As I become more conscious of plotting routes that are comfortable for Pete I started looking at the profile facility in Memory Map and quickly discarded a couple of possibilities which seemed to show lots of steep ascent, although I had not read that from the contours.
It is only as I messed with the map for this post I realised the profiles can be whatever you want just by stretching their boxes - here are two extremes for this walk:
We have now had two or three weeks with hot sunshine and no rain. This morning I looked at the BBC weather app and it predicted thunder and lightning at precisely 6:00pm - similar predictions have been remarkably accurate of late, but that would be no problem for us as we are finished by 4:00pm.
We have often eaten well at the Highwayman from where Woodman Lane departs. I asked permission to park and conscientiously put the car at the far end of the large car park on its own.
We walked and chuntered in oppressive heat and humidity - our lane mostly nestled between high hedges giving us only occasional ripples of the faint wind.
Rest Harrow Equestrian looked impressive - a newly built complex for horsey people with an unbelievable list of facilities including:
- "A Hot Water Horse wash and shower bay"
- "Horse Solarium"
and many other features redolent of a luxury spa for ladies.
See their website:
The strange thing was that despite the vast amount of investment that must have been made here there seemed to be absolutely nothing going on.
At Overtown we found a welcome bench and sat for a while and then decided to return before we had reached Cowan Bridge. There is an interesting network of paths around here which may provide more pleasant walking for me later, along with investigation of the strange perfect circle shown on the OS map (see map below.)
Back at the Highwayman, despite having parked at the most remote part of the car park another car had parked close on the passenger side, and another so close on the driver's side of my car I could hardly open my door and only managed to get in with a huge amount of squeezing and difficulty. There were many double and treble open parking spaces all over the carpark. My goodness - I was so angry. If I had been a paying customer at the pub I think I would have gone in and identified this prat with a likely fisticuffs outcome.
As I dropped Pete off at Storth where he joins his wife from her painting class, dark broody clouds threatened over the bay but the thunder and lightning didn't materialise, but as I type this at ten next morning rain has started, albeit a bit feeble, but welcome for the garden and wildlife.
CLICK FIRST PHOTO TO SEE AS SLIDESHOW
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| That is a transparent sign. The purpose of a sign is to inform. Although obviously modish this sign fails to achieve its objective; it is difficult to read. Another masterpiece of the designer's art. |
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| My caption: loud and clear: REST HARROW EQUESTRIAN |
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| Ingleborough looms |
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| Looks compatible with Rest Harrow Equestrian? |
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| Strange looking cairn at the end of the footings of a drystone wall - bit of a mystery |
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| Identification of the white stuff please - I've seen it before. One for BeatingTheBounds |
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| Our turning point |
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| One seems able to see Ingleborough from so many locations |
The white stuff is almost certainly home to huge numbers of caterpillars. There are, I believe, several species of 'tent' moths. I think in urban settings they are probably a reportable species because they can be a pest. I once saw a line of trees by the Lune near the bottom end of the 'other' Borrowdale which were all absolutely covered with the stuff. The caterpillars can completely strip trees and bushes of leaves.
ReplyDeleteI keep looking at the paths in that area - it seems like an obvious Lune Catchment walk. You've beaten me to it though!
The comment I left on Friday seems to have disappeared. Here it is again:
ReplyDeleteThe other problem with electronic mapping altitude profiles (as I'm sure you are aware; not trying to teach you to suck eggs) is that it is not possible to plot a line thin and accurate enough for the software to know exactly what line you're taking. A fine example last week when we took a walk that was largely flat, but across a steep slope. The electronic calculation of our ascent thus thought we had been wearing our thighs out with a violently bumpy profile amounting to something silly like 300m of ascent.
As for the parking, I can only offer that it is the same the whole world over. Given a huge empty-but-for-Bertie car park it's almost a given that the next vehicle to arrive will park right next to us.
Mark - Thanks for that. I have seen more of it today up near dufton viting my friend gommer who comments here.
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Gayle - I have always ben dubious about total ascnts given by Memeory Map, but it's good for the ego when tghey've been exaggerated.
When I lived in a very special AONB protected valley in the Chilterns , we (the concerned residents - ie all who had eyes to see and minds to understand ) had long and sometimes vituperous battles with a series of in-comer multi-megalo-millionaire-horsey-maniacs who wanted to build such an equestrian complex (only for their private use, you understand) slap bang in the middle of the most prominent flat land at the bottom of the valley : eventually we even managed to get the local planning department to agree the designs (all suspiciously similar despite the applicants protesting their independence - all being very reminiscent of a certain well known restcamp 'somewhere in occupied Poland' - work makes you free, and all that) were almost word for word contrary to the most sacred policies of the AONB and national landscape and heritage protection policies, and one by one they were all seen off and the applicants retreated with muttered threats to take their wealth and patronage to more welcoming climes. Looks as though you have unearthed the northerner amongst them. Maybe amongst the broad acres and looming heights of the north, they might be less prominent - but it still makes one wonder 'why' ! Do the horses care ? Or is the real objective the breaking in of other fillies ? Not to mention relieving them of their cash.
ReplyDeletegimmer - ...to say nothing of the way horses churn up footpaths, You couldn't design a machine to make more of a mess. I suppose we've all got a right to use the so called bridleways and I'm all for a bit of give and take, but I have come across some real horrors due to horse traffic - Wenlock Edge was one of the worst. Once I encountered a pretty young lady on a horse on such a churned up path and I complained a little banterishly, "Oh! It's the hunt that does it" was her reply - there goes another horsey related subject I could go on about...
ReplyDeleteWhen set against the damage done by trail bikes etc and dare I say it, us walkers - just think of the path repairs needed even on remote hills in Scotland - I have to say that I have no problem with horses on paths. Hunting is a different matter altogether.
Deleteafoot - you are right of course. We all cause damage. Since I came to live in Arnside eighteen years ago new paths that are quite substantial have arrived where there was no trace before, and others that may have been mistaken for faint sheep-trods have developed into highways and that is almost exclusively from walkers only. When one lives in an area for a number of years such happenings are more noticeable. Any newcomer would assume that some of those paths have been there for a century or so.
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