59 - Milk Hill - Wiltshire - 3rd May 2013

Milk hill sits amongst a small range of sweeping hills just a few miles south west of Marlborough, this hill was not going to be a difficult one to visit but it was going to be interesting as Milk hill is regarded as a bit of a celebrity due to its links to UFO sightings and frequent appearances of crop circles, it also has a rather cool feature carved into one side but more about that later.

The drive to Milk hill took me about 90 minutes from Portsmouth, driving up the M27, M3, A34 then along the A303 to Andover. after coming off the A303 I took the smaller roads through the villages of Ludgershall, Upavon and Alton Barnes finally arriving at the car park.

Leaving the car park I walked across the road and through a gate, heading south west I passed through the first of many fields full of sheep. Through another gate and yet another gate I was now on open ground and I followed a path over some ancient earth works and up the first of today's hills, this hill is called Walkers hill and already the views on this walk were magnificent. Standing on top of Walkers hill I could see for miles towards the east, south and west, below me sat Alton Barns and in the distance were Upavon and the village of Pewsey. I took some photos here and soon moved on.

The path now took me west and soon I was in sight of the feature I had mentioned earlier, a giant white horse carved into the side of the hills, the horse is a rather nice looking horse, very bright in the sunlight, the path took me right over his back and past his ears, I have never been so close to a white chalk horse before, after passing the horse I entered into another large open area full of sheep.

I stopped off in this field to take a few time lapse movies and have a cup of tea while still surrounded by sheep, there were a lot of paragliders using the hills and a take off point so I watched them soaring overhead, I found it amazing that there could be so many in the sky and they never seem to collide.

After my flask of tea I moved onwards to the actual highpoint, it was situated in a field so had to nip over the fence briefly to get a quick look, Milk Hill is the only one of my high points with a point of a meter in its height, this is because neighboring Tan hill is roughly the same height (294mts) and for years it was unknown as to which was the highest, so the TV program Country File conducted a survey and it turns out that Milk Hill was 25cm higher, so I was happy to conquer Milk Hill at 294.25 meters. I didn't stay long as I was not sure if I was allowed into that field so I made my way back to the main path and headed north and then east around the edge of the field.

Soon the path started to slope back downhill and it was not long until I could see the car park in the distance, I still had to head through 2 more fields of sheep and across the road and back to my car. Before I left the area I drove down to the base of the hill under the white horse to get a few more photos.





Milk hill is in a beautiful part of the world and I really recommend a visit, it is not a difficult walk and the views are stunning so get out there and explore the area.








Here is the time lapse video I shot around Milk Hill -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcVwy-UOLnc&feature=youtu.be

The Story So Far

Here is a list of all the high points I have visited so far on my quest in the order I visited them.

The best climbs so far are either Snowdon in Gwynedd or Worcestershire Beacon in Worcestershire. 
The most disappointing high points are either Telegraph hill in Kingston or the Vale in Hounslow.

Total visited so far 58 (out of 236)
Percentage visited 25.22%
Combined height of visited high points in meters - 11109
Combined height of visited high points in feet - 36447
Combined height of visited high points in miles - 6.902

Name

County/UA

Mts

Ft

Date Visited

Snowdon - Yr Wyddfa	Gwynedd	1085	3560	02 September 2010
Scafell Pike	Cumbria	978	3209	21 August 2012
Black Down	West Sussex	280	919	05 September 2012
Walbury Hill	West Berkshire	297	974	07 September 2012
Leith Hill	Surrey	295	968	28 September 2012
Ditchling Beacon	East Sussex	248	814	03 October 2012
Corfe Hills	Poole	78	256	10 October 2012
Ringwood Road	Bournemouth	65	213	10 October 2012
Pipers Wait	New Forest National Park	129	422	10 October 2012
Basset Avenue	Southampton	82	269	10 October 2012
Fort Southwick	Portsmouth	122	400	10 October 2012
St Boniface Down	Isle of Wight	241	791	22 October 2012
Ebrington Hill	Warwickshire	261	856	06 November 2012
Rednal Hill	Birmingham	250	820	06 November 2012
Turner's Hill	Sandwell	271	889	06 November 2012
Cawney Hill	Dudley	251	823	06 November 2012
Sedgley Beacon	Wolverhampton	235	771	06 November 2012
Barr Beacon	Walsall	227	745	07 November 2012
Meighs Wood	Solihull	185	607	07 November 2012
Corley Moor	Coventry	167	548	07 November 2012
Brown Willy	Cornwall	420	1378	13 November 2012
Lewesdon Hill	Dorset	279	915	29 December 2012
Shooters Hill	Greenwich	132	433	10 January 2013
Langdon Shaw	Bexley	83	272	10 January 2013
Westerham Heights	Greater London	245	804	10 January 2013
Westerham Heights	Bromley	245	804	10 January 2013
Sanderstead Plantation	Croydon	175	574	10 January 2013
Clock House	Sutton	147	482	10 January 2013
Telegraph Hill	Kingston upon Thames	90	295	10 January 2013
Lauriston Road	Merton	55	180	10 January 2013
Putney Heath	Wandsworth	60	197	10 January 2013
Richmond Park	Richmond upon Thames	56	184	10 January 2013
The Vale	Hounslow	35	115	10 January 2013
Horsenden Hill	Ealing	85	279	10 January 2013
Potter Street Hill	Hillingdon	134	440	10 January 2013
Bushey Heath	Harrow	153	502	10 January 2013
Bushey Heath	Old Middlesex	153	502	10 January 2013
Wakemans Hill Avenue	Brent	92	302	10 January 2013
Mote End Farm	Barnet	145	476	10 January 2013
Arkley	Barnet	147	482	10 January 2013
Bournwell Hill	Enfield	115	377	10 January 2013
Pole Hill	Waltham Forest	91	299	10 January 2013
Cabin Hill	Redbridge	90	295	10 January 2013
Havering Atte Bower farm	Havering	105	344	10 January 2013
Marks Gate	Barking and Dagenham	43	141	10 January 2013
Wanstead Flats	Newham	15	49	10 January 2013
Bethnal Green	Tower Hamlets	16	52	10 January 2013
Chancery Lane/Holborn	City of London	22	72	10 January 2013
College Park	Hammersmith and Fulham	45	148	10 January 2013
Harrow Road	Kensington and Chelsea	45	148	10 January 2013
St John's Wood Park	City of Westminster	52	171	10 January 2013
Hampstead Heath	Camden	134	440	10 January 2013
Hanging Hill	South Gloucestershire	237	778	5th March 2013
Dundry Hill East	Bristol	160	525	5th March 2013
Niver Hill	Bath and NE Somerset	264	866	5th March 2013
Blagdon Hill Farm	North Somerset	242	794	5th March 2013
Cleeve Hill	Gloucestershire	330	1083	23 April 2013
Worcestershire Beacon	Worcestershire	425	1394	24 April 2013

58 - Worcestershire Beacon - Worcestershire - 24rd April 2013

I woke early in the morning and through the canvas of the tent I was greeted by the sound of sheep in the field next door. I had arrived here the previous day after climbing Cleeve hill in Gloucestershire, It was a nice campsite, near the village of Welland about 5 miles south of Great Malvern, the campsite was part of a pub called the Millbank and it had all the facilities I needed.

Starting to climb the Malverns

I got up and had some breakfast of sausages, eggs and bacon, and then packed my backpack for the day. The plan today was to walk from the campsite north west to the top of Worcestershire beacon and then east into Great Malvern and finally south back to the campsite, a walk of about 11-12 miles. I left the campsite at about 10 am and first walked east for a few minutes until I reached a smaller road heading north west, this road took me through a the village of Upper Welland and after another 15-20 minutes I had reached the base of the Malvern Hills.

If you dont know the Malvern hills they are basically a series of prominent hills covering about 5 sq miles, the stretch for about 8 miles and tower over the surrounding towns and countryside leaving much of it in shadow. My climb up the hills started gradually along a residential road and then eventually I found a footpath heading directly west steeply up the side of Jubilee hill, The path then met with another path which headed north along the side of the hills climbing gradually up to the top of Perseverance hill, from the top of Perseverance hill I could see Worcestershire beacon ahead of me and behind me the chain of smaller hills heading south.

Perseverance Hill looking south

The Toposcope

South towards Perseverance Hill

The path now headed down hill coming out on one of the few roads that cross the Malvern hills, I was between the 2 villages of Upper Wyche to the west and Lower Wyche to the east, I crossed the road and started the climb up Worcestershire beacon, I was surprised at this point to the amount of people walking up and down the beacon, I stopped for a cup of tea from my flask on the way and carried on heading northwards and up the hills, eventually I climbed the last paths to the top of the beacon marked by a trig point and a Diamond Jubilee Toposcope. At 425 meters high the beacon is the highest point I have climbed to since climbing Scafell Pike last August.

A Panorama from the top - click the pic to expand

The Trig Point

I stayed here for quite a long time eating my lunch and taking some timelapse videos, I had a nice chat with 4 guys from Birmingham who became the subject of part of my timelapses and spent a good time taking in the views. The views from the top were amazing, probably some of the best views I have seen on my highpoints challenge, to the south I could see the long chain of hills stretching into the distance and then to the west I could see Hereford and the Brecon beacons in the far distance. To the east I could see Cleeve hill in the distance with Great Malvern just below me and a patchwork quilt of fields stretching out, It was quite windy up here but I managed to shelter amongst the rocks where it was quite warm. What amazed me here was the fact I could see many of my other high points from the top, to the easy was yesterdays Cleeve hill and then Ebrington hill in Warwickshire, to the west were many the high points I will be encountering in south Wales, I could just about make out the hills near Birmingham and to the south were the hills around Bristol.

you can check out a better quality version of the time lapse here on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MICSFtb_Y1E&feature=youtu.be

It was now time to move on, I left the top and headed northwards along various paths until I reached a path which headed east steeply down the hill towards Great Malvern, near the bottom of the hills I passed St Ann's Well, The Malverns are famous for its spring water and here you could see the water pouring out of the rocks. Moving on I followed a winding zig zag path down into some rose gardens and into the town centre. I was able to have a good look around the town and I purchased my dinner for my barbeque that evening (more about that later on).

Great Malvern

Great Malvern was a lovely little town, I recommend everyone to visit, it has some little museums, nice gardens and some nice shops, it was now time to head back to the campsite, I left the town centre and headed south, through a park and along a few residential roads coming out near a point where the railway travels through a tunnel under the Malverns. From here I was able to follow the course of a disused railway, a nice long straight pathway heading in the right direction, it took me through some cuttings and along various banks until It left the path of the old railway  and off through some farm land.

Passing many flocks of sheep I found myself passing the Worcestershire county showground but I soon turned onto another path and then through several fields, through another farm and finally reaching the main road where I took a left turn ending up at the campsite again.

After a quick wash and a cup of tea it was time for dinner, In town I had decided I was going to be adventurous and buy a whole fish to eat, I couldn't find a fishmongers so in Waitrose I purchased a Greek Sea Bream. I cooked it on my Barbeque and kept drizzling lime juice over it. The fish was delicious, I mean really delicious, it didnt take long for me to eat that with some pasta and salad, after dinner I washed up and eventually headed off to bed.

Yummy Dinner

My Journey home the next day was nice, I stopped off in Tewkesbury for a look around the abbey and town centre, again it is well worth a look if you are in the area, I finally left Worcestershire and headed back home after a really amazing few days.

Both Cleeve hill and Worcestershire beacon were awesome climbs, The beacon being one of the best yet, now where will I head next time?

____________________________________________________________

Here is another project of mine to take a look at - As a magician and balloon twister I have challenged myself to make a different balloon sculpture every day for a whole year, you can check them out here -

My Daily Balloon - www.mydailyballoon.co.uk
and on facebook - www.facebook.com/mydailyballoon

57 - Cleeve Hill - Gloucestershire - 23rd April 2013

Its been a bit difficult to get out climbing recently but now the warm weather is coming back it was time to get back out there and get climbing, I have been running out of local hills to climb so it was now time to start travelling further afield, I had been planning this trip for a while and it would involve a stop over somewhere to make things easier.



My first destination on this trip was Cleeve hill, the highest point of Gloucestershire, it overlooks Cheltenham and is about a 2 hour drive from Portsmouth. I left home and drove along the M27 and up the M3, then following the A34, then along the M4, At Swindon I turned off and followed various roads into Cheltenham and eventually I saw Cleeve hill and headed towards it.

The first trig point

The view west with my next climb in the far distance

I parked in the village of Cleeve hill in a layby and got my kit ready for my climb to the top of the hill, there would actually be a series of hills for me visit here, so I headed off up the first hill, It didn’t take me too long to get to the top, it was pretty steep but I was up there in about 20 mins, a lot of the area is a golf course but it is open common land too so not a problem to walk around on as long as you watch out for golf balls.

The High point of Gloucestershire

At the top of the first hill was a trig point and a small structure showing various sights to look out on the horizon, the view was spectacular from here, down below me was the town of Cheltenham and I could clearly see the world famous race course, I could also see Gloucester in the distance. The other thing I could see was my next hill to climb but more about that later on.

Relaxing at the high point

I now walked to the next hill, down a small dip and along in a straight line towards a trio of communication masts, this was about a half hour walk from the last hill top but this one was the highest point of Gloucestershire, There was a trig point marking the exact location at 330 meters, the views were good but not as spectacular as the last hill overlooking Cheltenham. I stayed here and ate my lunch, it was nice sitting here with very few people around.

West                                                  North                                                  East

It was now time to head back to my car, I actually walked a little towards the south and stopped off at another viewpoint, it was here I saw the Lone tree, the highest tree in the Cotswolds, it is a very windswept tree and it has a small wall around it which is used as a memorial, there were more amazing views over Cheltenham from here.

The Lone Tree

I now had to head back to the car, it was not far from here, just 15 to 20 mins walk and I was back where I started, it was an awesome walk with some amazing views for miles around.  I now headed west across the M5 and across the River Severn, arriving at my campsite where I pitched my tent for the next 2 nights. It was a nice quiet campsite, in a field next to a pub, I say quiet, the only other occupants were the sheep in the field next door but that was fine, they kept me company for the duration, that evening I had a lovely barbeque and then headed off to bed ready for my next climb tomorrow.

Cheltenham with the Racecourse

To be continued . . . . . . . 

Check out my other blog - www.mydailyballoon.com

53-56 - Bristol and surrounding areas - 5th March 2013

This week I was off to Somerset to visit a balloon modelling workshop and I decided to make it a 2 day trip with some climbs as well. I left home on the morning of Tuesday 5th March and headed along the M27 towards Bristol, my first stop however was not going to be on my list of highest points, it was a smaller but very famous hill just outside the city of Bath.

On top of Solsbury hill 

After driving through the country roads I arrived in the Bath area and drove up a long winding lane and eventually parked in a very small car park. Where had I driven to? well its the subject of a song by Peter Gabriel and more recently performed by Erasure, its Solsbury hill, a hill I have wanted to visit for years.

Solsbury Hill was probably the highlight of my day, it was a beautiful sunny day and It was the first day of the year I had managed to wear just t-shirt and shorts out, as I reached the top of the hill I reached a large flat area, this was because it was once an iron age fort, I walked along one edge of the triangular hill towards the west and eventually I was over looking Bath, It was somewhat misty but I could still make out a lot of the city. I slowly made my way around the top hill and finally back to where I started where I took a few photos and made my way back to the car.

Looking down on Bath

Battle memorial

My next stop was just a 20 minute drive away, My first high point of the day was Hanging Hill in South Gloucestershire. I parked near the high point and walked up to an information board only to find that this was the sight of a civil war battle, the Battle of Lansdowne, on the 5th of July 1643 the Royalists forced the Parliamentarians to retreat, however the royalist suffered terrible losses. 

Driving west towards Bristol and through several housing estates and what seemed to be the local rubbish tip I reached my next high point Dundry hill, this is the highest point of Bristol and it was a nice view over the city but with the amount of litter around it was not a pleasant stop, onwards in a southerly direction now.

Bristol from Dundry Hill

Niver Hill

Driving to the next high point I passes a rather dramatic lake and eventually drove up the hill towards the top of Niver Hill, the highest point of Bath and NE Somerset, I had to park some distance away from this one but I went for a walk around and I think I found the high point, It was either a clump of trees, a trig point or a radio mast, I WAS however in the right area. back at the car park I drove the very short distance to my last high point of the day Blagdon Hill farm in North Somerset.

Blagdon Hill Farm

Blagdon Hill Farm as the name may suggest is a farm, and therefore it is a private property, I did however park as close as possible and took a few photos, it was a bit odd as there were several hills much higher in the area however those hills were in a different district so were not the highest points.

That was the end of my high point visits for the day, the highlight was defiantly the one hill NOT on my high point list but I still had a nice drive and explore, I finished the day driving to my hotel and spent the next day making balloon models. 

47-52 - The High Points of London Part 3 - 10th January 2013

Click here for part 1

Click here for part 2

Continued . . . . . . . . 

Canada Water Station, 6:20pm

Bethnal Green - Tower Hamlets

We had parked in the car park and headed for the underground station where I purchased my underground card and Darren topped up his Oyster card, it was straight onto the London Underground overground line, then the District line and then the Central line to Bethnal Green, from here it was a short walk to Tower Hamlets where we found the highest point and took some photos.

High Holborn - City of London

Walking back to Bethnal Green tube station we were straight onto the Central Line towards central London, getting off at Chancery lane Tube station for the highest point of the City of London, this can be found on the south side of High Holborn at the top end of Chancery lane, after a quick photo we continued along to Holborn tube station and back onto the Central Line.

Hammersmith and Fulham

After changing at Oxford Circus we joined the Bakerloo line to Kensal Green where we were able to find 2 high points in go. Firstly we walked along the Harrow road and found what looked like a high point up a side road BUT after consulting the map and a few road signs we worked out that the first high point of Hammersmith and Fulham was back on the main road DOWN the hill, this was because the borough border ran along the length of Harrow road and that was the highest point. we took our photos and stopped to look in an awesome dinosaur fossil shop.

Chelsea Rob in Chelsea 

About 50 yrds back along the Harrow road we arrived at the highest point of Chelsea and Kensington, just outside some cemetery gates. Again we stopped off for some photos, I was quite pleased to get a photo of me in my Chelsea football shirt standing on the highest point of the borough of Chelsea and Kensington.

Back onto the tube and we travelled a short distance to South Hampstead and then a short walk to the highest point of the City of Westminster, this can be found at the junction of Boundary road and St Johns Wood Park, It was a rather unimpressive place, odd posh houses surrounded by not so posh flats, plus it had the shortest double yellow lines we had ever seen.

City of Westminster

Walking along now to Swiss Cottage we were starting to get weary, a look at out watches show that this was taking ages, We had been travelling around London for nearly 14 hours now and you can imagine it was starting to get very tiring. Onto the Tube at Swiss Cottage we travelled north towards Hampstead heath Tube station. On Arrival at Hampstead Heath we had a walk of a mile to get to the Highest point of Camden, this turned out to be a bus stop on the edge of Hampstead Heath,

Hampstead Heath

We looked at out watches and it was time to make a decision, we still had 6 more high points to go and it was now approaching 10pm, do we carry on? it would take us at least another 2, maybe 3 hours to do the rest, and we had a LOT of walking to do to get to our next 2 High points and then we had the problem of how to get to some of the other high points as they were not on direct tube lines. So, do we carry on? or stop? we decided to call it a day, it would be a shame to rush the last ones and not enjoy them, we were both in need of Pizza and we made our way back to the car at Canada Water.

One last interesting thing happened on the route back, from Hampstead Heath we walked to Hampstead Tube Station, after making it to 30 High points across London, we were now waiting for a train on the deepest tube platforms in London, so from the highest points to the deepest, we certainly have covered a lot of London.

We both had such an excellent day and I laughed so much with Darren, it was awesome, Just 6 more high points to go and we will do those next month so watch this space.

 Distance travelled - 161.4 Miles - Not counting Tube Travel
Time Taken - 15+ hours
HP 1 (22) - Shooters hill (Greenwich) - 132mts
HP 2 (23) - Langdon Shaw (Bexley) - 83mts
HP 3 (24) - Westerham Heights (Bromley) - 245mts
HP 4 (25) - Westerham Heights (Kent) - 245mts
HP 5 (26) - Sanderstead Plantation (Croydon) - 175mts
HP 6 (27) - Clock House (Sutton) - 147mts
HP 7 (28) - Telegraph Hill (Kingston Upon Thames) - 90mts
HP 8 (29) - Lauriston Road (Merton) - 55mts
HP 9 (30) - Putney Heath (Wandsworth) - 60mts
HP 10 (31) - Richmond Park (Richmond Upon Thames) - 56mts
HP 11 (32) - The Vale (Hounslow) - 35mts
HP 12 (33) - Horsenden Hill (Ealing) 85 Mts
HP 13 (34) - Potter Street Hill (Hillingdon) 134mts
HP 14 (35) - Bushey Heath (Harrow) 153mts
HP 15 (36) - Bushey Heath (Old Middlesex) 153mts
HP 16 (37) - Wakemans hill Ave (Brent) 92mts
HP 17 (38) - More End Farm (Barnet) 145mts
HP 18 (39) - Arkley (Barnet) 147mts
HP 19 (40) - Bournwell Hill (Enfield) 115mts
HP 20 (41) - Pole Hill (Waltham Forest) 99mts
HP 21 (42) - Cabin Hill (Redbridge) 90mts
HP 22 (43) - Havering Atte Bower Farm (Havering) 105mts
HP 23 (44) - Marks Gate (Barking and Dagenham) 43mts
HP 24 (45) - Wanstead Flats (Newham) 15mts
HP 25 (46) - Bethnal Green (Tower Hamlets) 16mts
HP 26 (47) - Chancery Lane/High Holborn (City of London) 22mts
HP 27 (48) - College Park (Hammersmith and Fulham) 45mts
HP 28 (49) - Harrow Road (Chelsea and Kensington) 45mts
HP 29 (50) - St Johns Wood Park (City of Westminster) 52mts
HP 30 (51) - Hampstead Heath (Camden) 132mts