Thursday 26 July 2012

Pennine Adventure (4)



Yesterday I walked the next section of the Pennine Way, this time starting at Littleborough and finishing at Hebden Bridge.

I've not made a profile of this bit. Last week I was provided with a new PC and I've just discovered it doesn't have any picture editing tools. Boo!

To be honest, though, this section of the Pennine Way is virtually flat (even the walk uphill from Littleborough is reasonably gentle) so this was an easy day's walk.

It's not always easy though. I was here in February with Mr Crab and a couple of chums. There was a lot of snow on the ground, the reservoirs were frozen solid, the path was an ice-slick from start to finish and we spent the whole day walking in heavy fog.

So heavy we couldn't even see this until it was a matter of metres away.


© Copyright Andy Stephenson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

This is Stoodley Pike. The views from here are magnificent (assuming you're not walking in a pea-souper, that is).

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Hare & Hounds (13)


I visited this Hare & Hounds yesterday:


(Photo as usual is from Google Streetview. Click on the pic if you'd like to see the full size image.)

I probably should have been here long before now, it's in Shudehill and I've been past it dozens of times since I started my Hare & Hounds quest.

A pub in the centre of Manchester possibly isn't a likely destination for a ramble, and when I set out from home I had no idea I going there. I thought I was going to the craft shop on Oldham Street to get some supplies - but it was a hot muggy day and by the time I got there I felt very grimy and dehydrated. A quick refreshing lager was just the ticket!

Of all the Hare & Houndses I've visited this one certainly had the most atmosphere, in fact it was a bit bonkers (in a good way). It was a shame I didn't have time to linger longer, but I still had nearly seven miles to walk to get home again. I will be visiting again.

Back to the craft shop. It has a name something like Azkaban, but it's not that, that's the prison in Harry Potter where the Dementors live. The craft shop is a happy place and I was getting some bits for one of my other hobbies. I am making a rainbow in installments. (My life isn't all beer and hill-walking, you know.)

Yesterday's provisions were needed for the chartreuse portion of the rainbow.

My rainbow, my rules.

Monday 2 July 2012

Pennine Journey (3)


After an absence of a couple of months, I have finally returned to my Pennine Adventure. On Saturday, I picked up where I left off back in April and continued my journey North - this time from Greenfield to Littleborough.

The Pennine Way doesn't actually go through Greenfield (but the train does) so I had a walk of nearly four miles to the start of my route. This was the shortest and easiest stretch of Pennine yet, just a short haul up the Standedge Tunnel, then pretty flat all the way. Here's the profile:
From Where's the Path.

I've drawn in that little black cloud to indicate the section of the walk that was through a torrential thunderstorm. It didn't last long, maybe half an hour, but it was half an hour of boiling thunder and unrelenting, pissing rain. Luckily there wasn't any lightning nearby, because at the time I was the only feature in a bleak and soggy landscape.

The blue dip in the middle indicates something I've held an overwhelming ambition for, for a long time. It is the footbridge that crosses the motorway. Everytime we go to an away game in Yorkshire (which is most of them) I gaze up at that bridge and dream about walking across it. And now I have!!

Here it is:
© Copyright David Dixon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Fortunately it had stopped raining by then so the magic of the moment wasn't in anyway marred.

Some other landmarks of Saturday's walk:
1). I have left the OL1 behind; I am now walking on the OL21. That's progress!

(Ordnance Survey) In case you're not familiar with the area, my route is number 15.

2). At the very start of the Pennine Way, where I set out back in March, there is a pub. For the first time since then, there is a pub right on the route.

When I got there, it was closed.
This is becoming something of a feature of my walks, isn't it?

3). This walk completed the first 1,000 miles I have walked this year.