Needle Sports, Black Diamond poles, and the Winster valley

Circumstances prevailed allowing me to explore the Winster valley on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week with Pete.

I use Black Diamond Explorer flicklock poles and the hardened tips are now non existent.

Needle Sports at Keswick are retailers for Black Diamond - they have an excellent website and tend to  stock bits and pieces as well as providing their own opinions on much of the gear. I have often bought from them over the years. I rate NS as an excellent outdoor shop with experienced outdoor enthusiast staff with good product knowledge and reliable advice. 

Wednesday saw us off to Keswick where I learned the only solution was to replace the whole bottom section of the pole at £25 each, so I  decided to carry on until disintegration forces pole replacement. The new and improved equivalent Black Diamonds are approximately £70 per pair. I would not have any other poles - they are sturdier than their competitors having been designed to double up as a ski pole, and the flicklock system has never collapsed on me. In my opinion the Leki type twistlock system is a design disaster. If the pole sticks in soft ground behind you the natural action is to twist as you pull to retrieve, thereby untwisting the locking mechanism. I fell onto a Leki pole in the snow descending Creag Meagaidh several years ago, and the one thing I can tell you is, that even allowing for the annoyance, they do make a very satisfying cracking sound when they break.

After our trip through The Lakes and back Winster valley walking was reduced to only a couple of miles, but we continued again on Thursday and Friday reaching Winster village before returning to the car.

For anybody with ambitions to live the quiet country life on the edges of The Lake District the Winster valley would be well worth considering.

A good bit of Lake District slate walling

Whitbarrow ridge - a special location I have enthused about before

The unpleasantly named Cowmire Hall - home of Damson Gin.
Unusual three storey house for this region

Bowland Bridge...

...and our River Winster looking upstream from the bridge

Unusual gate hinge through a hole in the stone

Fortunately there was a footbridge to the left.
 There is an interesting Geocache here which can involve getting the feet wet

We followed the instructions and it didn't work...

...then we found there were two levers and we had used the wrong one.
I don't cease to wonder at the ever increasing complexity of gate catches. This must have cost a lot to produce and it wasn't by any means easy to use.

Winster House with additions for holiday renting

Birket Houses - very secluded.
 I could not find much about it on the Internet, except that it is a listed building. I think it is split into several residences.

"No public right of way"
I don't think they need to worry about anybody trespassing into this gloomy brambly jungle

Grand Designs?

Grumbly Knee gets a shakeup

Thursday 22nd August 2013

Thursday walks with Pete have resumed. Yesterday we wandered in the fringes of The Lake District, often more rewarding than fighting to park, ascending constructed staircases or badly
eroded paths, and jostling past ever larger parties of senior citizen ramblers.

Witherslack, and the Winster valley lie within the national park and provide distant views of the Kentmere and Fairfield hills with constant reminders of the park's geology and flora.

The River Winster is modest in size relative to the expansive, flat bottomed valley it inhabits which must have housed an impressive glacier in the Ice Age. Further walks north and south of this middle section will hopefully follow.

My other half, Grumpy Knee, has never been silent since his operation. I have tried to refrain from reporting about him recently for fear of GK getting delusions of grandeur,  so I tried to "walk through" his grumblings with my recent exploits, but I am afraid to say he is still an unwelcome companion. This year GK has been kowtowed to with flat river and canal trips, and yesterday's walk  was deliberately mainly on Tarmac and decent paths. We only saw seven cars throughout, and nobody else walking.

Anyway, GK was recently summoned for his "annual" check-up (from a year last May), and visited a new consultant surgeon last Friday, who turned out to be a very practical, broad speaking guy who I imagined would have pragmatic, lateral thinking solutions to any physical problems - the sort of chap you would be thankful to be stranded with on a desert island. A bone scan, x-ray, and blood test have been ordered and GK now has another appointment on 6th September. I think GK is a bit frightened of this potential taskmaster.

The wide, broad bottomed Winster valley

River Winster - sparkling clear water

Tributary tumbling down from the steeper western valley side

Distant views of Kentmere and Fairfield hills

We popped in for a look at Witherslack church - plain and simple

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A good idea spotted on another walk a few weeks ago

Severn Way and Monmouth and Brecon Canal slideshow

Here is the slideshow for my recent Severn Way and the Monmouth and Brecon Canal walks.

I said in a post that I may tell the story of the Severn Bridge disaster but it is neatly summarised on a photo of a panel. What struck me about that story was that it happened in 1960, well within my memory span, and I had never heard about it before. What a story - talk about things going from bad to worse.



Click for slideshow, then click on first picture to watch fullscreen

Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal - day 2

Goytre Wharf to The Coach snd Horses Inn, Llangynidr, Sunday 11th August

This canal is approximately 45 miles long so it divides into 3 x 15 miles which is more than the 12 mile target I am setting myself at the moment. You can't just stop for the night when you have walked your daily target, so mileages get messed about which found me walking about 17 miles today, and tomorrow to finish in Brecon is about 11 miles. The plus is that I am now fitter after nearly two weeks walking to have tackled some of these longer mileages. You youngsters who read this stuff will one day come to reassessing your realistic daily mileages . It is sobering to find when you think you are walking fairly quickly you are consistently being passed by local dog walkers.

Welshpaddler enlightened me about the jazz festival in Brecon so I expected the worst at The Coach and Horses at Llangynidr and they were full, but in line with my Welsh experiences they took the trouble to phone a nearby b an b and another inn which were both full, but they then let me camp at the pub.

I am now eating and drinking well at The Coach and Horses and they had no problem finding me a table with a plug point to charge up the millstones round my neck




Sent from my millstone
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Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal - day 3

The Coach and Horses Inn (Llangynidr) to Brecon - Monday 12th August

Camping at a pub has one drawback. In the morning I, like most people, have lavatorial requirements,, and this morning was no exception. My brother and wife live in Hereford and I had arranged to travel there by the 1:25 pm bus from Brecon so I wanted an early start to cover the ten or so miles without having a panic situation with the bus.

Pub camping also entails setting off without breakfast, which others seem to cope with, but not me, so I have to grin and bear it. I trudged up the canal hungry and wrestling with the lavatorial problem which I knew would require unpleasant compromise to resolve.

Five hundred yards up the canal there was a lock with keeper's cottage and adjacent buildings... could there be a PC? Yes, but it was locked, and for use of canal boaters only. I then remembered buying a British Waterways key at a marina miles away on The Cheshire Ring Canal walk several weeks ago. With characteristic pessimism I said to myself there's no way this will work. I scrabbled in the depths of my waist bag, and wow, I was in! These facilities are spacious and comprehensively equipped with a w.c., shower, hot water, and pristinely maintained, but they are few and far between, so the chance of finding such when in desperate need is remote.

That key cost £7, and I reckon it's the best money I have spent for a long time.

The final ten miles are attractive with the canal elevated above the country to the right, and hills above on the left, largely lined with trees permitting early morning light to dapple through onto the water, and giving window pictures of the Brecon hills and the lush blueish green Welsh countryside, and I was taken back to warm memories of my walk round the Welsh border and a caravan holiday at Brecon with daughter, High Horse, and Springer Spaniel, Jake several years ago.

Although the walking was pleasurable I knew for certain I would be able to get a bacon butty and tea in Brecon, and that occupied my thoughts most of the way. After four and a half hours I was there by 11:30 am at bridge number 167 and hunger was satiated.

Monmouthshire Brecon Canal - day 1

Newport to Goytre Wharf

The only place in Newport to stay was the Travelodge, but it was full. I settled for The Queens across the road which is part o Weatherspoons. The room was ok but there was some kind of extraction fan machinery outside on the roof which made a continuous humming noise all the time I was there.

I went into the so called restaurant and took one look and walked out. It was full of Friday night undesirables, especially guys in their late forties pretending to be young swingers wearing silly clothes with dyed hair, pony tails and jewellery. I wandered round the town for half an hour and things were hotting up, and everywhere else was even worse then the Weatherspoons, so I had no option but to return there.

I reckoned fish and chips was the item they could do least damage to, but they had run out of fish. I had lasagne and was nearly sick, not particularly because of the food, but mainly the environment and mindless people in a huge multi table setting accompanied by lots of hysterical noise. So much for Newport, and I am a big fan of the Welsh.

I was off to a good start. Tesco Express open at 6:00. I was there about 7:00 to buy breakfast which I ate three quarters of an hour later after tracking down the elusive start to the canal and finding an old bridge in a pleasant environment contrasting with deprived Newport centre.

The canal is largely overgrown and not navigable for a long way but paths are good and the scenery pleasingly Welsh - it was like coming back home.

I had previously identified an Italian restaurant, Canale, at Goytre Wharf and spoken on the phone. Proprietor Rocco had said I could camp there. I had a great welcome and a perfect pitch. The restaurant/café serves the many day trippers who come to thi beauty spot. Rocco agreed to serve me a meal after he closed down. I understand he cooked a special, genuine Italian Pasta Napoli with chicken, proscutio, and mozzarella. A large glass of Montepulciano accompanied. I chatted with Rocco who had a restaurant for twenty two years then retired and bought this place which includes a cottage where he lives. This was the best stopover for a long time.
Sent from my iPhone

Fwd: Severn Way - day 12

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: Conrad Robinson <conrob@icloud.com>
Date: 9 August 2013 17:51:12 BST
To: Conrad Robinson <conrob@me.com>
Subject: Severn Way - day 12 - Friday 9th August

Oldbury-on-Severn to Bristol

An early start and sight of the Severn bridge across to Chepstow gave me Bristol in my sights, albeit with a bit of cheating.

At the bridge I could not see signs for the SW and assumed the path went underneath, although later inspection of the map shows the route I couldn't find. I was faced with a scramble up red clay banking to gain a concrete abutment with galvanised tubular railings and a zig zag metal and concrete staircase with an interesting traverse near the top. There were "do not enter" notices, and some of the fencing was over eight feet high, but I found my way round those. This was all most entertaining, my very own via-ferrata, or via-galvanica?

As I clambered over the last forbidden, locked gate there was a small maintenance service van parked in the service road, and I thought they were waiting for me. They had not been alerted, but realised what I had done and expressed disapproval, but became quite pally after a bit of chat giving me info about my route ahead; one of them had done The Coast to Coast (W's I think, not Pacific to Atlantic).

Now then, I never set out to walk the whole of the SW, having started at Shrewsbury and not in the remote Welsh Hills.

At Andrew's Road Station the SW leaves the Severn, which by now is really the Bristol Channel, and wanders inland through suburbia and then back to the Avon Gorge, then another meander through townscape to finish in the centre of Bristol. I did want to walk through the Avon Gorge, but not through all that built up stuff. I found that after four hours walking I could catch the 12:00 train one station before Andrew's Road at Severn Beach, and get off at Sea Mills and walk through the gorge to the Clifton Suspension Bridge. That all worked fine - I even saw some rock climbers.

A hard ascent from the Avon to Clifton and a trog through town got me to Clifton Station where I caught a train to Temple Meads station Bristol, where nobody asked for payment. I then continued by train to Newport is S. Wales where I am now booked in. I intend to walk the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal over the next three days, so if you are reading this Bob (Welshpaddler) and want to get together email me at conrob@me.com and I will send you my phone number.

I had this Plan B in mind from the start but was not sure if it would work out. I have to be back home for the "annual check up" on my knee by the specialist by Thursday 15th - the op was actually done last May - good old NHS.

Sent from my iPad which is not close to my heart because I keep it in the right hand pocket of my walking shirt.