Last lawn mowing of the year

Yes it is silly season! It's time for a non-event on the blog. But quite a satisfying non-event.

In early autumn I had intended to cut the grass one last time, but for a combination of other things to do and the weather it never happened. An although I thought the garden looked annoyingly messy, I was resigned to it staying that way until grass cutting would restart in spring. But the day after I came back from the hike it was dry weather. So I saw a chance!

My garden looks a lot better again! I am quite chuffed this opportunity presented itself. I’m sure that’s it for the rest of the year now! It’s November; growing season is over… 

Before

After

Swamp hike 2024

After teaching, I set off to the Peak District for the annual Swamp hike. There was congestion near Manchester. There was a fuel stop that required a bigger detour than I expected on the basis of what my satnav was telling me. And there were very slow, very big tractors on the small roads near Edale. But I got there. Even though it took me almost 4 hours. 

My friends were already in the pub. And this was a literal stone’s throw from the campsite they had booked. There was absolutely no parking space by the pub, but one of my friends came out and showed me where to park on the campsite itself. And then I could join them. I could do with a pint after a busy teaching day and a gruelling drive!

There were only four of us; some of the regulars couldn't make it. But we had Roelof, Viking and Sleutel. When I realised that, I was wondering if that would cause trouble; they are all a foot taller than me, so it was turning into the tale of the sausage dog and the three Dobermans. Uphill all would be well; but on the flat, and downhill, I might struggle to keep up. But that was a worry for later. Now it was just time for being glad to see each other, have a pint, and have a pub meal.

The pub

Not hiking food

After the meal I pitched my tent, and we all brushed our teeth and went to bed. And from our tents, we could all hear the wind pick up quite considerably.

The next morning that wind was still strong. Not ideal! And given that we were in a village anyway, we thought we might not bother with camping stoves in high winds, but try to find coffee elsewhere. When I was trying to park my car somewhere in the area I noticed that the café of the station was open from 8 am. We went there! And had a great start of the day.

On the campsite 

When that was done I just paid for my car to stay at the campsite for another night. And then we were off! In the sun but also the heavy wind. The path was clear and well-maintained. Initially, we would first head south so we could go over Rushup Edge, but in these winds, none of us wanted to be on top of a ridge. We headed straight for the Pennine Way, which would take us over the Jacob’s Ladder to the edge of Kinder Scout. A beautiful route, going from bucolic to bleak. And surprise surprise, when we got to the top of Jacob's Ladder, it was again so windy it wasn't fun anymore. So instead of turning right onto Kinder Scout proper, we went straight ahead and headed for the reservoir on the other side. That was much better! And we had lunch with a view over the reservoir. 

It started sunny

Sunny but windy! And with clouds approaching 

Jacob’s Ladder

Reaching the ridge, Viking clearly struggling to stay upright 

Proper swampy terrain

View from the lunch spot

By then the wind had abated, so we headed for William’s Clough, which would again get us to the edge of Kinder Scout. By this time that was fine, but daylight would soon fade. We looked at a little saddle underneath the ridge, and decided that might be a good spot. We first stocked up on water and then we headed there. It was fine camping spot! A bit misty, but that was atmospheric.

In the Clough

Hike selfie: Roelof, Sleutel, Viking and me

It was still early, so we first had a beer. The men had carried actual beer all this way! And then Roelof cooked his famed butter chicken (with fake chicken) in the dark. The pan fell over and some of the sauce and ended up in the grass, but it was still a fab meal! Even festooned with some fireworks down in the valley, although these were tiny from that distance. And shortly after that we all went to bed.

Relaxing with beer

Butter (not) chicken! 

My tent was comfortable, but my sleep was disturbed. Some unidentified creature crawled into my ear. I hate that! It's not the first time that happened to me. I think it got out because at some point I couldn't feel it anymore. And from then on I had a nice night.

The next morning the mist was back. I had breakfast with my leftover lunch; my breakfast would last! The lunch needed to be eaten now or never. And we agreed on a route back. Initially, the idea had been to go back to Roelof’s car, but we could just as well go back to mine. It was a lot easier to find a nice route to there. We agreed to go up to Kinder Scout, traverse it, and go down through Grindsbrook Clough. 

Our little tents in the morning when i got up 

Two curious sheep appeared, and made short thrift of the food spillage of last night. They liked butter chicken as well! And then we were off. Soon we were on the edge, where it was very atmospheric, and very quiet.

On our way to the plateau

Brief appearance of the sun

Amazing outcrop

 

We got to Kinder Downfall, and there headed to the interior of the platform. That meant the going suddenly wasn't as comfortable anymore! On the edge, the path is clear and firm and wide. But now we were heading into a peat landscape, transected by endlessly many streams, cut into the slippery subsurface. The path wasn't always obvious. We really relied now on navigation with phones! In no time it gets very difficult to navigate by map when you leave the edge. And we were moving really slowly. All these gullies we had to descend into, and then climb out of, complicated things. And Roelof had a stomach ache and was struggling. 

The landscape on the platform 

We were glad when we got back to the edge, where there again was a clear and solid path! It's also very busy. But that was OK. We followed the path until we got to the ravine that carried Grinds Brook to Edale. And that was basically a scramble! In the beginning, at least. We were moving slowly again. But then the path got smooth again, and we could march back to the pub. 

Descending the misty but busy gulley

Further down it looks more hospitable 

We decided to first have pub lunch there, and only then do the logistics. And that was the right call. Roelof had suggested we take my car to get his, bring it to Edale, and then redistribute. But we checked just how long that would take, and reconsidered. We’d just all pile into my little Corsa, bags and all, and go back to where Roelof had parked up. And that is indeed how the adventure ended! It had been short for me, but worth every second. I wouldn’t mind doing some more Peaks next year!

 

Back where it started! 

Getting ready for the swamp hike

Technically, I was only getting ready for half a swamp hike! Me and my Dutch hiking friends try to have an autumn hike every year, but every year we run into trouble as some of us have less flexible working conditions than others. In autumn, we at Bangor University have a reading week, in which we don't teach, but that is never in the same week as autumn holidays in the Netherlands. One of my Dutch hiking friends also works in education. This year, it had been a bit of compromise; they would arrive in Britain on Wednesday morning, and I would join them on Thursday early evening. I had Thursday teaching I really couldn't move. But I had managed to keep the Friday clear.

I had a fair amount of teaching that week I needed to get through, and I was also behind because I had spent so much time on the dissertation module. I had been working evenings. And when I finally was caught up with the teaching, I needed to pack, of course. 

We also had a little route planning meeting (which I attended online). We had agreed earlier on that we would try the Peak District. None of us had been there before, it was rumoured to be very beautiful, and it was quite conveniently located between the ferry port in Hull, and Bangor. And we knew it could get very busy, but we figured that in November, that wouldn't be a huge issue. So it sounded like a decent choice! But it is a rather large area; the first decision we had to make was whether we would do Dark Peak or White Peak, whatever that meant. But they have separate maps.

Given that we were starting out with two full-size double sided maps, it started a bit awkward. Additionally, I have a cat who thinks maps are cat toys. But in spite of all that we decided fairly soon to stick with Dark Peak. And have Edale as the meeting point.  It is difficult to follow what someone is doing if they are looking at a map you can't see, but I think we made it work. The men would Park up at Snake Road, and spend a day and a half walking to Edale. There I would meet them, and then we would spend another day and a half walking back to Snake Road. Sorted. 

Two evenings in advance I had already gathered a lot of the stuff I wanted to bring. And the day after I bought the last snacks. And having prepared was good, because the evening before I had a splitting headache and I was very tired. I went to bed early. And the next morning I needed to finalise the packing. There are always things you can only pack at the last minute because you still need them before you leave. And I didn't have bucketloads of time to spare, so it didn't go flawlessly, but I arrived for my teaching on time, and with my backpack ready in the boot of the car. With most things in it. 

On the day I had a practical session, and I as soon as that would finish I would just jump into the car in my teaching outfit. I had my hiking clothes ready. And when I would get to Edale, where we would meet, I could just pitch my tent, change my clothes, and blend into this year's Swamp hike edition.

Luckily the forecast was very cloudy but not rainy. I still packed my best waterproofs, but hoped I wouldn't need them. 

Things went as planned. The practical session ended at 3 pm. And six minutes later I texted the men I was on my way. Peak District, here I come!

High speed lecture updates

I had felt my glaciology lecture series needed an update for a while. And there even had been mention of that in the student evaluations. So it was time to get my skates on! The time to do that is in summer. 

Summer came and went and I didn’t get around to it. So then it had to be done during term itself. But term got completely swamped by dissertation topic proposals. It started to get tight! 

It is fun to do. One of the things I do is illustrating concepts with recent literature. And there is so much interesting stuff out there! But I had to hurry up. I spent some evenings in my home office. And I got quite knackered. 

Now it will be Reading Week soon, in which we don’t teach. I will make sure to dedicate a fair amount of time to making some good progress on that!

The Aletsch glacier, which features in the lectures

Resorting to the mountain bike

Two days after seriously displeasing my ankle on the Llanberis hills I didn't want to run yet. Not even a short run. But I also did not want to turn into a complete potato. So it was time to get my old creaky mountain bike out of the garage! I am never quite as keen on that as I am on running. But it's the best I currently have.

I did a variation of my standard loop. It is not very long! And it is only 260 m up. That is a lot less than my commute, which is 420 m up. But then again, my commute is on the road, on a faster bike, and even then it tends to take me 1.5 hours. I did not want to spend that amount of time on it today.

It was beautiful weather and it went well. So it's something! And I am still doing my ankle exercises. I hope I can be back in these hills on my feet soon!