Posts Page

Posted on

Walking the Tonquin Trail on Vancouver Island

It’s a six hour drive from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia on Vancouver Island to our campsite in Tofino and my nerves are tested on the narrow bendy bit of the Pacific Rim Highway beyond Port Alberni. I am after all, driving on the wrong side of the road and sitting on the wrong side of the vehicle. The journey passes without incident though and as we park up at Tsawaak RV campground a gossamer thin sea mist is drifting in from the ocean obscuring sight and muffling sound. The cold dampness on our skin is refreshing though after the heat of Vancouver and Victoria where temperatures were in the mid 30’c.

Continue reading “Walking the Tonquin Trail on Vancouver Island”

Posted on

Allen Crags and Seathwaite Fell from Seathwaite

In March 1988 Andy and I were enjoying a few days walking in a cold and frosty Lakeland. Having walked up Grains Gill from Seathwaite we were taking a break when we noticed two red clad walkers who were motoring up the path at some pace behind us. “They’re not hanging around,” remarked Andy and as the two speedy walkers drew level we recognised one of them to be non other than Sir Chris Bonington, one of Britain’s best known and celebrated mountaineers. We chatted for a few minutes before Sir Chris went off with his companion to climb Central Gully on Great End which was nicely compacted with frozen snow and Andy and I went off to climb England’s highest mountain for the first time. I’ve walked past that spot in Grains Gill many times since and will do so again today, in the heat of an English summer as I walk up Allen Crags and Seathwaite Fell. Each time I pass by I remember with fondness the day I met a mountaineering legend.

Continue reading “Allen Crags and Seathwaite Fell from Seathwaite”

Posted on

Rosthwaite Fell and Glaramara from Rosthwaite

It’s always nice to start a walk straight from the campsite and Chapel House Farm has the added benefit that I can have breakfast looking up at my first hill of the day, Rosthwaite Fell. Wainwright dedicates his book on the Southern Fells, the book I’m currently walking through to “The Sheep of Lakeland, the hardiest of all fellwalkers”. In what has been a sustained spell of dry weather these hardy Herdwicks are suffering a little. Richard, the farmer and campsite owner tells me the dry weather has not been good for his flock of a thousand Herdwicks who are suffering from the lack of water and parasitic infestations growing in their wool. For his livelihood and the sheep’s well-being I hope Lakeland has some rain soon, maybe just not today.

Continue reading “Rosthwaite Fell and Glaramara from Rosthwaite”

Posted on

Lens Artists Challenge – Books

This week’s Lens Artist’s Challenge has been set by Ritva who invites us to share our photographic interpretations on the theme of Books. I’ve categorised my own contributions into The Grand, The Ancient, The Quirky and The Personal.

Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Books”

Posted on

Three Wainwrights from Coniston Village

Before starting my book by book journey through Wainwright’s iconic 214 I had climbed many of them before, one hundred and one of them to be precise. Coniston Old Man was one of those and my walking journal tells me I climbed it on Friday 14th August 1987 with a couple of other guys and the weather was clear. To be honest I don’t remember much about that walk but the 80’s and early 90’s were years when long social evenings in the pub were as much a part of any visit to the Lakes as the walking itself so that may account for my somewhat hazy memory.

Continue reading “Three Wainwrights from Coniston Village”

Posted on

A walk up Wetherlam from Tilberthwaite

Tilberthwaite car park is almost full when I arrive, late in the afternoon on what has been a lovely warm and sunny Lakeland day. There are a dozen or so cars and three or four vans that I figure will be keeping me company overnight. By 8pm however everyone has departed and I have the place to myself. Dusk turns slowly into the ink black night of the countryside, far away from neon, where stars can shine bright. I enjoy a quiet evening followed by the sleep of the saved and the thankful with only the owls and the comforting sound of the newly born Yewdale Beck to disturb the silence.

Continue reading “A walk up Wetherlam from Tilberthwaite”

Posted on

A walk up Holme Fell

The day is turning into a very fine one for walking as I park in the very same spot I occupied two months ago. The sky is cloudless and eggshell blue, the sun is beaming but it’s April and the temperature is still pleasant and there is not so much as a breath of wind to rustle the leafs. Busyness has been ruling out any visits north but the diary and the weather have both become clear and my season opener is to be a not too taxing leg stretch up Holme Fell.

Continue reading “A walk up Holme Fell”

Posted on

A walk to Upper Yosemite Falls

“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its wall seems to glow with life.” John Muir

When John Muir, the Scottish born naturalist got off a boat in San Francisco on March 28 1868 the story goes that he asked a carpenter what was the quickest way out of the bustling, chaotic city. “Where do you want to go” said the carpenter, “anywhere that is wild” was the reply. And so it was that later that year Muir saw Yosemite for the first time. Its sheer rock walls and natural beauty cast a spell on him which changed his life and led to him playing a pivotal role in Yosemite’s establishment as America’s third National park and secured his title as the ‘Father of National Parks’.

Continue reading “A walk to Upper Yosemite Falls”

Posted on

A walk around Tarn Hows taking in Black Fell

The unpredictable weather of January and trying to sync available time with rare windows of opportunity proved fruitless so it was the beginning of February before I headed up the M6. Knowing that commitments would be ruling out the rest of the month into March I was hoping, despite the mixed forecast, for a couple of cloud free days to keep some forward momentum on Book Four.

Continue reading “A walk around Tarn Hows taking in Black Fell”

Posted on

Lens Artists Challenge – Pick A Word

This weeks Lens Artists Challenge is on the theme ‘Pick a Word’ and has been set by John. My chosen word is ‘Waterfall’. I love the sheer force of nature that is a waterfall. The noise, the spray on your face, (and camera lens) the swirl of vortex air at its base and the power and energy of thousands of tons of water pouring over a cliff face, creating plunge pools and smoothing out solid rock over millennia never fail to leave me standing in awe.

Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Pick A Word”

Posted on

Lens Artists Challenge – Only One Picture

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It has two other names however, names that it had long before it was renamed after the Surveyor General of India, Sir George Everest. Although to be fair to Sir George he did object to this typical act of British Empire Colonialism.

Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Only One Picture”

Posted on

A walk around the Shieldaig Peninsula

A visit to the far north west of Scotland is an invitation to slow yourself down and reset to a quieter, simpler way of living. It’s a place where the demands on your time and the notifications on your phone can be turned off for a while and you can instead, absorb the silence or watch fishing boats bringing in a catch of prawns in the golden hour whilst listening to the tide gently lapping on rocks that are among the oldest on earth. In the highlands you can find the time and space to think about things, to breathe out, or just do nothing at all, when was the last time you did that? These are rare treasures indeed in our ever busy, scrolling world. “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom” to quote E O Wilson.

Continue reading “A walk around the Shieldaig Peninsula”

Posted on

Lens Artists Challenge – Shoot From Above

This weeks Lens Artists Challenge is on the theme ‘Shoot From Above’ and has been set by Ritva. As a Hillwalker I normally find myself looking up rather than down although I suppose every summit picture is technically a ‘shot from above’.

Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Shoot From Above”

Posted on

Lens Artists Challenge – Favourites of 24

The challenge this week is to post your favourite photos of 2024.

Here’s seven, maybe not my exact favourites but certainly ones I enjoyed taking and found interesting. Linked to Lens Artist Challenge 330.

Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Favourites of 24”

Posted on

A walk to Grand View Point Overlook, Canyonlands National Park

Our campsite, just outside Moab, Utah is in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. The plateau varies between three to twelve thousand feet above sea level and stretches over four states. Consisting of high, sparsely populated and arid desert land it’s home to no less than nine National Parks, including the Grand Canyon. Even if you’ve never visited you will have seen the plains, canyons, red rock towers and buttes of the Colorado Plateau in countless movies about the ‘Wild West’ from The Searchers to Forrest Gump. In fact, the opening scene from Mission Impossible II was filmed on the trail we will be walking today.

Continue reading “A walk to Grand View Point Overlook, Canyonlands National Park”

Posted on

A walk along the Grand Balcon Sud, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc

My first visit to Chamonix was in 1993 when I walked there from the shores of Lake Geneva doing a section of the GR5. Thirty years later I walked there again taking the long way round from Les Houches when hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc. Last summer I actually got to drive into town when Mish and I headed off on our summer road trip to the French Alps.

Continue reading “A walk along the Grand Balcon Sud, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc”

Posted on

Lens Artists Challenge – Last Chance

Having only joined the lens artist challenge last week I’m fortunate to have a years worth of pictures to choose from for this weeks challenge which is hosted by all so I’ll link it to Sofia’s Post.

The theme provides an opportunity to post pictures that were taken in 2024 but have not previously been posted. It’s also an opportunity for me to post some of the non walking related pictures that I take on my travels.

Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Last Chance”

Posted on

A walk to The Falls of Kirkaig

The car park for the Falls of Kirkaig is empty when we arrive with two steak pie and mashed potato dinners purchased twenty minutes earlier from Lochinver Larder but still hot. “How many other vans do you think will turn up, three, four?” I muse over our meal. Mish looks out of the window at the April showers and lowering temperature and confidently predicts “none”. Surely not, we’re in beautiful Assynt, surrounded by ancient woodland with the Kirkaig river not twenty feet from us. When I look out the window in the early hours the rain has stopped and we are alone, with just the owls, the roaring river and a billion stars twinkling in the ink black night sky to keep us company. Wives, why are they always right.

Continue reading “A walk to The Falls of Kirkaig”

Posted on

Lingmoor Fell from Great Langdale

My walk up Lingmoor Fell starts conveniently at the National Trust campsite at the head of Great Langdale. I don’t even have to move the van and take full advantage by having a lazy breakfast. This may be my first walk of book four but it certainly won’t be my last from this location as Great Langdale is the launch pad for some of the big ones and a place I will get to know well over the coming months.

Continue reading “Lingmoor Fell from Great Langdale”

Privacy Policy Proudly powered by WordPress
error: Content is protected !!