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Blog
(Current)
Blog updates are only on an
"ad hoc" basis when I have something to say and will not be
particularly regular. Latest entries first.
Pinned Blog
Charity Suggestion
It has been suggested to me by several people that I should charge for my walk information and indeed I have had unsolicited offers of payment (declined) from people who have used my directions. I am flattered that people think the information is worth charging for but I have deliberately chosen to keep it free to encourage walking. If you want to be kind, you could make a donation to
charity and I would like to suggest Zarach
to which I have donated.
Zarach was started by a
teacher who noticed a child at school seemed tired. This turned out to be
because he had no bed! She decided to do something about it. To cut a long
story short, her activities have grown into a full blown Registered Charity
(No 1179539). I cannot imagine a child living in such dire straits that they
have nowhere to lie for a decent night's sleep. It turns out bed poverty is
much more prevalent than certainly I thought and has a significant effect on a child’s education.
A Zarach Bed Bundle includes a brand-new Bed, Mattress, Duvet, Pillow, Bed Sheets, Pyjamas and Hygiene Kit.
They also work with local partners to include Food Parcels and, if needed, a school uniform.
Lots more information on
their website. Please help if you can. This is a link to their "Donate"
page.
Please see Blog
2024 for most recent entries.
26 August 2025
Some more famous
people/celebrities who go walking have come to my notice and I have update
my Famous
Walkers and Hikers list. Please let me know if you come across others.
Because of circumstances, the
usual holiday my wife and I have with our touring caravan in June/July had
to be delayed, so timing was pushed into school holidays. Looking for
somewhere that would probably not be too busy and where we might get a
booking, we ruled out all the usual suspects such as Devon, Cornwall,
Pembrokeshire etc and not least because our last journey south involved
horrendous road journeys due to extensive road works on the M1 and A1. We
also wanted somewhere relatively flat as my wife was recovering from an
operation. After much discussion, we decided upon the Cumbrian coast in the
Silloth area.
It is years since I visited that
area and I had really forgotten what it was like. I found Silloth to be a
lovely little town. Well kept and free of litter and graffiti which seems to
blight many seaside towns. A bit of research revealed that in its prime, it
was a 'genteel' seaside resort for Victorians.
We managed only two walks, not
least because of gales and these are now on the site - Silloth
to Grune Point and Caldbeck
to Hesket Newmarket.
We also had a stroll south along
the coast to look at the site of a Roman Mile Fort and salt pans. Not a lot
to see admittedly but still interesting. I had not appreciated that the
Romans had extended along that coast. In that context, there is an
interesting museum about the Romans at Maryport, the Senhouse
Roman Museum. Well worth a look if you are in that area.
Maryport too was not as run down
as I remember it and definitely looks to be slowly on the up helped, I
understand, by funding from Selafield.
The Solway coast in general is a
quiet but interesting area. Bowness on Solway is a lovely little spot with a
nice pub and Port Carlisle with its industrial dock remains was interesting.
Lots of the villages' pubs seem to be surviving.
Overall, I found it to be a
pleasant area with more to see than I expected. Driving is great because of
little traffic and you are near the North Lakes if you want mountains. Give
it a try if you like quiet areas.
17 June 2025
Revisited Pen-y-ghent last week.
There has been a considerable increase in what I refer to as 'manicuring',
i.e. many more stones and gravel laid to protect the path. I can see this is
necessary to prevent erosion, particularly as this is part of the Yorkshire
Three Peaks route but it does mean you have to watch your feet more. This is
particularly true of the descent off Plover Hill where if anything, you are
more at risk of injury than climbing up 'the nose'. It was quite busy, even
though it was a Wednesday because it was a lovely day but very few people
were taking the same route as I was over Plover Hill but were descending the
more direct path. It can be boggy across the ridge but after a long spell of
dry weather in the spring, it was not bad at all despite the odd recent
cloudburst.
Update posted on my prostate
cancer. See link above but essentially QED! I make no apology for repeating
to you men out there over (say 50), get a PSA test,
even if you have no symptoms. Don't let the GP fob you off telling you it is
a waste of time, inaccurate or whatever. it is especially important if your
father or brothers had it. Doing so has probably saved my life. It is true
that the test in itself will not confirm 100% whether you have the disease
or not but a higher than expected reading relative to your age will lead to
a scan which will. What the PSA test is good for is to provide a baseline
from which to monitor in the future. Don't be squeamish about the 'finger
test'. It is nothing.
24 May 2025
Update posted on my prostate
cancer. See link above.
I have just acquired an ETrex
22x. My trusty Garmin Geko which I have had for many years suffered a fatal
injury. My habit had been to put it on the roof of the car to orientate
itself whilst I donned boots etc. On this occasion on my mate's car. Having
got ready to set off on the walk, my mate tried to close the tailgate but it
would not close. Thinking there was something wrong with it, he tried to
slam the thing and the crunching noise was the painful dying of my Garmin!
It had slipped between the top of the hatch door and the body. My fault for
putting it too near the join. There is a moral in there somewhere!
Fortunately my mate's car survived!
My main reason for wanting a
replacement is that sometimes, although I plan routes in advance, sometimes
deviations occur, either forced or minds are changed to improve the route. I
therefore like to record the track of where I have actually walked to form
the basis of the routes I put on my site. Although I can use the OS App on
my phone to follow planned routes, its facility to record the tracks seems a
bit flaky and more than once, it has stopped recording part way through. In
any case, I do not like to use the phone 100% of the time as it depletes the
battery. Most of the time, a basic GPS receiver gives adequate directions
and I always have a paper map handy, plus a compass. So between the phone,
GPS receiver and map and compass, if I ever get lost, I should be shot!
To be honest, I still like to
use a paper map but the OS app in particular gives reassurance as to exactly
where you are if you need it!
16 April 2025
Last Friday I finished my course
of radiotherapy for prostate cancer. See the link above if you want to know
more. Back to walking!
A topic which crops up regularly
and which I have mentioned more than once is the increasing incidence of
call outs that Mountain Rescue Teams (MRTs) are having to cope with. Today's
Guardian published a table from Ordnance Survey comparing 2019 with 2024, reproduced here.
As you can see, the biggest jump
is in the 18 to 24 year group. This is attributed to a drop in use of paper
maps and a greater reliance [and indeed over reliance] by them on the use of
mobile phone apps, some of which are poor quality and the posting of beauty
spots on social media, which obviously attracts visitors. I think everyone
relies much more on technology nowadays but that age group perhaps in
particular eschews traditional navigational methods.
The assumption that the
technology is all you need because all you have to do is follow the
indicator or in the worst case scenario, that all it takes to get rescued is
a phone call on your handy mobile is dangerous for various reasons:
-
The phone might get dropped,
break or submerged;
-
It might run out of power;
-
A poor app might simply lure
you away from the correct or safe route;
-
Reliance on a call-out to
rescue you might be dangerous if you cannot get a signal when you need
it.
The further point of course is
that it is hardly fair on the Mountain Rescue Teams to use their voluntary
services simply because you got lost due to not being bothered to carry a
map and compass and just assumed the technology would see you through.
MRTs are often having to respond
to more than one call out at a time or consecutively. They have families and
lives too!
The recommendation is to use the
OS app if you want to use an app or are heading to remote locations but to
also carry a paper map as backup. To that I would add take a compass. If you
have no idea how to use a compass, see this simple
explanation. I use the OS app myself and find it very good but I always
have a paper map and compass too.
To put map purchase into
perspective, most OS maps cost around £8.99 at the moment. How much would
it cost for a cocktail on a night out or a couple of pints of beer? More
than that I reckon. You can get a serviceable compass for as little as
£6/7. Both will last for many walks if looked after and it seems a tiny
price to pay for potentially saving your life. See:
22 March 2025
I have updated my prostate
cancer treatment progress - see link above.
26 February 2025
Update on the prostate cancer -
see 'My Prostate and I' above.
Most people who walk the
Yorkshire Dales know about the Strid in Bolton Abbey woods but 'reading' my
OS map as I sometimes do, I noticed there is another near Threshfield. A
route to investigate was called for. I also noticed a trig. point at New
Pasture Edge, just above Yarnbury which I had never visited. A circular
route therefore virtually created itself. The weather was a disappointment,
without much in the way of views and not what I expected from the forecast.
Not too serious as I have seen all the views before on many times over the
years but not good for the photos!. I will share the route with you in due
course.
Judging from the Fell Top
Assessors reports, snow and ice seems to be clinging on on the high fells so
be careful out there!
9 February 2025
For those who like to use
electronic navigation of one sort or another, one things missing from my
Lanzarote walks has been .gpx files but this facility has now been added.
26 January 2025
Decided to blitz the Google Map
issue (see 20 January post below) and have now switched all the links over
to tinyurl links.
20 January 2025
Searching for my walks via the
Google Map at the top of the My Walks page may produce what Google describe
as an "interstitial page" page saying "This link will no longer work in the near future
goo.gl links will no longer function after August 25th, 2025. Visit our blog post for more information about the goo.gl links
shutdown."
Basically this seems to be
because there are other providers of short links and Google's own were being
used less and less. Maybe they were the first to do it; I don't know.
Anyhow, they are giving up on it which leaves those of us who have used the
service (in my case to link the Google Map entries to the walk directions)
for years are faced with the task of updating all the links.
This is no small task as I have
over 400 walks to address but I hope to get the job done before the
bewitching hour!
There message is at https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/
if you want to read it.
The links to maps themselves for
directions will continue to work it says.
13 January 2025
Just updated information
regarding Discovering Lost Ways on the Right
to Roam page.
5 January 2025
Well a new year starts with a
tragedy. A man fell 230ft (70m) from Sharp Edge and was killed. I have
climbed this ridge several times and it should only be tackled in good
conditions. I have admittedly climbed it in snow and icy conditions but did
have crampons and ice axe and the weather was otherwise good. It is a very
exposed ridge which gives it the excitement but it needs to be treated with
respect. There have been several fatalities there over the years
Indeed the mountains generally should always be treated with respect,
especially in winter and it is sensible to pay attention to the weather
forecasts specifically for mountain areas. See my Weather
page, which is under the Safety section.
I have used X (previously
Twitter) over the years, to adise when new walks have been added to the site
and anything else I feel like 'chuntering' about. I am continuing to use it
as I do not want to forsake my followers but I have diversified to Blue Sky
(@happyhiker.Bsky.social), Threads (@happyhiker86) and Mastodon (@happyhiker@social.vivaldi.net)
as well, mainly in anticipation that X might go belly up. Hundreds of
thousands or even millions have left apparently, although my follower
numbers are mostly holding up at the moment. I broadly put the same
information on them all though any 'chuntering' I keep for X because that
seems to be its primary function these days!
I have been progressing the
changeover of .gpx files on my walks derived from from a rather old Memory
map program to .gpx files from the Ordnance Survey site to which I subscribe
as these should be a more modern format and easier for many to open. It will
take a while to complete this exercise but as I write, the Lake District and
Yorkshire Dales walks have been swapped over.
On the subject of Ordnance
Survey, more and more seem to be relying on apps to navigate and I have seen
some walkers writing comments, virtually boasting that then never use proper
maps any more. Well, I'm sorry to be a Luddite but brilliant as the apps
are, if you run out of battery then what? I use the OS app myself but apps
use quite a lot of power and to have one permanently open over the time of a
walk could well run the battery down. I always carry a 1:25000 map and often
prefer to have this out in a map case. I tend to measure smaller expenses in
pints of beer. If you go to the pub with mates, you would not quibble over
spending £10 on a couple of pints. OS maps cost less that that, so I reckon
they are a bargain. Additionally, I prefer them for planning walks as you
are not limited be the edge of a screen where you might not scroll far
enough to spot something interesting.
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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