Shout it from the Roof Tops

I love Can-Do people.  People who get an idea and run with it without stopping to write strategy documents or call meetings or develop policy. People whose enthusiasm takes everyone they meet along with them, whose smile draws the doubters in and whose upbeat message infects us all. 

I met someone like that this week. His name is Cameron Gordon and he's had the brilliant idea of promoting the North Pennines as "The Roof of England". It's a clever way to market a beautiful, remote part of the country that is often overlooked, surrounded as it is by the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors and Scotland. 

The North Pennines is already a designated area of outstanding natural beauty but that doesn't exactly trip off the tongue does it:

"Where shall we go for the weekend? - the Yorkshire Dales? the Lake District? Oh I know, what about the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

But "Let's go to the Roof of England" - now that does have a ring to it.

The name has already been taken up by cyclists who love the quiet open roads, the swooping hills and killer climbs. The B&B's and cafes are starting to use it and when Cameron talks passionately about the simplicity of it you can see the nods and smiles in the audience.

For walkers the area is a joy. Wild and remote you can spend all day with only the curlews for company. 

Ettersgill Common

The landscape is dotted with the remains of a rich industrial heritage, lead mining and iron ore extraction were prevalent in the mid 1800's, and much more can be done to help visitors understand and appreciate the history and culture of this region.

Sikehead Lead Mines

Bolts Law Engine

Bolts Law today

One of the best ways to explore the Roof of England is on foot - well I would say this wouldn't I. Take a train on the Settle Carlisle line to Appleby then a short 3 mile walk to Dufton where you can join the Pennine Way. Climb out of the lush Eden Valley and onto the Roof where the next 20 miles will take you over Dufton Pike, Great Dun Fell, Cross Fell and on to Alston. Spend the next day in South Tynedale before reaching Hadrian's Wall and train links home.
 

Cross Fell

It's a great way to spend a long weekend. Away from it all in the Land of the Natural High.

Save the Date



Setting off on the first walk of Ride2stride 2012

It's just a year since half a dozen of us met in a pub in Skipton to talk about whether there was any point in trying to organise a walking festival along the Settle Carlisle Railway Line. The Western Dales are great walking country, dominated by the Three Peaks and very accessible by train from both Leeds and Carlisle. We decided it must be worth having a go and Ride2stride was born.




Walkers stripping off when the sun came out this year (yes - it did!).

 

Tomorrow the same six are meeting again (this time in Settle) and what a difference a year makes.

No more shall we/shan't we, can we/can't we, will anyone even come?

We know Ride2stride 2012 worked - pretty well really considering it was our first go at it. One or two walks were poorly attended, one or two groups had to leg it to catch connecting trains or buses. A train broke down, a bus timetable changed at the last minute but overall we were pretty happy with the results. Happy enough to have another go.

Ride2stride 2013 is taking place from Tuesday April 30 to Monday May 6.

The programme is coming together nicely and highlights include:

Tuesday April 30

A chance to experience Ribblesdale's industrial and farming heritage with a 6 mile circular walk from Settle, led by Colin Speakman and visiting the Hoffmann kiln and Tom Lord's working hill farm at Lower Winskill.

 

For the more energetic there's a 10 mile circular walk, also from Settle, returning via Giggleswick Common.

Musicians playing in the Station Inn at Ribblehead last year.

Both walks return to Settle station then go on to Giggleswick where there's live music in the Craven Arms from 4pm.

Wednesday May 1

Two great circular walks from Appleby station, a 10 miler along the riverside to Rutter Force and a strenuous 14 mile climb up to High Cup Nick which includes some boulder scrambling. Back to the Midland Hotel next to Appleby station for more live music.

Rutter Force - the upside of all the rain.

Thursday May 2

Repeating last year's popular combo Dr David Johnson, Chairman of Ingleborough Archaeology Group and well respected archaeologist will lead a walk into Crummack Dale followed by a talk in the evening on the archaeology of Malham Moor.

Last year's archaeology walk.

Friday May 3

The great Bill Mitchell, who for many years edited the Dalesman, will give a talk called "Thunder in the Mountains" which tells the story of the building of Ribblehead Viaduct. Anyone wanting to visit the site of the shanty town around the viaduct can do so on guided tours on Wed May 1 and Mon May 6.

Needs no introduction.

For walkers there are 2 walks from Garsdale to Hawes, a strenuous 10 miles and a moderate 6 miles. Both return to Garsdale station by bus.

Saturday May 4

Saturday is gearing up to be very busy with  5 walks planned so far including a very strenuous 19 mile circular from Settle to Malham and back led by the Long Distance Walkers Association. Expect a fast pace.

A gentler option is a 7 mile walk from Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Ribblehead where there's music in the Station Inn till midnight.

Sunday May 5

There's a climb up Pen-y-ghent and a riverside walk from Settle to Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Tonight's music is in the Crown in Horton.

Monday May 6

The last day. Two nice walks planned for today - an eleven mile circular from Settle via 3 waterfalls and a gentler stroll around Settle and Giggleswick following in the footsteps of the composer Elgar.

This is just a taste - there's likely to be over 30 events in all and they're still coming in. There's a draft programme of what's on so far at www.ride2stride.org.uk

In the meantime follow us on facebook at www.facebook.com/Ride2stride and please tell your friends.

So - Will we do it again? Part 2

The quick answer is maybe, possibly, I think so, probably, yes!!

The Ride2stride Festival went better than we could have dreamed of.

Me stood on a bench trying to get a bit of 'ush

When I arrived on Settle station that first morning there were already walkers milling about and an intrepid bunch of singers huddled together for warmth in the waiting room. The train came in - bang on time - and off they poured. Young and old - ok mostly old (er) it was a working day after all, male and female, some with sticks and some with dogs and all of them there for Ride2stride. The singers came out of the warmth and gave us a rousing chorus of "Raindrops keep falling on my head" and off we went. 

Looking for waterfalls

One walk set off to search for waterfalls and the other to head for Elaine's tearoom at Feizor. I was backmarker with the second group and within half an hour had learned my first big lesson of the week. The word "Easy" means different things to different people. In a programme that included a treck over Mallerstang and a 16 mile ascent of Whernside some of us thought that 7.5 miles with a tearoom pretty much qualified as "Easy". To anyone not familiar with the limestone countryside around Settle that first clamber out of Stackhouse could have been the north face of the Eiger.

Second big lesson of the week was that a little more direction to walk organisers WOULD have been a good thing. Ok, I was wrong, I admit it. The walks that followed a very simple pattern - meet at station x off train y and walk to z all worked incredibly well with good numbers and hardly any hiccups (sorry everyone who was on the train that broke down and had their walk delayed by hours). The walks with more complex arrangements of buses and trains or meeting to catch trains to walk back to the number you first thought of were less well attended.

Music at Ribblehead

The music in the pubs was wonderful and turned the whole week into a Festival instead of just a list of walks. Lesson number 3 - make sure that the musicians aren't heading for their break just as the walkers arrive in the pub!

An archeological walk around Ingleborough

What else - well the talks were lively and well attended. The linked events - a walk during the day to look at something followed by a talk about it worked really well - even if one of the walk leaders did spend a bit TOO long looking with the result that his group had to jog the last mile for their train (see what I mean about a bit of direction for walk leaders). The weather improved as the week went on and as you can see we were in fine form by Sunday.

Resting in the sun

Finally the people - walkers came from all over including New Zealand, USA and Stoke on Trent. People stayed in cottages and pubs, in B&Bs and hotels and as the week went on we all began to recognise each other as we met on different walks.

So - will we do it again? It's a big question. Ride2stride is either a one-off or it's an annual event so saying yes to will we do it again is actually saying yes to a lifetime of Settle-Carlisle Walking Festivals. My feeling is that it IS worth making it an annual event but in order to do so we need a little bit more structure and a few more people involved with the organising. Any volunteers? We're meeting on Friday to have a chat about it so I'll let you know.