A Night Out Under the Stars

With the good (sunny) weather recently I nurtured the idea of wild camping in the Beacons during the week. Just getting out there after work and back next morning. After some research I had come up with half a dozen ideas featuring Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du at the very top.

Last Wednesday was gonna be the day then! Packed my warmer winter sleeping bag and my tarp and headed out to the hills after work. The sun was blazing from a spotless blue sky and after an hour's drive I arrived 7pm at the lay by car park Pont ar daf near the Storey Arms Outdoor Centre.
My 33l Osprey backpack was fully stuffed with not even space for a needle left. That sleeping bag took up way too much space! Without much ado I buckled up and headed uphill on a broad stony path towards Corn Du. View got better with every metre in height I gained, but I had only about two hours left before sunset. I practised the how-many-fingers-between-sun-and-horizon with every finger representing 15 minutes and I have to admit it was almost bang on!!! Great bit of knowledge!

How long until the sun sets?

Corn Du and Pen-y-Fan behind to the right

Arrived on Corn Du at 8pm after really pushing for the top with my heavy load. Winds started to raise up to gale-force strength as soon as I had reached the bwlch. On the top they were even worse. Facing the wind I could hardly breathe. There was no way I was going to camp up here tonight. I decided to head over to Pen-y-Fan in the beautiful though waning evening light and had just started the decent to the bwlch between both tops when my foot started to cramp. Ahhhh.... bollocks! I tried for a bit longer but it was no good.

Looking over to Pen-y-Fan from Corn Du

Went back up over Corn Du's top again and down the other side where I had a short break out of the worst of the wind.
Took off my boot and massaged my foot while I greatly enjoyed the fantastic view. Then headed towards the path that came up from the Storey Arms and walked along the ridge before I finally dropped steeply down into a gully where my plan B camp spot was just on the shore of Llyn Cwm Lwlch.

Wild camp spot down by the little Llyn

There she goes. Better hurry now.

There was already another tent. Arg. So much for solitude. It was occupied by two young guys who came over for a short chat after I had just raised my tarp and crawled inside. They were nice and seemed to have as much wild camping experience as me, haha. Only they had brought a proper tent.
Even down here is was windy, so I had pitched as low as possible with just one of my walking poles. Still the wind was rustling my tarp and just wouldn't let me sleep. It was as if someone was constantly making noise with a plastic bag next to my ears. Half past midnight I gave up, removed the pole, took out half of the pegs and just wrapped myself into the tarp farbic stuffing the edges as tight as possible underneath my ground mat. Ahhhhh silence!!! Just the surprisingly warm air on my face and a distant howling.
I still awoke several times during the night, but each time marvelled at the amazing night sky dotted with thousands of stars. Quite unusual for this time of the year, every other minute I saw a meteor dart across before it died. Wow.

Got up and packed my stuff at 5:30am after a rather sleepless night and headed up the steep path by 6am only to be greeted by the same strong gale-force wind again up on the ridge. Although my brain felt like mashed potato and despite the lack of food I made good time, veered off the path avoiding going over Corn Du's top again and instead walked around its base before I met the path down to the car park. Changed, gulfed down an apple and drove back to the office for an hour.

Looking back down to where I camped

Wow!

Morning guys.

I really enjoyed my little mid-week adventure and it's been a great workout as well! Perfect weather if it hadn't been for the wind. I do need more practice with putting up my tarp. Either way, if it's just a little bit windy, the rustling of the fabric is way too loud so it's either tent or bivy bag. Will remember this. Good opportunity to practice the finger technique for figuring out when the sun will sink below the horizon. Very useful little trick.
After all a great few hours out. If I can do this once every other week, I get plenty of outdoors practice and plenty of workout too.

Peak District Trip Number 3: Outdoor First Aid

I was surprisingly awake Saturday when I left the hostel around 7am. My body was probably still assessing the environment for danger. Still got myself a Costa and hurried through the empty shopping area. I like walking around in early hours when everything is asleep and peaceful, resting before the Saturday shopping mayhem.

A-roads and the M1 were equally empty with no trace of yesterday's buzz. I was pushing my car over winding country lanes with a grin on my face, before I had even finished my coffee. Again I marvelled at the simple beauty of the Peak District.
A few rolling green hills, some fields, some trees and a good number of small villages built of limestone houses. That's it. And all you think is "Awwwww....!"

Arriving way ahead of schedule in Youlgreave I took my time sorting my gear and things, before I headed to the Scout Hut for my Outdoor First Aid course.

We were a small group of 7 plus the instructor with various backgrounds (One was an engineer working for the F1 team Force India, how cool is that???), but all needed an outdoor related First Aid qualification.
The course was very intense in terms of density of information and skills to be learned and the instructor did a darn good job. He had just a few slides, most of the time we we're discussing how and why we do what we do and possible situations or even exceptions. Of course we practised scenarios a lot and went through the procedure a first aider has to remember when coming to a casualty time and again until no one needed to think about what to do any more.

Day 1 ended with a small multiple choice test which everyone got a 100% pass score on. Yeah. Took me just 15 mins to drive to Bakewell, where I had a B&B. I had found it on Google Maps, looking for an affordable and available one two months ago. Had booked it but never heard from her again and couldn't find the email and thought, that's it. It's gone. So I had booked a slot on a campsite.
Friday morning she had sent me an email, asking what time I'll be arriving. AH! Ok, so B&B then. Haha.
After last night's "unrest" I was more than happy for some peace and a good bed. I got both. What a sweet and lovely B&B!!! Had my own small single room, so cosy and Janette was just the perfect host.
Walked around Bakewell in the afternoon sun. Too bad, shops had just closed. I fell in love with this little gem of a town straight away despite its touristy-ness. So many handicraft shops, some outdoor shops and a good deal of pubs. Cool!

Bakewell, hard to put its loveliness onto a picture

Didn't do much back in my room. I was too lazy to go out for a drink. Read a bit and chatted on facebook.

Sunday morning after a nice breakfast, I was back at the course again. After learning the most important and vital procedures yesterday, we now concentrated on breaks, cuts, wounds and minor injuries and did a couple of scenarios outside in the afternoon in the pouring rain until we we're cold and miserable, haha.

Happy and with my head full of new knowledge and skills I set off for Bristol, surprised it only took me three hours! Wow.

It's a good feeling, knowing what to do now with a casualty although lots of questions remain concerning incidents in remote areas, circling more around organizing a group and how to make sure the rest of the group is taken care of too. But I think everyone has to make the necessary decisions right then as every situation is different and dependent on so many factors, that it is impossible to cover all of it in scenarios.

Hopefully, I'll never be needed as a first aider. But if I do, I'm now confident to do the right thing and spring into action straight away if something happens to someone, be it outdoors, a car accident or any other situation where someone needs help.

The Nottingham Mistake

For the third time within just one month I went up to the Peak District again. After my navigation course in Foolow and our Easter break in Buxton I went for my outdoor first aid course to Youlgreave,  staying in Bakewell.

Friday
Whenever I go somewhere quite far away, I pick a town or city I've never been to more or less halfway there. This time it was Nottingham.  I figured if I leave work at 1pm I'd make it by 4pm on more or less free motorways. How could I be so mistaken? The M4 and M5 were terribly busy with an unusual amount of idiots out there, braking for no reason, jumping lanes or speeding 80 towards a queue. Arg. The A road into Nottingham had the longest roadworks ever, so that I finally checked in to my hostel at 5pm after squeezing my car into a slot in a multi story car park that was obviously not made for estates.
Dumped my backpack onto the bunkbed in my 3-bed dorm and went out. 21 degrees and bright sunshine improved my mood a bit, but the things I really wanted to see - the castle and the caves - were already closed. That left only a ginormous shopping area with all the high street brands. But they were all closed now as well and I had no interest in shopping anyway.
After wandering around a bit listlessly I got myself two bottles of Gold at a Saintsburys and went back to the hostel around 7, watched some Netflix on my phone and turned the lights off at 10.
I woke up again when the other girl who slept on the single bed came into the room and again sometime later when a third person entered. I assumed that it was the inhabitant of the upper part of my bunk bed. Hushed voices, some rumaging, more whispering. It was a man, but mixed dorms are not uncommon. Sounded like they might be friends or partners. Couldn't really understand all of what was said.
Sleepily I turned around but was wide awake all of a sudden when I heard her say "Please leave." And after some more words "Can you please just leave." There had been no argument before, no raised voices, something very dodgy was going on. My pulse picked up and was racing so fast within seconds that I could hardly breathe enough. I openend one eye just a tiny bit and saw her in her pyjamas sitting upright and a guy next to her sitting on the bedside.
With adrenaline flooding my veins I was just about to get up and help her, ready to kick his balls if need be. I felt a weird kind of panicky resolution to protect us by all means necessary. I've never been in a real fight and this intoxicating feeling of utter alertness, senses picking up every tiny thing amplified and the steely strength of my limbs were totally new to me. I had absolutely no doubt that this guy would never even know what knocked him down.

Luckily she was able to get him to leave just then, locking the door behind him. I asked her if she was alright and she just said she had forgotten to lock the door when she had come in earlier. Shit... never ever had something like this happened to me!
For the rest of the night every noise from outside woke me up in an instant. And this being a hostel right in the centre, there were many noises of banging doors or voices and footsteps outside our door.

So to say my stay in Nottingham to have a look around and get a more relaxed start on Saturday morning didn't quite work out, is a complete understatement. What a waste of time,  money and energy. I guess next time I pick something closer to Bristol like Gloucester or Tewkesbury,  so that I can still sleep an hour longer next morning but also have more time to venture and spend less time on busy motorways.

Leg Stretching

The forecast had promised fog and low clouds all the way to mid day. As we looked out of the window Monday morning, the sun was shining from a clear blue sky. Ha! I had initially picked a high route all around Dove Dale, but we decided to stick to the very popular low route along the river as Rich felt a bit stiff and I didn't mind an easier walk. Leg stretcher instead of a work out.

We had breakfast, packed and drove down to Dove Dale. At 10:30am the car park was half full but we still expected to see a lot people on such a fine day out. A wide and mostly paved path led directly along the river 3 miles up to Milldale with hills rising high on each bank. We knew straight away why this spot was so popular. Countless families and couples with dogs were strolling along the water enjoying the sun and the fresh air just like we did.

We decided to climb a small outcrop to escape the crowds, sat on the top and had a short break with food and drink watching people walk past below. We could've sat there forever but craving for a pint we eventually dropped down to the path again and strolled into Milldale just after noon. The tiny village was packed with people sitting on stone walls or the green having lunch.
There was no pub, only some kind of cafe with a long long queue. Nah.

Looking down from our lofty viewpoint

Walked back to the car park, had two massive scoops of ice cream each and off we went squeezing along an endless queue of cars waiting to get into the full car park. And by "squeezing" I mean folding in my right hand rear mirror. Phew.

We set the sat nav to Stratford-upon-Avon but found ourselves in a gridlock on a very narrow road not even 2 mins later. Cars parked on the left made it impossible to have traffic passing though in both directions at the same time. This time I had to fold in both rear mirrors.
As cars added quickly to the queue at each end, one guy took control of the situation, found a small drive way for a u-turn and asked the four cars behind us to back into it and leave the way we came. Phew. Worked a treat although I got my clutch pretty hot steering my long estate all the way back through the narrow space.

Finally free we made for Straford. Arrived around 5pm, had a pint and then headed for the Chinese I had found there on my visit before, serving authentic hot pot. Ordered two soup bases and a good selection of small pieces to throw in. We seemed like experts (had seen it on tv), haha! The spicy sezcuan pork dumplings were certainly the best and the soup very tasty.

Left Stratford with full bellies having cut our journey in half and headed home on rather quiet roads to arrive around 9:30pm.

I greatly enjoyed my second trip to the Peak District this year! The weather was much better than expected with only the first day being shit. Road cycling is very easy there. Just take a map and choose a combination of B roads. The area we've been to is rarely ever flat which makes for interesting rides.
The area around Edale offers great walking with fine views on a good day. After a long winter and not many chances for a proper walk, I realized how alive I feel when I'm on a hill. Rich said something like "You look like you really belong here." and I think it's true. Taking the Pennine Way back into Edale, I also realized how much I long for doing the next long distance trail. But choosing between say the Cape Wrath Trail or Pennine Way and climbing the next 6000m mountain is tough. At the moment I favour mountaineering as it is the greater challenge for me. But should I decide to take a break from it, you'll certainly find me with a backpack on some remote trail :).

Catching Some Sun

We went to a bistro-like food place called Barbarella last night and again our dishes were marvellous. I had a white wine and cream chowder with a poached salmon fillet on top and Rich's chicken chorizo pasta looked lovely.
Went to The Buxton Tap House after for some real ale and I was surprised to find a local medium dry still cider called Pure North. Guy behind the bar said, most customers don't like it and don't consider it "proper cider", because it's still. What do those Northerners know... Nothing!!!
Having a look at the menu and the burgers which come as a double burger, we decided to go there next night for our final night in Buxton.


I've had my eyes on the weather forecast every day for about two weeks before we went up to Buxton and it didn't look promising at all. Now that we're here it's improving every day. The bit of sun we had yesterday changed to a 50:50 mix of sun and clouds today. Perfect for a nice ridge walk.
We had liked the area around Edale the day before and I had the description of a ridge walk starting from there.
Arrived at the car park around 11am and started our ascent of Ringing Roger, a rocky crop just little over a mile out of Edale. The views down to the Vale of Edale were already stunning. We continued along the ridge ever westward, stopping here and there enjoying the view. I practised back bearings and finding three points of reference around me to prove where I was on the map.

View from Ringing Roger

Grindslow Knoll

Wool Packs

After a large field of boulders of all kinds of shapes (Wool Packs) we hit the Pennine Way and stayed on it all the way back into Edale. Took us five hours to finish the 10 mile round and we both had obviously caught the sun.

On the Pennine Way

We weren't completely knackered, but felt a pleasant exhaustion. Deciding against entering one of the half dozen pubs or cafes around, we drove back to Buxton instead and went to the Tap House for food and some cider after a refreshing shower at the hotel. We were both starving and ravenously dug into our burgers washing them down with more of the lovely Pure North cider.

Back at the hotel now relaxing after restocking for the night at Bargain Booze.

Get Them Legs Burning

We had a great meal at the Cheshire Cheese pub last night and I was happy to see they had proper cider!!! Orchard Pig and Old Rosies. Yeah! Rich went for two of the real ales and we were both happy. Food was lovely as well but by 9pm we were both too tired to change location so we went back to the hotel and watched a bit netflix.

Woke up quite refreshed this morning. Seemed like we both needed to catch up on sleep. Decided to do a longer ride today up to Hope and Edale and back to Buxton. We were in good spirits since the forecast promised us a bit of sun and no rain.

Set off after breakfast with the sun already peering through a few gaps between the clouds. Before we knew it we were in Peak Forest and turned onto an A road for a bit, then back onto a B road towards Bradwell. We were finally in proper Peak District scenery with hills looming left and right.

Valley leading to Edale

Had a short break in Hope which was very busy on this Saturday and then set off for a small undulating road up to Edale. We dreaded the steep climb at the end back to the A road and it was worse than we thought. At least worse than I thought. Rich flew up like a pro while I was struggling with burning thighs.

One of the numerous viewpoints

That's were we came up... right, it's so steep you can't even see it

At least the views down into the valley with the ridge behind it were worth every single stop I made catching my breath. I fell like a tree once when my chain was struck after shifting and I couldn't clip out fast enough. Gladly no one saw it and me getting back onto the bike swearing like a fishwife.

I was destroyed when we finally reached the top of the pass, happy for a bit of downhill riding. Getting back to Buxton didn't take long and the few climbs on the way were hard but we managed.

Were back a the hotel after 4 hours, 37mi with 2550ft elevation gain. Not too bad. Just relaxing now and will hit town later for food and drinks.

We're really enjoying this a lot. Bit of workout for a couple of hours and then just hanging and relaxing.
Will head back to Edale tomorrow for a nice ridge walk and maybe a stroll around Hope and Castleton.

Back in the Peak District

As I stated earlier, this year is my year of the Peak District. So I am now up here again, this time with my boyfriend and our road bikes.
We're staying in Buxton in a really nice hotel facing a lovely park. Drove up last night and arrived in good time considering the circumstances (Easter weekend).

Path to our hotel

The weather forecast for the holidays wasn't very promising. So the low clouds pouring a more or less constant drizzle didn't come as a surprise at all. Still, we set off for a short warm-up ride after a hearty breakfast. Both of us hadn't worked out in a long time so we figured 20 miles should be enough. Looking at the map we came up with a circular route heading towards Millers Dale, then Taddington and back into Buxton, staying on B roads mainly.

The drizzle stopped here and there, but it was still very wet and we were soon quite soaked. Enjoyed it nevertheless and the Peak District is certainly a very hilly area. At least of cycling. Lots of more or less steep climbs had us huffing and puffing and we were halfway glad to be back at the hotel around mid day.

Got happily rid of our wet gear and slumped on the bed, warming up our cold feet. Not long after we were both sound asleep.
Dragged ourselves reluctantly up to walk around town after a nice hot shower. Found a few promising food and drink places after a well earned cream tea at a tea house and back now at the hotel relaxing before we hit one or two of the earlier found places.

NOT our hotel

Chicken chaser