Me and our Tussock

Heaven on Earth

We drove up the dale and then over to Arncliffe in Littondale today. I love Wharfedale but Littondale is at least as beautiful, and generally gets far fewer visitors. We walked around 10 miles including crossing the watershed twice, had lunch at the splendid West Winds tearooms in Buckden and nipped into the Falcon for a pint when we had finished. The heather is in full bloom at the moment. All together a splendid day out 

One man and his vizsla

Stef took this photo on the Saturday of our weekend up above Halton Gill. I'm about to go out for a run shortly with the Addingham Old Boys in the rain; I doubt we'll see any snow (or blue skies) today

Weekend in Littondale - the Falcon II

Weekend in Littondale - the Falcon I

We spent the weekend at the Falcon at Arncliffe, Littondale . Hospitality and food were outstanding.  Littondale is a great favourite of mine. It might possibly be even better than Wharfdale! 

Last weekend

Wales and dales

We managed three runs over the extended weekend (we'd booked Friday off work for Stef's postponed BG). On Friday we had a relatively fast run over our favourite 'four climbs' route between Upper Wharfedale and Littondale. We did our best ever time for this and celebrated with soup and a sandwich afterwards in Zarina's. On Saturday we had a steady run / walk around the LDWA Walden route with Martyn and Helen (23 miles / 4,500 feet climb) in 'mixed' weather conditions, and on Sunday we went over to Liverpool to meet Yiannis for a run out near Llangollen in North Wales.This was the first time I'd been in the area for far too long and as me and Stef were approaching the car after a really good outing we spotted a male hen harrier! A further treat was the wonderful roast beef dinner followed by apple pie and ice-cream that Yiannis' wife Cath provided for us on our return. All in all a most splendid weekend and a good return to some proper training after a few lazy weeks on my part. Totals for weekend were approaching 45 miles and 11,000 feet climb 

Snowy Dales weekend

Stef and I were going to go to the Lakes last weekend for some BG training but the weather forecast put us off so we spent the weekend a bit closer to home in Kettlewell. We stayed (and ate twice) at Zarina's and we were made very welcome. We managed to get out on the hill both Saturday and Sunday but the snow drifts and strong (and bitterly cold!) wind made movement slow

Spring migration seems to be limited to oystercatcher and curlew at present. I've still not seen a wheatear but on Sunday afternoon we spotted a ring ouzel close to where we saw one last autumn in Littondale. There are a lot of curlew in Wharfedale now but at the weekend they were huddled together and dispersion for breeding looked to be the last thing on their minds

Afternoon up the dale

I managed to secure a half day holiday at short notice yesterday so around lunch-time went up to Kettlewell with Stef to do a long hilly run. We started off by climbing Great Whernside by the fell race route past Hag Dyke. There was a decent amount of snow on the top but we got up (not a lot of running to be be honest) and back down (all ran) okay. After nipping in the tea shop to buy fruit cake it was over the hill into Arncliffe (in Littondale), back into Wharfedale at Starbotton and then back the way we went into Kettlewell by reversing the two climbs and descents

The route sounds contrived but is much more 'organic' when you're doing it than you might think. On the tops above the two dales there was fairly heavy snow, which was settling nicely above around 1,200 feet and conditions were 'interesting' at times. The run totalled about 15 miles with 5,500 feet of climb and we were moving for a bit under 5 hours

On the way home we called at the Craven Arms at Appletreewick and met a nice couple there who have friends who'd done, among other things, the West Highland Way race, the Fellsman and a BG. It was a great way to round off a memorable  afternoon and evening