Arnside to Boston

Day 1 - Tuesday 19th May

Three train changes. Two of the trains were several minutes late. I just managed to make the connections but it was close.

Arrived Boston 12:18 pm. It was a bit early to go to my b and b so I had a look round and a café snack. Two immediate impressions - the number of people smoking and an apparent majority population of eastern europeans. Practically all conversation overheard was foreign. The surrounding area is devoted to arable/produce/vegetable farming with a big demand for seasonal and casual labour.

The Y-Not guest house b and b was ten minutes walk from the town centre and I arrived at 1:30. This was pre-booked and I had told Mrs McGarry I would be arriving fairly early. There was nobody at home. I rang two phone numbers with no result. At 2:45 I had just written a note to say I was departing to find alternative accommodation when Mrs M phoned. She was back in ten minutes having forgotten about me. She showed me her book which was blank, but she did then remember our phone conversation about my walk etc. I was a bit cross at first but she had obviously made a genuine mistake and she was very pleasant and welcoming with everything in her b and b at a good standard.

A priority job is to get all my tech on charge. I have a backup Nokia pay-as-you-go phone on Orange as well as my Vodafone iPhone and I found I had left its charger at home. I only bought that phone last year from the Orange shop in the Trafford Centre and it appears it is already obsolete. Two mobile shops (the first owned by a nineteen year old Polish guy who could hardly speak English) could not supply me and then I found one of those dubious techy shops where they "unlock" or "jail-break" mobiles which is something I know little about - it all seems a bit subversive.

There seemed to be very few eating places in the centre of town and no proper pubs. Eventually I found The Duke of York over the footbridge. Here again the proprietors had gone out shopping leaving the pub in charge of a guy who could not put wheels in motion for food so I waited and read my book, Borrowed Time by Robert Goddard - Kindle/iPad version. When the landlord and wife returned I had: a pint of Fosters, sausages, mash and giant Yorkshire Pudding, and finishing with chocolate sponge and hot custard all for £10.15 ! 'Twill be different in the Cotswolds I reckon. It was only 5:30 and I was the only customer.





St. Botolph's church ( Boston Stump)

I took a couple of other photos and have taken others when passing through on my Broads to The Lakes walk and it always seems to be leaning. It can be seen for miles around in this expanse of flat arable land.




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Location:Langrick Road,Boston,United Kingdom

Flat out in a Popular

The four kilometre stretch on the A65 from Settle South Roundabout to Long Preston sports bends that boy-racers and born-again-middle-aged motor cyclists may dream of, and for me, an erstwhile boy-racer, there is particular nostalgia.

In 1959 my employer unwisely provided me with a company car - a last of the line sit-up-and-beg Ford Popular before the monocoque chassis was introduced a year later. That last of the line model was unsafe before it left the showroom, with wayward steering, feeble brakes and a windscreen wiper working on air pressure that swept slower as the car travelled faster. There were only three gears - from time to time the gear lever would come out, free in my hand. 

I was the first car “owner” amongst my  climbing friends. We would drive up to Langdale on a Friday evening. With three passengers and four rucksacks stuffed into the boot the lid had to be left strapped partly open.

I discovered I could take all those four kilometres of bends without ever lifting my foot from the accelerator travelling at the car’s maximum speed of fifty-three miles per hour. In those days, travelling towards The Lakes, the next section went through Settle (now by-passed) and up the long hill of Buckhaw Brow. I can remember my father and uncles talking about Buckhaw, which, in their earlier days only gave them a fifty-fifty chance of avoiding a boiling radiator before reaching the summit.

Well, this week my Thursday walk with Pete was changed to Wednesday (favourable versus unfavourable forecasts). The objective was one of my two remaining Marilyns in Region 35 - Ilkley Moor. Pete was often one of the aforementioned passengers back in the 60s so we were on a mutual nostalgia trip as we headed down the A65.

We were able to drive to the end of a cul-de-sac road a kilometre from the trig on Ilkley Moor which was gained by a splendid level path of three foot square sandstone flags apparently lifted from the floors of Industrial Revolution Yorkshire woollen mills.

Back with the car and we took a tour round the edge of the moor for more nostalgia visiting the Cow and Calf rocks above Ilkley. Here we served our time learning to rock climb all those years ago. There is a dramatic vertical crag (The Cow) with an enormous boulder (the Calf) at its foot, the latter perched as if to set off to roll down the steep valley side into Ilkley at any moment. I always had a fantasy of making this happen - it would have been the all time greatest trundle.

By pre-arrangement we finished off by visiting my very good friend M who lives in Ilkley - she was also part of our old outdoory, jazz club Bradford group back in the 60s and we have remained friends ever since (my late wife was M’s best friend). M has always been an accomplished and inventive cook. She told us she had recently bought a cheese and onion pasty which lead her to think about the lack of imagination applied to fillings in such widely available items, and she decided to do her own thing. We were treated to a wonderful pasty filled with a mixture of high quality tuna, spinnach, onion and other ingredients - delicious, and that was followed by freshly baked, still warm, light and fluffy scones with a slight hint of lavender. 

I was given another pasty to bring home and that went down ever so well last night. Thanks M, that was a thoroughly enjoyable get together.

WORTH CLICKING TO ENLARGE

Spotted in Arnside recently - exactly the same, colour and all as my 1959 Ford Popular

My actual car circa 1959/60 - me and Pete stuffing in the rucksacks. A rare photo - not many cameras about in those days

On the way to Ilkley Moor trig

Cow and Calf rocks. The square notch, centre leads into The Quarry. The Cow is prominent righthand end. The Calf hidden by the righthand end of the white marquee below The Cow

In The Quarry

The Cow

The Calf. Ilkley below

There's always a way

I hesitate to inflict more of my medical history on you, but my need to boast about my latest  ingenious achievement leaves me no alternative.

The wound on my shin inflicted last September took five months to heal; it was complicated by accompanying cellulitis. The residual redness and flaky skin has now been diagnosed as some kind of eczema necessitating the knee length compression stockings previously mentioned.*  I also have to daub the area with Epaderm (an emollient). That is enough of the medical stuff which I do not want to discuss further.

The Epaderm comes in a weighty (500g) plastic tub. I hope to set off on another backpack on the 19th of this month and do not want to carry that. It is not sold in smaller amounts.

My current tube of toothpaste has just finished. I cut off the bottom, cleaned it out and stuffed it with Epaderm. I then folded the bottom edge back on itself and stapled it closed then put insulation tape round the bottom to protect myself from possible staple lacerations and to complete the seal, et voilà.

To avoid brushing my teeth with gungy ointment, I attached a label.


* The stockings are not worn at night. I thought I was doing ok with the difficult task of donning them in the morning having developed a good technique, then the last medic I saw told me I should do this whilst still in bed, before the blood rushes down the leg !  That task is at the limits of my body's pliability. I am hoping that my aforementioned ingenuity will develop an easier technique. 

BRORA MARILYNS SLIDESHOW

Here is the slideshow for my recent twelve day trip to Brora (north east coast Scotland).


CLICK HERE

Click on the first photo to continue as full screen slideshow.

Day 12. Saturday 2nd May

Brora.

I spent the morning reading then drove into Brora and had a little walk round. Here are a few photos.




Immaculate garden


Brora harbour. Not a lot going on these days.


The old ice house


Brora war memorial




Carrol Rock across Loch Brora. Very craggy - intend to research re rock climbing when I get back - no Internet moment. Photo too dark but can be lightened with Photoshop.


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Day 11, Friday 1st May

Creag Thoraraidh, grid ref: ND 040 187. Via transmitter Tarmac service road from Navidal, north of Helmsdale.

Over breakfast I continued to read The Bradford Fire by Martin Fletcher (see my post: Day 9, 29th April). Showery weather was not encouraging, I carried on with the read until I finished the book at 11:30. I was expecting more circumstantial evidence to emerge about Heginbotham's involvement with the fire; he was the chairman of Bradford City Football Club at the time. His numerous businesses over the years had scored eight insurance claim fires, and the author brings this to our attention and quite rightly questions such unlikely coincidence, but no further evidence, circumstantial or otherwise is offered. Martin Fletcher does ponder why there was no police investigation into this man's affairs. Heginbotham's business dealings were often questionable, and he was proved to be an out and out liar regarding his declarations of ignorance about correspondence regarding safety requirements from various public bodies, and also regarding his announcement of plans for rebuilding the stand for which he said categorically that steel had already been purchased. All that was fiction.

The overwhelming facts emerging are the non-implementation by various governments over many years of recommendations made by various official enquiries into similar disasters at football grounds and other sporting events.

With all that rambling round in my head I jumped in the car and set off up the A9 to Helmsdale and did this final Marilyn (eleven in total I think).

I know I am not going to climb all the M's but I would like to think that I have done a good share of fairly difficult ones and that has been the case up here so far.There are many Ms that you can win by a very short walk and some where you can actually drive to the top. From the map today's hill appeared to almost qualify for "easy" albeit a four mile steep walk there and back, but on a Tarmac service road for transmitters on the summit.

There were two lots of masts on the summit plateau about quarter of a mile apart with a trig point plonked halfway between, but a couple of hundred yards across rough moorland off the road. To add to the confusion the Harold Street website (my source for the M's list) put the highest point in the middle of the moor between the first mast and the trig. On arrival I couldn't tell visually which was highest point and spent some time wandering about the moor visiting them all. GPS confirmed I was standing on Harold Street's grid reference but there was no cairn or other indication - anyway I have no qualms about giving this one a tick - 'twas a bit more a tricky than first indications from the map suggested.

Back in Helmsdale I found Thyme and Plaice, a free wi fi café. I hadn't noticed the name on entering, just the wi fi notice. I asked the girl for the password and got no result when I typed in "timeandplace", but all was resolved with a little smile. Here I met a father and daughter from California who were cycling round Scotland with good road bikes fitted with Ortleib pannier bags carrying their camping equipment. They had already been all the way up the west coast - a far cry from many foreign tourists who drive up the motorway and think they have seen our country. I do recommend Thyme and Plaice if you are passing by here.

Why, in all cafés, do they place your cake on top of the paper serviette so that it has often become messed up before you use it?

I am typing this on Saturday and I have decided to chill-out for the day before going home tomorrow, so no more Ms for the moment folks.




The Tarmac road - about halfway up


The most distant of the masts


Morvern from the undistinguished summit


Thyme and Plaice


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Day 10. Thursday 30th April

Beinn Mhealaich - NC 961 149

From track from A9 near West Garty.

That is now ten consecutive hills without seeing anybody. A few hundred yards up the track from the road I did meet a Polish guy who was doing some work for the owner of a holiday cottage, but it was hardly on the hill. I haven't specifically recorded with all these hills, but have been aware of hardly ever seeing any footprints despite hundreds of boggy locations where they would have been unavoidable, and today I took particular notice and definitely never saw one.

Sunshine, blue sky and big billowing white clouds were with me until arriving at the summit. It is a cliché in articles about hill walking when they say weather can suddenly change, but change it did and quickly. Just after getting a couple of photos dark clouds formed, wind whipped up to gale force and snow came. I set off back and within another fifteen minutes the wind subsided and I was back with the blue sky and sunshine.

The track I had followed for the first kilometre from the road wended its way through extensive gorse before emerging onto the open hillside. I took careful note of the point of emergence, but on my return, although I knew I was within a few feet I couldn't find it, just a wall of gorse. I plunged in at random. I could see a mini windmill generator sticking up above the cottage only about a hundred feet away, but had to battle through gorse a small clearing and then some more gorse before finding the path.






Looking back down the track to the sea on the ascent


Looking to the east and the sea from the summit.


South from the summit




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