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thousandmilesblogDate of Walk: 23/05/10
Walk organized by: Saddleworth Pedestrians
Start time: 09:30
Start location: Royd Lane Ripponden
Walk length: 8.36 miles
Weather conditions: Sunny, dry, unnecessarily hot
River Ryburn
Details:
Summer is here, the sun is baking hot, and everyone in the world ever is bouncing around happily in next to nothing, going on and on about how gorgeous the weather is and demanding that you agree with them enthusiastically and at length. With suncream applied with a trowel (I had so much on that the flies were sticking to me), a hat and two litres of water in my backpack (that I managed to drink all of on that walk and still be thirsty), I can still barely walk a hundred yards without getting sunburnt and dehydrated, so my enthusiasm for this wonderful weather is somewhat muted. Still, it does make a change from the rain. Even if I'm melting and would really like to just stay at home in the shade and drink things with ice in them. If it wasn't for this, I honestly would have. Hottest day of the year so far and me are not a good pairing.
We started off by heading up Royd Lane and joining a footpath to the right, walking across some farm land. We then went downhill into woodland (lovely, shaded woodland) towards the River Ryburn and crossed this, clambering up a steep bank on the other side and joining a winding path that seemed not to have been used for a while. There were bits of it that were distinctly hairy in a jungle-and-swamp-type way. We probably found the only mud left in the UK that day and some of us nearly lost shoes in it.
After a bit of uncertainty we emerged into farmland and stopped for a break. We then continued through fields and onto a road, passed a golf course and headed up onto the moor, where we stopped for lunch. There was no shade, and it was drainingly hot, so I amused myself watching ants run off with my sandwich crumbs. We crossed the moor, walked along a bit of road and through some farm fields and somebody's garden, where we were shooed off the path back up to more road. Then we made a steep descent down a hill with steps made for giant people and very much not made for my knees, as I discovered when we started to climb the other very steep side. We emerged at the top of the hill, passed a very large country house and walked along a road for a while before turning back towards Ripponden. At some point in Sowerby Bridge we passed a hotel called the Hobbit, with runic writing on the sign and a restaurant called Rivendell. I'm a bit hazy about the order of things really.
It was, in spite of all other things, nice to be back in Calderdale. It was not nice to be so hot while there. I hurt my knee, which still hasn't healed, and I'm quite worried about that. I'm ok with level ground but hills and stairs are a problem at the moment. It was also quite depressing not to be able to keep up at all well, surely everyone else should be a bit affected by the heat, but nobody else seemed to be. Maybe it really is just me who hates this weather.
Ah well, I can probably count on this to be another five minute British Summer anyway. And feel smug when it rains and everyone else is complaining.
Views from near the start of the walk
In the blessedly cool yet quite swampy wooded area near the river
Bluebell in a shaft of sunlight
Morning break stop
Buttercups in the sun
Evil Giraffe
Walk organized by: Saddleworth Pedestrians
Start time: 09:30
Start location: Royd Lane Ripponden
Walk length: 8.36 miles
Weather conditions: Sunny, dry, unnecessarily hot
River Ryburn
Details:
Summer is here, the sun is baking hot, and everyone in the world ever is bouncing around happily in next to nothing, going on and on about how gorgeous the weather is and demanding that you agree with them enthusiastically and at length. With suncream applied with a trowel (I had so much on that the flies were sticking to me), a hat and two litres of water in my backpack (that I managed to drink all of on that walk and still be thirsty), I can still barely walk a hundred yards without getting sunburnt and dehydrated, so my enthusiasm for this wonderful weather is somewhat muted. Still, it does make a change from the rain. Even if I'm melting and would really like to just stay at home in the shade and drink things with ice in them. If it wasn't for this, I honestly would have. Hottest day of the year so far and me are not a good pairing.
We started off by heading up Royd Lane and joining a footpath to the right, walking across some farm land. We then went downhill into woodland (lovely, shaded woodland) towards the River Ryburn and crossed this, clambering up a steep bank on the other side and joining a winding path that seemed not to have been used for a while. There were bits of it that were distinctly hairy in a jungle-and-swamp-type way. We probably found the only mud left in the UK that day and some of us nearly lost shoes in it.
After a bit of uncertainty we emerged into farmland and stopped for a break. We then continued through fields and onto a road, passed a golf course and headed up onto the moor, where we stopped for lunch. There was no shade, and it was drainingly hot, so I amused myself watching ants run off with my sandwich crumbs. We crossed the moor, walked along a bit of road and through some farm fields and somebody's garden, where we were shooed off the path back up to more road. Then we made a steep descent down a hill with steps made for giant people and very much not made for my knees, as I discovered when we started to climb the other very steep side. We emerged at the top of the hill, passed a very large country house and walked along a road for a while before turning back towards Ripponden. At some point in Sowerby Bridge we passed a hotel called the Hobbit, with runic writing on the sign and a restaurant called Rivendell. I'm a bit hazy about the order of things really.
It was, in spite of all other things, nice to be back in Calderdale. It was not nice to be so hot while there. I hurt my knee, which still hasn't healed, and I'm quite worried about that. I'm ok with level ground but hills and stairs are a problem at the moment. It was also quite depressing not to be able to keep up at all well, surely everyone else should be a bit affected by the heat, but nobody else seemed to be. Maybe it really is just me who hates this weather.
Ah well, I can probably count on this to be another five minute British Summer anyway. And feel smug when it rains and everyone else is complaining.
Views from near the start of the walk
In the blessedly cool yet quite swampy wooded area near the river
Bluebell in a shaft of sunlight
Morning break stop
Buttercups in the sun
Evil Giraffe
