Walking Yorkshire - Lovely Seat, Great Shunner Fell

This is great, a day's walking in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and good company in the shape of Godson Joseph. We parked the car above Butter Tubs and set off up Lovely Seat as a warm up to the main hill of Great Shunner Fell, Jo was already leaving me behind on the steep sections and I had an inkling that I might spend much of the day watching him vanish into the distance ahead of me.

Jo sat in the seat at Lovely Seat

A fast half hour saw us on the top, "Is that it ?" says wonder boy.  "Yes that's it" I replied, well, as soon as I got my breath back I replied. We set off back down and then started the longer slog up the splendidly named Grimy Gutter Hags to Little Shunner Fell and then up again to Great Shunner Fell.  This bit was the only section of the day where I could reasonably keep pace with the boy, in soft boggy sections having longer legs has a distinct advantage.  As soon as we began the steeper and drier climb to the top of the fell I was back panting at the rear though.

Field barn in Stock Dale

Lunch was had at the shelter atop Great Shunner, then came down the Pennine Way into Thwaite, returning to the car up Cliff Gate Road, and what an epic bit of walking this was to be. Jo set the pace on the way back up, and like Alberto Contador he excels on the hills.  The pace was brutal, we passed two other groups of hikers on the way, Jo flying past, me trailing in his wake with every movement of my head loosing drops of sweat, panting and gasping for breath.  Almost three miles of 1 in 4 uphill walking and he doesn't slow down once except for a quick peek into the scary drops of the Butter Tubs themselves.

Jo enjoying a pint at the Farmer's Arms, Muker

We drove into Muker for a pint of Muker Silver at the Farmer's Arms, but they were not serving food until later so we drove back down to Grassington and had a nice dinner at the Devonshire Hotel.  A nice day's walking, but it is obvious we shall have to do a longer route next time, at the end of the day I collapsed onto the couch and fell asleep, Jo went off for an hour's badminton to run off the excess energy he had.

My Landscape

I have been out walking today, a whole day to myself to do what I would with.  So I drove up to Malham and went hiking, up to the Cove, then up the steps and across the moors to the Tarn, up and down a couple of small hills and then a gentle ramble back to the Buck Inn for a pint of local ale.

It might seem odd to some people, but the landscape in this particular part of the Dales makes me feel happy, when I see those steep sided hills with their numerous rocky outcroppings it makes me smile, and it makes me want to get my boots on and get up on the flanks and scars and just walk around.

It's great up here, the countryside has a special flavour to it, steep rolling fields bounded by dry stone walls, fields you cannot grow any crop in and no tractor could pull a plough over, but the grass will do for kine and ewes, when you can see it for the nettles and thistles.  The moors and meadows here are awash with wildflowers, white, yellow and purple the dominant colours.  Other life is abundant as well, flocks of birds rise from concealment in the grasses, spooked by the young Peregrines flying overhead and rabbits are everywhere.

I am very happy today, I have walked a few miles, didn't twist my knee, saw a falcon trying to bring down a dove in flight, and generally revelled in the marvellous scenery. Yorkshire, I love living here.

Drought ?

It really has been very dry this Spring, this track is on the moors above Ling Park Plantation.

Pheasant In The Gorse

A colourful male pheasant by the road side at Ling Park.

Thrush On A Wall

Thrush on a dry stone wall at Langbar.

British Schools Becoming More Risk Averse

Image via WikipediaBritish bulldog 'vanishing from schools'

We played bulldog at school, and at cubs and scouts.  We went on long hikes up steep mountains, we did potholing, climbing, parascending and chess.  We read books and we went on cross country runs where we were out of sight of the teachers.  We built fires safely with the Scout leaders, and unsafely on our own.  We ran and vaulted walls and fences, and sometimes we fell and hurt ourselves but mostly we did not and we learned to judge what was safe and what was risky.

What we did though, through a process of trial and error, was to learn to understand and accept a certain level of risk in our lives.  As Scouts on a camp in the Lake District, we all understood that it was fairly dangerous to go scree bombing (running full tilt downhill on a loose scree slope), but at the same time it was all the more fun because of that edge of danger, and although Mike Lambert ended up in casualty getting stitches in a cut hand, the rest of us still did it again on the following day.

I have broken my hand by falling down a hill, I've injured my back and my knee when out hill walking, but I am 43 and in a lifetime of hiking these small hurts are far outweighed by the pleasure I have gained from day after day on the hills and peaks.  I solo walk, sometimes in weather conditions that some people would consider dangerous, but starting as a young child I was encouraged to learn the skills and gain the experiences that enable me now to judge the boundaries of what is safe for me and what is not.

Every time I go walking there is a risk that I could slip and injure myself, should this prevent me hiking ? Of course not.  There is a young girl in my town who is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from a climbing frame, should this mean that we ban climbing frames for children ? Absolutely not.  We need children to have a certain level of freedom and risk in their lives in order that they may make informed decisions for themselves as they grow up.

Of course it is painful for a parent to see their child hurt in any way, but the point of rearing children is that they eventually become adults, children mustn't become fearful and timid as adults, afraid of everything that contains a potential risk.  As adults you need to know that yes, breaking an arm is fairly painful, but 30 years on I cannot feel the pain, but I can remember that day we hiked up Whernside in the snow and slid and fell on our bums all the way down.  It was a risky and potentially dangerous day, but it was also great fun.

Deer in Coppy Wood

Sorry for the shoddy picture, I could kick myself.  I always take my proper camera when I set off for a walk, except this morning I forgot, and there just inside Coppy Wood a deer stood still long enough for me to take its picture on my phone camera.  Tomorrow I'll take my Canon and see nothing of interest of course.