TGO Challenge 2012 - Not Even Close

Well I've been back home more than two weeks and still haven't written this up, so here goes (deep breath)...

Having pulled out of the 2011 Challenge at the last minute because of shin problems, it was a relief to get on the train for Edinburgh.  At Newcastle I'd picked up another Challenger, Harry James, and by Inverness, there was a half a train full of them.

Day 1: Strathcarron to Pait Lodge

I left the hotel on the bong of 9am and walked with Mike Knipe for the first half mile until he turned off north. Far be it from me to tell him Montrose was to the east.

So this was it. It was raining but the weather was coming from behind, the track ahead looked long, I was mildly hungover, on my own and there was nothing to distract me from noticing every twinge in my legs. Was I really up to this? I'd planned this route 2 years ago, it had been vetted twice, but did I actually want to walk across Scotland any more? I could see a few other Challengers ahead of me and the gap increasing. I could walk Scottish hill tracks without having to commit to two weeks of day on day backpacking. Oh nagging self doubt be gone!

Wilderness out of Strathcarron

Carl and an unknown rucksack in the bothy at Bedroig Lodge

I stopped at Bendroig Lodge for lunch and reached the east end of Loch Calavie and my proposed camp about 2pm. It seemed a bit early to stop and it didn't look very inviting place to put up a tent, let alone lie in it for 15-16 hrs. So it was on to Pait Lodge.

A few people had told me it was quite hard going as the path on the map doesn't exist (and they were right - it was and it doesn't). Anyway, it had to be done sooner or later. I caught up with the 3 Scots (whose names I've forgotten but could find out if I looked) when the track ran out and we floundered around in the morass with occasional glimpses of Carl Mynot a mile or so in front. I was wishing I could teleport to where he was, though when I got to where he was, I was wishing I could teleport to anywhere else but there. The trees around Pait Lodge seemed within reach but having lost height I'd got myself in a whole mess of bog and peat haggs and brown sticky porridgy stuff and was about to burst into tears like a big girl, then decided that would just make the ground wetter. So instead I crawled on hands and knees out of a big hole I'd dropped into, reached the bridge and then spent 5 minutes trying to open the gate into the grounds of Pait Lodge. Mike had said something the night before about how to do this but I hadn't listened attentively enough.

Rainbow over Pait Lodge

And then a bit more crashing and splashing and splodging and cursing and I came across Carl lying spread-eagled on a rock, looking for all the world as if he had been spread out for any passing eagle. And I said, there s'posed to be a place just up here to camp and he said let's go and off he went, like someone trying to escape from a predatory eagle. And we found a handy, dandy place to camp by a weee burrrrnn and I collapsed in my tent and it was an hour before I had enough energy to do the blowy up thing with the NeoAir and strike a match over the pocket rocket.

Camp by Allt Riabhachain above Pait Lodge

And then Carl spotted a brace of Golden Eagle circling above the snow clad hills - or they may actually have been Osprey, cos there a few of those round there. Anyway, it was dead impressive and gave us a wild and remote feeling and there was only another 154 miles to walk. And then I slept for a long time

More to follow (eventually)...

Looks like reindeer

So we bought these trailers off eBay last month.  They're cheaper versions of more expensive ones you can buy from reputable places.  They're going to be OK, I think, probably. Well the wheels are a bit wobbly and the quick release for the trailer couplings doesn't inspire confidence but it will be OK, I think, probably.

Why have we bought them?  Ah, that's for another time.  I rather feel it's bad juju to give away mad plans too early, well like before they've actually been attempted.  Well, we'll see. 

Anyway, we thought for their maiden voyage we would start off with something easy, that is smooth and within easy reach of the car, in case they actually did fall apart on us.  And since the Monsal trail was extended for bikes earlier in the year, that seemed just the ride.  And since it's Christmas Eve, we though we'd get into the spirit of the occasion.  Time to blow up the reindeer.  (Can I say that on Blogger?) And so I give you...

Rudy at the Wye Dale end of the Monsal Trail

You don't arf get some funny looks from folk when you're towing an inflatable reindeer behind a bike.  And once the wind starts rushing through his antlers, he can get a bit loppy.  Next time, I'm going to fasten his feet more securely.

More seriously though, the Peak Park Authority have spent £2.25 million on the restoration of the tunnels and the trail and have done a fabulous job.  Six tunnels have been opened up so far.  All are surfaced and the four longer ones are lit until dusk.  The longest is the Headstone Tunnel, just after Little Longstone, which leads out onto the Monsal Viaduct below Monsal Head.  From there the trail follows the course of the River Wye and takes you past Cressbrook Mill, Litton Mill, Ravenstor with its overhanging roof, playground of the limestone 'ard men, Miller's Dale and through Chee Tor and past the towering and twisted white walls of Chee Dale, stopping for now at Wye Dale about 5km from Buxton.  It's a veritable feast of White Peak treasures, enough to make any Victorian poet emotional, particularly John Ruskin, who wasn't a big fan of the railway coming through here.

In the Headstone Tunnel

You have to marvel at Victorian engineering.  Just look at that cross section.  Also it would have been challenging enough to bore through the rock in a straight line but the Headstone runs along an a elegant curve

Cressbrook Mill

The first mill was built here by Richard Arkwright (of Spinning Jenny fame) in 1779 but burnt down in 1785 and was later rebuilt by his son, conveniently also called Richard.  Young boys were brought here from the big cities to work in less than ideal conditions.  It finally closed in 1965.

The parcel train at Cressbrook Tunnel

There are plans to open the remaining two tunnels west of Wye Dale and extend the trail the last few miles into Buxton, so by this time next year, as Ruskin might have said, "every reindeer in Buxton can be at Bakewell in half-an-hour, and every reindeer in Bakewell at Buxton".

Merry Christmas.

Stanage under snow

Just been for a short ride from home up to Stanage Pole.  It was nithering.  Here are a few pics.

Redmires from Stanage Pole

Stanage Pole

Dennis Knoll and Hope Valley from the Causeway

The Causeway with High Neb in the distance