A "testing" walk

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Thursday 31st August 2017 - Thursday walk with Pete

Since aborting my backpacking a week ago last Sunday I have not been for what one would call a walk except for strolling limping round Lowther Castle and spending this last weekend helping Gimmer lay screed at his house project.

The leg is stiff and weak feeling, but not giving much pain in the day, but in bed at night it is very painful and I have had little sleep. The leg/knee is not functioning naturally and I just know it's not going to get better this time.

I have an appointment with my GP next Friday 8th September which I know will result in a formal referral to the hospital, and as my surgeon told me two years ago the knee x-ray showed surgery was advisable then, so everything I have done for the last two years has been a bonus, so I suppose I can't complain. But, the prospect of the best part of a year getting this sorted including waiting for appointments, surgery, and the long exercise programme required afterwards is not a pleasant prospect.

Recently I have written here about my lack of satisfaction with the Panasonic TZ60 camera. That is probably partly due to my lack of expertise not using it to its full potential but from research I can see it does have its limitations. I have no deep knowledge of photography, but if I am to be partly immobilised I would like to take more time and patience out and about to try and get some better results and to that end I will likely be upgrading to a better camera shortly. I have been reading reviews, looking at websites, dithering, changing my mind, seeking advice and generally going through a sort of guilty process familiar to me when deciding to spend a fair amount of money on something that is not really essential.

Just to satisfy myself completely I went for the routine Thursday walk with Pete today - we walked about three miles on quiet roads around Gressingham, and except for the company there was no pleasure in the walking for me, and I now have no doubts about the need to submit.

I took a few macro photos, and I reckon the TZ60 must have overheard my deliberations and smartened itself up to produce one or two quite good results - these have not been doctored in Photoshop Elements. One difficulty with flora is that it blows about in the wind.

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Lowther Castle

In July 2011 I went with my friend "Gimmer" who is a frequent commenter here to Lowther Castle. Gimmer's business produces specialised stone and wood sealing products and Lowther were starting a huge project to make their asset into a major visitor attraction and were seeking advice relevant to Gimmer's expertise. The place was a building site in its early stages.

The histories of the Lowther family and the now roofless castle are more interesting than many of these aristocratic venues and can be studied on various websites.

Work in progress - 2011

Yesterday, six years later I made a return visit to Lowther with daughter Jill and two of her friends and respective offspring, and granddaughter Katie along with her great friend Lily. Lily has come through traumatic medical treatment including  NHS sponsored treatment in the USA and is now a delightful, impish little girl full of character - her and Katie are inseparable.

The transformation at Lowther has been massive. The roofless castle has been restored and made safe and the surrounding areas landscaped, and there is a good informative museum with interesting family artefacts. There is also a café whic we did not visit. A ten minute walk on good paths through attractive landscape brings you to a newly constructed monster wooden castle in the woods with slides, several different levels and all kinds of nooks and crannies and walkways etc. for the children. Develpment is on-goung, and that encourages future visits to observe and benefit from progress. All in all this was an excellent day out.

Lily and Barney

Lily and Katie

Another of my entries for Photographer of the Year

Baby Sailor - he was a star

Katie and Barney

Berwick Part 2 - slideshow

Here is a Dropbox link to a slideshow with captions of my walk from Weardale to Hellifield.

I have been disappointed with the Panasonic TZ 60. All my photos seem to lack sharpness. On this walk the weather was often dull, and damp and wet which will have some bearing. Most of these photos have been enhanced using Photoshop Elements.

At £200 the Panasonic was not cheap, but how much more do you have to pay to get better results?

CLICK HERE.        click on first thumbnail then go to "Full Screen" at bottom

Changing times

The first ascent of Everest combined with the Queen's coronation heralded hope of regeneration and a new start after WW2. What does the silencing of Big Ben herald?

Berwick 2, summary

Monday 21st August. - Arnside

In general I have to agree with various commenters about my daily distances over the last five days from Weardale to Hellifield. But, those distances are similar to the mileage I was doing during the seven days from Berwick to Weardale before I had the accident, and I had coped with that without marring enjoyment.

The section I have just walked, down, up and over the various dales was not easy to plan for accommodation, but the distances, as I said above, seemed doable. There were two differences though. Firstly there was a lot of road walking, and secondly a number of serious long ascents. Contrary to many fellow walkers I don't mind road walking, especially on quiet lanes, but on this section there was just too much, and with my preference for wearing trail shoes my feet suffered. Apart from my "other" knee becoming painful on the walk into Hellifield I had a large painful blister under my right foot, and various other painful and sore toes, partly from soreness, and partly from arthritis, but I reckon the excessive road walking was a major factor - I have not had those kind of problems for years, 0k old age is creeping up on me, but if you don't try you don't know.

Another factor is recovery time, and with the less arduous walking on the Berwick to Weardale section recovery was fine by next day after a lengthy previous day's walk, but on this new section the increased amount of strenuous ascent prevented such quick recovery and I think by that last day tiredness had compounded  and from the start I had no energy and on top of the painful ailments I was weary as I hobbled into Hellifield.

I am considering  some lightweight boots combined with Sorbothane insoles and keeping mileages down in future to more ameanable distances. I have no definite plans yet for further walking. As I write, only the day after, the knee is much better, but painful feet still persist.

Back in 2014  the knee surgeon suggested me having my "other" knee done which I eventually agreed to but backed out at the last minute. Apart from many many day walks since then I have walked:

2015

3 days         Completing the Cheshire Ring canal walk with BowlandClimber

10 days      North-east coast of Scotland climbing Marilyns

20 days      Macmillan Way 1     Boston to Abbotsbury

10 days      Canal du Midi           Toulouse to Beziers

18.5 days   Macmillan Way 2     Boston to Barmouth

2016

 Jan to April       Outlying Fells some with Bowland Climber, a dozen or more day
                            walks.
March                 Marilyns with caravan from Ledbury - five days
June                    Witches walk - over several days walks with BowlandClimber
July                     SW Coast - Land’s End to Exmouth, 10 days
September          Torridon, caravan - 5 Marilyns

... and some I may have forgotten about. I shall continue to do whatever I can before signing up for the "other" knee.

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Lost control of formatting on that second table.

Berwick 2, 6

Sunday August 20th - Settle to Hellifield

I had negotiated breakfast back from 8:30 to 8:00 with the bristly landlady, so I was off for 8:30 after my ticking off about the hot water machine.

A long and steep road climb out of Settle in now much improved weather got things off to a start, but I felt tired and had developed various semi-blister toe afflictions and an increasing pain in my supposedly good knee. From Scaleber Force, which I never saw, I took the track following Brookill Gill Beck (rather than my gpx route) to its end at SD 861589. From there (Hellifield Moor Top) I varied again taking the southward path marked on the map to  arrive at Haw Lane leading into Hellifield. That "path" proved to be a two kilometre thrash through cow trodden gloop and reeds with no hint of a path despite gpx saying I was on track. When I got to the lane the foot problem had intensified as had the right knee with more pain, and I walked very slowly into Hellifield realising there was no way I could walk the eight miles to Barnoldswick where I had booked in at the Fountain Hotel. So, after life saving tea in the new café I hobbled slowly up to the station and caught the train home. By the way, traffic through Hellifield was non-stop, and with apparently little observance of speed limit - I had to cross the road three times and it was a life threatening experience.

A summary and thoughts about these five days of walking will follow, hopefully providing response to my various commenters.

About halfway up the steep road climb out of Settle

Hellifield, Pendle Hill behind. The last part of the cow trodden quagmire route is shown in red leading to the green field and then Hall Lane - click to enlarge

Berwick 2, 5

Saturday 19th August - Raisgill (Langstrothdale) to Settle.

A good breakfast and rain outside. I could have stayed all day to chat with Hazel. At the last minute our conversation uncovered a remarkable coincidence, bearing in mind the isolated location of Raisgill and distances involved - it transpired that when looking for a property ending up with Raisgill it had been a debate between Raisgill and another property nestled under the northern Pennines not far from Appleby which is the same house that my life long friend "gimmer" (frequent commenter here) bought and is refurbishing after Hazel and her husband had opted out.

A long steep climb direct from the back of Raisgill on a well defined  but wet and muddy path, often rocky took me up to Horse Head Gate. There were showers occurring every fifteen minutes or so  and violent wind driving the rain hard onto my light side, but in between bright sunshine and high white fluffy clouds. Although somewhat tiresome that weather added  more drama to the grand views in these Yorkshire Dales - my favourite general area in the UK.

The descent down to Halton Gill was a contrast in terrain, largely on cropped green turf. At one time a mountain biker glided swiftly past me at some speed over very steep, soaking wet turf, rocks, and mud - how they don't crash off is difficult to comprehend.

At Halton Gill there was the delight of Katie's Cuppas - an old farm building with tea/coffee making facilities and cakes etc. with an honesty box, and of course I couldn't resist a morning coffee.

A short walk up a cul-de-sac Tarmac road took me to Foxup, then another fell side climb to Foxup Moor and a traverse before another steep ascent to Plover Hill - all this in the aforementioned lashing rain and gale force wind, interspersed with sunshine and blue sky.

Plover Hill leads across a quagmire to Pen-y-Ghent summit - there must have been twenty people there. The descent was horrific for me down a long series of steep rocky steps streaming with water, and really difficult with my now inreasingly painful knee problems. I was oh so careful, and it took me ages, but safety was the priority.

At the meeting with the Ribble Way I varied from my gpx route and walked out to the road. It was getting late and still another four miles to my b and b at Settle - it would have been  after seven before I got there. I walked and decided to hitch. After a mile a car stopped, precariously up a very steep hill and gave me a lift down into Settle.

The Oast Guest House was well appointed and comfortable, but I had already had a slighly bristly phone conversation about their cancellation policy when I'd booked. The lady lived up to that, showing irritation when I asked for the wi-fi code when it was available in my bedroom. Then in the morning I was admonished for using a hot water machine for making a cup of tea before she arrived with my breakfast and of course a pot of tea. I think she had four rooms and all booked and trying to do everything on her own.

Hazel outside Raisgill - it is much more spacious than appears on the photo.

Looking down to Raisgill - the highlighted roof amongst the trees. Birdlife was prolific down there. I sat eating breakfast watching a woodpecker have a long feast on the bird table

Foxup caught in patch of sunlight during my descent to Halton Gill. Note the steep path (steeper than it looks) path where the mountain biker went past at speed. My route went up the left hand fell side above Foxup

Foxup - end of the road, but there is yet another farm at Cosh up another mile long track from Foxup - it must qualify as one of the most isolated anywhere 

Pen-y-Ghent summit