We set off from the start point and made our way into a playing field just off the main road. Our directions said we had to walk along a path on the side of the field and then around the playing fields belonging to the Thornbury Barracks, the home of a Reserve Parachute Regiment. So no messing about there then we reckoned. Unfortunately the path was completely overgrown and we ended up following some people with dogs on the edge of the fields until we reached a point where we could turn left or right. The dog walkers were obviously locals and pointed us in the right direction so we set off across some open fields towards Calverley Golf Club.

I have Golf issues and wouldn’t usually be seen dead on a Golf Course but nevertheless we had to walk straight through the middle of the course. Lisa got a bit stressed that we were crossing so many fairways but we reached the other side with no damage done. I even thanked some Golfers for waiting until we passed before they continued to try and get the little ball in the little hole. I really don’t see the attraction. So once clear of the sportsmen Golfers we found ourselves on a rough track heading downhill.

Once we’d descended into the valley at the bottom of the track we swung a sharp right and then followed a beck along for about a mile or so. Halfway along we half took a wrong turn at a fork in the path and bumped into a guy sat in a clearing with his dog. He shouted out to us about how good the weather was and we had to walk past him to get back on course. He seemed proud of his pooch but asked me to take off my cap as it spooked him. I did and the pooch seemed happy enough. We waved goodbye to the guy whereupon I went arse over apex on a patch of mud flattening my sunglasses in the process. Doh. No serious harm done, just a bit of dented pride and a muddy knee.

We again followed the course of the beck and eventually reached an old mill near to Carr Road, the A657. We crossed the road a went back down into the valley, again following the beck. At this point I received a text from my youngest daughter saying that my travelling eldest daughter had spent the night sleeping in a bus shelter on the outskirts of Sydney. Not a lot I could do with me walking past all sorts of flotsam and jetsam floating in the beck and she’s upside down thousands of miles away. Sigh. (she’s OK by the way). Anyway, we soon emerged from the valley and after crossing the Leeds and Liverpool canal we found ourselves at Apperley Bridge, which is a bridge over the River Aire. It’s the name of a village too and is on the boundary between Leeds and Bradford. The LCW is supposed to stay wholly within the Leeds boundary so I suppose that’s what we did. I have no idea exactly where the boundary is.

Once over the bridge we took a right turn and walked through a gap between playing fields at Woodhouse Grove School. A whole lot swankier than the school I attended, lucky kids I reckoned. Once we’d cleared the playing fields we followed the course of the River Aire for a mile or so, crossing under railway bridges, climbing over fallen trees and passing through styles and gates on the way. This section was quite flat but eventually we had to climb uphill through a part of Cragg Woods onto Woodlands Road. Funnily enough this was the scene of an accident where my Mum had succumbed to the evils of a rising bollard. It had taken the bottom off her car and gave her some bumps and bruises for good measure. There’s a legal case pending but the other side aren’t responding to solicitor’s letters. Bad form. The buggers have even put up a new sign warning people after my Mum’s accident. Guilty as charge in my book.

We left the killer bollard and walked uphill towards Rawdon and decided to sit down and eat our butties. We were within a quarter of a mile of our finish but we were hungry so who cares. Once we were fed and watered we completed the walk and arrived back at Lisa’s car. This part of the walk seemed a little easier than the first we’d done and we think it’s either down to:

• Increased fitness on our part (highly unlikely really)
• A more prepared approach to the walk
• Slightly easier terrain

I think I could have easily managed to walk another section straight away and we may just do that the next time we do another part. Next Sunday probably since the weather is looking AOK.

There are some more images from this section at my flickr site.

Initially we’d thought about using public transport to get to the start points and then return from the finish points the same way. Unfortunately in most cases that would mean a bus into Leeds, then a bus to the start point and then the same in reverse when we were done. Eight bus fares is more expensive than leaving a car at both the start and finish so that’s what we’re doing. Not too green really but we make up for it in other ways trust me.

We drove to our end point at Thornbury and abandoned Lisa’s car there. We then drove back to Whitehall Road and parked my car in the Valley Inn car park at the top of Dale Road. I figured that we’d be having a pint there on our way home so I didn’t feel guilty about just dumping my car and walking off. Hope that’s OK Mr Valley Inn Landlord Sir.

The weather was predicted to be sunny with showers and I don’t think Lisa was too impressed about the showers part but fortunately it stayed sunny all day and there was a breeze that cooled us down on the way round. I’m up for walking in all weathers (hell I used to do it for a living) but I think Lisa may be a dry weather only walker. Hopefully she’ll brave the elements when it comes to it and it surely will knowing the vagaries of the British weather. Rumour has it we’re having a half decent summer this year for a change so you never know.

We left the Valley Inn at 11.15am and set off downhill along Dale Road towards the bottom of the valley. I couldn’t help think that I’d become the hiker off The Fast Show even though I was just wearing a hoody and combats. I felt like singing Tra La Laaaa as I walked along. Incidentally, this scene from the fast show featuring said hiker has me in stitches every time I see it!

When we reached the bottom of the hill and passed the barking dogs on the way we came across what I think was Dale Farm where we were supposed to turn off the metalled road and walk off up an unmade track. There were some goats with big jocking horns all sunning themselves underneath an upturned skip. A few of the kids were bleating and looking at us so I couldn’t resist a photo opportunity.

Once we left the farm we followed the unmade track that led us to Tong Beck. Our walking guide told us to stay with the beck all the way along the valley so this is what we did, passing through Nan Whin’s Wood. On the way through we came across a family and their Rhodesian Ridgeback. I’ve always liked this particular breed of dog but Lisa had never seen one in the flesh. We stopped and talked with the family for a while and the guy told us that back in Africa Ridgebacks would be used to hunt Antelope and other deer like critters. Apparently the dogs run alongside and then barge the running prey until they fall over. Apparently the trait is still present today and Ridgebacks can have you off your feet in no time at all. Don’t know if that’s right but the guy convinced us anyway!

After crossing Tong Lane we re-joined the Beck and continued towards Bankhouse Bottom. At this point we were crossing large fields most of which were empty until we came across a few grazing cows. They seemed interested in us and started moving our way. Perhaps they thought we were farmers or something. It wasn’t a scary cow incident or anything but I started wondering if there was a bull somewhere in the field, some of which was out of site over the crest of a hill. We didn’t hang about to find out. I suppose I’m sounding like a right Towny here aren’t I. Ho-hum.

We followed the Beck and passed through Fulneck Golf Course. I’ve since learned that the Beck at this point is actually the boundary between Bradford and Leeds. More fields followed until we reached the bottom of Westroyd Hill. In an adjacent field were perhaps fifty or so young cows and one white horse of about the same stature. They were all running about in a big stampede from field to field and the horse was having a whale of a time. Perhaps it thought it was a cow or something, who knows. If I could have acted quickly I could have videoed it but the moment passed and that was that.

We climbed up out of the valley and we knew there was a pub at the top, the Fox and Grapes where we stopped for a pint and a bag of crisps each. It was a nice clean pub and we may go back there for a Sunday Dinner one day.

I do hope pubs like that survive the current financial climate because it will be a sad loss if the majority of our drinking houses disappear. We’ll be left with bland chain bars in town and city centres and a part of who we are will disappear. One more reason to hate capitalism for me.

After leaving the pub we descended back into the valley and made our way up towards the main A647 at Thornbury. In this section there is a long uphill climb along a cobbled path. I must walk too quickly and Lisa kept telling me to slow down. I didn’t realise I was that fit!

Once the path levelled out we crossed over the level crossing and on towards the main road and back to Lisa’s car. I think it was around 3.00pm by this time which was longer than anticipated but we’d messed about a bit and stopped at the pub. I think we’ll allow a similar time for the rest of the sections we’re going to cover.

So part one completed, eleven more to go. Things to take next time will be our camel back rucksacks that we brought back from New York a few years ago. We’ve actually only used them once when they were filled with Skittle Vodka at Glastonbury last year. We’ll fill them with something less explosive for the walks though.

There are a few more pictures from this section of the walk on my flickr site.

This is the first post in a new category on the site dedicated to the Leeds Country Way (LCW), or more to the point, my plan to walk its entire length during 2009. I’ve never been much of a hiker or rambler probably since most of my working life has been spent outdoors and I’d get my fresh air fixes either whilst working or playing cricket, flying kites etc. So seeing as these days I’m tied to a desk most of the day I’ve decided that I need to get out more. The LCW seems like a good way of achieving that objective so it seems like a plan to me.

So What Is It

From Wikipedia:

The Leeds Country Way is a circular long-distance footpath of 62 miles (99 km) around Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is nowhere further than 7 miles (11 km) from Leeds City Square, but is mainly rural with extensive views in the outlying areas of the Leeds metropolitan district. It follows public footpaths and minor lanes, with a few short sections along roads.

When and Where

I was going to do the walk alone but Lisa seemed up for it so we’re doing it together. The walk is divided into four parts and each part is sub-divided into 3 sections of about 5 miles each. You can start at any section as it’s a circle so we decided to start at the nearest point to home which would allow us to finish at the same place. Pretty obvious really.

We did our first section on Sunday 3rd May 2009 and that’s the subject of the next post coming right up!

Distro Stuff

I’d installed CrunchBang Linux on the aging Laptop and I was really getting to like it. The only problem that I encountered was wireless networking. For some reason I simply could not get WPA2 Personal encryption working between the Laptop and my AP. Unencrypted, no problem, but any hint of security and it didn’t want to play ball. I Googled and asked on forums but nothing. Damn!

Wireless salvation came in the form of Arch Linux. I’ve run Arch briefly before on a spare desktop but I ended up turning that machine into a headless server so I re-installed something else. However, this latest Arch installation on the Laptop went really well and I now have a lovely XFCE4 Desktop with a fully working oh-my-god-it-was-so-easy wireless connection. I like Arch so much I’m considering using it on my main desktop machine. Next install round maybe.

Oh yeah and just for shits and giggles I installed Puppy Linux on a really old machine with a mere 64mb RAM. It’s amazing but I can run SeaMonkey and a load of other stuff on a not bad looking Desktop. In 64mb RAM. Sheeeesh!

PayPal

One of my daily roles is to administrate a subscription based website and for my sins I act as the banker. The payments are made via PayPal and over the past weekend Paypal and I fell out. I had to bite my tongue a lot because they were holding onto a not insignificant amount of money and I didn’t want to see that go west. The problem was a sudden surge of payments resulted in my account being locked down because of anti-money laundering policies. I have had to jump through numerous hoops, upload quite a few scanned documents and even my Mum had to nip into town to fax something for me!

The good news is that things are back on stream. Wow was I stressed about it on Friday.

Becca’s Holiday

My daughter Rebecca is due to go on holiday at the end of May and she’s really looking forward to it. She’s off with her mate Alyssa to Ibiza together with Alyssa’s parents. Anyway, we discovered that the holiday clashes with Rebecca’s History AS Level Exam. Not good.

Rebecca and I have had a week where she was undecided whether to do the exam or not and have to resit the thing in January. I’ve been beating the drum that that’s the last thing she should do since she’s been recognised as having definite academic potential. Eventually we’ve come to a compromise where she’s getting a flight home alone a day early and will therefore be able to sit the exam.

I’m having to cop for paying for the flight but it’s worth it. I half imagined Rebecca’s Mum would find some of the money but I’m just being silly to myself. She contributes fuck all towards Rebecca anyway so I’m not going to waste my time asking her.

Designers Block

I’ve been trying my best to set some time aside to develop my own WordPress Theme either more or less from scratch or by using one of the frameworks such as Thematic. Much staring at the screen and hmmming and I’ve got nowhere. I keep swinging one way and then the other and wasting a lot of time due to indecision. Once I get rolling I’ll be OK but it’s just making myself pull my finger out and do it that’s the problem.

I will make a start this week. Honest.

Leeds Country Way

Lastly, I’ve been planning to walk the Leeds Country Way and now that Summer is almost here we decided to walk the first section yesterday, Sunday May 3rd. Very enjoyable it was too so I’ll dedicate an entire blog post to it later. Actually I’ll make a dedicated category for it too.

And that’s that…