de Alcantara

The ‘warden’ did my laundry for a ridiculously small fee. After a shower and an hour’s feet-up rest I felt more human and was able to struggle to converse with my fellow peregrinos, notably Ully (Ulrich) from Germany.

Ully had started his walk in 40degC heat in Seville. His girlfriend tripped and fell early on, dislocating a shoulder – she was now out of action, recovering in Majorca in a nice hotel. She had insisted that Ully continue alone. I could tell he wasn’t overly happy about doing the trip without his lady. Having said that, he was grateful for the shelter and hospitality offered by the albergue – I was too!

An evening meal of pizza and salad, washed down with yet more beer hit the spot. I crawled into bed around 10pm, clean and well fed. It had been a good first day.

Total distance for the day: 37km. Too far.

18th – 28th September, The Via de la Plata

In the beginning….

Arca de Caparra 

The Via de la Plata (The Silver Way) or Ruta de la Plata (Silver Route) is a Camino starting from Seville and going north and north-west for 1000km to Santiago de Compostela in the north-west of Spain. It’s generally accepted that it takes around 7 weeks to walk the entire route.

The route, which is Roman in origin, was more recently used by Christian pilgrims. Today, whilst the route is still used by pilgrims (or ‘peregrinos’), it has become a popular long distance walking or cycling route.

My Plan (?!) was to walk the entire route over 3-4 trips, starting in Seville. I had difficulty in getting a sensibly-priced flight to Seville so changed my plan to fly from Manchester to Madrid (easy and cheap), picking up a hire-car in Madrid and driving to Caceres, a good 10 –12 days further north than Seville.

I have recently discovered that Seville holds the record for the hottest city in Europe with a record of 50° C (122° F). Being a bit of a wuss when it comes to walking in high temperatures this suited me fine.

To the trip!

I collected the car from Europcar at Madrid’s airport and aimed it at Caceres, stopping overnight at Talavera en-route at the Hostal Cuatro Caminos (Four Ways Hostel): cheap, cheerful, comfortable….and clean. Dropping the car off at the Europcar depot in Caceres I set off to explore the small city and to locate the albergue – a shelter or hostel for peregrinos.

Albergue Las Veletas is a comfortable hostel offering accommodation for 40+ at budget prices. 

Albergue Las Veletas, Caceres

A monk ringing a bell, warning of the approach of a sinner

Plaza Mayor, Caceres.

An evening explore of Caceres culminated in an excellent meal at an outdoor restaurant, 12€ for a 3 course meal plus a bottle of very drinkable red, not a bad deal – even for a beer drinker like me.

 Dinner in Caceres

Cute doggy in Caceres – after my dinner!

Back at the albergue it was a matter of filling my Platy with water and putting it into the fridge – then getting some much needed sleep. Next morning was due to be a fairly early start in order to avoid the heat of the day.

Thursday 4th October, Dunham Big Tree

Not the rather good beer produced by The Dunham Massey Brewery but a walk starting from Dunham’s Big Tree.

An email from Rick popped into my Inbox this morning as I was luxuriating over a freshly brewed mug of coffee and plotting my day’s activities. Would I like to go for a walk? He promised good weather (okay, so I’m gullible) and a short walk. The Plan was to recce part of the route that Rick had plotted for an East Lancs LDWA 15 mile walk, set for 5th December, entitled ‘Out on a Lymm’….it’s from Lymm y’see. Rick’s clever with words.

We drove to Dunham’s Big Tree which is a bit old. In fact the trunk is filled with concrete and there are various bits of metalwork holding the poor thing up. Without these aids to verticality (is that a real word?) the tree would have fallen down long ago.

Setting off at around 1020 – 10.30am we walked south through Dunham Park and out the other side, passing the (not yet open) Swan with Two Nicks….that just happens to sell Big Tree Bitter, amongst other good cask beers.

The Bridgewater Canal – A.K.A. The Duke’s Cut

Gaining the Bridgewater Canal towpath we walked towards Lymm, passing the rather dilapidated building that Rick tells me was once the hospital for canal horses.

Like I said, I’m gullible.

The former hospital for canal horses. Honest.

Actually it’s true, the place was indeed a horse hospital - probably doing a profitable side-line in glue. It’s difficult to imagine how horses would have been brought into the building, there isn’t a towpath on that side of the cut. They would have had to go under the canal using the road bridge in order to get in.

We followed the route the poorly horses would have taken, and followed the road south, then walked west to walk south on Oughtrington Lane. Passing St Peters Church we once again head west.

Those paying attention will have noticed that EAST doesn’t appear just yet. Patience, it will.

This dynamic duo then left the road and headed west-ish (which still isn’t east) in the direction of Lymm. entering the eastern (see!) outskirts of Lymm, a bit of leftery and rightery had us on Mill Lane in Heatley. It would have been rude not to pay homage to the site of the Railway Hotel that mysteriously burned down in the early hours of 2nd November 2011. Of course we dutifully paid our respects. How fortunate that a JCB was just around the corner when this happened, it completed the job of demolishing what was left of this once excellent listed building.

What incredibly good fortune. For the property developers.

The Railway before it was finally flattened.

(Photo nicked from Bernard’s Lymm Folk Club website)

Time for some eastwards travel at last, now along the Transpennine Trail.

Rick, ahead of me as usual, walking towards the River Bollin bridge 

The sun had shone all morning although the air was cool. We enjoyed a quick coffee whilst sitting on the River Bollin bridge where we plotted a bicycle ride to Liverpool along the Transpennine Trail. The return journey will be by train….we’re not THAT daft!

Leaving the T.P.T. just to the north of Dunham Town we were delighted to see that a ceilidh was being advertised, to be held in the village hall on 13th October. I hear the band are very good. And they have a very good caller. And tickets are available.

I think you should all go. It will be good. After all, the band is ‘famed’. It says so on the poster so it must be true. It IS true.

Back at the car we were quite satisfied that the recce had been a success. We half-knew where we were going to go on the day of the walk, the sun shone, and I didn’t go for a run. Result!

We were out for around 3 hours and walked 14.9km, near as dammit 9 miles, with 80 metres of up and downery.

Who said Cheshire was flat?

Thanks to Rick for the invite, it was good. I just need to squeeze in a longish run before Saturday and all will be well.

 Where we went. Sort of.

Don’t forget Rick’s walk on the 5th December – oh, and that ceilidh too. The band and caller will be brilliant.

Wednesday 3rd October, A bit of exercise

I’ve been back from my Via de la Plata trip for a few days now. Since returning home nearly all my time has been spent catching up with various administration duties and being a carer. Whenever I go on a trip I need to ensure that I have care-cover in place for the the family members I’m responsible for. This certainly makes me appreciate my trips away.

I’m off out for a run this Saturday and feel terribly unfit – even though I’ve just walked around 200km in Spain. I tend to work by the axiom: Train for walking by walking, for cycling by cycling, for running by running, and so on.

For those not in the know, the term ‘running’ is very much a generalisation. There’s a huge difference between road running (on the flat, on a hard and solid surface) and cross-country-running – where you can be running on (and through!) virtually any surface imaginable.

It’s cross-country running wot I do. Not very well, and certainly not very quickly….but it’s fun and I enjoy it immensely.

From time-to-time I run with the Cheshire Hash House Harriers (A drinking club with a running problem) but mainly with the very splendid Cheshire Tally-Ho! Hare & Hounds running club. Whilst the Hash run throughout the year, the Tally-Ho! season runs from September until April. Tally-Ho! is a fascinating club with a well documented history going back to the club’s birth in 1872. The club is the second oldest running club in the country, beaten only by Thames Hare & Hounds.There are suspicions that some of the founder members are still running with the club. There aren’t many (any?) young members. 

Tally-Ho! What a fine bunch of, er, athletes. Ahem.

Tally-Ho! usually run around 8 – 10 miles, following a sawdust trail left by the trail-layers. Well what else would you call them, eh? Only the trail-layers (the hares) know the route in advance, it’s up to the runners (the hounds) to keep their eyes open when following the route. This often results in some interesting and varied routes taken by the hounds!

A typical Tally-Ho! route.

Both these clubs are non-competitive. This suits me perfectly. I don’t race. I’ve run various marathons, half-marathons, 10k etc, but I’ve always tended to use a race as a motivator to get / keep fit. Mountain Marathons (KIMMs, OMMs, Saunders etc) are a bit different, ‘going steadily in the right direction’ is the key to a reasonable result. Having said that, there always seem to be 95% of the field who are better than me going steadily…etc. Oh well.

Anyway, back to the exercise thing.

Saturday’s Tally-Ho! run will be around 8-9 miles in the Peak District…..but I haven’t run that sort of distance for a while, and certainly not over hilly ground.

I went for a gently undulating 6 mile run this morning. This went well. Nothing dropped off and it didn’t hurt. Not bad for a man with knackered knees. This afternoon, as part of my caring responsibilities I had to visit my father. I decided to cycle over to see him. It’s not far, a 12-13 mile round trip, but it’s gentle and low impact exercise. Tomorrow I’ll repeat the run, probably extending it by a couple of miles.

As autumn closes in it’s lovely to see the hedgerows filling with berries. Theories abound on the subject of the volume of berries produced. Does a large crop of berries mean we’re going to have a cold winter? Or does it mean the summer’s been very wet? I don’t know, but the berries look nice!

          

I suppose I’d best get on writing up my Via de la Plata trip, it won’t write itself.