Slow but steady

Yesterday I managed 397 steps! I've graduated to one crutch and have gone up and down the stairs upright - first time for 6 weeks. My foot hurts a bit, but not too bad. I'll aim for over 500 steps tomorrow.

Back to square one

Well, it's been a long time since I added to this walking blog, but now seems the right time to continue.
Today I am free of the plaster cast I've been in for the past 5 weeks, since breaking my foot. The advice is to gradually build up to normal walking, so no ambitious targets. I don't suppose I'll even go outside at first, I'm still on crutches and the garden is soft after all the rain.
My plan is to move around the house as much as is comfortable over the rest of the day, and see how my foot feels. I have a few exercises to do which should help with the stiffness. Then I will map out the rest of the week and see how much progress I can make.
Hooray for plaster-free living!

What are other walkers doing?
Multitrackers Pictures of Kent . I met Multitracker on www.walkingforum.co.uk, and his blog led me to:
Kev and Liz's Homepage on Walking Places . They are due some respect!
Me? Not much - my back is hurting, it's raining, I'm working too hard......I think I'll go for a walk!

British Wildlife Nature and the Environment

I found a website, Wild about Britain, that looks as if it will be really useful for identifying wildlife that I see on my walks. There are hundreds of photos submitted by members and an active forum, plus a lot of information. Should be enough to keep me busy for a while! One of the forum sections is about walking. It's one of those sites that is built up by contributions from members, like a Wiki, and you can edit entries if you have something to add. They want people to submit Wild Places at the moment.
My walking is pretty poor at the moment. I have reduced my target steps to 8100, as I couldn't achieve the 11300 that was set for me by Fitbug. I've managed it 4 days out of 7, but still something to aim for! It's difficult when I've only got time for a quick lunch break and it's starting to get dark when I get home from work. I need a different strategy! It's rained all weekend, which hasn't helped. Oh well, the new week starts here!

County Durham Walk
The Derwent Valley is a beautiful wooded area very close to old mining and industrial towns in the North East of England. I walked in Pontburn Woods and on part of the Derwent Walk, which follows the path of a dismantled railway.
Much of Pontburn Woods is owned by the Woodland Trust. I parked on the road near Hamsterley and walked south through mossy green woods, with many oak trees and ferns. There was a small waterfall, but not much water. There are lots of paths through the wood, and I needed my compass to navigate.
Eventually the path emerges on to heathland with spectactular views across to Chopwell Woods, then crosses to a spinney. Each time I came out of the trees there were more ahead to aim for - welcome shade on a very hot day.
The route looped back via a couple of farms and then crosses the road to join the Derwent Walk. The Walk is used by many cyclists and has a good firm surface. The bit I walked on passes over old railway viaducts - I climbed down to the base of one of these, it looked very impressive from below. A seat beside the Walk commemorates a much-loved grandfather - what a good memorial.
I found the walk in an old copy of Country Walking magazine. Some details had changed in the 6 years since it was published, but it was still possible to follow without too much trouble.

The Great Malham Adventure
Malham is in the southern Yorkshire Dales, and is a bit of a Mecca for walkers. Just getting there proved to be an adventure, with Tim from TomTom taking me down roads of ever-decreasing width. I’m now an adept at squeezing into tiny passing places, although the enormous cattle truck whose driver refused to back up was a bit of a problem!
I arrived at Malham at around 11am and found the spacious National Park carpark, where you can park all day for £3. There’s also a gift shop and information centre, and the most important feature – toilets! In the village are pubs, tearooms and a walking gear shop or two.
I was planning to cram 4 famous highlights of the area into my day’s walking, so I set off with a will to follow the Malham Beck along the Pennine Way.










Leaving the Pennine Way, I followed the path to the left towards a wood. This leads to the first beauty spot – Janet’s Foss. These woods have tales of fairies associated with them, and you can see why – all moss-shrouded boulders and darkling pools.
Janet’s Foss itself is a waterfall with plunge pool beneath, where farmers used to wash their sheep. There was not a lot of water as it hasn’t rained much recently, but some of the local “youth” were hopefully fishing in the pool. At least it was cool and shady!

The path after the waterfall soon leads to a road and turning right, I reached an ancient bridge with a catering van parked alongside – nice touch! Round the corner and on the route of my path there was a camping site – not so nice, as the tents got in the way of my attempts at scenic photography!

This path leads to Gordale Scar, an amazing geological feature with tumbled rocks and another waterfall, this time the Gordale Beck. Lots of people make it this far from the road to admire the waterfall, which must be wonderful when more water is around. However, the path continues up the waterfall and onwards. I must admit I quailed a bit when I saw the climb ahead, and sat down to eat my lunch and study the map for an easier way round. There wasn’t one! I watched young, fit people haul themselves up the rockface and older ones struggle to get their feet up high enough to gain the footholds. Oh dear! My short legs were not going to be an advantage here! I sidled up to the foot of the climb and tried a few possible routes up, but couldn’t stretch far enough. A woman around my age was having trouble coming down, and this made me even more determined that I wasn’t going to give up and go back. So I fiddled around for ages, trying this way and that, until at last I saw my way – a series of handholds and footholds that I could manage. Up I went, with not a thought for the fact that usually I shy away from heights and precipices. When I made it to the top of the climb (and to be honest it wasn’t far!), I felt so elated, I just wanted to shout “Yes!” at the top of my voice. Sadly there were no cheers from below.
A stiff climb followed over scree and then steps, to the top of the gorge. Then it was easy, level walking for about a mile to a road. I took a bridleway instead of following the road and made my way to Malham Tarn, where the cows were having a paddle.

After Malham Tarn I re-joined the Pennine Way to make my way to Malham Cove. The path picks its way through massive escarpments and rocky formations on the way, until suddenly the path turns right across the top of the Cove, and a magnificent view opens out in front of you.
The landscape here is sculpted into amazing shapes by the passage of an enormous glacier. It’s an example of a limestone pavement, with deep cracks or grints between the stone where rare plants find a niche.

After pausing for a while to admire the view, I took the path down to the bottom. This consists of rather crumbly steps that wind their way down the edge of the cliff. I met people coming up who had obviously come a different way, because they were wearing high-heeled sandals and carrying handbags – brave souls!

There must have been the most incredible waterfall over the cliff while it was being formed – it must have been comparable to Niagara Falls. There are plants clinging tenuously to ledges, but I don’t know whether anyone tries to scale this one – not me, certainly!
All that remained was a leisurely stroll back to Malham village, downhill all the way. I was thrilled to see a pair of peregrine falcons swooping around and hearing their strange, plaintive cry.
An icecream from the shop made a perfect end to the day. And I’m still feeling smug about my rock-climbing feat!



One thing that I have noticed about my pedometer is that it does not record steps taken when picking your way over very uneven ground, so I think my step count for the day, at 19889, was an underestimate. I noticed the same thing when walking the gorges in Crete. Still not bad though!

The Bourne Adventure
Sunday was dull but warm so I set out on an 8-mile walk starting and ending at Bourne Woods. Although it's only a few miles away, I've never been before. The walk is No.29 from Walk East Midlands from the Ramblers Association. And whoever said that Lincolnshire is flat? This walk had quite a few hilly bits!
The car park at the woods is free and there's a catering van there at the weekends, although I didn't try it. I set off in a westerly direction and walked to Scottlethorpe, a really tiny village. On the way I saw Ivy-leaved Bellflowers on one of the verges - a lovely shade of pale blue. Once again I met an electric fence across the path - why do people feel that they have the right to just stick these up wherever they like? It usually seems to be horsey types.
I continued on to Edenham, where there's a pub that does lunches. I had my picnic with me, so I carried on, looking for a shady place to sit and eat. I ended up by the side of the road in a gateway where the grass was shorter - not very nice!
It seemed a long old haul from here back to the western edge of the woods. It was a relief to get under the trees. The paths are really well maintained and there seem to be lots to explore, so I'll come back another day. There are a number of sculptures placed throughout the wood, but I only spotted three - one broken, one rather nice carved bollard-thing and a living willow maze.
The woods belong to the Forestry Commission and are also looked after by the Friends of Bourne Woods. Apparently there are some ponds which I will visit another day, with kingfishers and herons to be spotted (possibly!). There were lots of families and people with dogs out for a stroll - usually I don't see a soul when I'm out walking. I did feel quite smug to think that I'd walked 20174 steps - well over my target of 9400.