Autumn Colours and Rain near Crianlarich

Dorothy and I returned to Crianlarich this week to try to bag some more Munros but the weather was not good. We have been very lucky over the years on our trips to Scotland so I guess we were bound to get a week like this sooner or later. Nevertheless, just because it's going to be wet doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try. You are often rewarded.

 

We found that early in the morning gave us the best weather and on several days we managed to get up high enough to see the incredible autumn colours in the shifting light that only sunshine and showers can provide.

Once we were away from the road we never met a soul. Walking like this you feel as if you are stepping outside of time. I know the landscape is man-made but there's nothing 2013 here. Certainly my 1991 SMC District Guide Book to the Southern Highlands doesn't feel in the least bit out of date but it's more than that. Time itself seem irrelevant somehow.

I haven't added captions to the two pictures above because I didn't take them of a place. It's the lighting and the colours that are so superb not the location. Although where else could this be but the Highlands of Scotland?

 

Loch Lyon from Beinn Mhanach

However, this spot just near the top of Beinn Mhanach, looking down at Loch Lyon really is a fantastic location. You can see the ridges that lead up to Meall Ghaordaidh that we'd been up the day before and in the distance Ben Lawers. 5 minutes later it was snowing!

We found some lovely walks in the valley on the days when a forecast of high winds and heavy rain meant that it would be plain foolhardy to go above 3,000 ft. Look at this view of Loch Katrine from Ben An (454m) and the disused railway line in Glen Ogle must be cycling heaven.

Loch Katrine from Ben An

 

Leading with HF in 2013

That's it for this year:- a week at Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight, at Derwent Bank near Keswick in the Lake District, at Alltshellach near Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands and at Dolserau Hall just outside Dolgellau in Snowdonia. It has been a fantastic experience.

People on the walks have asked me what I'm getting out of it, especially when the mist is down or when I'm obviously walking at a much slower pace than I would if I were alone. 'Isn't it a big responsibility considering you're a volunteer?'

The whole HF Holiday experience is about enjoying other people's company both on the walks as well as in the evenings. That's why we sit in large groups for meals and people are encouraged to mingle. That's why a short piece of evening entertainment is arranged where everyone can join in if they want to - possibly even some country dancing! And, of course, everyone gets to know each other on the walks. Walking along chatting to someone is so much more pleasurable than sitting down doing it, as you are sharing an experience, you can talk about the world as it goes by and you can easily move on and talk to someone else without it being a snub. Not to mention enjoying the countryside of course. If you haven't tried it, it sounds a bit naff doesn't it? All these elements haven't changed since I first started leading 36 years ago (OMG!) but trust me, the formula still works and its fun.

So the obvious answer to the 'what am I getting out of it' question is that I'm getting a free HF Holiday but there's definitely more to it than that. Taking a group of people out for a walk, whether that means pottering along by the River Yar in the sunshine or getting to the top of Bidean nam Bian in mist and rain, is a very satisfying experience if you can see that they have had an enjoyable day.

There's more though: navigating successfully in the mist, pointing out things around you, making sure you go at a comfortable pace whilst not missing the coach back at the end, not eating so much delicious food that you go home heavier than when you left, are just some of the challenges. I certainly haven't got it right every time but you wouldn't get any satisfaction if it was easy would you?

Dorothy and I went for a walk in the Moelwyns just south of Snowdon last weekend, before I drove over to Dolgellau. We camped at the very efficient Llyn Gwynant Campsite the night before and after. So I just thought I'd sign off this entry with this lovely picture of the begining of Autumn in the Welsh hills.

LLyn below Cnicht

Back Leading for HF at Glencoe

How fantastic to be back at Glencoe leading again! We had some great weather last week with only the one wet day. Lismore Island is still as beautiful and we even got to the top of Bidean with the Harder walk and Sgurr an Iubhair with the Medium walk. There were 24 guests from Switzerland whose first language was French and they really mixed in well.

I discovered a downside of having a jacket that's truly waterproof - the breast pocket fills up with water if you have to keep putting your compass in and out of there. I only realised after I put my mobile phone in as well. It's not looking too healthy at the moment!

Here's a shot of Stob Ban from the West Highland Way.

The ascent of Spik near Kranska Gora in Slovenia

We caught the 08:26 bus from Kranska Gora bus station which costs about 3.50 Euros to Mihov Dom which is just past bend number 4 on the way to the Vrsic pass. Directly across the road a path drops down to join a track leading to the Koca v Krnici hut. The route was in shadow with the sun just beginning to break through which meant that we could start the walk in the shade. This was an even greater bonus as we began to climb steeply up the Gruntovnica valley.

Gruntovnica Valley

After picking our way through large boulders and dwarf pine the path turned left (NW) on a rising traverse across the side of Gamsova spica (Chamois Peak). From here you can look up at the majesty of Razor and Prisank.

We'd climbed Prisank the day before. It was cloudier then but there was some brilliant scrambling on slabs near the top.

Razor (centre) and Prisank (Right)

We carried on NE and then East around the peak continuing to climb until we reached the ridge that led towards the summit of Spik. We were now at about 1,900 m above sea level with just over half the climbing done.

Jalovec and Mangart from Gamsova spica

From here it was a long haul to the base of Lipnica where we encountered some steep scrambling with an intimidating looking wire cable to help us!

Fixed Steel Rope on the way Lipnica

From the top of this section it went down and then up again. With our maps in our pockets and the sun blazing down this made us think we were nearly at the summit of Spik. We were in fact at the top of Lipnika. The view was superb but ahead of us the lay the true summit of Spik and it did not look at all straightforward!

Spik from Lipnica

We climbed down to the jagged rocks that cross the col. We scrambled across those jagged rocks. We had a short conference about whether or not to carry on, then we gingerly worked our way to the top aided by a few cables, metal staples and spikes. It wasn't really the sections with the climbing aids that were the problem. It was those were they were absent that really made you focus. To be more accurate - despite the exposure there are actually plenty of handholds and footholds.

Once at the top of Spik (2473 m) we really felt we had achieved something. The views were incredible as we finally tucked into our lunch having climbed about 1600 metres all told.

Panoramic view from the summit of Spik: Lto R: Skrlatica, Razor, Prisank, Jalovec and Mangart on the Italian border.

Jalovec

The chuffs looked disappointed as they'd clearly been hoping there would be some lunch left over for them.

Chuffs on Spik

On the way up there had been some discussion about the best way down but time was getting on and we didn't really want to go all the way back over Lipnica to retrace our steps on the descent. The scree run down from the col looked a little intimidating but was certainly going to be a quick and exhilarating way down.

 

The quick way down.

Keep right on the way down to avoid a very large crag and eventually, after getting the stones out of your boots, you are back amongst the dwarf pines. The fun isn't over though because there are plenty more limestone rocky steps to clamber down.

Rocky steps amongst the dwarf pines on the way down

Finally we reached the bottom of the valley. Water reappears from the hidden depths that it's been trickling through to form the Piscnica River and you follow the valley down to Kranska Gora having descended about 1800m.

I was rationing out my 2 litres of water towards the end but this is an amazing walk that has absolutely everything, especially when the weather is as good as this. A cracking day but my knees definitely need a rest!

Ascent of Whernside from Ingleton

Sunday was such a gorgeous day so I decided to drive over to Ingleton and walk up the long southern ridge of Whernside from Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales. It takes about 90 minutes to drive there from Hebden Bridge and I set off at about 10.30 am. I had planned to walk up Oddie's Lane and follow the route described by Wainwright as Walk 7 in his 'Walks in Limestone Country", my copy of which is an heirloom with my mother's annotations. However, it was convenient to park in the Waterfall Trails car park and having paid my £6 I thought I might as well follow the trail with a slight detour of about 9 miles to to take in Whernside. This makes the whole walk about 14 miles (24 km) and 2000ft (600m) of climbing.

The Ingleton Waterfalls Trail is beautiful as it weaves up the River Twiss and cuts across the hillside.

Waterfalls on the River Twiss

A ray of sunshine lights up a rock below Thornton Force

On up the hillside to meet the Limestone Pavement at Twistleton Scar leaving the Ice Cream Vans behind.

Looking across Limestone Pavement at Twistleton Scar towards Gragareth

The navigation is then incredible easy as you follow the wall for about 4 miles to the top of Whernside. It's hard to imagine how much work went into building a dry stone wall like this.

Wall to Whernside

I met a few groups with huge rucksacks. A very hot day to be doing your Duke of Edinburgh expedition I must say! Otherwise, most people on the top had come up from Ribblehead. I eat my lunch at the top and headed back the same way. Wainwright sugessts a different route back through Bruntscar but I felt that it was nicer to be high up.

On the way back I looked for the 'Fluted Pothole' he'd sketched but it could be one of many.

A Fluted Pothole.

Just before rejoining the Waterfalls Trail along the River Doe it became a little less hazy and Ingleborough looked great with the Limestone Pavement in the foreground.

Ingleborough from Twistleton Scar

Back in Ingleton they were having a World War II Retro day with people singing that there'd be Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover but just before I got back into the car to drive home with the thermometer showing 26 degrees Centigrade I caught the sound of a Stone Chat on the Limestone Pavement of Whernside!

Rock Engravings in Valle Camonica

A couple  of weeks ago we were staying near Lake Iseo in Italy and we visited some of the Rock Art in Valle Camonica. We saw those at the Naquane National Park in Capo di Ponte.

Some of these engravings are Neolithic (about 7 thousand years old) but most are Iron Age (about 3 thousand years old). There are human figures, animals, household objects, architectural and mechanical structures as well as hunting scenes.

Most were created by repeatedly hammering a spike into the rock and building up the picture with a series of small indentations but some are scratched.

They are well presented; with explanations on noticeboards in Italian and English as well as steps and platforms so that you can get close to the drawings. It is effectively an open air museum.

http://www.reidsitaly.com/destinations/lombardy/lake_iseo/valcamonica.html

I particularly like the chariot or cart (above) because the wheels and horses are drawn side on whilst the rest is an aerial view. I also like the running man (below)

However, there seemed to be tendency to represent a lot of the drawings as religious. I'd like to see the evidence for this. Why is the running man called a priest? I can see he's a man!

Why are these people supposedly praying? Aren't they dancing?

For what it's worth, this one reminds me of Scottish Crannogs.

However you look at it though, you really get a feeling of going back in time. Highly recommended.

For more try www.reidsitaly.com/destinations/lombardy/lake_iseo/valcamonica.html or whc.unesco.org/en/list/94

Freshwater Bay

It was Sunday evening and it was a very nice feeling to have led an HF Party for the first time for nearly 28 years. I have just completed a weeks leading at Freshwater Bay HF on the Isle of Wight. The Sunday 'Medium' walk went from the house, over to Colwell Bay, along the North Coast to Alum Bay and the Needles and then back over Tennyson Down.

There was a sponsored walk to raise money for the local Hospice that involved about 10,000 people in various walks, one of which crosses the whole island from East to West (26.5 miles from Bembridge to the Needles at Alum Bay). The weather was good to start with but deteriorated later on and some of the sponsored walkers must have got pretty cold and wet on Tennyson Down.

The Needles

On Monday it was windy on the 'Harder' walk as we followed the horseshoe made by the downs above Godshill and Appuldurcombe House but the views were superb across to Sandown.

Sandown from the Downs above Ventnor

This tree gives you the impression that it is often Windy!

Interesting talk about Red Squirrels in the evening.

On Tuesday the 'Easier' walk followed the Coastline in an Easterly direction into Cowes. The weather wasn't great but we visited the Max Aitken Museum, the Classic Boat Museum and Gallery all of which were interesting. 

The next organised walk was on Thursday from Ventnor Gardens to Shanklin along the Coastal Path. Landslip has caused a lot of re-routing of the path and this makes the walk a lot more strenuous than you'd think from the map. The weather was glorious though.

Ventnor Gardens

Various shades of green algae along the Promenade

On Friday I led the 'Easier' walk from the House to Yarmouth and back alongside the river Yar. This has a large estuary but is only about 3 miles long because it used to start in France! Lot's of tea stops made this a leisurely way to round off the week.

Freshwater Bay from the HF House Gardens

During the week, in the evenings, we'd had quizzes and games and we finished up with a bit of Country Dancing and a Concert with high levels of participation from the Guests making every evening a fun social occasion.

The Isle of Wight may not offer particularly challenging walking but it's very beautiful and not everyone goes on holiday to wear themselves out you know!

Fewston and Swinsty Reservoirs

My dad, Keith, has just had a knee replacement in Harrogate hospital so, on our way to visit him, Dot and I thought it would be nice to walk round Fewston and Swinsty Reservoirs.

View Larger Map

It has been snowing and the partly frozen reservoirs looked fantastic.

It takes about two and a half hours to walk round both reservoirs and there is an excellent path. So good to get out.

Keith's operation seems to have gone well although unsurprisingly his knee hurts. On returning home I had my letter from HF saying they'd have me back as a leader. what a brilliant day.

Leading for HF Holidays - Then and Now

A couple of weekends ago, following my application and a telephone interview, I was invited to attend an HF Leaders 'Guidelines Assessment' to see if I still wanted to be an HF Walks Leader afterwards. Oh, and to see if they wanted me as well :-) It was at Derwent Bank near Keswick. We went out walking each day and talked about the way HF Holidays are organised, in the evening. There were guests enjoying a 'Tinsel and Turkey' holiday at the same time giving us the opportunity to get a good impression of how things worked. As usual with HF the food was superb.

This is not the first time I have stayed with HF. As a family we have been on several HF holdays over the years. Normally, when you go out walking with children you have to work hard to keep morale up but on an HF Family Holiday they meet other kids and they don't even seem to notice that they are out walking. I also used to lead walks for HF Holidays in the 70s and 80s.

When I was 18 and waiting for my A Level results I didn't want to hang around the house in South East London and I managed to get a job working as a Kitchen Porter at a Countrywide Holidays Association (CHA) Guest House in Onich near Glencoe called Craig Mhor. It isn't owned by CHA any more but I had a great time there going out walking with the Guests on my day off. The people leading the walks were called Secretaries. This harked back to a time when their role included collecting the balance of peoples' Holiday Payment.

Evelyn the Cook doing my job as I 'supervise' my boss. (Posed 1976)

The CHA was founded in 1893 by the Rev. T. Arthur Leonard who came from Colne in Lancashire. The organization was originally known as the Co-Operative Holidays Association, and was set up to provide walking holidays for working people, especially from industrial areas like Blackburn and Manchester. In 1913 he left the association to form the Holiday Fellowship, now known as HF. In the early 1950’s the name of the Association was changed to the Countrywide Holidays Association.

Meanwhile, back in Onich, I felt that it would be more fun leading walks than washing up so I went for an interview at Birch Heys, the CHA Head Office in Manchester, and armed with references from the Secretary and the Manager, I was given a job leading walks from Craig Mhor the following season. I wasn't totally inexperienced I hasten to add. I had done plenty of walking, climbing and navigating with my parents and in the Scouts. 

Staff at Craig Mhor 1976 with me on the right

I was there for the whole season - May to September. They had a three week programme of walks, and highlights included completing all the Mamores in a day on my day off as well as leading parties on Curved Ridge, Buachaille Etive Mor, Aonach Eagach and the Ben Nevis Arete. No organisation today would let a 19 year old with no walking qualifications lead parties on these scrambles but everyone who came was perfectly capable and there were no accidents.

50 on Sunday Morning Walk - Beinn an Aonach Mhor 1977

Aonach Eagach 1977

Bidean across Loch Leven 1977

My old rucksack on Aonach Beag looking at Carn Mor Dearg 1977

The world has moved on since and that's why I have obtained my Mountain Leader Award and attended this HF Holidays selection weekend. It is absolutely right that people going on holiday should have a competent leader and walking organisations need some mechanism for making sure of this. I do not believe that we should be making walking in the hills risk free but people need to be able to properly understand any risks they are taking and have some idea who is leading them.

Loch Leven and Sgurr na Ciche (aka Pap of Glencoe) 1977

Party on Am Bodach Ridge Led by Peter Wilson 1977

Stob Ban Ridge then Sgurr a Mhaim then Grey Corries at the back 1977

The following year I again led walks for CHA from their house in Grasmere. I was a student at Warwick University by then but I still had the extended student holidays from July to September. There was a two week programme of walks that included nearly all the major peaks and some delightful shorter walks in the beautiful Lakeland valleys. I always felt that the easier walks in Glencoe played second fiddle because the harder "A" walks seemed to have been planned first, then the middle "B" walks. With the easier "C" walks having to be found somewhere in the same area - as everybody used the same coach on most occasions. There were som notable exceptions of course; Lismore Island, Steal and Coire Gabhail (aka Hidden/Lost Valley) being examples. At Grasmere however there was a lot more choice. Sometimes the groups were too large and even with a backmarker it was hard to keep track of everyone.

Grasmere 1978 with me on the left

Grasmere Sunday Morning Walk Alcock Tarn 1978

Party of 37 coming down to Threshwaite Mouth 1978

I remember having to call the Mountain Rescue Team once when a gentleman in one of these larger groups 'vanished' on the Ill Bell to Yoke ridge. We stopped in the mist and and I counted the group. A few minutes later I counted again and we were one down. We searched for quite a while but in the end we all carried on down to Troutbeck and I called 999 from the Phone Box. The house management and I had a fretful evening but he turned up safe and well. He had stopped to put his overtrousers on without telling anyone. When he found he was all alone in the mist, he just headed for the valley.

In 1979 I switched to leading for HF Holidays and returned to Glencoe. Alltshellach near Ballachulish is a beautiful old house on the shores of Loch Leven. I led all the old walks from two years ago for another student summer holiday. TA Leonard supposedly quit CHA to form HF because CHA had become "too middle class" but I remember HF being quicker to replace Lino with Carpets and even to introduce some en-suite bathrooms! Although the 'race for the bath' as you got off the coach and the politics that surrounded it was an interesting feature of any holiday. I think it was this willingness to move with the times that helped HF carry on while CHA declined.

Na Gruagaichean from Sgurr Eilde Beag

When I finished at University I became a Secondary School Maths Teacher and for several years I carried on leading for HF at Conway (1980), Loch Awe (1981), Arran (1982), Coniston (1983) and Derwent Bank near Keswick (1984 and 1985). This included a Music Week and a Scottish Country Dancing week where people only walked in the afternoon but in both cases had a propensity to start singing or dancing whilst out on the walks! Good times.

Cir Mhor from Glen Rosa (Arran 1982)