Training walk 6 - Hebden Bridge to Hardcastle Crags and beyond.

This time, Centurion Rob, couldn’t make the walk, So Centurions Al and Simon, offered the opportunity to our better half’s to accompany us on this one.

What a weekend, it was one of those rare hot sunny weekends, temperatures up in the mid 20’s, not a cloud in sight. Of course having the WAG’s along, made sure that we were smothered in sun cream. Very wise too.

So, we gathered in Leeds train station, decked out in our shorts, awaiting our express to Hebden. For once, engineering works had gone in our favour and trains, were direct from Leeds to Hebden! So, we took the 9.02 from platform 11a, fully provisioned with tea and a sandwich for the 30 minute ride.
Arriving in Hebden Bridge station, which has been kept in the Leeds Manchester Train company colours from the 19 century, the station has not drastically altered since then, which is good to see. Makes a great change from the bus style shelters at most train stations.

Our route starts from the train station car park and goes across the River Calder ,through the park, across the Rochdale canal and up to Hebden Bridge’s main square, well its more of a triangle. From there, we cross Hebden Water and follow the path. It was here, that we encountered the mysterious durkey. A cross between a duck and a turkey. Though the WAG’s, (Lynsey and Barbara) insisted it was a Tuck. We follow the road until we come to Salem Bridge. We cross over Hebden Water yet again and follow the path up past the archery club and eventually come out at Midgehole and the Blue Pig club. Not sure why the 80’s film Porkies came into my head at this point!

We come to the start of Hardcastle Crags just another 200 yards further onward. Lynsey was most happy, to see the ice cream van arrive and begin to set up shop for the day. She knew that if she got through the walk, her ice cream would be waiting at the end! Descending to the stream, we come across a fallen tree, a victim of one of the many floods the valley witnesses. After a quick log hugging session, Simon comes across something, which rebuffs everything my mother told me about money growing on tree’s. Simon, feeling the need, deposited 2p with the money tree. Fingers crossed his investment will grow.

The path ends at Gibson Mill, which is good, because the ladies needed to pay a visit to Yorkshire most environmentally friendly toilets. A couple of banana’s , twix’s and a nettle emergency later, we set off. Following the ‘blue’ route, we soon came across the mill pond, which had some little ducklings and, obviously, we had to stop and see how cute they were… hmmm. We also found some nice damsel flies and even managed to glimpse a couple of Newts, though the photo hasn’t come out that well. Now, I’d convinced everyone, that due to the baking hot weather, there wouldn’t be much mud on this walk. Sadly I was soon getting a lot of stick from Lynsey and Barbara, due to the rather muddy path. Don’t worry, this’ll be it, Won’t be much more mud today. So we traipse along the pathway, following the stream, across a few bridges and we head up the hillside. The path, was obviously at this point, not often used. Unsure of the actual directions, path finder Al, decides to just follow the stream, until we come to crossing point. Out of the woodland and into the open moorland, the path was becoming more and more difficult to see, some would say, that it had in fact disappeared entirely! Here we come across a nice little sunny stopping point, sunbathers on the other side were enjoying the rays. Such a nice scenic place, we decided to finish off the twix’s and banana’s and apply a little more suncream.

Now, eventually we crossed the stream of death (lynsey’s name for it) and as I was utterly lost, but not wanting to let on, we went up a very steep 3-1 incline. It wasn’t a path!
but at the top, there was one, phew. So, after a confident “ I told you, the path was here, that hill was just a little short cut” we set off.
I don’t know where I went wrong, but at some point, I lost the real path (Again) It must have gone in a different direction. We ended up by the streams edge and doggedly following it downstream.
We were then stopped in our tracks by a vast area of bog. Oh dear. “you said they’d be no more mud” A few prods here and there, showed that there was no way around it. We’d have to walk through it and hope its not more than ankle deep. Barbara to her credit, was first to attempt the crossing, deciding that speed would be the better way. Faster than a speeding bullet, she was across. Ankle deep and mud splattered but across. We all followed her route and we all get caked in sticky gooey mud. “Some people pay for this”. It didn’t help. I was in trouble for getting them dirty. The ‘path’, after another 200 yards of mud, water, slippery rocks and twisted tree roots, came to a final end. Faced with walking in the stream or climbing up the 20 feet of embankment. One look at the faces told me It was up the embankment. Myself up first of course and I was shocked to find a well used path at the top.....

So, down the uneventful (not much fun) path and back to Gibson Mill. It was another mile and the icecream van, was still there, selling his Yorkshire Dales icecream.
Back to the Blue Pig (couldn’t see any) and retraced our steps into Hebden, arriving at the pub slightly redder, muddier and more tired than when we set off.

Training walk 5 – Settle Caves and Waterfalls

I tell you what, that count down timer seems to be going pretty fast to me! It really brings it home as to how soon it will be until this all kicks off and the purpose of all this training has been realised.

Just to keep you all up to date on our progress so far we’ve been busily handing out posters and leaflets in local shops and offices, asking the shops if they would be kind enough to donate any prizes in the hope we can do a raffle or auction of some sort to boost our walk fund raising, organising Eurovision song contest sweepstake’s, getting in touch with the local press (with some success I might add), and, of course, getting another practice walk in on top!

We have managed to persuade some very kind shop keepers in the local area to support us by way of donations of prizes. Many thanks to all that have, this was very much appreciated. A list of everyone that has helped us so far is scrolling past above. Thumbs up to you all!

A Eurovision sweepstakes was held on several floors in our office building with people paying £2 per pick with a £1 donation going to our fund raising and the other £1 going into the kitty to pay out to the winner. A further £97.50 was raised as a result of this and a big thanks to David Watt and the lovely Barbara Ward for doing the organising of the sweepstakes in their respective teams – Thank you!

The 15th June will also see us meeting the press at a planned photo opp outside the Civil Hall on Millennium Square in Leeds. Councillor Richard Brett will be joining us as too should be the local newspapers. Fingers crossed we’ll get plenty of publicity from this and people will get to know about what we are doing and will sponsor us in what we are doing.

Sunday the 17th May was the date for our 5th training walk so far. We headed this time for Settle to wander around the Settle caves and waterfalls. Well I say waterfalls, I’m told that there was 2 but I must admit, at the time, I really did think we’d just walked back in a circle and revisited the same place. From the pictures of the day though I can see now just how different the 2 look! I think it’s safe to say I wont be the navigator while walking the wall.

It was another train journey to Settle which got us there for around 10.20am. The forecast was bad, rain and plenty of it, and the very dark clouds hanging over Ingleborough didn’t fill us with a great deal of confidence of staying dry. We pressed on regardless though with the now obligatory 12kg worth of weight in our packs.

Following the signs and Alan and Rob’s maps we meandered through the little town of Settle, heading for the fields and hills that lead up to Catrigg force waterfall. Not sure how we managed it but after going a little of course and having to back track we found the route we were looking for and pushed on up the first incline to get to the open fields at the top.

Onwards from there took us along the winding road side with the view of Settle below us. The clouds still looking menacing on the horizon so we didn’t hang about.
Roughly 3 miles in and we’d made it to a gate which lead us on down to the side of Catrigg force waterfall. For me, the best of the two (and yes I have now after seeing the pics convinced myself they are different so am fully entitled to choose a favourite :p) At the gate we met our first fellow walkers and told them all about what we were in training for. After passing them a leaflet each and them wishing us well we headed for the base of the waterfall.

After a quick break to take a few snaps of the impressive natural scenery around us, and Rob gleefully perching himself on top of a tree branch, looking very pleased with himself, we continued.

Back up waterfall side we had just gingerly made our way down and onwards along the path heading for the Caves. On the way our peaceful walk was suddenly gate crashed by what must have been the MG drivers appreciation society club (or the equivalent) as some 25+ MG TF’s, differing only in colour, shot passed us and off up and over, down and round the twisty turny country roads. If you were part of the convoy then give us a shout!

Onwards and upwards (or at least it was for Rob). You’ll be able to see from the pics that he attempted to scale a near vertical climb, without the aid of safety ropes or a net, and with his bare (Bear (Grylls)) hands. Pretty impressive I’m sure you’ll agree. Given he’d packed his bag so heavily though, eclipsing our measly 12kg (crazy man!), it didn’t take long for him to give it up as a bad job and jump from the dizzy height of 3 inches back to the floor. A valiant attempt and the pic does suggest he was a lot higher up, sorry Rob the truth is out!

We continued on relentless, even ignoring the warning sign in front of us that any lesser men would have turned on heel and bolted in the other direction just at the sight of, “Beware of Lambs”. In true, fearless Roman Legionnaire style we laughed the warning off and continued toward the caves, quick march!

We closed in and passed Jubilee Cave just a short while after as we continued to push the pace. We paused only briefly to take another snap shot of the now dubbed Booby Rock, I’m sure you can see why it got the name, and headed on for the next cave, Victoria.

An uphill climb took it’s toll, but spurred on by the sight of more walkers to catch up and leaflet for the cause, we kept going lugging the packs behind whilst in the back of my mind I was thinking “could I live without this bag….Is it such a big loss…..I could say the killer lamb took it…..”

Passing the other walkers and handing out some more leaflets we continued faster still with a downhill slope providing a nice break for the legs. We headed across 2 more fields (strangely heading a different way to everyone else, but hey, I wasn’t doing the map reading!) we eventually passed Victoria cave and emerged on a country lane.

Heading on now toward waterfall number 2, Scalebor Force. We continued along the country lane for a mile of so and arrived at the top of our destination. Clambering down, which with the practice we’d had had now become quiet good at, reached the bottom. Scalebor Force isn’t as big as the Catrigg Force but still has it’s own unique features that makes it just as interesting and impressive to see. The cascading waters pounded down to a small pool, on a ledge, midway up. The flow then drops to a second ledge which is accessible (as you can see from the picture of Rob and myself stood on it) with a bit of a climb. The shot was taken only moments after Rob had done his good deed for the day in giving a helping leg up to a lady trying desperately to climb up and over to the ledge for a better view of the waterfall. Being a true gent he wasted no time in offering a helping hand and then duly slapping a leaflet in her hand in hope of generating another sponsor, good lad!

After a break for a bite to eat (twix time) and allowing Rob to start scrabbling up the muddy embankment which lead up the side of the waterfall, we still aren’t sure why, he just did it, and got very muddy hands for his troubles (got a shot of him giving us a wave from the top though) we headed back up to find the road again and being our decent to Settle.

The rain clouds where beginning to form over head just as Keeley Donovan, the weather girl, had foretold. Heads down and onwards we went, trying to out run the rain clouds but on a day as windy as it was they seemed to be catching us very quickly even though we were walking at full tilt!

The road steepened downwards toward Settle allowing Alan to stop for more of his ‘artistic’ camera shots, of close up’s on flowers and the like, and then run to catch us up. He gathered quite a speed as he shot towards us, passing us like Linford Christie. Disappointingly though when it looked like he wouldn’t be able to stop and would instead get to Settle in only a few seconds or just career, hit a wall, and land on a sheep, he managed to slow himself to a stop, even turning with a grin as if to say “Ha ha I didn’t even die!” Smug.

Alan’s extra pace though had kept us in front of the rain clouds but it was clear that they were still catching us as by now we where on the very edge but with Settle just a few yards ahead.

We made it down to Settle shortly after, only getting caught in a quick shower, whilst we cut through the Settle Festival. After taking in the atmosphere and looking in vain to find a ‘tunnel of goats’ or ‘spider baby’, given the feel of it all it would not have surprised us, we headed for a pub. And (and I’ve been made to say this) we played pool and Alan remains undefeated. Happy now Al?

Let’s hope there is another pool table on our next planned walk around Hebden Bridge and I’ll report back to tell you if he managed to fluke his way to remaining undefeated again. I doubt it though :p

Bye for now.

Simon

Simon's Seat/Twin Peaks - Training Walks

Ahhh, training..

Do we really need to train for a 84 mile, 5 day walk?
An unequivocal, Yes. Sitting on the sofa watching sports or being in the pub discussing training, doesn’t actually qualify as training apparently. Hmmm.

So, We find ourselves in Bolton Abbey land, almost like re-visiting the scene of a crime. Though this time, there would be no Romans, there would be no startled car drivers. We were here to do a job, and that was to get fit.
We, (well Rob) parked up in the Strid car park, and we set off down to the strid and followed the path as far as Cavendish pavilion. The snow drops were out in force, the Ransons (wild garlic), were just emerging, providing lots of opportunities for me, the team photographer, to stop and shoot. Down to the bridge past the ice cream munching munchkins (it really was too cold for ice cream) and up into desolation valley, it's called this because a long, long, long time ago, there was a flash flood which destroyed the oak forest there. So onwards and upwards, through the pine plantation and out into the open moorland, where the grouse are tame and the call of the curlew spirals through the air. Wasn’t long, before a group of aged ramblers, were whizzing past… “I’m 75 you know, you should be much faster than us” Hmmm, maybe we really should do a lot more training. Inspired by the ramblers, we picked up the pace for the last 2 miles to the top, sadly disappointed that there wasn’t a bacon butty stall at the top, that the ramblers had promised. A fantastic panorama from the top of Simon's Seat, certainly worth the 5 mile walk up there. Sadly, as well as the wonderful scenery, we could also see snow clouds and they were coming our way! A quick lunch and set off on the return leg, via Howgill. 2 hrs later, we were sat in the car, pondering a pub lunch!

The next training walk took place on Sunday 26th April, quite a while since we’d last ventured out. What a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky. This time, it was decided that we’ll go by train to our destination of Ribblehead. Waiting for the train in Leeds, we met Stan, a veteran walker, “oooh, that Hadrians wall walk, is really tough, Some of those inclines are only as wide as this platform you know,”. Filled with his confidence, we boarded the train, which duly arrived at Ribblehead at 10.45 (late as usual!). “Oh my, how cold is this? It was much warmer in Leeds”. For this training walk, we had decided to weigh down our rucksacks with at least 10 kilos to mimic the weight of the armour. We set off from the station heading north to Whernside. Wasn’t bad going, we even found a small lake, which Rob was certain looked like a map of Europe. To the top of Whernside, bite to eat, quick chat we the invigilators for Duke of Edinburgh award and we were away, should be easy, all down hill from here, well, nearly. All I can say, is that, when someone has gone to the trouble of making stairs, up/down Yorkshire’s tallest peak, use them! 6miles in and at the bottom of Whernside, heading to our secondary target of Ingleborough. Now, none of us have done this walk before, so, after a lunch break in a field, we cunningly let some chaps pass us so we could follow them.

They led us, to what can only be described as a mountain goats trail. A 150 feet climb over 30 feet forward. “Oh my god, that can not seriously be the way up”
Oh yes it is. But then, when you get to the top of this vertical cliff, there’s more!
The top of Ingleborough was windy and cold, and we were utterly knackered (well two thirds of us were). The weight was beginning to show, feet were not picking up properly, a couple of ankle sprains later and we were at least walking on steadier ground, heading towards the finish line at Horton in Ribblesdale. Now the problem with using trains, became apparent. The last direct train was at 6.08 and we had at least 2hrs walking left to do. Should make it. But lets hurry just in case the pubs open. Which indeed it was! Arrived at the Crown Inn, in time for a quick pint, before hobbling to the station and the last train home. The additional weight has certainly showed us that this isn’t going to be a walk in the park, by any means.

Alan

The Photoshoot

We’ve decided to push on with getting the publicity for the main event underway. We’ve come up with several ideas for posters, leaflets, and business cards. Our final poster design is available here on the blog for you to print off and pin up to help us raise even more awareness of what we are doing. It’s down the right hand side of the page, you can’t miss it.

The venue for most of the design work was the pub across the road from our office (what better place could there be eh?) Well maybe Alan would suggest the river bank so that he could get some fishing in at the same time. Simon would no doubt suggest a poker night at his place with a spot of Nintendo Wii for good measure to see with that gets the creative juices flowing (not all too sure how it would though). Where as I would definitely suggest an evening down Headingley Stadium watching the Rhinos thrash somebody and then discuss poster ideas after. To keep everyone happy though, we’ll stick with the pub idea. I think at some point everyone has sat in the pub putting the world to rights in one subject or another so to come up with some good ideas what better place to head for?

We decided that we needed pictures to go on the posters so we ventured out, in full uniform for the first time, to Bolton Abbey. On a day when the weather couldn’t have turned out any better, we arrived at Bardon Tower and disguised ourselves as rough, tough centurions. (Well maybe not.) Much to the amusement and surprise of several families, we walked up the hill to where we thought would be the best setting for the pictures. Several cars nearly crashed as their owners rounded corners to see three centurions walking up the road towards them.
Warren Davies, the photographer we had managed to convince to help, must have wanted to hide! You can view his work at www.warrendaviesphotography.co.uk
A big thanks to him for his time.

Next update will be coming soon as we want to fit plenty more practice walks in, including a 2 day back to back walk to try and get used to walking a longer distance over consecutive days. We are also trying to drum up some interest in the papers, TV, Radio and online so keep an eye/ear open for us!

Keep your support coming! Thanks

Rob

Training walk 2 - Leeds Liverpool canal

The next training walk took in the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, from the basin in Leeds to Bingley train station. How long would you expect this to take on the train? Well I’ll tell you, just under 20 minutes. How long would it take to walk that distance though? We covered the distance, a fairly easy walk of generally flat terrain totalling 17 miles in 5 hours. Given that we were able to stick to the towpath that runs alongside the canal we were able to walk at a pretty fast pace. I think at this point it really started to hit home as to just how long a day it would be when we do the 22 mile stretch on day 3, between Chollerford and Gilsland. Not to mention that we’ll of course have all the armour on at that point too! I think it’s safe to assume that walking at the pace we did along the canal would likely inflict severe pain if we attempted it in full armour all day long. We’ll certainly have to learn to pace ourselves much better and look to take things easier on the harder, hilly parts of the Hadrian’s walk. We’ll have to do this to make sure we are able to make it to our check points at the end of each day.

Hopefully by the end of June it will have warmed up a little and will feel no where near as cold as it did along the canal side. It is just the week after our snow walk and so there is still a chill in the air. The snow on the ground has all but melted away with only small pockets remaining, hidden away at the bottom of walls where the warm sunlight doesn’t get to. The canal is frozen over in large areas and is thick enough that you can throw rocks out on to it and they’ll just bounce off without smashing through. We’d tried this out a few times and the walk soon started to form a similar 5 minute cycle of walk, walk, walk, walk, stone, throw, whack!, “Bloody hell, hasn’t even gone through!”…walk, walk, walk, walk, stone….
Daft I know but it passed the time!

Between all the walking and ice smashing we’d pass other walkers and cyclists out enjoying the crisp fresh air. It’s always nice passing people while out walking as you can always guarantee that you’ll get a smile and a nod and a friendly “Hi”, “Morning”, or a good old Yorkshire “’Ow do”. Rob too made a new friend in the form of a small dog out for a walk with its owner. Fido too passed on its own brand of excitable greeting as it bound toward him and headed straight for his leg, I’ll say no more than that though and leave the rest for you to decipher for yourselves!

Mile by mile passed by and we were nearing Bingley station knowing that in around 2 and a half miles, we’d reach our destination for the day and be able to grab a pint before taking the train back to Leeds station. The 2 and a half miles, at our current pace, should have taken us around 45 minutes. Needless to say, the lure of the pub being so close did hasten the final stage of the walk, just a tad.

30 minutes later, beer in hand, we sat back to catch the second half of the Italy Vs Ireland Six Nations game and after that headed back to Leeds, the quick way, chooo chooo!

Simon

Tunics - the making of, and the snow walk

Now the uniforms are all coming together nicely we have decided to begin our training walks. The first one was a bit spur of the moment. The snow was coming down and Alan sent an email around. Anyone fancy a snow day tomorrow? It seemed fitting that since the walk idea was originally from the previous snow day, almost exactly a year to the date, that we would treat it as a training walk.

So on a very snowy morning I set off on a round trip of Leeds to pick the guys up. After several slippery encounters with roads between Simons and Alan’s we finally arrived.

We’d headed north to Addingham, where we left the car and wandered up Beamsley Beacon, finding several snow drifts on the way. At the top the snow was thigh high in places and Alan, being the shortest, struggled to keep up with me and Simon. Though he soon found a way to get ahead of us and began crawling along the top of the snow.

After a brisk stop for lunch we descended via our own path, which took in the places where the snow looked the deepest. Then the inevitable happened as I ran ahead and managed to get both legs stuck in a drift up to my waist, losing balance I fell face first into the snow. Holding out my already frozen hands to stop my fall I looked around to see both Alan and Simon in hysterics. After several attempts at getting me up Alan ended up on his back in the drift too. A hour and half later we were in the car on the way to a nice warm pub.

Rob

The armour has arrived

When Simon told me the armour was heavy I laughed it off.
“Can’t be that bad” I had said.
So when it turned up courtesy of Townend’s Courier Service. (a.k.a Simon and his black Saxo). I was surprised to feel the full weight of it.
By that time Alan had already had his for an hour and text messages from him were heading my way every few minutes.
“Looks good.” “My helmet is too big.”
After cleaning the grease and grime off my armour, I finally got ready try it on.
After receiving several bruises and a few scratches I was able to stand with it all buckled up, only to find I had put it on backwards!!
This walk suddenly seemed like a very demanding task.

Having got the armour, I turned my attention to arming us for the walk and getting material to make the tunics.

Trawling through material shops, looking for the right type of material, didn’t strike me as very macho, so I dragged Alan along to make it less embarrassing. Disturbingly we began having conversations about how soft the material was and if it was the right colour. I’m sure legionnaires wouldn’t have done that!

Finally I decided to seek advice from the older generations. My grandparents.
I should have done this earlier as they found some material that was suitable within a week. Kindly they offered to buy the material for us, as a donation to the walk.
So on to making the tunics. Purchasing several cheap yards of material to experiment with proved to be a good idea.

My first attempt fit well, like a glove, a very tight glove.
The second attempt was better a little more fitting for a Roman soldier.
Eventually I turned my attention to making the three tunics, measurements provided by the other two. Miraculously they all fit well.

In the meantime our wooden swords had turned up and I had measured up and got material to make authentic looking scabbards (sword holders if you’re not sure) for the three of us. This is still work in progress – we hopefully should have some pictures for you soon!

Rob