94-97 - Denbighshire, Wrexham, Telford and the Wrekin - 26th June 2014

Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall

It was day 3 of a camping and hill walking trip, so far I had visited Raw Head in Cheshire and on the previous day climbed Moel Famau, it was now time to pack up camp and head for home but not before getting in a few high points on my way home. I left the campsite and headed south through the towns of Ruthin, Corwen and eventually through some small villages and along some long small roads to a tiny place called Tan-Y-Pistyll.

This little village (if you can call it that) consisted of a restaurant, a B&B, a campsite and a few other buildings but it was where I parked my car ready for the days first highpoints, I got my backpack ready and first headed off to see a something pretty spectacular, the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall. I have seen a few waterfalls in Wales recently but this one was huge, it was really tall at 240 ft and looked amazingly spectacular. 

The View over the valley

I soon moved on to start climbing up the first of 2 mountains I would visit today, it took me a while to find the right path but eventually I was on the right route and climbing up the zigzag path onto the open moorland. Soon I was out onto open land and as always amongst the sheep with a splattering of ferns here and there. At this point I passed the top of the waterfall but as I couldn't really see anything It was much lest impressive as the view from the bottom. 

The Highpoints ahead

The Pathway straightened out now and steadily climbed passing through a fence and up over a small hill, from here I got my first glimpse of the mountain I was aiming for, Slowly I made my way up the final climb to the top of Moel Sych, the highest point of the historic county of Denbighshire. I stayed here for a while but the wind was so strong, I tried to shelter behind a pile of stones while I had a cup of tea but soon decided to move on to the next highpoint just a short walk away.

Moel Sych

I was lucky with these 3 highpoints because they were all fairly close to each other and they were all situated along the top of a ridge of mountains so the walk to high point number 2 was a simple case of walking down and then back up again to the top of Cadair Berwyn the current highpoint of the modern county of Denbighshire. Cadair Berwyn has actually always been the highest point of Denbighshire however it was only recently found to be 3 metres higher than Moel Sych. I had another very quick cup of tea from my flask and headed off to find my next highpoint, I passed a ruined circular structure which I had to have a look around and then I carried on to Craig Berwyn, at 790 meters is the highest point of Wrexham. Craig Berwyn was a bit of a difficult one as the actual high point does not lie on a visible high point, it actually sits a short distance down the slope of the mountain, this is because the border runs right across the mountain.

Cadair Berwyn

From Craig Berwyn I could see to the north another peak, I took a quick look at my watch and was mildly impressed with how quickly I was reaching these summits, it was just after 1pm and I didn't arrive at the carpark until after 11 so it had only been 2 hours, I thought it would be a shame to come this far and not climb it to the top of this next peak. I carried on once more and after following some cool little wooden pathways I was standing on Cadair Bronwen which was 785 meters above sea level. I stopped here for another quick cup of tea and took another look at my watch, it was just after 1pm . . . . . . . still, yes it suddenly dawned on my, my watch had stopped, it was not 1pm at all but more like 4pm and I had a long way to walk and drive home.

I decided to head off as fast as I could and passed the summits of Craig Berwyn, Cadair Berwyn and Moel Sych, it was now down hill all the way. my pace was fast and I was soon in sight of the top of the waterfall, passing that I took the zigzag path all the way down to the car park and back to my car where I finished up my cup of tea and headed off home. My drive home took me along a few country roads and then eventually I passed the town of Shrewsbury where I started seeing signs for Telford. I remembered that there was a highpoint not too far from Telford so I stopped off and did a little research to find that I would be passing the high point very closely, I decided to stop off and visit it.

The top of The Wrekin

Highest point of Telford and The Wrekin

I arrived at a car park at the base of the Wrekkin and found it to be packed with cars and people, I found a space and headed up the hill through the forests. It was not a long walk but due to the fact tha tI had already climbed several mountains today I wanted to take it slowly so I reached the top in about 30-40 mins. I passed so many people on the way to the top, I think this was my busiest high point yet, there were runners, bikers, walkers, dogs, families and couples everywhere. The views from the top were awesome, to the east I could see a power station and the flat countryside spread out below me, to the west I could see the mountains in the distance, to the south were more hills and to the north was the town of Telford. I stayed here for quite a long time, probably about half an hour and soon it was time to head back down to the car.

I reached the car and made my way home, it had been a wonderful few days of hill walking and I was tired but very happy.

93 - Moel Famau - Flintshire - 25th June 2014

Country lanes with Moel Famau in the distance

In the north east of Wales lies the Clwydian Range of hills and mountains, it is a designated area of outstanding natural beauty and its highest point is also the highest point of the county of Flintshire.

On the previous day I had arrived, set up camp and visited the highest point of Chester and the Talacre lighthouse on the north coast of Wales, It was now time to pack my backpack again and start walking. This walk was going to turn out to be a bit different than most as it was not the journey up which was going to be memorable, it was the journey down. I left the campsite and headed along the country roads towards the Clwydian hills, there were a mixture of country lanes and paths to follow and I caught a few glimpses of my destination over the hedgerows. It was quite a dry warm day with very little sunshine so not too bad for walking. I carried on walking for a while along the various roads and lanes, at one point I took a wrong turn into someones front garden but eventually made it onto the hills of the Clwydian range.

As with many of the hills I have visited on my quest this one was covered with sheep, hills and sheep always seem to go together, its like ponds and ducks. I made my way up through the sheep stopping for a banana and biscuit at one point, the views were getting quite amazing and so was the amount of sheep poo building up on the bottom of my shoes, it really was impossible to avoid. I soon met up with a more substantial path which turned out to be the Offa's Dyke path, I walked along part of the Offa's Dyke path when I visited Black Mountain in Herefordshire last year so it was nice to walk along that again. It was along here I passed a few people, the first people I had seen since leaving the campsite, It was now not too far to the highest point and I was soon standing on top of Moel Famau at 554.8 metres above sea level.

Jubilee Tower

On top of Moel Famau stands the Jubilee Tower, Its a derelict stone structure which was first layed down in 1810 to mark the golden jubilee of King George III however it was never completed and in 1865 it was badly damaged by a storm and so the ruins are the only thing left standing. Its quite an interesting and large structure and you can climb up onto it, It would have been amazing if it had been finished. After a stop for tea and sandwiches I continued my walk back to the campsite, I had decided to take a different route back to I headed off away from the summit of Moel Famau.

I quickly made my way down the slopes of the hills trying to dodge the sheep poo and a baby fox eating what looked to be the remains of a sheep and soon I was back into the farmland and walking along some country paths and then a road. After a short while the maps showed the path heading off across several fields, and sure enough when I arrived at the field I saw a prominent pathway working its way through the field of corn towards the next field. Once across this first field I had 4 more fields to cross, the next field also had a nice path cutting straight through the middle of it, that was 2 down and 3 to go. 

Offa's Dyke Path

Field number 3 turned out to be a bit more difficult, when I first saw the field I could see the nice pathway heading off to a gate on the other side, a nice and simple 150 meter walk though a field, the problem however was the herd of 30 baby bulls standing in my way and yes, I was wearing bright red. What was I going to do? It was a pretty long walk back the way I came so I thought I would test the waters and step into the field for a moment. I climbed over the style and stood there, nothing, all was calm, I slowly walked into the field along the path, still nothing, and then one bull saw me, then another and another, suddenly they all started heading my way, I quickly made my way back to the style and climbed back over.

Mooooo!!

So there I was, stuck on one side of a fence with a herd of bulls on the other side, I reached out to stroke one and he backed away, maybe they were just inquisitive? I thought I would try again, there were about 8 bulls watching me, I climbed over the style and into the field and I stood there, almost petrified, the bulls stood there watching. Nothing happened, it was stale mate, I watched the bulls, the bulls watched me. I made a decision, rather than head directly through the field I would walk around the edge, that way I would not be completely surrounded by the bulls. As I slowly backed away from the bulls and made my way along the hedge they seemed to follow me, I put out my hand and they backed away so I kept my hand there all the time, when ever I looked in the direction I was going they got closer to I had to walk backwards for more of the distance not knowing where I was treading. The further I went the more bulls joined in, further from the style was was getting but closer to the gate. I seemed to working my way through the field for ages but soon I was nearing the gate, by this time I had the whole herd of cows following me and I scrambled over the gate away from the bulls.

In the panic I took a bit of a wrong turn here but I was soon back on course and walking through field number 4, just 1 more field to go and I was back into normal roads. I arrived at the last long field and started walking through it, it was a very long field, around 500 metres in length. about a third of the way through the field I was minding my own business when what I can only describe as a Pterodactyl dive bombed me, it was so close and I actually felt it sweep past my hat. I have since found out that this was a buzzard and I didn't realize just how big these were, its wingspan was over a metre and it dive bombed be 2 more times before I decided to start running. The buzzard obviously had a nest somewhere and was just defending it but it was still pretty scary.

Out of the field I was back onto the country paths and walking through a few farms eventually making my way back to the campsite after a very action packed walk. That evening I relaxed with a beef stew ready for the next day when I would be trying to cross off 4 high points from my list. Moel Famau was a lovely climb and pretty easy but it was the wildlife that made it so exciting today.

92 - Raw Head - Cheshire West and Chester - 24th June 2014

It was time to get some more high points ticked off and so I planned a trip where I could get a few done in one go, the first high point was a quick stop off not too far from my campsite in north Wales. I left home and drove the long drive up the M27, M3, A34, M40, M6 and eventually turned off the big motorways and onto the smaller roads, the area I was heading for was situated between Chester and Nantwich. On arrival at the small village of Bulkeley I worked out the best route to walk and eventually decided to change my parking spot and park on the otherside of the high point not too far from the village of Harthill.

The lane to my parking spot was rather small and quite worn out so it was a bit of a bumpy ride but I found the location easily and parked up. Walking from the parking spot I instantly found myself walking up a hill and through some woodland eventually coming out at another bigger path which seemed to run along a ridge along the top of the hills, this path I was now walking along was part of the 34 mile long Sandstone trail which stretches from Frodsham in the north to Whitchurch in the south.
I walked south along this path for a while, on one side of the path were fields stretching out to the east and on the other side were the woodlands and a steep drop down, I followed the path for a few minutes and soon arrived at the destination, the highest point of Cheshire West and Chester, Raw Head. At 227.1 meters  it was also the highest point on the Sandstone trail, it was not amazingly high but the views to the north west were pretty amazing, in the distance I could just about see the Wirral and the rivers Dee and Mersey in the distance.

I stopped here for a short time and eventually retraced my steps back to the parking spot where I continued my journey to the campsite in North Wales. The Campsite was located in the north of Denbighshire not too far from the small town on Ruthin, I set up camp and had a quick cup of tea but soon headed off to find another landmark on the north coast of Wales.

About 40 minutes drive north I arrived at the seaside town of Talacre where I parked up and walked the short distance to the beach, the beach was amazing, very sandy and wide at low tide, however it was not the beach I had come to see, it was the Talacre Lighthouse. The Talacre Lighthouse stands alone on the beach, jutting out of the sand and standing tall and dominant keeping a watch over everything that happens around, It really does grow right out of the sand and is an impressive sight. I seemed to spend ages here and I eventually had to head back to the campsite because the tide was coming in, it had been an excellent way to end the day.

91 - The Shard - Honorable Mention - London

Last month I visited a high point with a difference and I have decided to include it in my highest points blog. The Shard in London is a little controversial because it will be the only high point on my list which is not a hill, it is however the tallest building in western Europe so I have decided to give it an honorable mention.

I wrote about the Shard in another blog so here is that blog post

It was going to be my 40th birthday and to help celebrate it Nathan suggested we head up to London for the day, The main thing we wanted to do was see Phantom of the Opera but we wanted to do a few other things as well, we booked tickets to see the Viking exhibition in the British Museum and then planned a small trip to Camden market, one more thing we wanted to do was to visit the Shard, its one of those buildings that you always look at and thing "yes we must do that sometime" and then the risk is you never will do it but a few months ago we checked it out online and Nat booked tickets for us.

We arrived at the Shard half an hour early so stopped to take some photos and then found a little restaurant to grab a few diet cokes while we waited for our time slot, it was not too long to wait and we soon headed through the doors and up the stairs to the main entrance. As we had pre-printed our tickets at home there was no need to queue anywhere, there were no queues at all and we walked straight up to a very happy and chatty lady who scanned us through. 

Next we headed through security, this was very much like being at the airport, your bags are put through scanners and you walk through a scanner yourself, there was no waiting around, we were straight through that. Just past security and we had to have our obligatory photo taken in front of a green screen and then we were straight onto one of the elevators which took us half way up the Shard, we then transferred to another elevator for the rest of the journey up to the first level of the viewing area.

On exiting the lift I was a little taken aback as I was expecting to instantly see some amazing views but the windows were obscured with big pictures of cloud types, I would imagine the reason for this is to prevent too much congestion around the lift areas but we were soon making our way up the last set of steps to the magnificent views. 

The first viewing level is totally enclosed, there are full 360 degree views all around London with some of the most impressive being towards Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf and along the Thames towards the east. It is amazing to see the network of railway lines and roads spread out below you and the little toy cars and trains zoom around on them. Situated around this first viewing area are lots of computer operated telescopes, these give you the option of seeing a variety of views including the live views, night time views and various other times of the day, they also give you plenty of information about the sights you are seeing. We spent quite a while looking for famous landmarks such at the Thames barrier and Wembley stadium. I was amazed as to how quiet it was up on the viewing levels, there were always plenty of places to stop and peer out of the windows and you could always find telescopes available to use (which were all free to use as well which is great).

After a short time on the first lever we headed up to the second viewing level which is partially outdoors, there are still glass walls all around you however there are sections open to the sky above you which means you can hear the distant noise of city life below you. Although the views were much the same as the first level I think I preferred this lever as it was nice to be out in the open air. On both levels they played a lovely relaxing music track, I really liked this as it gave the whole area a nice 'up in the clouds' type atmosphere. 

It was a little bit difficult to take photos of the view as the whole area is surrounded by glass, you end up with reflections galore but this isn't really a problem as you just need to hold your camera closer to the glass, I think the problem was worse for us because it was a beautiful sunny day.

This upper lever was a little busier but I was still shocked as to how quiet it was, there really was a lot of space to spread out. There seemed to be a lot of staff on hand to answer questions and take photos too, every member of staff seemed really cheerful and this really added to the whole experience. We stayed up on the top level for a while and eventually made our way back down to the lower levels for a quick look around the little shop.

The lift journey down was again in 2 stages and then we were arrived out into the shop area. I was a little put off by the fact that we were directed to the photo booth area where we were forced to view our green screen photos. I really don't like these green screen photos they do, I just don't understand the point of them, they basically showed us 4 or 5 poorly taken photos of me and Nat badly superimposed onto various scenes taken from the top of the Shard, What is the point? we took some identical photos while we were actually at the top of the Shard so why they need to create these fake photos I do not know. I don't mind the fact that they do offer this green screen service but why can't we have an option of opting out? 

Just past the pointless photo sales we were into the shop, we didn't buy anything, there were a few books I liked the look of but didn't buy any as it would mean I would have to carry them around and I knew I could get them cheaper elsewhere. We finished off with a quick trip to the toilets which had the most useless taps on the planet, They were combination taps/dryers which seem like a good idea, basically you wash your hands and then the water stops and warm air comes out of 2 blowers either side of the water nozzle to dry your hands, sounds brilliant until the water gushes out again after your hands are dry.

The View from the Shard was a wonderful experience and one I hope to do again, it is a little expensive but I think its well worth the money to get some incredible views and once you are at the top there is no time limit so you could stay all day if you wanted to. I was really impressed with the experience from start to finish, the only thing I thought was a bit off putting was being forced to see the pointless green screen photos but apart from that it was awesome and I thoroughly recommend you all go and visit it.

 http://www.theviewfromtheshard.com/en/

90 - Great Rhos - Radnorshire - 23rd-25th April 2014

Back in the 70s the counties of the UK were rearranged, some were moved, some expanded and some disappeared never to be seen again, it was time to climb to the highest point of one of these historic non-existent counties - Radnorshire.

Radnorshire lies completely within the current county of Powys and the highest point of Radnorshire is Great Rhos near the village of New Radnor. I packed up my van with all the essential camping equipment and headed off to Wales. My campsite was called the Old Station caravan and Camping park and on arrival I was welcomed by the lovely owners who showed me to my pitch where I set up camp next to an old railway engine shed. It was such a lovely peaceful campsite with a field of sheep for company.

Once I had set up camp I headed out to visit a local waterfall which was situated just a mile down the road, I parked in a carpark and headed off into the forest to find the falls. My first view of the 'Water Break Its Neck' waterfall (unusual name I know) was from above and it looked magnificent below me, I worked my way around over the top of the falls and eventually down to the river which I followed to get back to the waterfall again.  As I walked along the valley the sides started to tower up over me and I eventually reached the base of the waterfall, it was a beautiful sight and it was so lovely to get so close to it and feel the water rushing down the stones. I eventually made my way back to the campsite where I cooked a nice dinner of beef stew and then I went to bed ready for my big climb the next morning.

After breakfast the next morning I packed my backpack with lunch and headed off to climb Great Rhos. The route first took me into the village of New Radnor where I stopped at the shop for supplies and then I headed north out of the village and into the countryside. Just as I left the village I passed a huge mound, this was the location of an old Norman castle. it was surprising to find out that this little quiet village was home to quite a major castle and some quite interesting history including many attacks where the castle was destroyed and eventually re-build several times. Continuing up a road away from the village I then turned onto a smaller lane which climbed up the side of a hill and eventually had views back over the village. 

Eventually I turned off this path and into a woodland, I walked through this woodland for a while, there had been a lot of forestry work taking place in this area with new trees and lots being cut down, the path was climbing up all the time and eventually came out onto some areas. A new path took me up further towards the top if a nearby hill and eventually became open moorland, it was along here that the views became really amazing, all the way back over the village and miles to the hills in the far distance, I also passed two people along here who said hello, the first 2 people I had seen since the village. The path now descended back down into a small valley and then back up the next hill past some old quarry works and on to the top of a hill called Black Mixen. 

Black Mixen is home to a huge antenna and it was odd to see some works vans parked up here, obviously some work was being done but I didn't see anyone, it was eerily quiet and I continued onward. From this point I could see my destination in the distance so I pushed on along the path. In the valley below was a firing range so I has to walk around the valley first to get to the other side where the next hill was located. The path took a sharp left and I went along the edge of a forest and over some styles eventually heading out onto open moorland again and finally up to the highest point in Radnorshire and Great Rhos.

Great Rhos

At the top of Great Rhos there were a few things I noticed, firstly a trig point marking the top, a man eating his lunch and some AMAZING views to the south and west all the way to the Brecon Beacons. I stayed here for a while and ate my lunch and took some photos and then it was time to move on and back towards the campsite. My walk from the top continued along the edge of a firing range, it wound its way in and out of the heather and then down the side of a hill. Soon I followed the path further down and eventually I got some amazing views over the firing range which was situated down in the valley. After a while the path crossed a stream and I arrived back onto the edge of the village, I walked through a few fields and then past the church and finally back into the village centre, finally crossing another stream and road and into the campsite. Thankfully the campsite had a little tearoom so I grabbed a cup of tea and slice of cake which was delicious. 

That evening I had a barbecue with chicken, sweetcorn, potato cakes and pancakes for desert and I spent the evening relaxing after my long walk up to Great Rhos. The next day I packed up and drove home in the rain, I was lucky not to get too much rain while I was away and I had a brilliant time. Great Rhos is well worth a visit and I was treated to some amazing views along the way.

Black Mixen