navigation training – Page 31

Walshaw 1

Set off with Babs and Carol from Pennine Way crossing road. Went up to reservoirs whereupon the others became starving, in fact they seemed to be hungry right from the start. We followed the reservoir along and then crossed the drainage channel via a footbridge. This brought us up to a high wall with foot steps sticking out of it just where there was a steep drop into a water inlet. After a bit of pfaffing around about it being a bit too high etc., all the party managed to get their butts over the wall by riding it like a horse. The far side of the wall was fairly sheltered so we stopped for lunch. It was still windy and cold. We then struck up across the bog and tussocks and found we had missed the actual path but we got onto it before long. We went up across the hill and then down the other side to Walshaw which is a pretty hamlet. B and C inspected some olde pig styes. We then cut back facing into the wind towards the car. Could see the upper Hardcastle Crags car park and the road opposite us as we walked. Back along to the car park, we didn’t get rained on and it brightened up through the day. Very nice walk indeed.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Walshaw+Dean+Lower+Reservoir,+Wadsworth,+Calderdale+District,+United+Kingdom&aq=0&oq=walshaw+dean+lo&sll=53.399298,-1.882095&sspn=0.064481,0.209255&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Walshaw+Dean+Lower+Reservoir&t=m&ll=53.793452,-2.063971&spn=0.01521,0.025749&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Kinder Downfall

First real outing of the year. Only 9km but plenty to start with. Really glad I actually dragged myself out. Fine day all day. Drove to A57 and parked up. The Pennine Way is paved most of the way. Across to Mill Hill and then the main ascent of the day, short but steep, across old snow. Round to Kinder Downfall where I lunched in a cold wind. Got all my timings right, didn’t really use much nav skills as route was very obvious. Kinder Downfall (this makes me have garbled thoughts of German – Kinder, and then Downfall – Hitler film) was good because of the height but a bit disappointing in terms of flow.
On the way back, there was a large group of people at a junction and so I very confidently whizzed off to the right and then had to retrace my steps as it was the second right I needed. This is what comes of navigating once the map has been stowed away.

Got a bit bored tramping across the paving stones on the way back and although knees behaved themselves very well, when I got out of car at home, my heel was doing plantar fasciitis.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Kinder+Scout,+Hayfield,+High+Peak+District,+United+Kingdom&aq=0&oq=kinder+&sll=53.102625,-3.61757&sspn=0.016232,0.052314&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Kinder+Scout&t=m&ll=53.384557,-1.874199&spn=0.030716,0.051498&z=13&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Rant to Ramblers

Dear Editor (of the Ramblers magazine, Walk)

Andrew McCulloch (Walk Spring 2010 Your View) believes that litter is not a serious issue. Whilst his opinion is of course valid, I can’t allow it to go unchallenged. I am 52 and can remember the time before cars ruled our country and before plastic packaging became a scourge and a recycling nightmare. The spread of the automobile, as well as the increase in ready to go food and excess packaging have all contributed to the spread of litter.

Litter in the UK is now totally acceptable. There are almost no places we can go where there is no litter, except for the places where Ramblers ramble. If only it were just the odd crisp packet or even just the odd bit of agricultural debris, but it’s not, some areas are so badly littered that any enjoyment of e.g. spring flowers is destroyed by having to wade through other peoples’ detritus.

We have all grown complacent. Those who drop litter have no care for soiling their own territory. Did we nurture this attitude of selfishness without accountability? There may be signs up signalling financial penalties for littering, but who polices these laws? To be a responsible citizen we have duties to perform in order to gain our rights, and also codes of how to behave publicly. Do we teach our children responsible citizenship?

I work at a university where international students visit our country. Sadly, all too often I have had to deal with the question of why do we make such a mess of our towns and our countryside, when there is so much natural beauty? Visitors from around the world are shocked at how we in such a wealthy (comparatively) country live in such filth.

So no, I don’t accept that litter is not a pressing issue. The other issues Mr McCulloch mentions are of course all very important but we need to sort out our own backyards as well. We must not succumb to the disease of complacency.

Yours faithfully

Jak Radice

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

Blackstone Edge 03/01/10

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Blackstone+Edge+Reservoir,+Littleborough,+United+Kingdom&aq=0&oq=blackstone+edge+res&sll=53.660408,-2.043629&sspn=0.016021,0.052314&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Blackstone+Edge+Reservoir&t=m&ll=53.660408,-2.043629&spn=0.015258,0.025749&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.

WGL training 17th Feb 2010

Last day. We do some more class work, then out in the minibus to a moor that is amazingly bleak next to a frozen reservoir. Bitterly cold. We charge off and work out how to correct an incorrect map i.e. showing a path that doesn’t exist. Practise with GPS, very useful and gives me confidence to get on with mine.
Lunch on a freezing tussock, then Steve clearly frozen, yomps us all off and demonstrates aspect of slope. Still not sure have quite got the hang of that one. We are all so cold it is surprising we are smiling in the photos.
Thaw out in the bus and back to PYB for more lectures, shower, then pack up and finish off with evaluation and feedback. My feedback is Good, Good and Do more camping!! What more?!
Good byes all round and then 3 hours and I am home. The snow is falling as I take my bags in the house.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Llyn+Aled,+Llansannan,+United+Kingdom&aq=0&oq=llyn+ale&sll=53.100002,-3.613129&sspn=0.129867,0.41851&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Llyn+Aled&t=m&ll=53.102631,-3.617592&spn=0.015459,0.025749&z=14&iwloc=A&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

Please visit Map and Compass and learn how to interpret a map with me and my navigation partner, Cath.