Introductory Thoughts 2009

The good start of 2009 sadly didn't set off the active phase that it should have, and it had started well. The favoured winter touring grounds around the West Pennine Moors with my Sis and family took in the Reservoir paths at Wayoh and Turton & Entwistle, and the country park at Rivington, and a yomp up to the Peel Tower/Monument at Ramsbottom and as this was all done in the fiercest of Winter cold, I felt good for the spring, but somehow thing didn't come right.


I still had decorating to do in my flat and that absorbed three weeks out of work, and trips to visit My Sister had excursions turning more to putting the girls in the push chair for getting them to sleep or opportunites for us to get out of the house whilst Grandparents enjoyed time with their grandchildren. We also laid down plans for the summer, a family jolly away to Northumberland, our first in more than a decade, and I made the mistake of looking forward to that and forgetting to make the most the spring and summer. That was a huge mistake to make and I wasted the time looking to our 'Summer' holiday in the first week of September, and then realising that I didn't have a lot of actual Summer left.

Fortunately, the holiday turned out fine, and whilst there was walking, it was not in long strteches like I had planned for. I'd been game to make a bid for The Cheviot, but was discouraged from such a scheme by those who know about these things, as it's an unyielding slog on all sides and the summit is a nightmare in peat. Also, it turns out, the girls were already old enough to not just be happy passengers and needed sources of entertainment too. So I would be extra hands for beach trips to Embleton Bay and Bamburgh beach, and walking would be fitted in at destinations where points on interst were suitably far apart, such as Cragside and Lindisfarne. The most serious walk of the entire trip was to Dunstanburgh Castle, which preserves its isolated splendour on its outcrop of Dolerite by having a car park that is more than a mile away in Craster.
 

Dunstanburgh Castle

A lot of fun, but needed more walking. Fortunately the year threw another kink when I made the jaunt down to London with IH & AK for the NFL game at Wembley at the end of October. The day of the game left me with several hours to fill as the kick off wasn't until 5pm and my lunch appointment with my friends wasn't until 2pm (they have relatives in the capital, and can afford a more expensive hotel than I). So I set off for The Monument in the City of London, and climbing the 311 steps of that was exercise enough to qualify as a walk in itself. Enjoying the view from the top, I hatched a plan to see how many of Sir Christopher Wren's churches I could find, without a map and only trusting my sense of direction (which hadn't been in the City of London in at least 15 years). In less than three hours, I managed to find and photograph 20 out of 34, and didn't even get slightly lost. After that, the NFL game, whilst undeniably an experience, is recalled as a bit of an anti-climax and my City tour will linger longer in the memory.

 

Self at St Paul's Cathedral

Christmas time brought the first White Christmas that I can immediatley recall, and snow was braved for festivities in Bolton and for a walk to Darwen Tower, but subsequent visits to my Sister brought less walking and more activities for the girls, both too big to be considered as luggage anymore.

To be continued...