Northern Rambler

Welcome to the annual review! It has been a mixed bag this year. My Wainwright tally has been lower than the previous two years. This is in large part because I did not dedicate as much of my time to the Lakes this year; instead increasing my tally in the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales and Wales. The theme of 2024 was the three peaks. In May, I completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge. Then in August, I climbed Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), the highest mountain in Wales which, having already ascended Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis, completed my aim of climbing the three national peaks. I have also probably climbed more hills than ever before this year, the total being 52. Though in part I think this is because I have been more meticulous in recording hills from lesser known classifications, such as Hewitts and Birketts. There were disappointments along the way. Most notably my 'grand' cycle tour which did not end up happening. But overall, it has been a great year for being outdoor...

Back in August, I went on holiday to Anglesey in Wales. Well, more specifically, a small island called Holy Island just off the coast of Anglesey. This was a family holiday, but I was able to do some exploring and walking. Most notably, I was finally able to tick off Yr Wydffa (Snowdon) and complete the national three peaks. Wales is an area I have barely explored. Until this holiday I had not walked a single hill in Wales, most regrettably, as it hosts some of Britain's most dramatic mountains and knife like ridges. The journey to Wales seemed to take ages. With my bike on top of the car, I moved at a steady, at times snail's, pace down the M6. Seeking to avoid the toll road, I came off the M6 near Warrington then travelled west over the border into Wales. In parts, the route was beautiful, particularly driving through the tunnels near Conwy cutting through the hills that overlook the coast of northern Wales. Crossing the Menai straits I entered Anglesey for the first time. My...

I work in a college in east Lancashire. Like other colleges, they offer students the opportunity to complete the Duke of Edinburgh award. Many students start this in high school and complete the "gold" when they are at college (or sixth form). For the students at my college, the D of E course itself is run by the local authority, but paid for by the college and with college staff in attendance for safeguarding purposes. Usually, the college representatives who attend are from the Uniformed Services division, which makes sense. But on this occasion, no staff from this division were available and there was a real risk the trip would need to be cancelled if a replacement couldn't be found. This would have costed the college money and would have impacted the students as this was their last training expedition before the final assessment the following week.  My manager asked myself and one of my colleagues in my division if we would be willing to step in. Of course we said yes...

 It was supposed to be the big cycling expedition. But alas, my schedule didn't allow me to get the proper training in beforehand. A few days before the trip was set to happen, I needed to face the hard fact that I just wasn't ready. Not only that, but in the two evenings prior to the trip, my schedule was packed. The cycling trip was meant to be on the friday. I was at work both wednesday and thursday, and my evenings were took up with a gym instructor course on the wednesday and donating platelets on thursday. I just wasn't going to get the chance to do the last minute work on my bike before going out.  The campsites had already been booked though, so rather than scrap the whole thing, I decided to go ahead with camping, but I'd hike instead of bike. But this meant some last minute route planning. In the end, this came fairly easy. I had been wanting to walk the Kentmere horseshoe for some time. I had set off to do it last year but the road leading up to Kentmere vill...

I had a decent sleep the previous night. I was starving when I got back from the pub and knocked myself up a couple of burgers. I made short work of my beers and watched some nostalgia films on my i Phone as the snooker finished early. I watched the 1976 remake of King Kong starring Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange. It's by no means a classic but I used to love it when I was younger. Back in 1998, when I was five, my Mam taped BBC's Monster Night special. It was a strange old affair. The show was presented by the comedian Bill Bailey, who was joined by Chris Moyles, Phil Jupitus and Paul Ross. In between their bits they showed films including the aforementioned King Kong and the 1991 Japanese film Godzilla vs King Ghidora. There were some strange segments like 90s comedy duo Lee and Herring's Reasonably Scary Monsters, a Goggle-box-esk programme within a programme. Lee and Herring watch Carol Vorderman present a programme in which she counts down the world's 9 scariest m...

I've been looking forward to May for ages. This was the first of my two camping expeditions of the month. The second will be my cycle trip to the Lakes and the Yorkshire Dales. I haven't mentioned this much on this blog but I am a huge snooker fan. The pinnacle of the sport is the World Championships played over the course of two weeks from late April into early May, always finishing on the bank holiday Monday. The world's best players descend onto the city of Sheffield for a tournament held in the sport's spiritual home, the Crucible Theatre. With Sheffield being situated close to the Peak District, I thought this would be a great opportunity to combine my two passions and tick off some fells prior to going to the snooker.  I booked onto North Lees camp site, just over a mile from Hathersage. Prior to this trip, I'd only visited the Peak District the once. This was in 2020, the summer of Covid. I stayed in the quant old town of Bakewell. I didn't get much walki...

The bike tour is now in the Calendar for late May. Training has been underway over the course of the last month or so. The longest day of the bike tour will be day 1 and will see me travel from my home in Langho to Kendal in Cumbria. The route was laid out in a previous post, though there will be some minor alterations to it. After some flip flopping, I ended up deciding on avoiding the Lake District National Park on day 1 and go straight to Kendal, which sits just to the east of the park boundary. The plan was then to cross the boundary on day 2 and head for Windermere. But I quite like the idea of travelling from home to the Lake District in a single ride. I will probably still camp at Kendal, but I will veer just over the park boundary on route. On day 1 I will be riding between 70 and 75 miles.  I've never ridden that distance before. The most I have done is around the 50 mark. The first time I did this was the summer of 2020 when the country was in lockdown and the bike provid...