….that’s me by the way, a Christmas Pudding. I did start out with fairly good intentions for Christmas, but as I literally had no idea where I was going to spend it until about three days beforehand, a lot of things just had to take a back seat. One of them was my exercise schedule. And also, aside from the fact that the gym has been shut, we have had about four inches of snow on the ground at home for a week now. As if I need excuses not to go out for a walk, that is a good one right there! In fact this is the view out of my front door about five days after it snowed:

Brrrrrr......

So the lead up to Christmas was the usual (for me) hectic stuff – too busy at work, but some good Christmassy parties there too. We had our works one the day before Christmas Eve, and I thought that I would give an honourable mention to Alice, who is pictured below, wearing my hat!

I should also give a mention to Ellie too, who is also bestest friends with Alice above, and so here she is looking rather fetching, and in ‘pensive’ mode:

"Do you think yellow suits me?......."

So anyway, up North I headed to my Dad’s on Christmas Eve, with a bit of a headache from the night before. Had a nice lunch just before I went (thanks Claire:)), and then met my old school chums from what must be a lifetime ago in the pub that evening. I loved it, it was absolutely great, even if ‘The Mariner’ might not exactly be the most salubrious emporium in South Shields. Joe McElderry’s picture was on the wall though, and so that is OK with me.

So anyway, once that Christmas Day was over with (oh yes and Boxing Day too), it seemed like a good walk was in order. Oh and before I get onto the walk I should say that the night before at John’s Mam and Dad’s house was just priceless – thank you John, I didn’t know that singing carols could be such good fun!

Down to the coast in South Shields then, and an 8.30 start on Sunday morning. Bugger me it was cold!

"Sheet ice" doesn't even get it.....

The path above, which leads down to the beach from the ‘Leas” at South Shields (a bit of history below from Wikipedia:) was so iced up that I didn’t even dare stand on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Shields

The walk itself though was great. I did probably about five miles altogether, new boots on and all (and also down jacket, overtrousers, hat, scarf, gloves, you name it). The weather wasn’t great and neither was the visibility, but here are a couple more pictures along the way:

The south end of 'Frenchman's Bay' looking towards Shields pier.

This is ‘Frenchman’s Bay’, taken from the clifftops. The name I think came from a wrecked French fishing/pirate boat way back in time.

The next one is looking south towards ‘Souter Point’ (the lighthouse in the far distance):

It's a bit bleak today....

Oh and I resolve myself to get a better camera before Kilimanjaro – these are all taken from my iPhone, and whilst I have a ‘not bad’ camera, it is also ‘not good’ – it takes great pictures underwater (as it is an underwater camera), but on dry land it is disappointing, so that is one for the list.

After a few miles the nest one is taken towards ‘Camel’s Island’. I wanted to go down to the beach, but this path here was so frozen that if I had attempted it no-one would ever have seen or heard from me (at least alive) ever again, so I stopped where I was:

If you look at the large ‘rock’ in the sea in the middle of the above picture, then you will see that by the time I had taken the next picture, I had made a fair bit of progress:

"Marsden Rock", from just beyond the "Grotto"

So this is taken from the beach in front of Marsden Rock, a sort of famous local landmark. It used to be much bigger than this but half of it collapsed a few years back, so it almost looks a bit off these days if you knew it from before:)

To get to the beach I had to come down a big staircase, pictured below:

"Easier coming down....."

Here also is a picture taken from the beach looking back towards the picture taken three above here:

Wonder why there is no-one sunbathing?

So then finally back to those steps. As I had done a few miles already, I had the choice of two options – I could get the lift up, or could walk. Well no contest is there? Especially as going to the lift would have involved going into the pub at the bottom first! Actually, I surprised myself (twice:)), by walking up (all 123 of them), and then walking back down and then back up again! So that would be about 500 up and down steps then. I can only say that I was knackered completely by the time I got to the top for the final time.

So finally here is a picture taken from the top at Marsden, looking back north this time towards the pier at South Shields. It was still very cold, but the walk had certainly done me good.

The sun came out at last.....

Time for some mince pies, Christmas pudding, and some (even better!) Christmas beer!

Happy Christmas everyone…….

Well would you believe it? When the festive season is in total full swing, you just need extra motivation to force yourself to the gym. In my case I most certainly don’t need an excuse like “it’s the festive season”, but it is a great one right now, so I’m having it. It has also recently been a bit less convenient to use the gym, as they are in the midst of a refurb, and are doing various rooms one at a time so as to keep the place open and going. For the last two weeks the changing rooms have been closed, so you have had to use the swimming pool area to get changed instead – not the greatest hardship in the world, but it has meant that (as the swimming pool is small) there isn’t always a locker. This means you have to change and then go back outside to your car with your bag, in your shorts, when it is -4 outside, which isn’t funny.

Anyway, having been out every night this week (did I tell you that it is the festive season:)), I decided that yesterday, Saturday, I should go. So having battled with the crowds briefly for a few Christmas pressies, I turn up, and the car park is nicely quiet. In fact there are about six cars there, and I smile and think of everyone battling the Christmas hordes, and march in thinking that I will have all of the gym equipment to myself. I even smile and think I can fall off the treadmill again without anyone laughing at me. I get to the reception desk, and the girl there (who seems to know everyone who comes in, apart from me – maybe I should go more often?) tells me that unfortunately the gym is closed for refurbishment until the 4th January. What!! She does tell me that the pool is open, but as I have no swimming stuff that is about as much use to me as a chocolate firegard, and so I turn around and go back home.

So this is terrible, just when I need to go to the gym I can’t! It is only eight weeks to go to Kilimanjaro (62 days to be precise, I just counted), and for slightly more than two of those weeks, I have no gym to go to. Looks like I need to do some proper walking, and so i resolve to walk instead of drive to the pub the very next day – belting plan, it is the festive season after all………

OK, so I got an email this morning with my final invoice (only another $1,861 to pay it seems:)), my final itinerary, my kit list, my route instructions, the lot. BLOODY HELL, IT’S REAL!

They aren’t allowed to tell you who you are going with (privacy act stuff and whatever which seems fair enough), but I know that it is a ‘couple from New Jersey’. So that’s it, just three people in total. In some ways I am glad, in some ways I am disappointed. I had sort of hoped for a bigger group, for more shared stories/experiences etc., and when you are with new people for 24/7 that you don’t know, then some of them you will probably gel with better than others, so the more the merrier etc. On the other hand there could have been a big group who all knew each other and were cliquey and I could have been the outsider or whatever. Anyway, I’m not at the end of the day there to meet people, it would be a bit easier, less work and certainly cheaper to just go down the pub if that’s what I was looking for!

So, ‘couple from New Jersey’, if you ever happen to come across my blog before you go, I look forward massively to sharing my adventure of a lifetime with you. I will try not to get in your way, or be aggravating if I can help it lol.

Reading the kit list has just served to reinforce how much I still need to get hold of before I go – it is a bit daunting, and the most scary thing is that it has made me realise that I have just nine weeks to go, which is nothing. Heck, I had better get fit – so more later, am off to the gym……..I may have a bacon sandwich first though, it might be the last one for a while……………..

I have been guilty obviously of not updating this in a week, which is bad I know, so I am sorry for that. In the meantime I have been stupidly busy at work and also sick for a couple of days. I think they call what I was suffering from “man flu” – anyway it did me in to the extent that I felt about as bad as  have for an awful long time, but I think I am on the mend. One of my first thoughts was that I really really hope that I don’t get to feel like that in February. I actually felt so bad one morning that I didn’t buy a chocolate croissant on the way to work, and that I can tell you is serious!

So also in the 7 days since I last posted there have been a few other things going on in my life, and here is not the place to mention them. Suffice to say that I am sad currently, and I’ll let that be that. Maybe another time it will get aired, and maybe it won’t….

Moving on then, I have been to the gym three times in the last week. Wow! When you consider that those three times actually eclipse by a factor of three the total number of times I have been to a gym in over twenty years that is a HUGE thing! I have Nordic-climbed, biked, treadmilled, leg bench-pressed, done the plank (am over 30 seconds now:)), oblique-crunched and what have you rather a lot. Am feeling better for it too, apart from the man-flu thing of course. Oh and I nearly had a treadmill accident, which was rather embarrassing.

You see I am just not used to treadmills. In fact I have been on a treadmill four times in my life, and each of those occasions were in the last two weeks, and I can and do suffer from momentary lapses in concentration from time to time. So here I am merrily trundling along at a sort of jogging pace, when I drop my pen. You see, I have my fitness programme sheet in my hand, and instead of setting it down by the side of the machine before I begin, I just had it my hand when the treadmill sort of started before I wanted it to, and here I am, somewhat Mr Bean-like, running away with my pen and paper in my hand. Anyway, after about a minute of trying to look as if I am absolutely the most composed runner in the universe, if not the gym (and perhaps not doing very well), so when I drop my pen my natural reaction is just to bend down and pick it up.

Oh dear! So as my left leg seems to wrap itself around my neck, and I am sort of shot up in the air with my head heading towards the gym floor, I somehow seem to land on the very back of the machine on my right knee, and sort of bounce back onto what seems to be a surface that isn’t moving. I think I am on my knees, and stand up, make sure that I am OK, and then hope that no-one was watching (it is 6.30pm and the gym is packed unfortunately so I have no chance). I also seem to have all of my fingers and toes still. I then jump straight onto the back of the treadmill at apparently the wrong pace, and am immediately shot off back onto the floor. What an idiot!

When eventually back on the treadmill, after another minute or so of my seriously frenetic (or sweaty and laboured anyway) jogging, I see in the mirror in front of me one of the gym trainers walk past and pick up my pen. My instinct is to turn round and call out “hey that is my pen!”, but it is too late, and as I turn I am off again. I am really lucky that I do not break something or someone this time, and decide to call the treadmill off for the day. One of me or it had a lucky escape that is for sure. I dust myself down, or “towel off” as I think they do in these places.

Oh and also this week I met a really really nice guy from the UKclimbingforums, who has done Kilimanjaro about three times, and also (I’m jealous) the “Seven Summits” (for the uninitiated, and I was until recently, that is each of the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, including Mount Everest). I will tell you about that meeting in the next post……..

Need to count up my miles, but I certainly have some, and all I need now is to learn some treadmill concentration. Wish me luck!

This is a bit of a trial run and I will add to it/update it later. I wanted to add some pictures of Kili that I have been looking at online, as I think they are gobsmackingly stupendous. Here is one:

How good is that? You get a picture of the diversity of eco-systems involved, from the tree-lined tropical forestation at the bottom, to the permanently snow-bound peak at Uhuru.

I love this next one too, perhaps more so:

It looks like the mountain is almost unreal, or superimposed, because presumably of the fact that there are the elephants in the foreground. It is easy to forget however (or if you are like me to just not to have realised properly at all) that we are just below the equator, just next to the Serengeti, home to elephants and giraffe, and the outrageously fantastic wildebeeste migration. I wish now that I was going to do a safari as well, but I think that for now that I have quite enough to think about!

Until later……..

Dunno if that got your attention or not? I’m trying to work out if there is any correlation between what I put in the title of my posts and the number of hits I get.

For those of you who don’t know (and I certainly didn’t before I stared this), when you do a blog you get a ‘dashboard’ to show you how many hits you get each day. Now I haven’t really started publicising my blog much yet (I did put a link to it on my Facebook page, but I’ve only got about 40 friends in total :(, and most of them are probably very infrequent facebookers like I am (it’s my age you see:). So I don’t really know whether anyone googling certain words might get to my site my accident? (If anyone is reading this who knows a bit about blog optimisation, then let me know what the tricks are please?).

Anyway, the point of the above is that I did a post the other day about new boots, called something like “New Boots” (not very exciting of course:)), and I got two views that day. The next day my post is also about boots and stuff (and certainly no more exciting than the one before), but it is called “Mileage”. For some reason it got 56 hits, my most yet, and I don’t know where the traffic came from! It also tells you if people linked from certain pages (like Facebook for example), and there was no real clue, so I just have to speculate that the title has something to do with it. Hence today’s title. I don’t even know if Darth Vader is popular any more though, but I saw a TV commercial earlier with him on and so that prompted me. And no, I don’t even have a sister, so it wasn’t true ever.

Anyways, I’ll get round to what I came here for – it is a Saturday today, and I (at long last) got my gym programme mapped out for me at last this morning! I went there at 9am, which was way too early for me on a weekend, but was ready for whatever they threw at me, I just wanted to get started for real, and on with the show.

The programme they started me on is basically as follows, me having told them what I want to achieve (ie basically to be able to be fit enough to satisfactorily climb Kili):

1. Five minutes stationary bike, upping tension each minute.

2. Seven minutes Nordic Climber, 20% incline.

3. Ten minutes treadmill, alternate jogging, fast run.

4. Two reps on leg weights machine with 60kg, until “fatigued”.

5. Various left and right oblique raises.

6. Dorsal raises until “fatigued”.

7. The “Plank”, which is like a pushup held until you can’t hold it any more.

8. Various hamstring and other leg and back tortures.

I was told that this was to ‘get me used to the machines etc’, and that when I have done this three times they will up the intensity next week and every week so that I get progressively ‘fitter”. So I did the above under supervision, and I was smiling all the way until I finished the first piece of equipment. Then the Nordic Climber is a bastard! I hate it! It gets your calves after about 30 seconds, and then you feel yourself alternating your thoughts between “this must be really good for me”, and “switch it off I am going to collapse and die”. I do manage to finish the rest of the programme, and when ‘Zak’ (my new personal trainer, I think Mark has decided I am not worthy enough to be in his gang) asks me if that is all OK for me, I stammer out “it’s fine”, when I am actually thinking that I didn’t want to join the SAS, I just wanted to go for a bit of a walk.

But it is not a walk is it? It is a 100km walk in one go, with a 20,000ft mountain in the middle of it, where the atmospheric pressure means that the oxygen level is at 40% of what you and I are used to. And not just any 20,000ft mountain either. It is the roof of Africa. The highest free-standing mountain in the world. The one which is an enigma, a legend, that captivates, and dominates, and ultimately defeats at least a third of people who try to get to its snowy peaks.

I respect it, and I wonder if Darth Vader has been up there before me?

So I have two things to update you on this week so far:

1. I went for a good-ish walk on Sunday, which (best of all) had a good pub at the end of it:)

2. I have a hotel in Arusha and it is booked and paid for!

So Sunday first of all. It was a really lovely day. It has been so dry here for so long, and the sun shone like it was a day in July, so it was just perfect to go and break the new boots in. Except I didn’t. There is a pub close to here which is fantastic. If anyone reading this knows the area at all, then the Bell at Aldworth will be known to them. It’s great. Amongst some of the things I like are:

1. It has a great (one of the best) garden. Perfect in fact.

2. It serves just local beer (Old Tyler from the West Berkshire Brewery is the local favourite)  and cider (the cider (Uptons) comes from an Orchard about 1 mile from here)

3. It has really unpretentious food (you can have basically a ham roll, a cheese roll, a crab roll or a beef roll, and that is about it, and they are lovely)

4. They have no computer, no electric till even, no jukebox, no music, no nothing in fact, other than a great place to drink and socialise.

5. It has apparently been in the same family for 250 years!

6. They don’t serve lager. At all:)

There is a review of the pub here from one of my bibles over the years, the Good Pub Guide:

http://www.thegoodpubguide.co.uk/pub/view/Bell-RG8-9SE

So anyway, the pub is about 8 miles by car from the house, but if you cut across country and walk over the downs I reckon that it is about 5 or so miles as the crow flies. The pub is at about 600ft above sea level, and I have the Ridgeway (which sort of borders South East Oxfordshire and West Berkshire) between it and me (and it is higher than the pub), so there is a reasonable but gentle climb for me too. I wanted to wear my new boots, but chickened out at the last minute, as due to my aforementioned crap feet and the fact that I haven’t walked for so long, I didn’t want to spoil it with blisters:). So I put my old trusty 20 year old boots on and off I march. Trouble is, the ground is so hard, and my boots are maybe older and harder than the last time I wore them, so after about a mile my feet are hurting! Sod’s law they call that!

Anyway, I walk like a trooper (always easier when there is the scent of a good pint at the end of it) and get there in the end, sore feet and all, in about an hour and ten minutes. Pretty good going I think for a rusty old (easy tiger!) fella. Safely esconsed at a seat in front of the pub, I enjoy the sunshine and three delectable pints of Old Tyler and a cheese and onion roll. There are lots of other people just stood and sat outside the pub too, as they do at this place. Lots of dogs too, all well-behaved. It’s a great people (and dog) watching spot. Life doesn’t get much better than when you are doing the simple things like this.

So onto Monday.

Back to work. Boo.

I love my job, and I’ll tell you about it some day. I love the company and what it stands for, and I love the industry. Really really like and admire the people that I have the privilege of working with. I’m lucky. It all gets me up in the mornings, even on a Monday when it is still dark when the alarm goes off. Even when I have had a good weekend and been to see Toy Story 3D and had a good walk and drunk some Old Tyler and the sun shone.

On my way to work I realise that  have an email from Henry. It is about my hotel. Seems I have one! It is confirmed!! I pay over $250 as a deposit, get a receipt straight away, and it is done. Super efficient. The money has to go to some bank in Cyprus or somewhere like that, which raises an eyebrow for me, but all is apparently hunky dory, as I ask all sorts of questions to satisfy myself.

So I will be staying on the 22nd and 23rd February in the Outpost in Arusha. And then also on the night of the 2nd March. Here it is:

http://www.outposttanzania.com/index.htm

Wow. I don’t care what it is like really, it will be an incredibly memorable place in my life, albeit briefly. It will the first place I have stayed in in Africa, and then the place I stay in when I return from my trek to the peak of the highest free standing mountain in the world. I love writing those words, they make me smile.

It is getting closer and closer and closer.

So if you read my last post then you’ll know that I was off to meet Mark for my first session. Well fired up I most certainly was, and the fact that I am writing this at all obviously means that I survived to tell the tale. There is one main reason for that, in that it didn’t actually happen!

I got there bright and breezy (well actually I felt like death warmed up, but what do you expect at 6.45 on a Friday morning?), trying not to feel or look too much out of place. I mean, what do you wear? Do you turn up dressed for work and then change there, or do you turn up in your brand new conspicuous never-been-worn trainers and stuff in the foyer and stand out like a sore thumb? Anyway, I went for it, and marched in with T shirt and shorts and my shiny new Saucony trainers (very comfy, good for under-pronators like me). I met Mark at the reception desk, to be told that there had been a cock-up, and that I had been put back. I felt a mixture of disappointment at not getting down to business, but relief to some extent as I would be more ready for it when it finally came, which is re-scheduled for next Wednesday. The time was not totally wasted, as a guy called Stevie showed me how the cross-trainers and treadmills work etc. and so I can go back at any time.

So today I duly did (go back I mean). I actually fancied a swim, and wandered along at about noon (today is a Saturday), but I find a few Dads with very young kids in the pool. This is slightly strange as I was told that kids weren’t allowed in the pool, which was apparently why there was a low chlorine level there, but maybe I just misheard all that explanation. Anyway, I wasn’t sure if I should even be in there with babies and things, so I leave and go to the gym

I eventually figure out how the equipment works (the place is deserted, which for self-conscious me is good), and get started on a programme on a cross-trainer. I last about 20 minutes, and the machine tells that I have done about 1,000 steps, and burned 100 calories. Magnificent!  I am on a mission after all! I then go onto a treadmill, and select the 30 minute “hill-climber” programme. I get through the whole thing, covering 2 miles, and my pulse rate gets to a max of 137 during that time.  The fact that the machines all have electronic heart monitors attached is a bit scary to be honest.

Oh I also weighed myself in the changing rooms, so whilst we are about to start monitoring all sorts of things, then here is the first statistic for you:

I weigh today 81kg, or 12 stone 10lbs. I think that is about 178lbs if you are an American:). That is quite heavy for me historically, although my weight has been around 12 stone (and probably never more than 1 stone plus or minus) since I was 18 or so.

So afterwards this afternoon I went to see Toy Story in 3D in Didcot. It was only released yesterday! Toy Story is certainly in my top 20 films of all time (I must put the full list on here sometime), and when I found out they had re-done it in 3D it had to be done. It is fantastic by the way, and so anyone out there thinking about it should just go do it, it is totally recommended.

So my first miles in training are recorded. Tomorrow I hope to get the new boots out in anger (I wore them this evening in the house and did the ironing in them:)) and do some proper walking.

I have momentum – the journey has really really begun now. So if anyone is reading this, I am looking for my first sponsor – it is for a cause that I think people know is enormously close to me, Bowel Cancer. Anyone like to be my very first sponsor?

Thank you/

So having thought about my blog title, and deciding that it didn’t really mean or say anything, I have changed it to the somewhat naff “To Kilimanjaro (and beyond?)“. I’m not sure about it still though. Maybe I should delete the parentheses? Or change the question mark to an exclamation mark? I don’t know – anyway it is better than it was that is for sure.

I suppose that I am still learning all this technical stuff. I am also a bit of a ‘stabber and a pecker’ when it comes to typing, having never learned to use a keyboard until I was way too old (that’s a reasonably big regret actually), and so I will hopefully sort it all out in the end. I need to learn how to put my posts into chapters or whatever they are called.

So what else happened today? – well I have not yet heard back on my hotel choice having given it yesterday to Henry, so hopefully tomorrow. That will be another significant one for me. I also need to go to the doctors to find out about what vaccinations and when I need them. I put a post onto ukwalkingforums website to see if anyone fancied a trek up the Fairfield Horseshoe at the weekend, but no takers yet. I have been contacted by a guy who has apparently led two Kili expeditions this year though, and has invited me to do the Three Peaks challenge at the end of October. That might be a stretch for me at the moment I have to say, especially to break in a new pair of boots (not to say the state of the rest of me).

I just need to get out and do something, that is for sure. It is interesting to note though that (especially for those of you that have done it before, of which I am one) the highest point in England, Scafell Pike, is a hard walk by most people’s standards. It hurts!. It is also a grand height of some 978 metres. Kilimanjaro is a gnat’s todger short of 6,000 metres! Holy smokes! Not for the faint hearted methinks.

Anyway, I am off to get some shuteye, I have to go and meet my nemesis in the morning for the first time, and I have to be there for 7am! Yes I am off to see Mark! I think I maybe shouldn’t have had this fifth glass of wine this evening?

If you do not hear from me tomorrow then he has probably put me off exercise for life – I am crossing my fingers, and think it is about 50:50 either way…………..or maybe that is being optimistic…….what, oh what, have I done?

So as I think I mentioned in a previous post, I decided that my old boots might just not see me up Kilimanjaro. I have of course heard that the porters run up there in God knows what on their feet, but I am not a porter – I don’t have their fitness, their knowledge of the mountain, their gusto, their youth. Moreover, my old boots (I’ll put a picture of them on here sometime) love them though I do, are not waterproof even, and so if we get wet at all, which may well happen, I am left high and very wet and miserable. If you get wet up there, you can’t exactly put your boots by the radiator to dry overnight and get your socks dry. You are stuck, for seven days and nights, with what you have on your feet.

I also have bloody awful feet. Apart from being heavy on shoes, and that is an understatement, my feet blister just at the thought of blisters. I can (and have) had really bad blisters in flip flops. Maybe I should go up Kili in my slippers then? Well, then I’d get blisters for sure.

So anyway, as I think I had mentioned way back a month or so ago, I had trundled on down to Blacks last month (who incidentally today announced very sadly that they are closing 89 of their stores), and tried on various different boots. So I went back yesterday and did the same again. I didn’t like the Scarpas (too clumpy), or the Merrells (just didn’t feel ‘mountainy’ enough), and so on. I settled on what I had tried on previously, the Meindl Burma Pro MFS.  Meindl are apparently a German company, and I’ve never had a problem with anything German that I have ever bought.

The boots feel fantastic. They did cost a total arm and a leg (£175 if you are curious), but they make you want to walk. They sort of make your feet ‘rock’ forwards, and I cannot wait to get to try them out.The MFS is for Memory Foam System, which apparently moulds to your feet as you wear them. That might be bunkum for all I know, but what matters most for me is that they are comfortable, they are high and hold your ankles firmly, they look to be fantastically well made (and for the money so they should be), and they give me confidence that I can do anything in them, which is all I can possibly ask.

I want to go the Lake District this weekend for the first time in what seems like forever to try them out. There is nowhere else that I could think of going, and I think I have to go and see my favourite mountain, Helvellyn, to christen them. I have just googled Helvellyn, and came across the following, which I have no idea if am allowed to reproduce here, but just look at these pictures – I mean, isn’t it absolutely STAGGERINGLY beautiful?

http://www.jameslomax.com/words/980/wainwright-and-the-lake-district

So I am also reminded of my favourite Wainwright quote, which I shall put in full in another post somewhere later (perhaps this weekend when I hopefully am there), which talks about Helvellyn’s ‘mystical quality’, and uses the words ‘legend and immortal’ – can they even be understatements?

So if not Helvellyn, before I get too carried away, maybe it will be the Fairfield Horseshoe. It’s a good walk, at about 13 miles, and has about 3,500 feet of ascent. Better still, it starts and finishes pretty damn near my favourite pub in the whole world, The Golden Rule in Ambleside, which I haven’t been anywhere near in a long time. Could be a good weekend I think – any takers?

Until tomorrow………