Hiking
Two contrasting postcards from the first weekend in summer at Villard de Lans in the Vercors region of France.
We hiked to the hike to the Col Vert (1760m) on a blustery day. Starting off from Villard de Lans (1050m), our choice of paths took us up through forests of a variety of pine trees. Above the tree line the heat of the midday sun and the violent winds made themselves known but the skies stayed clear.
The Col Vert is a craggy limestone window with a precipitous view through to the valley of the river Gresse 1000m below, which meets with the river Isère at Grenoble.
A fine but windy sunset and then the weather all changed for the first day of summer, see below:-
Some pictures from The Lake District as spring arrives: a trek up Grizedale where the snow is still on the summit and a hike from Aira Force to Patterdale along the banks of Ullswater. We also saw an Osprey on our hike up to Dodds Summit.
Sunday afternoon just enjoying wandering around Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath... one of south-west London’s places for running the hills, running the dog, washing the dog off in the pond after running through the mud with the dog, or walking your pack of Bernese Mountain dogs with their friends.
A little heat in the sunshine so no longer the bleak mid-winter; no sign yet green shoots but lots of fine detail in the woodland silhouette and a surprising amount of colour.
Note also the anarchists’ tree house...
Postcard of my pictures of a circuit of England's fourth highest peak, Skiddaw (931 m). Up from Millbeck, on a sparkling winter's morning; Carlside Tarn was frozen hard and the path upwards was slippery with a sharp wind from the west. My thermometer read -5°C on the summit ridge.
Skiddaw Man and Little Skiddaw Man were busy and the view over towards Lonscale Fell was cracking. The Lakeland peaks were all clear but I couldn't make out Snaefell on the Isle of Man.
Down to Latrigg saddle and then a back route home.
Postcard of my photos of our hike on Caldbeck Fells to High Pike (658m) & Roughton Gill; the dawn was a bit late but the day gave us fine weather, even in November!
Roughton Gill tumbles through some disused iron and lead mines and runs down to feed in to the River Caldew, which passes through Carlisle..
There are some quaint local names nearby on Uldale Fells above the village of Longlands, which the short November day didn't allow us to visit: Willy Knott, Great Cockup (536m) and its neighbour Little Cockup. The names have more to do with local dialect of the Old English language than failures in mining project management.
Language niceties aside, this is where the bleak topography of the northern Lakes fells melds in to the Scottish Borders, with Carlisle, Hadrian's Wall and the Solway Firth marking the border.
Roughton Gill was also laid out for Cumberland County Motor Cycle Club Memorial Trial at Fellside, 2011. No time on this trip either to come back on the Sunday to watch the bikes running through the Gill. There's a link to their club site on my motorbiking links page
