Walk Reports

Wednesday Walks

August 24th 2005

The club was the first in the area to do a regular Wednesday walk with a pub or café lunch. The idea being to walk about 4 to 5 miles in the morning and 3 to 4 miles in the afternoon. Lunch being taken usually in a pub. These have been a successful feature of the programme for about 10 years. The Wednesday being fixed as the 1st one in the month.
Leaders try and produce either a circular or linear walk with the lunch break just after half way. In this way the longer walk is in the morning and the shorter one in the afternoon. This is not always possible to organise and occasionally the afternoon walk is longer. Sometimes a “figure of 8” walk is done this is when we use a pub car park and do 2 walks from there. A feature of these walks has been that some members join for 1 of the walks or simply for lunch.
Most pub landlords are very welcoming and will do everything possible to accommodate us. After all it is, if only small, a guaranteed income for that day. Others will only accommodate us if we order in advance. This is on the face of it easy - it does not however take into account the lack of a mobile phone signal or the landlord being out shopping when you phone.
We of course know the popular pubs by now. These either attract a good number of walkers or members "out to lunch". Problems for leaders have been pubs that no longer open at lunchtimes, pubs that are closed and sometimes pubs that suddenly decide not to be open on the planned day of the walk. We have learned that we do not just "turn up".
A problem faced by the leader is the timing of lunch. To facilitate an afternoon walk we must arrive by 1 pm. Any later and the afternoon walk could be too late starting. On one notable occasion lunch took over 2 hours - it was raining heavily at the time. To take this pressure off the leaders we have introduced Wednesday morning walks into the current programme. The brief to the leaders is about 5 miles in length. The pressure to finish by a fixed time is removed.
The first of these walks took place on August 24th when Colin led a walk of about 6 miles around Llanasa and Gwaenysgor. With these walks there is no obligation to stay for lunch in the pub. But, eight of us did. Both walk and the lunch were voted a success. A suggestion has been made that these walks do not take place on a Wednesday but use other days of the week. For information on the walks in September and October look at the website or the current programme. Walks after this date will appear shortly.

Nantlle Ridge

August 13th 2005

9 of us tried this new service on Saturday 13th August and it worked very well.
We used Talysarn as our base which is a 120 mile round trip from Holywell.
The first advantage only 2 cars were used there was no need for 3rd simply to be used to shuttle cars and drivers around. This saved about 140 miles of travelling. Shuttling the cars also saved a further 60 miles. No matter how you look at this it was at least £20 in petrol alone.
We also saved the £2.00 per car parking charge at Rhyd Ddu
The taxi cost us £9. No matter how many people turn up and phone for it - details are at the car park at Talysarn - it is £1 per person. This applies to just one.
The service worked well we were picked up albeit a few minutes later than requested and taken from Talysarn to Rhyd Ddu. It was raining rather heavily at the time and having obtained the weather forecast off the web we anticipated it to clear up by about 1 pm so we decided to delay the start of the walk until later by going into a café. We eventually set out an hour later. We would probably have abandoned the walk altogether and gone somewhere else had we arrived at Rhyd Ddu in the cars.
We got a soaking as we climbed Y Garn but it eased so much that when we ate our lunch at the top it had stopped raining, and the clouds were lifting and swirling. Except for 1 sharp shower later on this was all the rain we encountered the low and swirling clouds remained until much later.
The ridge walk was its usual challenge and the pull up from Cwm Silyn (about halfway along the ridge and the turning point for those doing a circular route) was tiring, However the reward is that from the summit of Craig Cwm Silyn it is "downhill all the way". Incidentally we could get a mobile telephone signal on Orange and Vodafone from this point. Mobile phones do not at present work in Rhyd Ddu.
At Garnedd Goch (a magnificent view point) the last summit, we climbed over the "stile" to the former trig point and then walked downhill with the wall on our right. On this section we could clearly see our destination.
The path at the bottom of the mountain was (and is) very boggy - this will be taken up with the National Park - they also need to supply information boards on the Nantlle Ridge for at least the car park at Rhyd Ddu.
After picking up the track which runs towards Llynnau Cwm Sylyn we walked along the lane past Maen-Llwyd ignoring all the footpaths - obstructed or otherwise - on our right to 484517 and took the footpath (oak signpost) through the Quarry north of Tal-eithin Isaf to the quarry entrance and turned left and followed the path down over a footbridge to Talysarn. By looking back as we were walking this final section we could see our route now bathed in glorious sunshine.
Our walk had taken 7 hours and included 2 people who had never walked a ridge and had done very little scrambling.
Although it is possible to book the taxi while on the walk and as indicated a signal is available for 2 hours before you reach Talysarn it is in my opinion easier to use Talysarn as the base. The Car Parking is also free. If there is a group book the taxi in advance and confirm numbers about an hour before your expected time of arrival at Talysarn.
Telephone Number 01286 676767 - Huw's Tacsi

Letter from Spain

September 26th 2004

The journey down was quite uneventful.
When we left Caerwys with our heavy trailer, the car was really struggling with the load and I had difficulty in getting into 3rd gear. Fortunately we stopped after about 12 miles to pump up the trailer tyres and I noticed that the wheel was red hot. I thought it was the weight of the load and didn't like to say anything to B, as I had newly greased the wheel bearings and there was nothing more I could do. It was only when I went to pump up the other tyre and found this wheel to be red hot too, that I realized that the handbrake of the trailer was on. When this was released the car had no trouble pulling the load uphill, in fifth gear at 70mph. Quite a relief.
We stopped for two nights at my sisters in Trowbridge and then drove down to the ferry in Plymouth in the morning. Lovely ship, brand new and a fast, stormy 18 hour crossing - many people added to the pattern on the carpets. Had a comfortable, roomy 4 berth cabin. Enjoyable, but quite long enough - my idea of hell would be to on a cruise - I get bored. I want to get off.
The first part of the journey, through green Spain, takes you over several mountain passes, all higher than Snowdon and on a very hot day the temperature gauge of the car reached new highs. Then it was a high , fairly flat plateau, with masses of wind powered generators. Uneventful, until one car that overtook pointed to our car as if something was wrong and tried to flag us down. After our experience of being robbed in Valencia, we were not stopping for anything and drove on for another hundred miles, then stopping for fuel and something to eat. It was then we realized that the car occupants were not robbers, but friendly helpful folk, who were pointing out that the electrical connection for the trailer had come out of the back of the car and had been dragging on the ground for the last 100 miles getting seriously damaged. This, of course, was as it was getting dark and the lights on the trailer would not now work. After a lot of fiddling and trial and error, cursing the dark and my eyesight, managed to get the brake lights permanently on, so we could proceed. All well again, until we realized we had gone 30 miles down the wrong motorway. Another 10 miles and we could drive back the 40 miles, changed onto the correct road and arrived here at about 1.30 in the morning. We had left Santander at 1.30 in the afternoon, so the 650 miles had taken 12 hours.
The house had been rented in the summer and we wondered what state it would be in. The rental agency had left it immaculate, no complaints. We had also had some gardeners in to cut back some plants and do some weeding. They had been very enthusiastic and had cut most of the flowers off the shrubs.
The rest of the un-watered garden looked like a desert, with dead plants here and there and a wasp nest in a dead tree. However, B has bought some bedding plants for the pots and, with watering, some of the shrubs are back in flower. The wasps are proliferating - I'm sure the first frost will see them off - what's frost ?
Apart from trying to get this b. computer and email working I have been changing some of the electrics, (not up to IEE 16th edition standards) and have also installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom. It makes a noise like the helicopters in "Mash", so I often go to sleep dreaming of Lieutenant Hoolihan but, just as it begins to get interesting, Radar shouts "incoming".
All the boxes have now been unpacked and we look forward to retrieving the other 50% of our belongings from Margaret's in Caerwys. Have been busy sorting out utilities, wills, banks, etc. B is modifying curtains to suit these windows and has big plans for new doors (3 of them!), the garden and a swimming pool, so we are having a procession of people coming to give us estimates, with sometimes interesting, Spanish "conversations". I wonder how much either side has understood.
The weather has been very hot, sometimes humid, but also sometimes with a breeze which is good. Apparently, this welcome, cooling breeze soon becomes "that bloody wind". Good markets here, a fruit and veg. one, a cloths one and one which is a bric-a -brac, car-boot sale type.
The satellite dish gives us SKY, but, without paying a subscription we only receive the news channels, channel 5 and, S4C in Welsh. The mountain walkers first walk of the season is on Wednesday, so, providing it's not too hot, we will be joining them.
We were right with our choice of Denia. It's a good place to be and the people are friendly. Hope to see you here.
Love B & C.

Rossendale Walk

June 19th 2004

Ramsbottom is in the Rossendale Valley and about 10 miles from the Centre of Manchester. It is however a totally different former Lancashire Cotton Mill Town.
On Saturday 19th June 10 members met at Northop Car Park and an hour later the 3 cars pulled into the Station Car Park at Ramsbottom. The walk was led by Hannah. The walk started with a steady climb to the Peel Memorial. (After Sir Robert Peel founder of the modern day Police Force). The first person to reach the memorial was Cailey who is 6 years old. She was also the first to reach everywhere else!
Cailey had joined her grandmother Yvonne for this walk. From the memorial there were impressive views over Manchester and South West to Moel Fammau and the Clwyds. From here we walked north eastwards over the next summit. The views at this end of the short ridge were even more impressive with Pendle Hill, Ingleborough and Whernside (2 of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks) clearly visible and apparently within walking distance! We then went to a disused quarry from where the paving stones for London Squares had been taken. The area is reminiscent of many places within North Wales with spoil heaps and tramways but in a somehow more gentle way. The return through Helmshore was along the Irwell Valley Way. We paused for refreshment and shelter at a station on the East Lancs Railway (Steam). We were finally led back to Ramsbottom by Hannah and Cailey. The walk had been about 14 miles long and Cailey had done much more as she wanted to be in the front and also kept checking up on her Grandmother!
Ron

HRT in Scotland

April 17th - 24th 2004

Holywell Ramblers Trip in Scotland took place between the 17th and 24th April. After a 5 hour journey accompanied by loud snoring we were glad to stretch our legs in Pitlochry, parking in the council recycling centre. We did not appreciate we would be filling the bottle banks a week later.
We reached Kinloch Rannoch, the small village near our rented accommodation, after a road with twists worthy of Alton Towers, passing through rolling countryside with snow-topped mountains in the distance. Spring was several weeks later than at home so daffodils and levitating lambs were enjoyed for a second time. Leargan, the house we were staying in was clearly marked on the O.S. map, so, with the usual pin-point navigation accuracy, we missed its turning and toured most of the loch’s perimeter before realizing our mistake. Back to a long drive and up to a large, attractive house built in the early 20th century as a holiday home for the Debenham family (apparently featuring in the abolition of the slave trade). The house is let only to family, friends, friends of friends and Arthur. Entering the house was a step back in time. Although freezing, it had a comfortable, lived-in feeling as though the family had just left. The kitchen was the only room that showed any signs of modern touches with the usual range of electrical appliances. The fridge freezer was far too small, so some used the adjoining scullery and others the pantry. The mice were particular, only nibbling the provisions of people originally from Liverpool.
When the Debenhams visited, they brought with them all the necessary staff, so the servants used there own, separate staircase and lived at the back of the house. They were summoned by a set of bell pushes. If you wanted your back scrubbed you pressed the conveniently sited bell push above the bath.
The main staircase had a wonderful glass dome over it and paintings of the Debenham’s two nieces and nephew (they were maiden aunts) hung on the landing. The children were not smiling, looked intimidating and it would have been interesting to count their toes.
The bedrooms had the original wash basins and fitted wardrobes, complete with chamber pots. The two bathrooms had all the original fittings and baths large enough to practice the butterfly stroke. Hot water was a problem so some shared baths whilst other, less friendly people, shared bath water, bringing back memories of childhood - who goes first? and hard luck on the last.
Rooms were allocated on a first come, first served basis, so the late arrivals ended up in the servants quarters. Central heating was not required by the hardy Scots, so an open fire in the lounge and convector heaters in the bedrooms (frugally used by most) sufficed. Soon, we could no longer see our breaths. A decision was made to move the dining table from the grand, but cold, dining room, into the large sitting room with its fire, comfy chairs and two huge south-facing bay windows with magnificent views over the loch. We spent some very entertaining, well-fed, alcoholic evenings there, sitting around the fire, watching our boots steam and playing games. Dingbats brought out some characteristics which would not have been welcomed in Portugal. The bookshelves were full of books on the locality and photographs of the family. The visitor’s book made for interesting reading with people coming from far and wide, with some even complaining about the excessively hot weather.
The meals in this room were excellent, everyone bringing far too much food as usual, but, despite the amount of alcohol brought (one room looked like an off-license) we did have to replenish bottle supplies. Arthur’s 60th birthday was memorable (so I’m told).
Another evening highlight was going to a "Guild Concert". The guild turned out to be the ladies of the local church, so we were welcomed by the (lady) lay minister and introduced to the rest of the audience/congregation. A rousing version of "Praise my Soul" was sung, a prayer was said and then the concert began. A friendly, humourous, talented pianist played several renditions interspersed with amusing anecdotes and then later accompanied a singer who sang traditional Scottish songs both in English and Gaelic.
The warmth of the audience and the infra-red wall heaters was tangible. At the end of the concert there was a cake competition. The ladies were in competition to stuff as many as their homemade cakes as possible into their audience, especially their Welsh visitors, served with tea and good humour. A memorable evening. The reason we went to Scotland was, of course, for the walking. So a cursory reference will be made to it. The weather wasn’t too bad. It did rain, snow and sleet and rain again, but the sun shone as well. We were usually wettish, wet or soaked at the end of the day, but we walked everyday, exploring a variety of landscapes. Some days we all walked together and for others we split up. Everyone who started out up Schiehallion made the summit at 1081 metres, some returned the same way and some descended by a quicker route and were scoured by horizontal hail - better than any defoliating cream. The road past Learghan was a dead end, finishing up at Rannoch station. This provided four of us with a train based walk, catching the train to the next station and walking back across Rannoch moor, the biggest bog in the U.K. and one of the biggest in Europe. The railway line was floated over it on brushwood. The Station Master (whose wife made excellent cakes) took delight in telling us about the intensity of the midges. In August you cannot see the other side of the platform and the sun has difficulty in pushing through. The way back across the moor was along the romantically named "Road to the Isles". We imagine it probably had been called by quite a few other names by sodden travellers. Was foot rot a common problem?
It was a great week Arthur, thanks to you and Chris. We would love to go again, so can we have first refusal next time please.
B & C.