Wendy here again. I’ve blogged my second go at being a support crew over on our team’s blog. Click this clicky link to have a look!
We’re training for Oxfam’s TrailTrekker challenge. Please consider donating at our sponsorship page: http://www.justgiving.com/trailtrekker2013
Greg has given me the keys to his blog so I can post my ramblings while waiting between checkpoints, both on training walks and during the mighty TrailTrekker challenge itself. Here are my notes from yesterday’s walk.
Picked up the walkers at 0600. Arrived in Horton in Ribblesdale at 0745. Very good car park with (paperless but otherwise excellent) loos. Weather chilly with spotty rain. Walkers departed at 0800 after leaving names and start time at the cafe in Horton. Most optimistic estimated time of arrival at first checkpoint is 1030.
My side mission today while the Unstoppable Force (walkers) are walking, is to scope out places to pull the Immovable Object (camper van) off the road so the support crew can sleep, especially during the night-time sections. Drove a loop through Halton Gill, Kettlewell, Buckden (site of TrailTrekker checkpoint 3), Langstrothdale Chase, Gayle, Hawes (where I bought petrol), and back to Horton. Awesome hill past Wether Fell down towards Gayle; wish I had a sports car! Langstrothdale has long stretches of unfenced road – plenty of places to pull up the camper for a few hours’ sleep. Also lots of places on the road between Halton Gill and Hawkswick, but this is beyond checkpoint 3 so we’d be wasting time driving.
Arrived at first checkpoint at High Birkwith at 1025. Weather absolutely filthy – heavy driving rain and quite cold. Parked where the Pennine Way and Ribble Way cross – lots of walkers crossing the road in front of me, and several other cars parked. A group kitted up for caving had arrived just before me and I watched them trudge off into the clouds to start their subterranean adventure.
Waiting for the walkers.
No word from the walkers at 1100. 2-way is on and I have a phone signal. Wish I’d thought to bring a flask – they’ll be wet and cold and a hot drink would have been a morale-booster. May be able to buy one in Settle or Kirby Lonsdale and fill it for the next checkpoint.
1120 – still no word. Weather horrible. Several groups of 4 walkers have gone by; I doubt that’s a coincidence – I expect other teams will be using this as a training walk. Things I’m seeing going past that I think my team will wish they had: waterproof rucksack covers; gaiters; peaked hoods on waterproof coats; one-piece waterproof overalls. A group at the other end of the parking area is clearly doing a checkpoint sort of thing, though perhaps not TrailTrekker training as there are at least 9 walkers. They have hot drinks; the more time goes by the more I wish I’d done the same for my team. Too hung up on having the camper van for the real event to think of simply bringing a flask for training. I was planning to buy hot pies for the second or third checkpoint, but we’ll have to get the timing much better for that to work; though I suppose a lukewarm or cold pie is still a pie!
It’s awfully wet out there.
1130 – unintelligible radio message – they must be close! Time to struggle into my waterproofs.
Team arrived at 11.35 – sodden, shivering, miserable and in unanimous agreement that they should bail out having completed only the first peak, Pen-y-Ghent. The decision was made as they passed a landmark appropriately named Dismal Hill. We Repaired to the Pen-y-Ghent Cafe for cooked breakfasts and pints of tea – a magnificent establishment staffed by friendly and cheerful people who missed their vocation as ministering angels … or maybe they didn’t! At least one other TrailTrekker team had the same idea – we exchanged pleasantries with two members of the Unbelievable Trekkers.
The wreckage after inhaling tea and all-day breakfasts at the Pen-y-ghent Cafe.
While we were in the cafe the weather improved, but the team’s kit was soaked through – catastrophic failure of all four sets of waterproofs – and it would have been foolish to continue, so we drove back to York.
We’re training for Oxfam’s TrailTrekker challenge. Please consider donating at our sponsorship page: http://www.justgiving.com/trailtrekker2013
Today Steve and I decided to tackle the North Worlds Way route, based on one suggested by The Walking Caveman. This walk had a difference, in that Wendy had kindly offered to meet us at two checkpoints to provide us with food, cups of tea and clean socks.
We started off on the A166 and headed north towards Thixendale. The gently rolling hills on each side of the valley provided a nice backdrop to the start of the walk.
Greg in Thixendale
For me, no walk is complete without an ice-cream, so I was very lucky to find a shop in Thixendale, catering mostly to hikers. It took some time to persuade the lady behind the counter that I really did want an ice-cream at nine AM on a chilly Sunday morning, but it was worth the wait. I always like to claim it’s sports nutrition.
After leaving Thixendale we went west along the Chalkland way, before turning south towards Kirby Underdale and our first checkpoint.
This sculpture caught my eye
We wolfed down some pork pies and cheese rolls, refilled our water bottles, then it was off south to Bishop Wilton. This was a fairly undulating path, marked by a lot of tumuli.
Tumulus with Trees
From there we followed the Minster Way, until we got confused in a field of angry cows and ended up having to roll under a barbed wire fence and almost vaulting another before we realised there was a gate. We decided that was the easier option.
Once we stopped laughing at our mistake, it was time to get to our second checkpoint at Millington. We picked up the Minster Way again at Great Givendale.
Church near Great Givendale
Wendy met us in the Rambler’s Rest cafe in Millington. This cafe is a must visit place in the Wolds – their cream tea was one of the best I have ever had.
Fortified by our scones, it was time for the final leg. We followed the Minster Way north till it joined up with the North Wolds Way and hence to the Chalklands Way. This leg was characterised by rather steep ascents and descents, accompanied by increasingly intense rain. It was with some relief that we arrived back at the car after 21 miles of walking.
We are training for the Oxfam TrailTrekker 2013; please consider sponsoring us at http://www.justgiving.com/trailtrekker2013.