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I'm not a peak bagger or Wainwrighter as such but the seven areas defined by Wainwright provide as good a way as any of organizing the walks into groups although occasionally I cross his boundaries on a single walk. |
My thanks to Jill B for volunteering to proof read my walk reports and for making such a good job of sorting out my spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, a good job well done It's all my own work
All of my walks from 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
My most
recent walks:
Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd June 2008, a weekend in Northumberland made a change for me; walking
with 40sWalkersNorth we managed to find the only island of good weather in the northern half of
Britain. On Saturday we walked part of St Cuthberts Way from Wooler to Fenwick, it was a
surprise to find a large cave named after St Cuthbert in the middle of the green rolling
countryside. Light rain accompanied us on the final hour to Fenwick and it poured down
overnight, but Sunday morning was bright and breezy. We walked across the fields and through a
gauntlet of large concrete blocks, a wartime attempt to prevent amphibious landings, to the
start of the Lindisfarne Causeway. We had planned to walk along the Pilgrims Path, marked by a
line of high wooden posts, but it still looked quite wet; eventually we just went for it, mainly
barefoot, but one well-prepared individual brought her wellies. After a quick walk across the
island to the castle, and a short visit to a local pub we had a hurried walk back across the
sand before the tide came back in.
Look at the photos
Saturday 14th June 2008, it was a bright and breezy morning when I arrived at Wasdale; I left
my car at Overbeck Bridge and set off in teeshirt and shorts for the walk to Wasdale Head. I
walked past the pub to join the path towards Black Sail Pass but didn't stay on it for very
long; as I reached the gate at the foot of Kirk Fell and went through it and took the direct
steep route upwards. The weather came in and after a short spell wearing waterproofs, I settled
for a gloves and shorts day. I walked upto the summit and followed the fence down to Black Sail
Pass, then onwards, over the top of Looking Stead, and after getting a short way up the ridge of
Pillar I turned off on to the High Level Route. There is an excellent scramble up to the summit
of Pillar, I carried on over Black Crag and up to Scoat Fell, cross country to Red Pike and
then descended to Dore Head. The best way down from there is up and over Yewbarrow, straight
down to where I had left the car.
Look at the photos
Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June 2008, a weekend I had been looking forward to for a long time saw me staying
in the Glencoe Hostel with my fellow Linlithgow Ramblers; the warm sunny weather seemed to bring out the worst of
the midges. On Saturday we drove up the lovely Glen Etive to Invercharnan in order to walk through the Glenetive
Forest before climbing Beinn Fionnlaidh in very warm conditions. On Sunday we made the long anticipated steep climb
from Glen Coe to the summit of Am Bodach, a sudden rugged drop to a ridge that led us to the summit of Meall Dearg and on to
the Aonach Eagach. Generally it was the most interesting and rugged of ridge walks, occasionally it was so exhilarating
that I didn't dare let go with either hand to reach for my camera in the places that would have made the best photographs;
The Crazy Pinnacles are a place that I must visit again. The ridge ends at the summit of Stob Coire Leith; all you have
to do then is climb up to the summit of Sgorr nam Fiannaidh before the steep 2000 feet of descent on eroded scree and grass that proved
that my knee is fully healed.
Read about it
Saturday 24th May 2008, it was my first visit to Wasdale of the year, partly due to poor weather and partly because of my
knee injury; it looked as though it was going to be a good day. I parked at Brackenclose and walked up the Brown
Tongue route with the usual crowd of other walkers but an unusually clear view of Scafell, it almost always mists
over before I get there. Lord's Rake was in its early season state with a lot of loose rocks in the lower reaches;
the fallen boulder is still in place but it continues to be undermined. I walked up to the third top of the Rake before
walking back down and clambering under the boulder to get on to the West Wall Traverse; watching the climbers on Scafell
Crag as I walked up to Deep Gill and on to Scafell. I descended by Foxes Tarn Gully before climbing Scafell Pike by a
roundabout route in order to visit Broadcrag Tarn before an intesting clamber over boulders to reach the big path to
the summit. I descended to Lingmell col and walked to the summit of Lingmell to descend its ridge rather than walk
down the hard reconsructed path to Brown Tongue.
Read about it