RUMBLINGS…

The programme for the 2011 South Pennines Walk & Ride Festival is now available, as a printed leaflet, a PDF download or to view on the festival website at www.walkandridefestival.co.uk

With more than 120 events, this is our biggest annual celebration of the outdoors yet – so big, in fact, that to glean the full details of every event you’ll need to be sure to check the individual event pages on the website. In fact, there are even more events on the website than we could fit into the printed programme!

Despite our best efforts the South Pennines remains something of an undiscovered jewel in the north of England, offering cracking routes for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Perhaps it’s because two National Parks butt up to our boundary, distracting oiutdoors folks. The area might not have such a prestigious designatio, but it does have just as much to offer the discerning outdoors-goer!

The festival will run over two weeks, between September 10 and 25. A special launch weekend in Marsden hosted by the town’s Walkers Are Welcome group will offer a feast of guided walks and other events, including a Roman soldier-led adventure on to Marsden Moor, storytelling, boatlegging, a lengthy National Trust-led walk on to the moor, cream teas, slide shows and more.

This year’s festival features a strong food an drink theme, with many walks and cycle rides visiting terrific South Pennines pubs, cafes, breweries, bakeries and more to give visitors a real taste of the area – did you know that there’s a vineyard in the Holme Valley? That you can enjoy a brew in Compo’s cafe in Summer Wine Country? And even forage for your own wild food on a couple of events.

The South Pennines is rich in industrial history – this is where the heart of the Industrial Revolution was in the 17th and 18th centuries, and secretive wooded valleys hereabouts hide the romantic ruins of long-quiet mills and ancient causeways while the high moors offer terrific riding and walking opportunities on ancient pack horse tracks.

Other key events during festival fortnight will include the first Calderdale Cycling Festival, put together by the area’s tourism unit and CTC Calderdale, and a series of fundraising events for the Sue Rider Manorlands hospice near Oxenhope.

For further information help yourself to a copy of the programme by clicking the link below:

wr-fest-programme-low-res.pdf

Copies can be found in tourist information centres, railway stations, libraries, outdoor shops, council offices and more, in and around the South Pennines.

Visit the festival website at www.walkandridefestival.co.uk

The latest edition of Outdoor Focus has just rolled off the presses at Carnmor Print and I reckon it’s one of the best issues we’ve put together yet.

Yes, as editor I’m a little biased but – with the content consisting mostly of winning submissions from the guild’s annual Awards for Excellence – it is a step above even the usual high standard.

Paid-up members of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, of course, receive a printed edition through their letterboxes every quarter.

Click on the embedded taster to be taken to the Yudu page for a the full course.

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Seems like this is almost a follow-up to my last blog rant, about the Scottish government’s inability to see the harm that the erection of dozens of useless turbines in wild areas will cause to the environment, the tourist industry and just about everything else that Scotland has going for it.

One of the other great environmental insults to Scotland’s wild treasure’s is being inflicted in the name of another big business – golf. You probably know that American dollar collector Donald Trump is creating a luxurious golf courses among otherwise unspoiled sand dunes at Menie, just north of Balmedie on the north east coast.

This only a few short miles away from where I finished one of my early TGO Challenge backpacking expeditions across Scotland – two weeks to walk across what it’d take Trump a few minutes to fly across in his private jet, and seemingly even less time to convince the Scottish government that he should be allowed to trash the area.

I chose the location of my finish point – Forvie Kirk – because it’s a peaceful, unspoiled spot, one where I could reflect on the fortnight among the wildness before heading back to work.
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I love Scotland’s wild backcountry landscape. During my 13 years on TGO Magazine I spent many weekends and weeks (yes, and midweeks) backpacking and hillwalking around the country.

Since moving back to Yorkshire I’ve realised just how much I miss those wide, wide open spaces. Yes, Yorkshire is the most beautiful county on Earth but while it has rolling moors, iconic hills and moors that sometimes seem to spread to the horizon, it doesn’t have that unbound feel that Scotland has.

If you follow this occasional blog you’ll know that I’m a regular on the TGO Challenge – having done ten, for better or worse I’m classed as a leg-end.

More than anything else, it’s through those TGO Challenge coast-to-coast backpacks that I’ve come to discover my favourite parts of that country. One of those favourite places is the Monadhliath Mountains and it ranks among my favourite places in the world.

Resident of the Monadhliath

When I first crossed their wilder stretches during my second, 1997 crossing, I saw them as a Peak District on acid: a similar expanse of wild peaty uplands, only vastly larger in scale, with mountains, deep valleys, wild rivers. The richness and abundance of wildlife there was on a scale I’d not experienced in the British Isles before: harrier, eagle, mountain hare, red deer, lizard, adder…

I’ve passed through the Monadhliath on all my Challenge crossings since then. Perhaps because of its relative lack of 3000ft mountains, the Monadhliath attracts far fewer visitors that the neighbouring Cairngorms. As a result, it offers a much greater sense of wilderness, remoteness, solitude. A tent pitched in the Monadhliath is unlikely to attract company and the experience is all the richer because of that (unless you’re then on a certain week in May, of course, when one or two folk might pop over to share a hip flask - yours! – in which case it’s a rich experience of a different nature).

Burn hopping in the Monadhliath

For years I’ve promised myself a solo trip there during which I’ll walk only a few hundred yards each day, just following one of those lazy burns that slice tunnels through the peat, camping by still, dark pools and watching the wildlife go by.

Looks like it’s going to have to be this summer.

The Scottish government/parliament/parish council – call it whatever you deem appropriate – has seen fit to allow a (okay, another) large chunk of this beautiful landscape to be turned into a power station.
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This weekend sees the start of the South Pennines Walk & Ride Festival, a two-week long celebration of all the fresh air and diversity that the area has to offer for those who love the outdoors.

Programmes are available at TICs, libraries, council offices, railway stations and more throughout the area, or if you’re web savvie you can visit the virtual programme here:

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Of course, you can also download the programme from the festival’s website at www.southpenninesfestival.co.uk, where you’ll find even more information.

The grand opening will be held at Ilkley’s Riddings Hall this Saturday, at 10am. Our guest opener will be Kate Ashbrook, national patron of the Walkers are Welcome movement. Kate’s a formidable campaigner on behalf of rights of way and walkers’ rights, and is also general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, as well as being a trustee of The Ramblers.

The Walkers Are Welcome movement provides a great way for towns and villages to show they offer a genuine welcome to walkers and other outdoor enthusiasts, by working towards an accreditation scheme. Hebden Bridge in the South Pennines is home to the idea and was the first town to win the coveted label, and we’re delighted that Ilkley, another Walkers Are Welcome town, is hosting the launch of the festival.

Between this Saturday and September 26 more than 100 events will be held, including guided walks, mountain bike rides, off-road cycle events, horse rides, evening talks, day time talks, orienteering events… the list goes on and on!

There’s something for everyone – if you’ve never been walking before, try one of the gentle nature strolls of a mile or two; if you’re looking for a challenge, why not attempt the LDWA-led 20-miler, or one of the Backpackers’ Club’s two weekend-long explorations of Brontë country and beyond.

There are cycle rides of every description, and several equestrian events - you can either treat your own horse to a little exercise on one of the two rides, or perhaps get to know ponies close-up at the Peers Clough Pack Horse Centre’s open day.

Whether you live locally and what to get to know the area on your doorstep a little better, or come from further afield and want to escape the over-popular national parks that buffer the South Pennines, you’ll find a wonderful, peaceful, uncrowded landscape awaits!

See you there!