1st camping expedition of the year! Easter 2011

We dusted off the tent and away we went - as the weather was so gorgeous we packed the car thursday evening to make sure we got the whole easter weekend to chillax!  Our destination was Shrewsbury county show ground and the TAG dog agility show.

Now it was my first ever dog show trip, but with Anna and her family veterens at it there was lots of experience around to answer my stupid questions!  Anna's family run a dog training school which includes obidience but mainly teaches the art of 'dog agility training'.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to test out my new zoom lens with lots of Dogs jumping over things and running through things!

The weather held out all weekend and it was bloody glorious - factor 30 was needed every day, and Betty and Wilma (along with skip, jack, della, badger, hugo and millie) regularly needed a dip in the Severn to cool off.  My lens worked realy well too, outshining the kit lens in a comparison, I took some ace photos!

Im taking Wilma to agility training this week as she got so excited during the weekend and apparently she will be ace at it!

Geeky Treasure Hunting = Geocaching

The concept is simple - while your out walking the dogs, or taking a stroll down the river or similar why not make it more interesting and seek out some buried treasure!  ok so treasure in the loose sense of the word, as far as i know there is no pot of gold located at a geocache site, but its 'treasure' hunting no less.  And, to appeal to my geeky nature; its all about GPS and Gadgets!

I was aware of geocaching but only recently did Anna and I look into it properly.  Once we had found that there is an official iPhone App and we had viewed the introduction video's on http://www.geocaching.com/ website we were all excited about having a go.  After a few minutes familiarising ourselves with it all we had created an account and we realised there was a geocache hidden less than 500m from our house!

There are currently 1,351,307 active geocaches around the world, some are tiny little things with just a small log book to sign your username in, some are larger containers where people leave items that you can swap (these are the ones Alex likes the most!).  Part of the fun is seeking out the location, the walk to find it and then when you are near, the hunt is really on to find the well hidden container whilst not alerting non-geocachers to its presence!  In just a week we have 'found' 8 Geocaches with more local ones to attempt as well as plans to incorperate geocaching into our camping trips and weekend dog walks.


 A medium cache - room for swaps, log book and more!

A micro cache - just enough space for the log book and pencil



Most people use handheld GPS devices it seems, but the £6 iPhone app is proving to be accurate enough for us to use (and cheaper than a £300 GPS unit!). It allows direct access to 'nearest caches', searches by postcode and then you can log your finds direct to geocaching.com from within the app; even including a photo if you want!  Genius! 

screenshots

official iPhone App tutorial



We are officially hooked and are looking for any opportunity to go grab a cache!

Snowdon ascent - April 2011

I got a phone call from my Mum while we were wandering around the Caravan and outdoor show at the NEC. She was asking if Anna and I would like to help them out with a job they had recieved over a weekend. The job, as she put it, was to join them in shooting a short film about a charity walk. 'Easy!' we thought. It turned out that the charity walk was a man's personal challenge to walk 47 miles in 47 hours from his house in North Wales, to the top of Mount Snowdon to raise money for BLESMA 'British Limbless Ex-Servicemen Association'. The idea was we would follow the team on day 2 filming their walk from Llanberis to the foot of Snowdon, and then the following day film them setting off and then get the train to the top to meet them there. Well, Anna has always wanted to climb Snowdon, and it had been years since I had done it so we actually got excited and told my Mum we would walk up Snowdon with them!



Mike and the team at the start of the final day of the 47 challenge

My Mum and Step-dad, John, filmed Day 1 on the friday - 26 miles (a marathon!) from Rhuallt to Llanberis. We took over on Saturday in the glorious weather in Llanberis, through Betws-y-coed, Capel Curig and to Pen-y-pass - a mere 13 miles for the team to trek. Snowdonia is one of the most beautiful places in the world -FACT!

A = Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)
B = Garnedd Ugain
C = Crib Goch
D = Y Lliwedd

1 = Snowdon Horseshoe
2 = PYG Track
3 = Miners Track (the route we took in green)

We were up at 5:30 on Sunday to get to Pen-y-pass carpark early but the weary team, which included ex-servicemen with prosthetic limbs, took longer to muster on the final day. Nevertheless, we set off on Snowdon's 'Miners Track' while it was still fairly cool. The Miners track is one of the most common 'ascents' of Snowdon, mainly due to its 'gentle' start, and also because of the stunning route along the banks of Snowdon's two lakes with the summit always and ever-present in view.

By the time we had rounded Llyn Llydaw we were really starting to climb, or so we thought.  It wasnt until we stopped at the top of Llyn Glaslyn for a short break we assessed the magnitude of what was to come; a 170 meter scree to scramble up to meet with the Pyg Track before the final push through the 'zig-zags' to reach the horseshoe path.  The summit was only a short walk up some more forgiving steps.

The view was absolutely breath taking (literally and metaphorically!).  There was a slight haze on account of it being so hot that day, but we could see for miles in every direction. the rest of the charity team all made it and there was even champagne that had been carried all the way up to celebrate the acheivement.  The team raised £11,500 for the charity and after a weekend of walking they deservedly took the snowdon mountain railway down to Llanberis (and the nearest pub!).


View from the Summit looking down towards the route we walked up

Anna and I decided to amble our way back down the Miners Track, which was a different kind of difficult compared to the way up.  we also got some more time to take in the views when not having to 'jog ahead' to get the next filming shot set up!

Just over 6 hours in all, 753meters ascent, 7miles in distance - and now Anna is planning our next trip to Snowdon - with the Dogs perhaps? The Llanberis route with Alex? Crib Goch with Michael? The Pyg Track?

Weekend In Yorkshire!

This weekend we set off up North to the gorgeous village of Luddenden to catch up with Anna's cousin Kirsty and Meg the dog!  Luddenden is not far from Halifax in the Pennines; which yes did mean hills!

Betty and Wilma soon got re-acquainted with Meg and it quickly became time to head off for an afternoon walk.  Kirsty had planned a stroll up the the 'rec' recreation grounds, over to the moor top, around the tops and down to Jeruselum Farm and back along the river to the village.  One thing for sure;  Its bloody steep in Yorkshire!




Meg heading up the hil to the 'Rec' - Stolen from Kirsty's Facebook Photo's!


It was a really lovely day and if I wasnt so bloody knackered climbing up to the top I would have remembered to take a photograph!  Plenty of swimming for the doggits, although Meg was not quite as keen as Betty and Wilma to dive in the water.  A real mix of moorland, woods, riversides, and lanes it was a really lovely few hours on saturday; especially as we took a well earned pause in the 'Lord Nelson' for a pint.  We revisited part of the walk again in reverse on the Sunday followed by an ace brekkie brunch before heading back home!




I think this is where we walked - if not completly correct its pretty close!


Kirsty introduced us to a great walking app for the iPhone during our visit.  Its called 'Footsteps' and is a nice little app to monitor walks like the one we did - especially if your interested in pedometer functions, calories burnt, and distance travelled. It is quite customisable to your specific weight, step length etc which makes it more accurate.  it also allows you to graph your progress over time which looked good!  at 59p it was must buy for us!  You can also listen to your iPhones music through the app while you walk (or jog!).  Here are the two screen shots of the weekends expeditions;

Left - Saturdays longer walk (in km) Right - Sundays less strenuous walk (in miles)

Outdoor leisure show and the caravan and boat show!

We have tickets for both the Outdoor leisure show and the caravan and boat show at the NEC this weekend.

Looking forward to mooching around all the gear and stands!


-- Post From My iPhone

Lazy Saturday Stroll - Downs Banks

The Downs Banks is a local national trust nature reserve in Stone.  Brilliant for dog walking (and picnic's in the summer) we go there a lot on weekend walks with the 'Pongos'.  What was intended to be a quiet stroll turned into a 'party' affair when Robin and the Collies were found at the car park when we arrived, and we were joined by Sal and Reece with their two mutley's shortly after!

The Downs Banks used to be where the local Joules brewery used to grow their hops, but was given to the National Trust  after the second world war in memory of those who died. The woodland walk is great for the dogs; there is gated sections and loads of places to run off the lead and explore.  Betty and Wilma love the stream too!

The Downs Banks was also the birth place of what we like to call 'Where's Alex?'  This charts the uncanny abilities and genius hiding skills of Alex who is second only to his idol, Wally (of Where's Wally fame).  Alex can blend into the surroundings like a Costa Rican Chameleon..... in custard.  See examples below!

I bet you cant see him, can you?!

Staffordshire Moorlands - Furnace Forest

Todays adventure took us close to Alton and Dimmingsdale which are near Cheadle, to one of the Staffordshire moorland walks available via their website. Furnace forest, once part of the Earl of Shrewsbury's estate, is where Alton Towers was built by the 15th Earl.  Today, however, it gave us a great trail throught the woods while being soaked by the feburary drizzle! 



The route we took was a slight detour from this map but still a very enjoyable walk, even with the weather!


Today we went all out; 6 adults, 1 child, 5 collies, 2 springers, and 1 staffy! The walk itself was about 4 miles with some steep ups and downs, and when your up against the rain like we were it took us 3 hours or so to complete (with a lunch stop). 


Pond and Millhouse - close to the start of the walk.


We met up at the Ramblers Retreat cafe carpark and set off towards the old mill.  There were plenty of dammed pools and some fast flowing streams all the way round the walk.  The paths varied from sturdy bridal path to completely boggy trails.  Some of the climbs and downs were a bit slippy but that was down to the weather!  at one point we got a great view across the valley to Alton Towers.

The adults walked the 4 miles.  To Alex, who takes two steps to our one, this obviously meant he walked 8 miles today.  Betty and Wilma and their doggy companions on the other hand must have done about 10miles with all the exploring they did.  The whole walk was very dog friendly and we only had to be cautious about putting them on leads for a short section through a livestock field.

One of the dammed pools - and a few wet doggits!

Unless you are feeling really flush I wouldnt bother with the ramblers retreat.  It was a bit too posh inside for us bedraggled lot, but there is a hatch outside with some sunhouses and umbrella's but the prices were a bit steep even for coffee!

We are definitely going back to this walk in the spring to see it all in a different light with less rain and slightly more sun!