A wash out

One of the very few walks we've abandoned.
According to the forecast, it was going to be 'sunny intervals'. Unfortunately what we got was low-lying cloud and persistent drizzle. The intention was to walk from Langsett over to the Derwent ridge, follow it along the valley and drop down to the reservoir for lunch. Then to walk back round the other side of the reservoir along the Roman Road and back to Langsett.

However, we set off in weak sunshine and light drizzle at about 9am. By 10:30 we were at the top of the ridge, but the cloud had lowered and we were getting soaked. Neither of us believe in walking for the sake of walking - we like to have a view - and so we agreed to call it quits.

On getting home, of course the weather cheered up - as you would expect. However, looking out at the hills from my bedroom window, I can see it hasn't changed much on the tops so I'm quite happy with the decision. There is always next month!

Gastro Walks

Back in September 1984, my brother and I wanted to do something other than just cycling. So we decided to go walking and agreed that we would do one walk a month.

Over the years we've done well. There have been a couple of times when we've been forced to take a break - I fell off my bike in 1998 and fractured my skull which resulted in 4 weeks inactivity and 2006 I had a heart attack which meant 2 months off. My brother has managed to keep his health and most of the breaks have been my fault! But other than that we have managed to keep the idea going. If you add in one or two weekend trips - to Bretton Beacons and Shropshire - and the Hadrian's wall walk in 2005 we probably have averaged one walk per month.

When we first started walking, speed and distance were important. We would do walks such as the 3 peaks (which we tried to do less than 8 hours and we achieved once; 7:45. Several other attempts found us completing in 8:19, 8:24...) and the Cal-Derwent-Way, 40 miles in just over 10 hours from Horbury Bridge (the Calder river) to the Derwent reservoir. There have been other epics, and all have been done with no specific training - just the once a month walk.

25 years on and we have become a little more staid. Rarely do we exceed much more than 20 miles in a day and no longer tend to worry about how fast we've done it. So, this September we decided to have a 25 year celebration by taking a disposal barbeque and bottle of champagne with us to cook up a treat at lunch time.

The results are shown in the pictures, but also sparked an idea that we should turn the walks into 'Gastro walks'. So, from now on the barbie will become a feature of the regular walk and details and pictures will be posted here.

Cheers!