Jay late
Very rainy
Poor visibility on kinder Scout
Got turned around at edale rocks don't know how. Turned south up a hill realised at top.
Didn't see anyone till just before torside couple of old boys very posh just walking for the day.
Filled water bottles at house on torside resavoir
Wrong way after crowden torside resavoir
Ended up walking behind barrier on busy road.
Crossed over climbed steep embankment stream half way up deep had to cross on shaky old tree that had blown over
Walked past a thrown away fence post cut leg open on sticking out metal.
Walked on 4 mile from standedge realised that I had lost my phone.
Made decisions to find it. List problems can't call Matt or Rosanna or David accommodation. Walked back no luck
Back to last place remembered phone torside resavoir. Met couple on bikes they followed ringing phone.
Thank heavens for sat nav trail had to climb embankment same place. Nearly fell in rocks by tree gave way.
Found phone by accident
Headed back to crowden Matt to pick me up
Old local came to talk
Fossil collector gave me neolithic axe head for fishing.
Went with Matt to pub
Steak chips 2eggs 2guiness +coffee
Woman with brisket burger.
Bought good at Tesco.
Went to accommodation
Clean room comfy bed
Very dtiff
Cleaned leg with povidone
Moisturizer every where
David complained me having bath said costs 35£
David naked came out to turn off bath awkward
Decided to rest tomorrow.
David left breakfast -he cleans canal +5 miles walk.
Went to shop for food +sandwich.
Bought key spring for phone pouch won't lose phone again.
Walked round mossley sat by canal rice +sardines for tea. Frouit to follow.
Ben Nevis has been one of those little checkboxes in life that has escaped me every time I was going to do it something got in the way etc.. etc... So as the saying goes you haven't failed till you stop trying!
With that in mind I was just recovering nicely from last years knee injury and decided it was a beautiful sunny day so it was time for me to give it a go. Well I finally managed it and here's some of the pictures :-)
views on the way
this landscape seemed oddly out of place
I will leave it up to you to figure out what was going through my mind when I saw this
I hadn't realised how much I looked like a pirate!
Almost the hottest day of summer and still snow
walking in snow in sandals
On the edge
The climb was worth the views
Almost at the summit!!
Plaque at the top
that top of the world feeling
The summit and trig point
On my way down
this little fella followed me for a while (something to do with the bread I was throwing him)
nearly done
Well another tick in the box, it was a great day amazing weather you couldn't get a better day to climb Ben Nevis, I am glad i never made the trip all those other times, fate was obviously waiting to give me that special experience!!
I have blogged a little about some of the health problems I have had over the last few years, mostly self inflicted due to not enough time exercising and no worklife balance.
last year after injuring my knee and exacerbating it with tour through spain and france I have had an enforced layoff while my knee healed.
It was bad for a while where due to a complex tear of the meniscus my weight went up to 21.5 stone and i had trouble weight bearing and couldn't bear to wear shoes.
as i healed I pushed myself, I took up running again and run to work now as well as regular 10-15 mile runs which I am gradually increasing.
It is 30 yrs since I first did the Pennine way so thought a great way to celebrate getting fit again and losing over 55lb (so far) I would test myself with a run walk of the pennine way.
I haven't really blogged much about it but I am due to start it on Thursday the 16th and I am really looking forward to it.
I will put some more detail, pics and videos etc.. as I can.
One of the most interesting things has been my switch to ultralight gear, some expensive some home made stuff, which has allowed me to go down to a 9kg pack with everything I need to complete a 260 mile run/walk.
I will list my kit and what worked for me/didn't work and why I chose a certain kit combination etc..
for now here is a quick video of me unpacking and giving my gear a final check!
I am walking the Pennine Way in August to celebrate 30yrs since I first walked it as a sapling :-) I learned how to use a compass and give a grid bearing and used it for a while until the advent of Sat Nav's and GPS which I have used predominantly through my cycling adventures.
With the Pennine Way in mind I knew that I would need to re-establish my atrophied navigation skills so I decided to book onto a Navigation Course and came across Peak Navigation courses in Foolow village.
It is run by Michael and Jane Livingstone who met through their love of the outdoors and eventually went on to be Mountain leaders and instructors, you can view their courses and bio here:
I had read parking was limited in Foolow so I arrived early and parked by the village green a lovely little pond with ducks and wildlife and was quickly joined by another couple who had come to do the day one which is equivalent to a Bronze NNAS.
Mike and Jane were early which was a good sign and we settled in for the others to arrive, there was about 11 of us on the first day. We briefly introduced ourselves and got started on the syllabus covering bearings, map scales etc..
It wasn't long before we were taken outside to do a brief exercise on the importance of orienting a map which was enternaining and showed how hard it is to navigate if the map isn't the right way, you may think commonsense but go on the course and you will see!
Susanna & Mike coming back after our first navigation exercise.
the narrow path from the village green at the start of the
first navigation challenge.
One thing to note this isn't a get talked at all day or watch the instructor without getting a chance to do it type of course, this was a show you now you do it course. Being an ex instructor I could see clearly the time they took to ensure everyone knew what was happening and was sure of the information before moving on. They showed patience and support throughout on that alone I would recommend them.
Foolow cross on the village green, you need to park here
some of the group sitting round after and exercise, that's my size 10's in the foreground
A session in the classroom, always friendly and informal, the lessons
are obviously planned to impart the information at a rate that's easy to
take on board.
The day closed with talks on safety, equipment etc.. For day two there would only be four of us but both Jane and Mike were present!
rather than drive home and back again I booked into Air B&B with my
host Phill who lives in a beautiful village called bakewell
he invited me out for dinner and gave me a brief tour
of the village.
We crossed over a river full of Trout....mmmm
Alas i am in the process of getting back in shape so only soup for me...
Mike tucking into a Pizza
Bridge covered in locks over the river that runs through bakewell
A lovely village seat on the route to foolow
some of the wildlife hanging around by the mill run.
I spent a lovely evening with Phill we talked mainly on life and philosophy and mike showed me the Tin Amps he makes and sells online, it was light and just the right size for my mp3 player when i am touring so I bought one, it would make an amazing present.
I did some brief revision, before bed to consolidate some of the new things I had learned. Phil and I discussed what time I would be off in the morning, I wanted to leave early and happily it turns out Mike is out by 5:50 am every morning for meditation with John Butler we chatted a little about that before heading off to sleep:
I arrived early in Foolow as I had planned to solo navigate the route we had completed the day before which I did to make sure the lessons had embedded themselves.
The village green
The start of your first navigation challenge - or as I liked to think of it:
HOW THE HECK DO I ACTUALLY GET OUT OF THE VILLAGE!
Once I had repeated the previous days exercise, I headed off to the Yonderman Cafe about 0.8 miles from Foolow along the A623 - very good breakfast!
at 10 am day two began in ernest and we all headed out in Mike's car to walk a challenging route with contours aplenty and features to recognise and follow.
Navigating over the sausage - you will know what that means when you go on the walk.
Looking a little red in the glorius sun, thank heavens for factor 50!
One of our goals was to navigate to a cairn, nearby was this stone which
we were told was Neolithic artwork.
Don't worry about experience - you go to courses to learn, our class was a mixed bag of ages, experience etc.. so don't worry about no experiece that's what the course is there for: TO TEACH US!
During day two you are constantly assessed on your ability to put into practice what you have been taught. We worked as a team, and in two's. The day seemed to go so quickly and before I knew it the course was over and I was heading back home.
One of the most useful things I learned on the course was pacing, something I have decided to become skillfull at. I have ordered a 100m tape measure and will be using that in all terrains to get my pacing right as i believe next to the map and compass it is the single most important skill in getting you to where you want to go, especially in featureless terrain and poor visibility.
Another thing that became very clear to me was the value of working with others to both check your own bearings and to assist in pacing and walking to objects not visibile along the route.
I enjoyed the course so much I have decided to do the Gold NNAS in November.
For anyone thinking of doing a Navigation course I can wholeheartedly recommend Mike & Jane. Some on the course were worried about their ability, which I can tell you is groundless. Mike & Jane assume nothing and guide you from start to finish in all aspects.
I had only one little surprise in that they cover Declination but don't acutually use it in the UK whereas I always have and will probably continue to do so.
I got into a discussion with a member of the ctc forum about my setup using the e-werk and the rav powerbank which I use in conjunction with my bike dynamo. It spurred me on to get rid of the awful dividers that come with the bag and to more firmly secure my e-werk and powerbank. Pictures below:
I added some velcro strips using the original inserts
I glued them to the powerbank using klebfast glue.
This is where I feed my sat nav charging cable through.
easily tucked under in bad weather when not in use - note no rust
and it's been on there for about a year now.
I store all the the items I need to store in a nice mesh bag
gloves, cycling glasses, phone, wallet, keys etc..
We had discussed making an insert to store things in but for my preference the inside
plastic provides enough rigidity and the bag is more convenient.
Mesh Bag fits in nicely- I use the zippered pocket for my
camera tools and spare batteries.
I use the front of the bag to store a bar towel for wetting and keeping me cool
removing sweat etc.. and storing a mini backpack for going into shops with.
Here is how the ravpower sits and I also wrap excess cable in
a velcro loop that you get for organising cables in a network cabinet.
again using the original velcro strips in the bag.
Using a mesh bag is so much easier
to get at stuff and maximises the room available.
Note the dryer sheets they keep everything
smelling nice, i put them in all my bike bags
