Two weeks in the office - not bad actually

Well my daughter gets married in about three or so weeks time, and work must have taken pity on me. They let me work a couple of weeks in the Norway office, and it has proved very relaxing and given me a glimpse of the wonderful landscape. I managed a few little walks which were mostly in good weather, but the one I wanted to see most of all saw me drowned in a deluge. But I will save that one for another day, and do the touristy thing of going to see the Pulpit Rock at Preikestolen, and then freak myself out on the boulder at Kjerag. If you type Kjerag into the internet it will instantly give you a result of someone stood on the boulder with an inane grin on their face.....mixed with a modicum of terror. I suppose it depends on the weather -the day I visited was blowing a gale towards the 1000m and needless to say I didn't even attempt to go near the edge.

So I'm nice and relaxed and back to blighty for another attempt at the Nantlle Ridge in North Wales - I hope we have better weather than last time. We got blown away and had to abandon the ridge for safety reasons...and we lived to walk another day...next week actually.

Then it's walking on the back burner until the wedding is over.....but maybe I'll sneak up to the lakes one day when nobody is watching..

Not enough walking

It's been a while hasn't it. Since The Dales Way I haven't had any walks out apart from around the golf course. I've slipped on the diet as well, but I've not put on too much weight. As a consequence of all this my golf improved slightly but not enough to trouble the leaders. But there is hope as provided by Tom Watson at the Open - 59yrs old and still knocking it around competively. I've caught up on the backlog of my blog entries, so now the next stop is the wedding in August - again not enough walking, but I will have the Nantlle Ridge next month to look forward to. I nipped down to Powis Castle and Montgomery last week and was rewarded with a spectacular thunder storm and thankfully we were inside at the time.

It's surprising how soon you can lose leg fitness, and the walk up Helvellyn this week left me knackered and feeling a bit man fluey. But we had a great walk - the weather forecast was rubbish and we expected to get a soaking - but we didn't. Just goes to show if you take too much notice of the weather forecast you'd never go anywhere.

Another one bites the dust

Another month passes by, another month with a job, another long walk completed and another month with some decent weather.

I've continued the diet and am now weighing in regularly at 20lbs less than the start of the year, and the nice thing is that the weight seems to be stabilising - good old Slimming World diet. It's relatively easy to follow, apart from the bit about not eating chocolate and drinking wine - but Red Wine and dark chocolate is a healthy combination in my eyes.

We've had some great weather over the month and I had a wonderful walk up in the lakes at the head of Haweswater, and of course completed the Dales Way in six days - 5 1/2 of them dry, and it really didn't throw it down until we sat on the finish line. How I laughed when we caught the train home and all that could be smelt in the carriage was sheep s$£t when the conductor turned the heater on.

Only a couple of months to go before the wedding, so less walking and more painting for a while.

The sun shines on St Cuddies Way

Well that's the first of my long walks done for the year, and I was lucky again to have half decent weather. I didn't get rained on severely apart from a couple of heavy showers at the end of day1 and day3. But I used my golf brolly to good effect and it saved me from a soaking if I had had to don my waterproofs quickly. The walk contained all that I could have wished for - historical interest, some geology, plenty of bird watching, deer, badgers, watership down, Neolithic rock art to name but a few. The scenery was ever changing and the walking was a mix of moorland paths, sheep grazed pasture, woodland rides, field edge paths, metalled farm tracks, minor roads, crossing the A1 and the East coast high speed railtrack, and finally a causeway across to Lindisfarne Castle and a walk on the beach. A splendid mini break of about 70 miles in 4 days (plus 2 travelling).

The difference is with these walks is that once you are committed, you have to go for it whatever the weather - so if you always expect the worse, sometimes you get the best. The time of year to go? In my opinion April is reasonably, as is late May and the temperature isn't too hot. Also September can be a good month but is down to the vagaries of the weather gods. But come rain or shine it is something that is so enjoyable, and I will keep these walks up as long as I can.

Silence on the hills

An eventful month since I last posted, and as with previous years some settled weather which was great for walking - sunshine and warm temperatures, with not much wind to speak of - mainly due to my diet by the way. I am still persevering with my slimming world diet, which gets interupted every time I go back to the rigs - I get bored and so eat a lot more biscuits etc. But my stomach must be getting used to smaller portions and I haven't rebounded up the scales yet. I put a lot of weight loss down to drinking less booze and eating less chocolate.

I had a brief journey down to Dartmoor to see my dear old aunt interred up on Sheepstor, which is a wonderful spot to finally rest. There are also a lot of stone age circles, barrows and stone avenues to look at, including the Giants Stone - a strange sight in the middle of nowhere, but still impresses now. Lucky me also had a lovely walk up to the top of England on Scafell Pike in hazy sunshine - fandabbydozy as someone once said.

....and for silence on the hills...I need a little wind to blow or some water to babble along. I suffer from Tinitus and sometimes it drives me nuts. On a very quiet day on the hills, when there isn't a breath of wind I stop and stare and then the whistling starts to intrude - a legacy of 30plus years working in a noisy environment. Alas nothing can be done, so it's grin and ignore it for the rest of my days - and if I say pardon, you know why! St Cuthbert's Way starting on the 27th April - please stay dry, please stay dry....

Spring has arrived - I think?

Well another few weeks tick by, and I have been lucky enough (again) to have had some splendid walks down in Wales. I revisited the Snowdon horseshoe and trotted around in about 7 1/2 hrs - I was absolutely bushed due to the fact I've still been keeping to my diet and as a consequence I really lacked energy for the day. Another lesson learnt and I should know better by now - the answer for me is a whacking big bowl of pasta the night before to stock up on the carbs and give some fuel to the old fool. On the other hand my weight is now down by a substantial 19lbs since the start of the year and I feel so much better for it. I also had a great day revisiting the Carneddau and was so lucky to get up above the clouds and eventually into bright sunshine, in almost perfect walking conditions. That doesn't happen very often and it is a magical feeling when it does - try keeping a smile off your face - impossible.

Spring must easily be the best time of year for a walk in good weather - the clear skies can give you magnificent views from on high and it really is worth the effort.

...and the horse I backed in the Grand National had a spring in his step - Black Apalachi - and was leading the field a merry dance, until his springiness became too much for his jockey as he got catapulted out of the saddle at the 22nd fence. It reminded me of what happened years ago to West Tip - he fell at Beachers Brook one year and then came out to win next year - so watch out for 2010! April will bring my first long distance path - although it should be called a middle distance as it is only 62.5 miles long. I am walking from Melrose along the St Cuthberts Way to Lindisfarne on the coast, and i am so looking forward to it.

Look at my rings

Blimey another month has ticked by since my last post. Hopefully spring is now on the way and we have seen the worse of the winter now. The snow was fun, but very tiring to walk through, and now it's the turn of boggy ground to sap the energy. I had a successful Cheltenham week and came away with money from Will Hills - always nice to be up. I was a bit unlucky as well, and had a series of second places, but the starting prices were high so I got decent payouts anyway. But it stopped me walking for the first week of my time off, so I 'll make up for it in the next week or two. I had a little walk up near Wooler to look for some Neolithic rock art - thought to be around 5000 yrs old. It does give you a special feeling when you first set eyes upon the rock art - real history.

I've persevered with my Slimming World diet and have now shed all the weight I put on over the festivities and some more to boot. My target is now in reach and I have to loose around 7lbs more to get to my racing weight..watch this diminishing space...

Cat-O-Matic says "No more snow thanks"

I set the cat-o-matic for getting up early before this weeks walks - if I leave her in, she comes and stays on the end of the bed. Wake up time for her is 05:30-ish, which is ideal for being up and away before the masses, but italways suprises me how much traffic is around at 6 in the morning. It was still snowy for the weekend walks - Wales on Friday the 13th! I walked with a couple of gents from the walking forum - Robbo who I had met the week before on Moel Eilio and Mike from Cheshire. Both work shifts which allows them to walk midweek, so I'm sure we will walk again - good company both. On Saturday it was up to Ingleborough with Stuart from walking places fame, who drove me up at break-neck speed to walk a delightful and eventful walk around the dales. Read the stories for the details - Yr Elen and Ingleborough.

I got to use my new toy and it has great potential when I get used to pressing the right buttons. The only drawback on Saturday proved to be me - I left the wrong map in from Friday, so only had a GPS map and not the OS map. But it was good enough and I couldn't get lost on either day, as Robbo led me by the nose on Friday through the clouds on high hills, and Stuart did the same on Sunday. Both however tried to commit a kamikaze trick - Robbo attempted a dive into the Afon Llafor, and with Stuart I heard a bit of an anxious cry, followed by 6ft4in of fell walker hurtling down the slope, legs in air. Excellent entertainment and he certainly reached the bottom of the slope a lot quicker than I did. My Satmap gave a distance walked at an average speed of 2mph, with a moving speed of 3.4mph - not too bad for the icy conditions. It also showed my maximum speed as 73mph - I forgot to turn it off until the motorway. Better luck next time - I'm off to Norway for some work soon and then it's the Cheltenham festival when I get home - giddy up as they say..