A Trip to the Dales on the iPhone

It was at the beginning of this year I made a resolution to get fitter, and it has been happening - some weeks a bit slower than others.  I've been trying to get out a few mornings a week for an hour's walk with a bit of running thrown in.  I decided to set myself a challenge, to climb the Yorkshire 3 peaks in summer.  You can read all about it here on a blog post.  Last week, we decided to give Pen-y-ghent a go with our friends Amy & Claire.  We didn't want to weigh our rucksacks down too much, so decided not to take the cameras, leaving room for the essentials - Dairy Milk Whole Nut and a Snickers.  Instead, we captured the trip on our phones.  On Thursday, we went for a potter around Malham, I don't think I've been there since I was a teenager.  It's SO beautiful.  First to Janet's Foss, and then a walk into Gordale Scar, which absolutely took my breath away.

Photos were taken with iPhone 5, using VSCOcam.

We were up early for a hearty breakfast.  We stayed at the amazing Lister Arms in Malham. They lit a fire for us to have our breakfast by.

We did our last checks, pulled on the waterproofs, filled the water bottles and set off for Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Our first view of Pen-y-ghent, and all looked calm and welcoming!

I was a little out of breath on the very first steep climb, but after that initial warm up, I got more into my stride.  There were still a few patches of snow around...

Chocolate break number one....

The last push up to the top is a bit of a scramble, especially in the big wind that had picked up, but we just took it slowly.

The wind came out, so the hoods went up!

And then back into Horton for a well earned drink.  Inside the pub, there was a board with recorded times people had run the 3 peaks in.  I think the best was 2hrs and 20 something minutes!  We were happy with our 3hrs something for Pen-y-ghent though.  Just need to leave enough energy for the other 2 in July.

A Trip to Dungeness

Dungeness has been one of those places on my wish list to visit for a long time.  I first heard about it as the filmmaker Derek Jarman lived there.  He designed a spectacular garden in what some people would consider inhospitable land.  Dungeness is a shingle desert on the Kent coastline, and has often been described as an apocalyptic landscape, or looking like the end of the world.  I can be really affected by landscape (I remember the first time I went to Suffolk and felt unnerved by that big view and sky), so I was slightly worried how it would make me feel.  But it didn't make me feel uneasy, I was just excited to be there.  The little houses dotted amongst the shingle, the skeletons of old boats piercing the horizon, the power station looming in the distance.  We had packed our cameras, my Olympus OM1 film camera, and the Super 8 cine film camera too.  Derek Jarman shot quite a few of his films on Super 8, so it was a bit of a homage to him.  So we set off to explore.  Dungeness is alive with noise. Footsteps on the shingle, the gulls, and the constant hum of the power station.  The photos are a mixture of mine and Suzi's images and some from the film camera also.

We saw a figure on the horizon beach-combing.  He headed towards us and we had quite a big chat about the area. His name was Chris Shaw.  He told us with glee that he, C. Shaw, liked to keep the shingle clean, and he beach-combs regularly to pick up all the plastic and debris that has been washed up.  He told us that in the summer when holidaymakers are enjoying the sandy beach at nearby Camber, his finds increase, as plastic shoes, buckets and spades get washed around the spit and arrive at Dungeness.  He then collects them and adds them to his 'plastic tree' sculpture in his garden.  

He also told us about this building - it used to be the old lifeboat changing rooms.

Women in large billowing skirts would launch the lifeboat and were paid in tokens (worth around 4.5 pence per week), and they used these to buy all their food.  Banksy also chose Dungeness as the location for one of his pieces.  It lasted for the grand total of 3 days on a rusty old shipping container, until somebody decided that it might look better somewhere else!  Now there's just a big hole where it once was.

And then we wandered over to Prospect Cottage (Derek Jarman's house).  Its bright yellow window frames are complemented by the gorse growing out of the shingle.  His garden started almost as an accident when he used a piece of driftwood from the beach to stake a rose.  He continued to collect items from the beach and experimented with plants that would grow within this landscape.  Somebody was in the house when we went for a look, so we didn't really want to go trampling, and admired from the road.

The pieces of driftwood resemble standing stones.

The light is spectacular down there, and it can change really quickly.

Just as we were going back to the car, we noticed a sign saying 'Open Studios'.  We were greeted by a smiley face outside a little shed.  Paddy's an artist down there.  He noticed our cameras, and he told us a story about how he had been travelling on the back of a motorbike, and had dropped his camera at 50mph but the camera still worked.  He'd forgotten how to shoot manually though, so we had a quick one to one and got him up and running again!

The sun had gone down, and the houses and boats were now silhouettes set against the lights of the power station in the distance.  I'm just so pleased to have visited, and there are plans for a return later this year.  I will share the Super 8 film once it has been developed!

Climbing the Three Peaks and a Photo From The Past.

At the beginning of every new year, I'm a bit like a broken record.  Writing out a mammoth list of resolutions, and then finding said list in March and realising I hadn't stuck to any, in fact, some never getting off the ground.  I decided to be a bit kinder to myself this year and work on just one, getting healthier and fitter!  Last year I found myself complaining about new little aches and pains and niggles.  So instead of boring folk with my latest ailments, I've decided to do something about it.  I wanted to set some sort of goal, so I've decided to climb the Yorkshire 3 peaks over one day in July this year.

My Grandma climbed them when she was in her 70's, so she's my inspiration.  Mind you, she was like a mountain goat!  One day, when I was 15, my Grandma and her friend Marjorie (my Grandma was also called Marjorie), took me on a walking trip to tackle Ingleborugh.  Here's a little photo I took of the Marjories before we made our ascent.

I can't remember if my Grandma (on the left), climbed in those shoes!

And then they were off, scampering up the mountain.  They kept calling back to tell me to push on as their little grey heads bobbed away from me further into the distance.  All I could think about was how tired I was going to be at the Rugby Club disco that night, no dancing for me.  There were a number of false ledges, and I kept thinking I'd reached the top, only to see the path still winding up.  But eventually there were no more ledges, and I'd reached the plateau! There were the Marjories with the thermos poised, and the regulation cheese and tomato sandwich and Seabrook salt and vinegar crisps combo.  To this day, the memory of that view is very vivid.  It was a particularly clear day.

So, I'm now in training, and so far so good.  Suzi bought me a pair of shiny new trainers for Christmas, and they've been getting out and about.

My friend Amy is a personal trainer, and she's developed a programme for me which is challenging but enjoyable. We've just started adding a bit of running into the mix.  We went out and about into Hardcastle Crags last week in all the snow.  Amy took a few photos of me on her phone running through the trees.  I came back with very pink legs!

I've seen very quick changes in my recovery time climbing hills and steps, and it's been great having someone there encouraging me.  I'm also trying to keep a healthier diet too, but still allowing myself the odd Hobnob or two!

So, it looks like for the first time ever I'm sticking to this new year change.  And when I'm at the top of Ingleborough, I'll raise my thermos cup to the Marjories.