A Swaledale Wander

Sunday 23rd March 2014 

A riverside walk along the River Swale in sunshine and hail showers 

Distance: 6km; Ascent: 110m; Sunshine & hail; with Lynsey, Isabel, Olivia, John, Steph, Sierra & Jack

See tracked route in new window

After spending the night at the YHA's Grinton Lodge hostel, we decided to go for a walk in nearby Swaledale.  We set off walking just after 11am from near Maiden Castle and headed down the road to pick up a pleasant footpath eastwards down the dale.

Looking west up Swaledale

Heading east down Swaledale

It was lovely and sunny today and out of the wind it actually felt quite warm!  Whilst the weather was good we stopped for a picnic down by the River Swale, before continuing on eastwards.  The good weather wasn't to last and soon we were walking in full waterproofs due to the arrival of a very heavy hail storm!

River Swale

Luckily the hail and rain didn't last for long and we were soon back in the sunshine :-)  At the end of the footpath, Lynsey and Steph headed into Grinton village with the children whilst John and I walked back along the road to retrieve the cars, before we all adorned to the pub before heading home after a lovely weekend.

Reeth

Daffodils

Aysgarth Falls

Saturday 22nd March 2014 

This afternoon we spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around the three impressive waterfalls near Aysgarth village in Wensleydale, followed by excellent cake at the nearby cafe, before heading to Grinton Lodge YHA for the evening.  Here are a few photos of the falls:

High Force, Aysgarth

Middle Force, Aysgarth

Lower Force, Aysgarth

Lower Force, Aysgarth

Rainbow over the River Ure

A Third Day on the Galloway Hills

Sunday 20th April 2014

It was misty and murky at my ridge top camp at 6:30 this morning, but it had all cleared by 8am when I packed the tent up leaving another day of warm sunshine in the Galloway Hills. Although it wasn't to last as it clouded over by mid afternoon and the cold breeze strengthened through the day. Here's a couple of photos of the hills around Loch Dee from different angles.

posted from Bloggeroid

A Quiet Day Walking in the Galloway Hills

Saturday 19th April
#sh

Today was a long day walking over hills and through forest, during which I only saw one other person - quite remarkable considering it's a bank holiday weekend! The following couple of photos show the summit of Corserine, the highest point for this backpack, and tonight's ridge top camping spot. Tomorrow I head for Millfore and Lamachan Hill.

posted from Bloggeroid

First Wild Camp of the Year

Saturday 19th April 2014
#sh

Here's a photo of last night's scenic camp by Loch Enoch in the Galloway Hills. I had a good afternoon walk-in yesterday over the granite hill of Craignaw in the sunshine. Today I'm heading up Mullwharchar and then east to the Rhinns of Kells.

posted from Bloggeroid

An Easter Backpack in the Galloway Hills

This afternoon I will be setting off for a 3-4 day backpack in the sunny Galloway Hills.  The following Social Hiking map shows my planned route (in pink), which should get overlaid with my progress (in orange) assuming that that I have signal and/or my SPOT works properly!  Once I've finished walking, I'll be uploading blog posts for each day at some point in the next few weeks.

See map on Social Hiking site or full size in a new window

Mynydd Graig Goch - My Final Welsh 2000ft Peak!

Sunday 16th March 2014 

A misty day on the western hills of the Nantlle Ridge to climb my last Welsh Nuttall 

Distance: 11km; Ascent: 660m; Misty on the hills; with Colin

See tracked route in new window

After yesterday's two walks in the Arenigs and the Glyders, I now only had one 2000ft peak left in Wales that I hadn't yet climbed: Mynydd Graig Goch in western Snowdonia.  Therefore today we set out to rectify that with a pleasant walk along the western section of the Nantlle Ridge, to visit not only Mynydd Graig Goch, but also two other nearby peaks that Colin had yet to climb.

We set off walking from a small carpark just over half a kilometre NW of Llyn Cwm Dulyn at around quarter to eleven and headed along the access track to the reservoir, before gaining the NW spur of Mynydd Graig Goch and ascending up into the mist.

Approaching Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Heading for the NW spur of Mynydd Craig Goch

Frog (or toad?) spawn

Soon after midday we reached the rocky summit of Mynydd Graig Goch (Nuttall), where we spent a short while identifying by GPS which one of the many rocky outcrops was actually the true summit.  Once we had found it we stopped here for lunch before enjoying a celebratory dram whilst reflecting back on the large number of excellent days hill walking I've had climbing all the Welsh 2000ft peaks since 1997.

Celebrating with a dram on the summit of Mynydd Graig Goch

Summit rocks of Mynydd Graig Goch

After feeling suitably refreshed, we headed east over moorland to eventually descend out of the cloud as we reached Bwlch Cwm Dulyn.  From here we picked up a well worn path for a few hundred metres before concluding it didn't ascend the next hill; therefore instead we headed up the rough ground into the mist to reach the trigpoint and summit cairn of Garnedd-goch (Nuttall).

The cloud cleared as we descended to Bwlch Cwm Dulyn

Summit of Garnedd Goch

From here it was a pleasant, if misty, walk along the ridge to reach our highest point of the day at the summit of Craig Cwm Silyn (Nuttall, Marilyn), where we met the only other walkers we saw all day.  After a short break at the summit we retraced our steps for around three quarters of a kilometre before taking a traversing line westwards around Garnedd Goch towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn.

Descending out of the cloud towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn

Llyn Cwm Dulyn with Mynydd Craig Goch beyond

We soon dropped out of the cloud as we descended and there we good views down towards Llyn Cwm Dulyn and across to the hills of the Lleyn Peninsula in the distance.  Lower down we picked up a faint path down a bit of a ridge to reach the outflow of Llyn Cwm Dulyn, from where we followed our outward route back down the access track.  We reached the car shortly before half-past three after a pleasant walk, and headed back home along the A55 happy that I had now completed one of my many hill bagging aims :-)

Looking back to Craig Cwm Dulyn