Introspection and a thousand miles round Italy

Thursday 30th October 2025

The speed at which my bird feeders are emptying at this time of year seems to reflect the speed of the passing of my time.

I have walked locally often since my last proper walk. Below are a a few photos. Whilst our locality is perhaps more attractive than many, and whilst I never take it for granted, I seem to find it unnecessary  to take many photos. When I walk locally the terrain is similar to most of my longer walks, but I don't use my walking poles. I guess I am not wishing to appear as a local wet or perhaps even aspire to be seen more as a macho adventurer. I do say to myself I am not fashion conscious, being so is a desire to display your "coolness" to the wider world.  Presumably I am submitting to my concern for how others see me on the local walks, so perhaps I am no different from the followers of,  Saint Laurent, Prada, Stussy, or Nike. 

Google has started creating links to various words that were not intended by me. I haven't the time or the willpower to try and reverse this at the moment.

Two recent observations.

 1. A further infringement of my campaign to bring back the correct "different from" to replace the now universal incorrect "different to."  Now we go further. The other evening I heard the BBC Political Correspondent, Chris Mason using "different than."

2. I look back from time to time at older posts on my blog and was mortified recently to see that one was entitled "My Life and Cameras." If I had used that satirically it may have been excusable, but I fall on my sword and self deprecatingly confess that I don't think I did. It sounds like the title of an article from the Reader's Digest, and in any case I reckon for most readers it would be as uninteresting as tapioca.  I have refrained from re-reading the post to avoid further masochism. I have no recollection of its contents. By some chance it may be more entertaining than I suspect, but I doubt it. 

On the way to Arnside Knott and below

Another Valtra tractor for Alan. I don't thnk this is the "33" he wants to see, but it was certainly a monster. It's strange attachment is shown below.

My latest model ( a bit of a problem with the bonnet cover)
1931 Mercedes SSKL
As raced to victory by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mille Miglia on the 12th and 13th of April 1931 
 7.1 liter engine. Avarage speed was 63mph, that is for a thousand miles on public roads round Italy. It must have been a terrifying and physically demanding experience.

Beetham and Marble Quarry

 Wednesday 8th October 2025

Tuesday evening. I am watching rubbishTV,  and perhaps idly forming some sort of plan for the morrow. The phone rings. Bowland Climber offers me a walk for next day, and in my territory. Brilliant!

BC duly arrives at 10:15. I am ready and straight out of the door with rucksack and sandwiches and coffee sorted, and so starts a day of non-stop conversation and catch-up.

We set off from the corn mill at Beetham. BC seems to have the ability to find footpaths on my home ground that I've never walked before or did so twenrty years ago now dimmed from my memory. A few yards off the path, in private land, is an ancient oak tree. A small notice is attached, but it is too distant to read. I take a zoom shot and the result is shown below (click to enlarge) but I am non the wiser. Any explanations?

Gentle climbing takes us through limestone sheep pasture, it is all limestone here in this AONB. We enter old deciduous woodland and the climbing steepens. In the absence of old churches BC  turns his attention to another of his interests because this is the time of year for fungi. I make a contribution with a couple of photos, but I'm sure there will be many more on BC's post.

We top out and find ourselves teetering across an impressive expanse of limestone pavement, care is needed to avoid breaking an ankle down a grike or clint, not sure which is which.We are still in extensive old woodland, but there is a mysterious blank white circle on the OS map marked "Marble Quarry. We go off track to investigate. There is indeed a circular clearing of the woodland, perhaps a few hundred yards in diameter but no indication of quarrying. Internet searching suggests thst this was maybe Victorian wishful thinking relating to an area where they had purloined quantities of limestone; all a bit odd.

We press on, now on a road and familiar to me as we head for the footpath turnoff to Fairy Steps. We pass a strangeley named house. "The Tridlings" which I have mentioned on a prrviuous post. If you had to guess you would never come up with the definition I unearthed: "rabbit droppings!"

Before embarking on the descent of Fairy Steps (see phots below) we sit and take our food break, perhaps to build up strength and be sufficiently rested for the challenge. The myth is that if you can ascend without using hands you will be granted a wish. I'm not sure what you get for descending but that is irrelevant because hands were definitely employed by both of us.

More level walking on good paths, still through birch ,yew, and mixed woodland to eventually arrive at Dallam deer park with a tough little climb over the top and back down to Heron Mill car park. That was a splendid outing and so much the better for me bing roused from my musings and banal TV watchings the previous evening.

Beetham village and war memorial

The stocks

The old oak tree with the little notice atached. See zoom shot below

CLICK TO ENLARGE.
 Why this notice on private land and too small to read from the public footpath?

?

Turn right here, up into the woods and the limestone pavement

Autumn has arrived

Fairy Steps. I don't think this is a fairy

Secret and mysterious little tarn at Haverbrack - on private land

Start and finish at Beetham

Trigs 99 - last 7

 Tuesday 30th September 2025

It was back in August and September 2022 that I set about the 22 trig points on OS 1/50 scale Sheet 99. For reasons I don't remember the campaign tailed off with 7 trigs still remaining.

The campaign has been now been resumed.

I left home at 7:45 am and drove down the A65 to Ingleton with a clear road, but the road from Ingleton to Hawes was completely devoid of traffic and an absolute joy to driving and a rare chance to contrast with the present day  frustration of trying to drive anywhere. That route passing through Chapel le Dale flanked by Ingleborough and Whernside and then passing by Ribblehead viaduct has much nostalgia for me.  Similar joyful driving got me as far as Wensley. Here the continuing A684 to Leyburn was closed and bearing in mind I needed as much time in hand for the walking I had to take a tedious diversion on narrow lanes. Eventually I was able to park on the unfenced road at Colsterdale after some heart stopping single track with few passing places.

From the road a short walk up to the first field boundary on a public footpath was blocked. There was no formal crossing point of the wall but it was obvious earlier visitors had reduced a fair amount of the wall, but a single wire ran across the gap. I had to manoeuvre until I was able to sit on top of the wall with the wire pressed down under my bum and then swing my legs over. A manipulation I had to repeat on my return.

It was quite a strenuous tramp over deep heather with occasional bare patches to reach the trig. I decided to head north from there to pick up a public footpath marked on the map, but it proved to be almost non existent. What had appeared to be a  modest up and down on the map was quite arduous, but the surrrounding moorland and scenery were superb.

The whole of this area containing these last seven trigs doesn't lend itself to direct driving from one point to another. A long drive ensued to get to my second trig and this was a quick up and down with views back down to Pateley Bridge and beyond.

I had thought there was an access road to Scar House Reservoir from the south from Middlesmoor but after wasting time driving there it turned out to be only a track. The proper access road approaches from the north after a long drive from Lofthouse. I had just run out of time. I retuned using the A59 road past Skipton and the A65 back home. Initially I drove over Greenhow from Pateley Bridge. The views from that road are as extensive as anywhere in the country and a surprise considering it is from a main road rather than a higher hill location.

The distances involved in getting to, and navigating around this area are tiresome, and my morning's delight at trouble free motoring was well dissipated and I was weary of the driving  by the time I arrived home. I am thinking of getting to the area next time and staying overnight in accommodation  to mop up the remainder. 

Blocked footpath on way to Colsterdale Moor trig - SE 120 815

It was mostly deep heather all the way. This at the beginning raised false hopes

Grouse shooting butt. Bring your own shooting stick (seat)

High Bishopside trig SE159 673

The red markers are still to do. The two done here are a blue squiggle centre of map and similar close to Pateley Bridge. Note the one north of Leyburn - Whit Fell on a military firing range, I will have to wait until the flags don't fly

The missing trig

 Saturday 26th September 2025

All trigs on OS sheets 97, 98, and 103 have been visited over the years. It is not easy locating them on Memory Map on my Mac, and so it was that I came across one I'd missed on Sheet 97 as I fed my map browsing addiction the other day.

The location is on private land. After only a twenty minute car journey from home I drove up the track to Faraway Farm, Here was the original farmhouse and two modern residences built next door. I went to the farm and was informed that the trig was not on his land, it belonged to the Wild Life Trust. The farmer said he has been up there and gave me directions. He also warned me that it was all very overgrown and I might have a problem finding the trig. I then went to one of the other houses and obtained permission to leave my car on their posh gravel drive.

After a couple of hundred yards the second gate encountered was leaning at an angle away from me and fixed so as to be un-openable. I climbed over with some difficulty. A short walk up the grassy hillside brought me to a wall surroundung the trig's wood. I found a place where a tree had fallen over the wall giving easy access. From thereon the wood was very nearly impenetrable. There were many fallen trees, low growing holly bushes, deep bracken and brambles all the way thwarting navigation by forcing one to take a wandering route to take any advantage of relief in this dense jungle terrain.  I made good use of the compass there and back. There were no views and I only sighted the trig when I'd got to about twenty yards from it. Surprisingly, and I suppose the raison d'être for the trig's location I had a pleasantly framed view through the trees across the Leven estuary to my home and Arnside Knott.

On the return that second difficult gate on the ascent now posed a whole different problem because it was leaning sharply towards me. At my age I am past climbing overhangs, not that I was so accomplished in my climbing days anyway. I just could not get back over that gate, or perhaps I could have done, but my imagination painted a picture of twisting, falling, ripping, or breaking, and I let common sense prevail.. I had noticed a stile further back going into the rear garden of the house where I had obtained parking permission. I climbed over and tripped warily through their garden without being noticed and back to my car.

Quite a little adventure and perhaps the toughest trig I have visted on these camapigns.

Faraway Farm. The cottages owning this garden/parking are ff photo to right

The trig is in the middle of the wood on horizon

Distant Arnside Knott across the bay

In context. The route is the little blue squiggle top centre next to Town Head

Shannon

 22nd September 2025

It seems a long time ago that I made a model of the  Severn Class RNLI lifeboat, the largest in their fleet.

Recently Airfix introduced a new kit of the Shannon Class All Weather Lifeboat introduced by the RNLI in 2013. The boat was designed in-house by the RNLI and its most revolutionary feature is its self righting ability. It has a crew of six, and is powered by two Scania DI13M, 650 hp turbo charged engines giving a top speed of 25/27 knots and a range of  250 nautical miles. Propulsion is by a water jet system making the boat more maneuverable and eliminating the danger for conventional propellors fowling on debris, a constant hazard when in the vicinity of damaged vessels with floating rigging and the like. 

Much work on the design included built in shock resistance for the crew. There are six seats designed with that as a priority and each seat includes its own dedicated data screen so that all members can see navigation, weather, and other features at the same time.

The kit is well designed by Airfix and goes together well. It is promoted as a "Starter Kit" but I think it is really more difficult than that. It has been a long build for me, partly because of other personal distractions, but it is now complete and set up in a diorama which is not included in the kit. That was all scratch built by me. The lifeboat crew were not included in the kit and had to be outsourced as was the 1/72nd scale inflatable dinghy. The lifeboat is speeding to the rescue of an unfortunate casualty, and having just got "eyes-on" are about to turn and save another life.. 

Please click photos to enlarge

I put an LED light inside the cabin but it idoesn't look right somehow

Put-put-put

 Sunday 21st September 2025

Bowland Climber on his latest post praised the rare silence he experienced on his latest local walk. That is something precious and rare.

I still walk on Thursdays with my old friend Pete from way-back-when, although at ninety and suffering from rheumatoid arthritis the walking is much restricted, but we still enjoy an hour at Café Ambio.

We walked together in Norway back in 1960 crossing glaciers and climbing Mt. Galdhopiggen. On our last evening we walked from our accommodation to a viewpoint several hundred feet above a fiord. The sun was setting at this conclusion of some of the best trekking either of us had ever experienced, enhanced by discovering that stunning scenery and environment new to us. Silence and peace was in charge.  except for...

...the “put-put-put” of a motor boat far far below in the fiord masquerading as a toy and for some mystical reason with its respectfully muffled tones seeming to contribute to one of the most cherished moments in my eighty five years.

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A tale from an erstwhile criminal

 Monday 15th September 2025

Just browsing back I came across this in the comments of an old post:

From Gayle - 20th May 2021

https://conradwalks.blogspot.com/2021/05/trigs-os-103-from-hoddlesden.html

Gayle:

"I was done back in 1959 for Obstructing a Public Footpath." (Me quoted from the post)

"Now there's a statement that demands more context!"

--------------------

Not much of an anecdote, and at the time it was one of those requested explanations that was more enticing left in suspense, but "now it can be told."

At the time I was employed as a representative for North Central Finance Ltd., the finance company subsidiary of Nat. West Bank. We mainly provided a service to motor dealers to provide finance terms for their customers buying cars. My job was to persuade the dealers in our area to use us rather than several other bank subsidiaries providing the same service. I also had to do door to door chasing of defaulting customers, and if required actually repossess the cars. If a dealer proposed a customer with dubious credit history, but not too serious we sometimes agreed to provide the finance backed by the dealer's Repurchase Agreement. In the event of repossession the car would be returned to the dealer and he would pay off the remaining balance on our finance agreement.

Taking a repossession back to a certain dealer he was not happy and uncooperative and there was no space to leave the car on his forecourt. I left the car slightly up on the kerb outside his premises but it was mot a no parking location.

Later I received a summons and a fine for Obstructing a Public Footpath. My manager refused to sanction any help in paying the fine. That was back around 1960 and it all still rankles with me.