Saddleworth

The forecast was for rain all over the country this weekend and if we weren't still waiting to move into our new house we'd have stayed at home in the warm and dry but we thought we'd attempt a walk anyway.

We decided to head over to Saddleworth area and hopefully attempt a couple of walks.

We set off on the Wriggle@Diggle series and after a very short distance we were battling with heavy rain and high winds, it really wasn't pleasant, the views were amazing so we were keen to press on but the walk became hard going so we headed back to the van for coffee and shortbread - yum yum.

We'd spotted an old cache from 2002 along the Pennine Way on Standedge and as it looked a fairly straightforward there-and-back walk of about 3 miles we decided to go for that instead.

Bagging a trigpoint along the way.

Hard to stand upright on the Dinner Stone

We then made our way back to the van as we'd had enough of being blown around by this point.

There were a set of Adventure Labs we were keen to do on Pule Hill so we parked up and waited for a gap in the torrential rain, eventually the rain slowed down and we attempted the walk but soon gave up as we the rain came down even heavier.  We're not normally put off by a bit of rain but this was crazy!

So we headed down into Dobcross for a walk around doing the Adventure Labs there.  At least we could use an umbrella to stay dry as it was less windy on lower ground.

Star Wars Postbox topper

SUNDAY

Up bright and early to the sound of rain - doh.

Luckily by the time we'd had our breakfast the rain had stopped and we were able to enjoy a walk along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal from Marsden to Linthwaite and back, a walk of about 6 or 7 miles including a couple of detours. We did the set of Adventure Labs plus a few other caches, including one we'd DNF'd a couple of years ago.

Standedge Tunnel - Britain's longest canal tunnel!

It's hard to believe it's the same weekend but the weather is a complete change from yesterday so mid-afternoon we headed back to Pule Hill to do the Adventure Labs there.

And there we go, another weekend over too quickly.

Thanks for reading.

Redbrick

SATURDAY

The forecast for this weekend was for a wet start to Saturday so we decided to take a trip over to Redbrick Mill to have a look at dining tables and lighting - not very exciting but ideal for a wet Saturday morning.

Luckily by the time we left the shop and had a coffee in the van the rain stopped and the sun came out so we headed over to Crow Nest park in Dewsbury to do a set of Adventure labs.

The autumn colour was stunning against the backdrop of a beautiful blue sky.

After this we headed to Oakwell Country Park for another set of Adventure labs.   

Oakwell Hall

I recognised the hall as soon as we walked up to it.  We visited a few years ago, 2015 I think it was, it was almost dark then so it was good to come back today for a longer walk in the sunshine.

Then once it was dark we headed to Ikea to check out the dining tables (exciting stuff).

SUNDAY

Up early and it's raining heavily.  We'd planned to find a few caches along the canal near Rodley but as the weather was so awful we had a much shorter walk before heading back to the van.

Beautiful autumn colour

We drove over to Kirkstall Abbey and waited for the rain to stop......  It didn't so we continued with our plan to do the set of Lab Caches.

Kirkstall Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery north west of Leeds city centre.  It was founded circa 1152 and was disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.  The abbey is in a public park and is free to enter.  We were considering heading home as we were getting a bit tired of dodging torrential rain showers when the rain stopped and the sun came out! Whoo hoo!  So we headed over to Beckett University Headingly Campus for a set of adventure labs  We extended our walk by finding a few caches too.

We'd planned to head into Leeds city centre for the rest of the afternoon but the weather took a turn for the worst again so we decided to head home via an old cache from 2002 called Maerwens Choice.

All too soon we had to head home and the end of another weekend.

Thanks for reading.

A Weekend in Bowness on Windermere

It's been quite a while since we were up in the Lakes.  The intention was to get a few more weekends in at the end of the summer for SUPing but Charlie injured his paw and he had to stay out of water so hopefully I can get a few days in before the Spring.  The forecast was for rain this weekend so we decided to plan a couple of low-level walks around Windermere.

We started the day with a walk up to Orrest Head.  Orrest Head is the first fell that Alfred Wainwright climbed and is the subject of a chapter of the book Wainwright's Outlying Fells of Lakeland.

A stone at the summit names the key visible fells from here which include Old Man of Coniston, Scafell Pike, Great Gable and the Langdale Pikes.

Orrest Head summit is accessed via a reinstated Victorian carriageway and has been adopted recently by the Lake District National Park as its 50th 'Miles Without Stiles' route which makes is suitable for puschairs and off-road mobility scooters.  You can read more about the Miles Without Stiles routes here >>

After that we headed down into Bowness to get some pies and continue our walk.

The pictures speak for themselves, the walk was stunning with all the autumn colour and fungi.

SUNDAY

The weather hadn't improved overnight, still drizzly and wet but we made the most of it an enjoyed a walk at Cockshott Point first thing to do a set of Adventure Labs.

We repositioned the van after this for a walk on Brant Fell.  It's a walk we've been on before but there was a new cache there so we thought we go up there again as it's such a pleasant walk with fab views.

We stopped off in Kendal on our way home for a very wet walk doing a set of Adventure Labs that weren't there on our last visit there.

Kendal Castle