I absolutely get the need for an injection of funds in to @peakdistrictnationalpark but this is horrible. If anybody else did that you would jump all over them. It also partially obscures the exit from the car park for vehicles travelling west – i ‘look forward’ to the position of the sign being cited as a cause for an RTC.

102 years ago Ethel Haythornthwaite campaigned to have this countryside (that became the National Park) free from the unnecessary impact of advertising hoardings and visual pollution. We don’t seem to have got very far since.

@skodauk well done on an advertising campaign that defaces the original National Park. I hope you’re proud.

A great mini film about the diversification of farm potato sheds in to padel courts …. and the saving of a farm

watch

My friend Gordon quotes a saying from his Grandma’ regarding decision making and procrastination …

‘do a poo or get off the pot’

My indecision around the Hilleberg Akto goes back nigh on 30 years. That’s a lot of years ‘on the pot’.

Writer, gear expert and long distance walking oracle Chris Townsend bought one in 1996 and used it on his ‘Munros in Winter’ walk. In this video Chris recounts his experience with the Akto as well as offering pitching and usage tips from his 30 years of owning one.

I think i read about his walk in TGO magazine. Thirty years ago i would be in the process of joining the Army and had a reasonable amount of backpacking experience, but no money to buy this remarkable looking tent from this seemingly exotically expensive Scandinavian company.

I have no idea why it took me until last week to buy one.

Does anyone else ‘lust’ after things that they have the resources to own, but instead of just buying one they repeatedly buy a substitute which always turns out to be less good. And if you total up the cost of all the substitutes i could have bought a dozen Akto’s. What would a psychologist make of this 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Anyway, several weeks ago, after bumping in to Chris again at the Outdoor Trade Show in Liverpool, i messaged him for tent advice.

‘Get an Akto’ was his reply.

I asked him about weights and alternatives and value for money …

‘Get an Akto’ was his reply.

So i did.

And then he sent me advice on pitching and storage and pegs.

I got the brown one. It’s a really really well thought out design. It is, as Chris says, a bit heavier than many 1 person tents, but the Akto has full 4 season usability.

I’ve also spent (and hopefully not wasted) a lot of money recently on lightweight rucksacks for backpacking. And didn’t get on with most of them. I don’t think they’re all that comfortable for multiple days over rough ground unless you’re fortunate enough to be able to afford dyneema everything.

Maybe i should ask Chris for a backpack recommendation too ….🧐

Hilleberg Akto website

Got on a train in Sheffield bound for Penrith. 

Somewhere near Preston the train in front caught fire. We went to Chorley for a long wait. 

Hours later we got going. Then most of the trains northwards were cancelled and >30 carriages worth of passengers tried to get on our 5. 

30 in to 5 doesn’t work. 

Then near Oxenholme the emergency cord was pulled. 

As was my patience.

Penrith arrived a lot later than expected. I got off the X4 bus in Threlkeld centre at 8pm. 

Skiddaw House check-in closed at 9.30pm. 

Got to Skiddaw House at 9.27pm.

Only 2 other people in there and none of them seemed keen to stay up late getting raucous on electrolyte and salted crisps. 

Not much sleep. Hot all night. Left at 9 to walk to Lingy Hut. 

The Cumbria Way as far as Carrock Mine (the only tungsten mine in the UK outside of Cornwall) went okay. Okay as in really really warm but bearable. 

The ascent of Grainsgill Beck, devoid of any breeze barbecued me. I was in a sun hoody and lathered in factor 50 and taking hydration breaks every 15 mins. 

The hut had just been repainted inside. My friend Nick walked up from Swineside and agreed with me. On the bare arse fells it was stupidly hot. 

We sat in a bit of breeze and debated where i might walk to to get out of the heat. I had a laden rucksack. The forecast was for it to be this warm, or hotter, for a week. 

We descended to Swineside and sat in the shade. I was then given a lift to Penrith Station where, at 5.45pm it was 36c. 

I’d hoped for a few days away camping in my new Hilleberg tent. Safety first. The fells aren’t going anywhere. 

Many of the farmers that i know are saying that the ticks are worse this year than they have been in a long time.

Maybe that’s the mild winter followed by some very warm spells of weather in Spring ?

Check yourself properly and regularly. Get talented with squatting over a mirror (preferably in private). Better still get an acquaintance to properly check your ‘nooks and crannies’ for you.

Learn to check yourself properly and do so regularly. Learn to ID a tick. Learn how to remove one properly. Learn what the health implications might be if you ignore a tick bite.

Learn all this and more by typing LYMEDISEASEUK in to a search engine @lymediseaseuk

And then do the same for your dog.

Learn all about dogs and ticks by typing DOGSTRUST in to a search engine then type TICKS in to the search box @dogstrust

Model – Archie’s lashes were done by Cheryl at LusciousDogLashes™️ and his eye makeup was done by Terry at PimpMyHound™️

Reading, riting and ‘rithmetic … ?

I won’t be mentioning it much on the socials but a few months ago i literally stumbled across a large healthy badger sett not too far from home, up on the moors.

With that anthropological thingy where humans like to name things / animals in nature, and as a very vague hint to its whereabouts (you can work for GCHQ if you crack this one), i’ve called it the ‘Hancock’ sett.

As well as sitting and watching the residents, and treating them to peanuts occasionally, i’ve become very atuned to the sign of any other human activity near the sett. It’s not on a PROW, not visible to the eye (unless using a plane / heli / drone), so human sign thereabouts may not be of the nature loving type !!

A few books have been read and re-read trying to learn more about badgers – as previously mentioned i really like this one (also available as an audiobook) …

The Badger Trust is a useful resource too. They provide advice on the ‘three R’s’ of what to do about crimes against badgers

RECOGNISE

RECORD

REPORT

and have made a FILM about badger crime and what to so about it. N.B. the video includes stills and video of crimes against badgers.

Another really useful tool (because we humans are seldom more than arms length from a smartphone) is the Badger Trust app caller ‘Badger Watch’. Free to download.

It offers a comprehensive reporting tool for badger crime in England and Wales

and also has a guide on what a sett looks like

And advice on what to do if you find an injured badger, or a dog stuck in a sett.

There’s also a ‘find my local badger group’ tool.

Badger crime is an offence and, if witnessed is a 999 call to the police. Do not put yourself at risk in recording or reporting instances to the police.

You can get involved with or donate to organisations that work against badger crime. Badger Trust, League Against Cruel Sports and RSPCA are a few of them.

*the Hancock sett is monitored 24/7 by covert cameras

I received several well intentioned calls earlier this evening from folks that had seen ‘a massive meal being prepared’ in a layby under Stanage.

I messaged the farmer and asked if he could pop by. He did. Ten minutes later he sent me a photo of a pile of curry.

I asked if they would they still be there in 10 minutes and got a 👍

15 Bangladeshi chaps on a day trip in ‘Uncle Phil’s Community Bus’ from Luton.

Once a year they head off for the day and have a walk and then serve food for themselves and strangers. Last year Bournemouth, this year Stanage.

I arrived to find Nick the local farmer giving them a chat about cattle and sheep farming and fielding lots of interested questions about prices and weights and ages and the butchering process.

I was handed a plate and it was piled high. Every time i said ‘that’s plenty thank you’, another 2 ladlefulls went on.

Vast quantities of chicken and beef curry, dahl, pop, tea and cake were consumed. Laughs aplenty.

Nobody has got up Stanage in the last 2 hours without first having at least 2 courses from these lovely fellas. No qualms about who you are, where you’ve come from or what you’re driving. Anyone and everyone got plied with curry.

It was lovely to see Nick, who suffers at the sharp end of much of the anti social behaviour on and around the North Lees Estate, belly-laughing with complete strangers, telling them all about his Belties, and sipping cups of Dudh Cha, the cup held by fingers stained yellow from the turmeric.

I think we have an invite to a curry house somewhere near Tower Bridge ? For some reason we sang Kylie Minogie songs 🤷‍♂️. When the midge started biting the gentlemen said ‘we’re from Bangladesh …. we don’t need any spray, these aren’t proper biting insects’ !!

A lovely evening.

The minute we waved them off on their long journey home the heavens opened.

Thank you and safe journey home my friends 🙏.

Various takes on the causes, damage and politics behind / around the Tintwistle wildfire (*see earlier post by Tom Aspinall RSPB)

For the Daily Mail reading side of the moor there’s this …

and for a nifty bit of *open source* multi-database analysis of the fire site and the impact thereon by slope, aspect, vegetation type and other variables there is this by Keith Challis.

Take your pick.

I spent several pleasant hours yesterday afternoon wandering around the Eastern Moors patch in that warm breeze.

Meandering between the Upper Res and the B6054 i came across a pile of stones i hadn’t visited before. 

Wasn’t on the OS map. Nothing obvious via Google. I messaged Craig R – the oracle and a fellow ranger at 1534hrs sending him a photo, a pin drop, and a message

By 1546hrs he had yielded the fruit – and the year and page number of the relevant Clarion Rambler. 1947-48. Page 83. Which considering there are 63 years of CR books and many exceed 150 pages that’s quite some reply time !!!

‘On the left, near the Barbrook Reservoir, a now disappearing cairn was built, so i’m told before 1908, by George Herrington (Robin Hood, Baslow) and J.W. Stone, Duke’s gamekeeper, (one or both), out of an old four-sided sheep lea-shelter wall (“+”) and possibly in memore of a Sheffield herbalist, George Hodkin (74), who, going this way from Owler Bar in Dec., 1887, to Froggatt, lost his life near here, and was not found for several months.’

-Clarion Rambler 1947-48

Thanks Craig 👍

A very timely article and video by Tom Aspinall (RSPB Senior Policy Officer)