One summer - Traverse of Black Hill...

Claire had a couple of days off and it was nice to go out for a long walk on one of them - our first decent walk for a while to be honest.

  Claire and I parked at Dovestones and set off up the road towards the Chew Reservoir. This was actually over half the ascent for the walk as the Chew is the highest reservoir in England. Once there, we set off on the path that follows the right edge of the reservoir and intersects the Pennine Way. The first bit of the path was pretty clear as can be seen from the shot - some bits were less clear. Despite the heatwave of the last couple of months there had been enough rain to ensure that Claire was able to work on her bog-leaping skills......there is quite a lot to be said for doing this in winter - although how easy it would be to find the path would be debatable.

The two paths meet at Laddow Rocks - a great moorland grit climbing area that I hadn't been to before - it certainly looked impressive enough to make a trip worthwhile. Oddly, despite being so remote, it was one of the first of the grit crags to be climbed on in the period between the wars. This was largely down to access issues than anything else, with the land around the Eastern Edges being privately owned and kept for shooting etc.

Having had lunch, we followed the Pennine Way as it climbed Black Hill. Higher up the path is paved - I had never been on Black Hill before, however all reports said that prior to it's paving it was a nuclear wasteland of bogs and groughs. The paving is pretty unsightly, however it seems essential to trying to manage the erosion as well as make a walk halfway enjoyable, rather than just an obstacle course of bog-jumping etc.

Laddow Rocks

From the summit of Black Hill, we had some options. One was to go across country on a path that was supposed to exist and end up on highpoint of the 'Isle of Skye' road (no idea why it is called that!!) From there it was a couple of km walk on the road down to a car-park where we could drop down to the reservoir and collect the car. The path didn't exactly look obvious (to put it mildly), so we elected to follow the PW to Wessenden Head, which added another 3km or so to the road walk.

The path down was actually lovely, with good views towards Marsden and the Calder Valley. The flagstones did make for some pounding on the soles of the feet - which was only exacerbated by the road walk. Interesingly, arriving at where we would have come out had we taken our original path, there was no sign of it. I must explore this further as it would be interesting to see where it starts from/finishes and how 'bad' it is in places....must be a strange form of masochism. The road walk wasn't great - however we did eventually arrive at Binn Green, from where we could descend to Dovestones and back to the car. The walk was about 11 miles, which we both needed - and it was also good that my chest and cough felt fine - encouraging at least.

Climbing by the sea....

Not quite as simple as it sounds when one is based in North Devon....some of the cliffs are a little 'adventurous' (for that read loose!!) whilst others have pretty horrible approaches...add that to the tidal part and that I am only leading around severe at the moment...


Claire and I looked at a couple of venues; however we did get one nice Diff route down on the reverse slab of Brownspear Point. The approach was by a lovely low tide boulder hop which takes you round into a secluded bay that is not possible to get to from above. The route was a lovely diff - with good but spaced gear and some lovely padding. From the bottom it looked like you could abseil off some blocks above the cliff...however when I got there there was a steep loose grass/rubble slope up to the blocks which looked awful loose....

Discretion being the better part and all that, I lowered off a perfect nut 6 and Claire could have a run up and down the slab. It would have been nice to do some routes on Lundy, however with the bird bans in place and me not feeling 100% it would have been dicey - ditto for routes on the N. Devon coast....would be nice to go back soon though...

Sunset from the campsite

Sutherland.....and the garden..

Sutherland is ours!!! We fell in love with the cottage we rented when we moved down to Ashton from Penrith and agreed a price to buy it. It has taken a while...however we now own Sutherland (as we've chosen to call the cottage). What else could we call it with Suilvan, Arkle and Foinavon all here (the latter two are our little Marmot Mammoths)..?

Having brought the place we can now do a few things to it - and one of those is the back garden. We've got a compostor and some enclosed raised beds to grow veg as well. It's unlikely we'll be self-sufficient or be able to retire in a life of untramelled luxury from growing and selling things....however it is nice to produce our own stuff.

This isn't exactly the correct time to grow most things - however we have got some Spinach, Carrots and some spud bags...a test to see what we can do before really gearing up for it next year. Along with this, we have the compostor going already - hopefully it'll produce some lovely home compost for next spring. A woodstore should arrive soon as well  - getting us ready for winter..

Spuds....with some of our herbs..

The compostor...

Maybe this spinach will make me climb better!!

One summer - mystery illness

Got this bug about 6 weeks away, from the Head of Dept at the school I was working at at the time....still not entirely sure what it is, however it has left me in periodic coughing fits at times that make  running and cycling very difficult.

I certainly improved during my time away on Lundy and in Devon, probably relaxing and the sea air. When we got back, I was able to go for a run with Claire with no problem and thought all was well.....unfortunately it wasn't. I managed a gentle run in heavy rain last week which is good - and I've certainly got better than I was before we left for Devon, however I'm still not right.

Cycling is especially a challenge as I cough so much I nearly fall off - clearly not great. On the plus side, walking seems ok (although we'll see more next week) and climbing is also good - we've just come back from a wall session and I can feel things starting to click a bit now which is good - although I could really do with some endurance and power....

Some more from Suilvan...

well, I've been back at home (Sutherland they've called it after the humans brought it) for a couple of weeks - although I've been promised that the humans are going to take me away again on Wed for a few days.

Before that I took the humans down to Devon - to the same place I stayed at last year. It was a bit quieter  than the year before - there weren't as many vans to talk to. It did get busier towards the weekend, however there seemed to more caravans than vans which was a shame, even so, it was nice to have some time away from home.

It was strange though - as the little ones and I were left for 3 days in Ilfracombe, the humans went to a place called Lundy, apparently I was not allowed to go...am not impressed....