So - Will we do it again? Part 1.

Ride2stride, the walking festival I've been eating, sleeping and dreaming about for the last six months, starts tomorrow and it can't come soon enough.

It's a funny old mix of emotions. I'm worried that no-one will come or too many will turn up. I'm anxious that the memories people go home with won't only be of yomping through mud with a gale blowing down their necks, I'm desperate that this damned rain will stop and of course all I really want is that people will leave loving the Western Dales as much as I do. 

People have already started to ask if there'll be a ride2stride again next year so I thought I'd get some thoughts down now BEFORE it all kicks off.

The HIGHS - well the Festival started off as a twinkle seen through the bottom of a glass and the fact the idea survived until the next morning is a miracle.

We sent out a call for support and that first little group who turned up at the Rendevous in Skipton made it all seem real.

Our criteria for going ahead was that we'd have 12 walks, 2 talks and 2 music events over the course of a week. We've ended up with a staggering 25 walks, 3 talks and music every single day in a pub close to the line.

We didn't want to create a new organisation to run the Festival, instead we've got a model that means 14 different groups are involved. Some, like Friends of Settle Carlisle Line, Yorkshire Dales Society and Friends of Dales Rail are contributing loads, other are leading a single walk and the wonderful 3 Peaks Folk Club is putting on all the music.

We've done it all on a shoestring - Northern Rail and FoSCL paid for the printing of the programme and our business Skyware Press designed the programme and set up the website.
We've kept it simple - no booking, fees only where there's room hire to pay for.

We've only had 3 meetings.

The LOWS - We've only had 3 meetings. Much as I hate meetings there have been times when I've felt a bit isolated.

Fourteen different organisations brought with them 14 different points of view and whilst some of us were happy that the programme reflected that there were others who wanted t'committee to have more control.

Changes to a crucial bus timetable means that the walk I was leading from Malham to Settle along the route of A Dales High Way has had to be changed so it's a circular from Settle. Note to self - don't factor in a train AND a bus in future.
The "no booking" means we don't have ANY idea what to expect so when we stand on Settle station tomorrow morning we don't know if there will be 5 people or 500.

More HIGHS than LOWS then so - will we do it again?

Watch this space.

ride2stride

Tony and I are writers with a very small "w".We've written two guides to the Dales High Way long distance walk and last year we worked with Colin Speakman to update his original Dales Way book. Our next project is a book of walks from the Settle-Carlisle railway. It's called Dales Rail Trails and it's due out in January. There - advert over but you need to know the background!

Anyway, one evening about a month ago we were half way down a bottle of red and chatting about the new book.

Him - We'd better think about a book launch

Me  - What about a party?

Him - What about a party on a train?

Me  - With live music

Him - And a walk first

And before we knew it it was sounding like a festival. We dropped the idea of it being a book launch, got some other people involved and there we have it. Ride2stride, the Settle-Carlisle Walking Festival will run from May 1st to May 7th 2012 with walks, talks and music from stations and in pubs along the length of the line.  Aaaah - what have we done. I blame the bottle of red!

Trains and trains and trains

A grand day out on the South Tynedale Railway

Sorry for the long silence - I've been riding the rails.

All good things come in threes and this last couple of weeks I've been to the opening of Kirkby Stephen East station; for a ride on the South Tynedale Narrow-Gauge Railway and up and down (and up and down and up and down...) between Settle and Carlisle with a clipboard asking passengers cheeky questions on behalf of Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line.

And what links all this together - apart from the trains that is - is volunteers. Passionate, dedicated, some might say obsessive people who spend years of their lives putting back what previous governments destroyed - or in the case of the Settle-Carlisle line, came very close to destroying.

The Settle-Carlisle railway has always been part of my life. When I was a little girl the line ran through our farm. As tiny children we thought that the steam that came from the blow-holes in Blea Moor tunnel was dragon's breath and ran screaming every time we heard a train whistle. When we got older woe betide anyone who was late home for dinner - when that 12.10 went over Arten Gill viaduct every kid at the top of Dentdale knew to run home.

My dad feeding sheep above Arten Gill viaduct

Today the Settle-Carlisle line attracts thousands of passengers - commuters, tourists, walkers, mums taking their kids into Carlisle for school shoes - all these and more took part in my survey last week. It may be the most scenic line in Britain and one of the top ten railway journeys in the world but it's also an important part of the rail network, public transport for rural communities and an essential link between the urban centres of Yorkshire and the Western Dales. What other area of walking country is served so well by a mainline train. Get out there and get walking.