Category: Walking and Hiking

Elton, Gratton Dale and Long Dale

This was Saturday’s walk, or was it Sunday. You tend to lose track of time, when there aren’t appointments on the calendar and one day merges into the next. That will change as I become more involved in the locality. I have already met a few people with the U3A in Matlock, and I shall be going to table tennis tomorrow and out with a ‘short walk’ group on Saturday.

I had spotted Elton on my OS map and noticed that it had a couple of dales in easy reach of the small village. It is only a short drive away – no more than 10 mins – so perfect as a starting point on my epic ventures in Derbyshire.

I parked close to the church. The village is lovely, with old and new houses blending in well together. No shop, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary these days. I set off down the road and met my first obstacle- actually, the only obstacle of the day. There were two (at least) paths shown going off at the farm but on the ground the one I wanted didn’t exist. Unperturbed, I followed what I thought should be the right of way following a line of trees around the farm. It was very muddy – mud is something I am going to have to get used to. Then where to go to at the other end of the farm buildings? Still no footpath signs, so using my common sense I skirted around the easterly edge of the buildings, the ground been mostly slurry – not attractive! And then, I spy a gap in front of me as if I was supposed to know I was on the right track all the time.

From there, it was downhill into an attractive valley – still no obvious path – but as I had my trusty map I knew I was going in the right direction. Finally it became clear as I reached a gate with a signpost. I could also hear voices just ahead of me. At Dale End, very appropriately named, I turned left to see the owners of the raucous laughter. A small family, doing their best to cover up a noticeboard? Um… interesting? It turns they were the lead family in a massive group of 30 people on somebody’s 50th birthday spree involving a treasure hunt. The family were way ahead of their party and sabotaging all the clues :-). I was warned about mud, but I hardly needed warning after what I had been through already.

Gratton Dale is a mostly dry, narrow valley with low scrub and green hillsides. It was still quite green with only a few autumnal colours, and I imagine in spring it will come alive with flowers and birdlife. I did see several butterflies and squirrels, but otherwise it was mostly devoid of active natural life. I had walked for many minutes before I met the remainder of the birthday party group – they were very spread out, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Again, they warned me about mud! See what I mean?

This part of Gratton Dale continues for about 1 mile, when it reaches an abrupt end, rather like a T junction, with a hill banking up in front and hills to either side. The path to the left is the quicker path to the main road, but I was still exploring the hills and dales, so I went up Long Dale to the right. Incidentally, there are some awkward stiles just here that require care when climbing over. My old IOM walking Whatsapp companions “No, Not Another Stile” would no doubt be shaking their heads 🙂 .

Long Dale was short but lovely. There was a sense of timelessness about it, of people walking along these tracks from place to place with their sheep or youngsters frolicking about on lazy Sundays. I enjoyed it very much. All too soon, it was time to go into the western section of Gratton Dale. This was more open than the eastern side and followed a low stone wall all the way along, presumably a boundary of someone’s land. As I reached the end I was met by a herd of cattle who were clearly not going to budge so I had to elevate myself above them to get round. They didn’t even ‘moo’ to acknowledge my respect for them.

The next mile is very boring in one sense, in that it follows a main road. There is no real alternative, but once off the road it is plain sailing on grassland and ploughed land, and no stiles. It’s also in a dead straight line, so you barely need a map going from field to field. This time, you just have make yourself very slim to sidle between two stone posts. The birds were in their element here, lots of them, nesting? in the low growth. I couldn’t work out what birds they were. I did try, but my App gave me silly answers. One of the very large fields had only just been ploughed so I had to blaze the right of way through it, just in time to meet the 30 party-goers again on their way back to Hollybush Farm. The views all along the main road and into these fields is amazing. You need see it to appreciate it, as the distances are too big for a photograph.

From the high open fields, it is a gradual descent into Elton. There was a surprising number of wildflowers, including the tiniest primrose I have ever seen, on the very windy upland part of this walk.

This is not a long walk, but was fairly strenuous with the mud and rocks in the valleys. It’s one I shall look forward to doing it in other seasons, if I can find a better way around the farm at the start.

STATS -Distance: 5.66 miles; Total Ascent: 568 ft; Total Descent: 479ft. Total time taken 2hrs 26 mins; walking time 2hrs.

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Farewell to the Isle of Man

We could not have wished for better weather on our Saturday walk. It was warm and sunny, if a little misty. 11 of us set off on the tram up to the top of the mountain, where it was somewhat breezier than down below in Laxey. The moors were wetter than we were expecting and care was needed going down to Black Hut. Crossing the road a strong boardwalk has been created over the bog, one of the best I have ever seen. We paused momentarily to watch a female damselfly lay her eggs in the water. It was a short uphill walk and then we had the splendid views of the Conrhenny valley with North Barrule and its associate hills on our left (after moorland photos). It was beautiful. We decided not to do the higher ridge walk over heather, which in hindsight was a good thing as a few people were wearing shorts and one person’s shoes fell apart. Not that it was easy walking on the lower track as it is very stony and uneven. One of the party said that this had been a nice grass track in the past, but has been destroyed, I guess, by the motorbikes and cyclists that are allowed on this path. It was a steady walk down to Laxey, past King Orry’s graves and back to our starting point at Laxey railway station. A very memorable and happy day, with good friends, who I will dearly miss.

The Monday walk was a different affair altogether, with absolutely pouring rain. My camera and phone stayed firmly in my rucksack the whole way. Fortunately, it was only a short 3 mile walk, but even so, those of us who did venture out thoroughly enjoyed it. We looked at the different vegetation and vistas and we had a jolly good natter. The heritage trail from St Johns to Peel (it starts at Douglas) is of course flat and relatively wide, which makes it easy to communicate. The path is ‘wearing’ in well, after its overhaul a few years ago, when it was very hard underfoot. It is more pleasurable to walk on now, and of course, around the Raggatt is is beautiful.

As I had mis-guessed the length of the route, thinking it was 5 miles not 3 miles, we arrived early at Peel, which gave me time to say goodbye to Lara at the Manx Wildlife Trust and to get a coffee before the rest of the party arrived for lunch. Our small number of 4 then swelled to 10. They were certainly drier than we were, but everyone was very happy. We had a super meal at the Marine Hotel. Everything was cooked to perfection and served in good time.

This was a different, but just as enjoyable way of saying cheerio to yet more friends. I shall have some very fond memories of my last few days on the Isle of Man and I thank you all, and those who couldn’t attend, for making my life here on the island so happy.

So, this is me signing off from the Isle of Man. Once I am established in England I shall revamp the blog and have sections for different areas of the country and abroad. I was walking in the uplands of Norway recently and that was truly spectacular…

Change of domain name

As I am moving off island, I want to retain the old IOM site and all its details, so I have created a new domain name that (I think) will do this and allow me to develop a site for Derbyshire. You should see that the site is now redirected to Walkingwithgill.blog.
When I work out how to do it, I’ll change the main title (and cover picture once I have moved) to reflect the new domain.

Meanwhile, I will post photos of the two farewell walks in a couple of weeks.

Thank you for following my blog, and I hope I can retain your interest in my new location.

Moving off Island

After almost 11 very happy years on the Isle of Man, I am moving back to England for a mixture of reasons – the most important to be closer to my family. I expect to move mid-end September and I shall be renting in Matlock for the time being.

I am holding two ‘Farewell Walks’, one on Saturday 31st August, which will be a longer walk starting at Laxey, taking the tram up Snaefell and walking back, hopefully over the tops into Laxey. A distance of about 7 miles. The second is on Monday 2nd September, and is a low level walk along the Heritage trail from St John’s to Peel, about 5 miles. Anyone who has been following my posts is welcome to join me on either day, but I do need to know if you want to come on the Snaefell walk in order to book the tram for the correct number of people. If you have not already received an email from me and would like to come along on either or both walks, please email me at grlockett@gmail.com and I’ll send you all details.

Obviously “gillsisleofmanwalks.blog” will not continue unless someone is interested in taking it over. I have been asked if I will set up a new blog ‘gillsderbyshirewalks’ and this is possible, in which case I will try and incorporate the existing Isle of Man walks into a special section on the new blog. I’ll let you know when I have set this up.

Thank you for your interest in my blog over the years and I hope some of you, if you are on island, will be able to join me to say cheerio.

Change of blog site

With work commitments, most of which involve many long zoom calls a week, I am finding it hard to find the motivation to write up reports of my walks. This may change in the future, but for now, I am reverting to using my free site, which is isleofmanwalks803367537.wordpress.com, as wordpress is fairly costly if it is not being used regularly. If you are one of my followers, can I suggest you bookmark this new reference page.

Until my plan runs out in August, my individual website will remain live.

Thank you for all your support and the interesting communication I have had with so many like-minded walkers. I hope this will continue in the future. I shall keep you posted.

Port Erin Circular

This was intended to be Port Erin to Castletown, but I really hadn’t thought it through; not only for the distance, which would have been 12 miles, but for the difficulty of the task. Hold on, you say, I’ve walked that many a time without any difficulty. True, I would reply, but not in winter when we have had weeks of rain. I hadn’t given this latter thought any consideration as I set out yesterday morning, to do the first walk in well over a year that I have been able to do entirely for myself with no hidden agenda.

It was slightly warmer that it had been, with no rain forecast and not particularly windy, so I was expecting great things. My first photo shows Port Erin looking its glorious self as I headed down Dandy Lane. The light was lovely, with the sun peeping out from the clouds, highlighting different parts of the cliffs, and in my first photograph the tiny lighthouse. My expectations were dampened as soon as I reached the coastal footpath. There was literally a torrent of water hurtling down the footpath and surrounding cliff as if there was no tomorrow. I just stood and stared it for a while; in all my times of walking this route, I have never seen anything like it. Don’t get me wrong, it was never going to prevent me carrying on, but what a sight. I could see a lady on the road below thinking I was absolutely nuts! It’s a good job none of my friends had been able to join me on this occasion, as I imagine some at least would have turned back.

It took a little negotiating. The photos don’t show full amount of footpath under seige. The rocks and steps were slippery and in places there really was no foothold on dry ground, but I got through and remained surprisingly dry. Above the wall, the stream was still gushing down but at least it didn’t trouble me any more. I guessed that there would be more of this to come, but I was wrong. Yes, there were some very wet and boggy patches but where I had to cross streams, they were perfectly passable. In some ways, the narrow paths were the worst, as they were slippery and uneven. But, what does all this matter when you stop and take a look at what is around you. The light was stunning, giving me my own personal light show, as it lit up different sections of the countryside as I went past. Looking down at my feet, there were three varieties of fungus competing with the grasses, moss and ferns for space.

I arrived happily at the Sound, but didn’t stop until I reached the next headland, Spanish Head. The climb up wasn’t bad at all, the footholds not too muddy, but now the footpaths did become very muddy and awkward, with deep puddles that were unavoidable. And still, I had seen no-one to spoil my enjoyment of the countryside, and indeed this continued to be the case until I reached the Chasms Cafe (5 miles into the walk). People often walk from Cregneash and Port St Mary up to this very special place, so it was unsurprising that I met two couples at this point. I sat in the shelter and had my coffee. Looking out to sea I could just see Anglesey in the distance. The routes down from here have lovely views of the south from Port St Mary to Castletown and beyond, but the walking is not comparable with the terrain I had just been walking on. Given that I have a jippy left knee and sciatica in my right leg, I thought enough was enough and there really was not a lot to gain by continuing on past Port St Mary. I could have shortened the route home by going up through Glen Chass or across the golf course, but I satisfied myself that I wanted to see the village and then take the back route home.

Total distance: 8.5 miles; 1352 ft of ascent; 1434 ft descent.

I have such a lot of nice photos from this walk, I have created a slide show for you. I had intended to edit a couple of them, but my computer won’t let me, so you have the raw versions.

My left knee pain seems to have resolved itself, but if anyone has any home remedies for sciatica, which has been plaguing me for a week now, do let me know!

No posts for now – Covid

I haven’t been able to finish writing up my holiday in Austria as I contracted Covid on the way home and I am quite poorly. I tested positive on Saturday night. Once I am feeling better and have caught up on work I will complete the holiday blog. I won’t be walking for the next few weeks either.

I remained covid free for 3.5 yrs and I was bound to get it sometime, so can’t complain. See you all once I am through it.

Austria Day 3: Schleier Wasserfall, St Johann in Tyrol

This turned out to be the longest and hardest walk I have done in years. I was expecting it to be 10 miles and about 1600ft of ascent but in reality both were exceeded.

I started out at 8.30am with the intention of finishing the walk between 2-3pm and then taking the Gondola up one or other mountain. It was a warm day and the sun glistened on the river as I walked beside it up to Rettenbach. This lies in a plateau and the surrounding mountains stick out as a fine backdrop every way you turn. The only thing to spoil it at all was the sound of the traffic on the main road.

I reached Rettenbach easily and started looking for the footpaths that would lead uphill. In so doing, I passed a woodturner’s premises with the aptly named business title of Holtzwurm. Outside his premises he displayed some of his wares and fine specimens they were too as you can see in the photo below. Just past his domain was the first waysign to the Schleier Falls and I followed this path a short distance until it turned into a different sign saying Wanderweg, which usually means a contouring path circling an area. Look as I might for the path I wanted and I thought I had found it until this petered out. I made the classic error of not turning back immediately and got myself into real hot water when there was no clear path forward or back, just loads of vegetation and trees. Oops! I managed not to panic, and decided that if I keep the ravine to my right and the sun just to my left, I should ultimately return approximately to where I had started. These navigation skills supported me well, along with some odd black and white posts that I thought must lead somewhere, and after about 40 mins of traipsing aimlessly in the forest I found the original track, and just kept going, even if I was reasonably sure it was not the path I had originally wanted. Phew! I could breathe again.

I eventually I came to a path that did suggest it was going in the right direction and I followed this very successfully, passing lumberjacks clearing some of the forest and an old man resting on a log.

There are many twists and turns and false tracks to avoid on this walk. I did have a landscape map of the footpaths in the area but it wasn’t accurate. Some paths are unmarked on the ground, other paths are named but do not appear on the map, so whether you find your route successfully is rather hit and miss for the tourist. It is all heavily wooded, with no views as you make your way uphill. That is not to say it is unattractive, but it is unrelenting. There are also sections with steep drops and narrow paths, so not for the faint hearted.

By luck rather than judgement I seemed to find myself on the track I had intended, but what I didn’t know was where it would lead. There is an area called Debils Ofen, which I assume means Devil’s Oven, which is a series of caverns at the base of a massive rockface. The footpath actually passes through these, so I imagine when deluges come in winter this route will be entirely cut off. There were tree trunks and branches strewn along its course, evidence of previous activity.

Beyond this, the path makes its way annoying downhill, when you know that you have to go uphill, and sure enough just when you can hear the rush of water indicating you are getting near the falls, the path diverts uphill. There is a small summit and you can feel open space beyond, and I could hear voices chattering and laughing, so my sense of excitement grew. Be careful though not to get too excited as the path down to the base of the falls is rocky, with some large, and some small stones. Once your eyes adjust you can see the water cascading over the overhanging edge, looking rather like a shower curtain. There are other smaller falls, which no doubt become raging bulls in winter. I stopped temporarily under once such fall and washed my fevered brow. It was another very hot day, and for once I had felt the effects of the high altitude, so I took care to take my time, monitor my breathing and get back on an even keel before continuing.

It is much more interesting than it appears here in the photos and it is a very restful place.

The path down is a great deal easier than the path up, mostly on a fairly wide track. At the start, it is clear that my way down was most people’s way up as the stones were shiny and it would be easy to slip. Again, there are few views on the way down. The never ending tree lines are relieved in places by the children’s activity areas, which have been very cleverly designed.

Once back on level ground I decided to take the easiest road route back to St Johann. Having already done 11 miles, I didn’t want any false turns now and wanted to get back.

My Garmin watch recorded my route, which bears no resemblance at all to the paths on the tourist map I was given. I would recommend buying the Austrian equivalent of one of our OS maps or visiting the tourist information to get an up to date map and guide for any walk you intend to do. And make allowances for the high altitude, as it is relentlessly uphill for 7 miles.

Distance: 14 miles; Ascent 1988 ft; Descent 1949ft; Minimum Elevation 2224 ft; Maximum Elevation 3817 ft.

Austria Day 2 – Grossglockner

This was not a walking day, but an exceptional day for views as the coach took us higher and higher to the very apex of Austria – the Grossglockner. The images speak for themselves, and although I could name ridges and mountains I doubt if you would care much. The glaciers have retreated enormously since I was last there in the 1960s. I remember having a snowball fight with my peers in this location, but there was not a drop of snow to be seen below the glacier level this year. There are numerous notice boards dotted around the visitor sites, explaining that the process of deglaciation is not uncommon in the vicinity if you look back over the aeons. Nonetheless the rate of change is quite remarkable as you will see from the photos.

and from former days:

After this, we travelled to the beautiful alpine village of Heilingenblut. This traditional village has an iconic church and tremendous views down the valley, but little else for the passing tourist unless you have time in your hands, in which case you could visit the waterfalls or amble along the valley. The church graveyard was beautifully maintained with flowers in every single grave and with photos of the departed in each one, enjoying the afterlife as in life, with the glacier in the background.

On this journey, I found it quite remarkable that where the glaciers would have combined to be a great force to be reckoned with, where the dams now exist across their exit down the mountain, there is only the merest sliver of land through which all the water would have had to travel when the snow melted. I imagine this must have caused catastrophic floods during its ancient history.

There were also some lovely alpine flowers including masses of purple gentian and a hapless butterfly feeding on a plant yet to be named.

Tomorrow I am planning a walk on my own again, after a trip up the Gondola to the top of the local mountain.

Austria – Day 1: Eifersbacher Falls and St Johann

You were right. Even though this is a Great Rail holiday I would have to do my own walks. A holiday is not a holiday without stretching the legs, for me at least. To be fair, today was the ‘off’ day. Looking at a map I noticed that the Eifersbachers Falls were within walking distance of the hotel in St. Johann.

The walk begins with a stroll through the very attractive town of St Johann. I need time to explore this when everything is open, as today was Sunday. Crossing the bridge, the path runs alongside the river for about a mile or so. It is very open here, so you get the full effect of the sun. Just as you pass the airport, well not so much an airport as an aerodrome for small aircraft, you cross back over the bridge to join the main road. Don’t take the side road as this will take you down a blind alley.

Follow the road to the left for about 200 hundred metres, then the path is shown on the yellow waysign to the right. This is a delightful path, leading through the forest, with not too strenuous a gradient, until you reach The Eifersbacher Falls. These are tremendous with two or three separate falls, even at this time of year when there has been little rain. There is clearly a separate waterfall in winter too, but this was dried up now. You do need to be prepared for a very steep uphill section of about 300-400ft, way above the top of the waterfall. There is no alternative route unless you retrace your steps. However, the climb is worth it. Once at the top of this path, take a left, again traversing uphill, until you reach the Hornblicksee. This is a lovely lake, with loads of places to sit to enjoy the view all the way down the valley and into the surrounding hills.

There is a choice of paths from here. Very high, high or low. I took the high path that goes across the meadows underneath the cable car and ski runs down to a pension called Pointenhof. The views from here are ‘disappointing’ compared with previous views, but the beer was very welcome. Ironically, the hotel had arranged breakfast for us here earlier in the day, and that too was disappointing.

There aren’t many routes down to St Johann from here. I followed the main road downhill most of the way, as the one place I had thought of a change of direction was not marked as a footpath off the road. Instead, a few bends before you reach the cable car station is the most delightful walk through a wood that comes up right next to the cable car station. It has play things for children, and plenty of attractive seating area, so worth a visit on its own. From here, it was just a short walk back to the Hotel Park, and a nice shower after the very hot day.

Distance: 7.5 miles; Ascent 1650ft ; descent 1365 ft. Minimum elevation 2,234 ft; Maximum elevation 3598 ft.