Blog
(2019)
Blog updates are only on an
"ad hoc" basis when I have something to say and will not be
particularly regular. Latest entries first.
24
December 2019
Finally
finished removing the (in many cases) moribund links to the Met. Office (see
Blog entry for 18 October 2019).
Due
to various things happening in my personal life (none unpleasant just
requiring input), not to mention the weather, my walking rate has slipped a
bit this year. Lets hope 2020 provides more opportunities.
I
hope all visitors to the site have a great Christmas and New Year.
29
October 2019
Clearly
recent exceptional rains have produced some equally exceptional floodwater
issues and I have had two instances reported to me today where walkers have
had to curtail/amend my routes to take avoiding action. I have incorporated
warnings on the relevant walks. Obviously, it is impossible for me
personally to keep abreast of all changing issues on my walks and I am
grateful to anyone who lets me know of such matters so that I can amend or
note my routes accordingly, so keeping the directions relevant to fellow
walkers.
18
October 2019
To help users of my
walks to plan their walks, I have included a link to weather forecasts from
the Met Office on each of my walks, so that there was an instant reference
to the relevant area. Unfortunately, the Met Office keep changing the way
their site works and older links have become moribund.
I cannot keep up with
the changes because with over 300 walks on my site, the effort involved
revisiting the walks each time is too much. I do want a life as well!
I regret therefore that
I will no longer be offering this facility and as time permits, will be
deleting all the weather related links on my site.
21
July 2019
Free
bacon sandwiches! Not many blog entries enable you to start with that
statement. However The Inn at South Stainley is making such an offer via
their Walker’s Breakfast Club, on selected Saturdays from August 2019. The
hope is you will make a donation to their chosen carity, the hospice Martin
House. For more details
see my South Stainley Circular walk, under North Yorkshire.
10
June 2019
Some
of my walks involve walks by rivers and canals. You may know that these form
part of some 2000 miles of canals and river navigations in England and Wales
are cared for by the Canal & River Trust, the waterways and wellbeing
charity. Working with Coventry University, the charity has published
a detailed analysis of the plastics and other litter found in its
waterways. The research, which reviewed data from 25 locations, found
that plastics now account for 59% of waste found along its canals. It
estimates that 570,000 items of plastic reach the world’s oceans each year
via its waterways. With the help of local communities this figure could be
drastically cut.
The vast majority of the litter found along
and in the canals each year is potentially recyclable or could be re-used in
creative and innovative ways.
The Trust is calling on every visitor to its
waterways to make their own small contribution to help keep them clear of
plastics, whether by picking up and recycling a piece each time they visit,
joining the Trust’s growing band of volunteers, or even adopting a short
stretch of their local canal with friends, neighbours or colleagues. If
every visitor picked up and recycled just one piece of plastic each time
they visit, the canals and rivers could be plastic free in a year.
Further information can be found on the Canal
& River Trust website.
9
April 2019
This
week, I saw an item on the BBC Breakfast programme about colour blindness.
It was very interesting and in particular, I had never realised the complex
nature of the condition having previously thought it was just about red and
green problems. In fact, I had not given it serious thought at all, until I
saw the programme. This prompted me to comment on Twitter that my use of
"traffic lights" to differentiate between levels of difficulty on
my walks, was probably giving sufferers problems and I said I thought
I would incorporate R, A and G initials in the symbols to help. This
prompted a number of responses from sufferers suggesting:
different
shapes;
different sybols within the shapes, such as ticks, excamation marks:
1,2, and 3 to denote difficulty;
changing colours.
However,
I also had a response from the ColourBlindAwareness.org
website. This is a really interesting website and I would urge anyone using
colours where the colour is important to have a look at it. Their
recommendation was that the colours were fine and that R, A and G added
would do the job. Some other responders also thought this.
I
wanted to keep to the principle of traffic lights because that is what
visitors to my site are used to and a number have commented over the years
that they like it. It also struck me that once you know the traffic light
system is in use, you are unlikely to forget it whereas use of different
shapes, miscellaneous symbols etc is likely to require visitors to undertake
revision every time they visit the site. If I was only just starting the
site, I suppose I could have graded walks with increasing numbers of symbols
to indicate difficulty (or ease) but this would now mean revising every walk
individually, whereas the R, A, G only involve three changes to the symbols
themselves. As there are over 300 walks, this is pretty much more than I can
cope with!
So,
R, A, G it is. I hope this helps.
25
April 2019
Last
Saturday 20 April 2019, having decided not to try to motor anywhere because
it was Easter Saturday, I opted for a walk direct from my door on to
Rombalds Moor. As I approached the 12 Apostles Stone Circle, I noticed a
plume of smoke to the south side of Rombalds Moor on the Bingley Moor
section. As conditions were so dry, I phoned the Fire Service. They were
already aware and an appliance was on the scene. Indeed they managed to
extingish the fire fairly quickly.
I
then descended to the Cow and Calf Hotel for a well earned (I thought!) pint
before heading home. Within an hour, an area of Ilkley Moor not far from
where I had walked was ablaze. The blaze spread quickly and made the
National News. In the evening, I was out in Ilkley and the moor above the
town was like something out of Dante's Inferno.
I
relate this tale because over the course of the Easter weekend, there were
two fires on Rombalds Moor and another on Marsden Moor, in Yorkshire, caused
by the tinder dry conditions;yes but primarily by thoughtless or deliberate
acts by a few stupid individuals. Apart from any death or injury to
creatures or people which could have occurred, it will take years for these
areas to recover.
How
anyone can be so reckless as to deliberately start a fire or take disposable
BBQs on the moors in such conditions is beyond me. Once these BBQs have
cooked, there are still glowing briquettes in them which are impossible to
dispose of. So, my plea is, THINK!
18
March 2019
Sad
that 11 people have been killed so far this year on British mountains. It is
open to everyone to take whatever risks they like but whenever these
tragedies occur, invariably it is the Mountain Rescue Teams turn out to look
for missing walkers and/or pick up the pieces. Anyone winter walking in the
mountains should check conditions first. See Links
page General Walking Information for various sources of information.
2
February 2019
Just
returned from a couple of weeks winter break in Tenerife, having decided to
have a change from Lanzarote. It is a few years since I was there and I have
to say the coastal strip between the airport and Los Gigantes has become a
somewhat gross victim of its own success. Places which I remembered as quiet
spots with virtually nothing there were a mass of apartments and hotels,
constructed at the expense of the old banana plantations.Traffic is a
nightmare and even walks along the 'prom' (not really my thing anyway) are a
game of dodgems with mostly pensioners roaming from cafe to bar to cafe!
However,
once you get up into the hills (ideally you need a car), there are some
beautiful areas with walks through the pine trees and over some impressive
lava flows. The footpaths are very well marked, though I decided not to
write up the routes I did, mainly for that reason. Anyone else going, I
would recommend getting this pair of 1:50000 scale maps which cover the
whole island and are very good for identifying walk routes and road
navigating. The paper is not very robust however. I kept mine in a waterproof
map case to protect them and avoid repeated folding/unfolding. The
plastic case they come in is pretty useless.
There is also a super durable
map from the same stable as the truly excellent one I recommend for my Lanzarote
walks. However, unlike the Lanzarote version, it only covers selected
parts of Tenerife so it really depends where you itend to walk.
If you are not fortunate to be
going walking in the Canaries and are venturing on the the fells here,
please take special care at this time of year and do not underestimate the
risks from snow, ice and exposure, especially if venturing high. See advice
on my Safety page.
4 January 2019
In December, I was asked to make
a short contribution towards an article for the Raven Hall Hotel about the
"Best walk in Yorkshire and why". This has now been published and
you can see my answer at https://www.ravenhall.co.uk/blog/the-best-winter-walks-around-yorkshire
3 January 2018
Happy 2019 to all visitors to
this site and page.
The little Yorkshire Dales
village of Horton in Ribblesdale has been the traditional starting point for
the Yorkshire Three Peaks walk, not least because an enterprising cafe owner
there had a clocking in machine where people undertaking the challenge could
clock in and out to prove they had achieved the task within the timescale.
However, the cafe has now been closed for a while, I believe due to a family
illness and its future is unknown, at least by me.
However the main issue is that
the village has become somewhat overrun by Three Peak walkers, support
friends, relatives etc.
Over the last 18 months Ingleton’s Overground Underground Festival has entered into talks
with Horton Parish Council, residents, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Ingleton
Parish Council, Ingleton Area Business Group and Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust to find a
way around the problem.
It looks as thought the
intention is that Ingleton, where there is more parking and things to do for
"hangers on", should be promoted as a preferred starting point.
All information on this
site is given in good faith and no liability is accepted in respect of any
damage, loss or injury which might result from acting on it.
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