A day on the upland trails

The Safari and BD set off early in the morning to meet up with a group of fellow green-lane enthusiasts led by CB of UK Land Rover Events at perhaps the bleakest coastal car park we’ve ever been to. So bleak no-one got out to take a pic of the group altogether before setting off, it's usually this time the introductions are made and everyone gets to know each other.

 After a few lovely days summer was over and it was back to the end of February, heavy rain with sleet mixed in blown horizontal by a fierce wind. Some low mist was involved too, just to ruin the views of the scenery.

The first part of our trek was along farm tracks sodden with the rain across empty moorland, being the last vehicle in the group meant lots of hopping in and out and getting rained on for B as he was on gate closing duty so those pesky sheep don't get into the wrong fields.

The sat-nav showed where we were – the middle of nowhere!

Hang on, shouldn't there be some roads on there?

The spring scenery was probably stunning with views up to the higher mountains and out across the sea and Morecambe Bay but the mist and rain prevented us from seeing it.

Nothing too challenging to start with but all that was to change on our next lane when we were told to engage our diff lock…it doesn’t work too well on the Land Rover and it’s a bit of a risk putting it in in case it doesn’t come out so it was with a little trepidation we watched the more capable Defenders bouncing up the rocky steps. There was no turning back so it was onward and upward with fingers crossed. The Disco did us proud and easily waltzed up without much trouble and just enough right boot to keep the momentum going without trying to hurry or race. We got to the top and then discovered not only had we not needed the diff lock we’d forgotten to engage the low ratio gears when we came off the road – the Disco climbed a 40 degree slippery rocky staircase in normal road gears – that auto box is a beaut…but we’ll remember to put them in next time we come off the tarmac otherwise there could be some serious gearbox explosions and/or the risk of getting unextricatably stuck!
All the while we were on the look out for any wildlife we could spot. The mosses were easy, there's a whole garden of them up there in England's 'rain forests'.

For lunch we stopped at the forestry centre where B disappeared for a few minutes just before two Ravens flew right over the car park, a species he's not seen before - a bad dip!

Trendy forest visitor centre

From there we hit a trail known as The Fox a forestry track, one we've driven a few times now but always worth the trip. It was near here that some Red Kites were released a few years ago but the dreadful weather meant we stood little chance of seeing them today.

As the day progressed the weather improved and the scenery started to come out of hiding.

These are the 'stairs' mentioned in the 'Going up the stairs' pic on our sidebar

Where's there's brown Bracken there used to be probably used to be high scrubby forest, denser forest would have been on the bright green fields 1000+ years ago

That's the Safari tying on our broken rock slider - sure we knocked it off on the same boulder last time we were here

 The sun came out a bit too

Decent into Little Langdale

There is some serious conservation work trying to revive the fortunes of upland Juniper which has suffered the ravages of over-grazing by sheep and aging so that there is little fertile seed produced. In areas where it is still vigorous sheep are now being excluded and seedlings frown in the nursery and planted out if there isn't enough natural regeneration. It was a the top line of the scrubby forest long since gone now. Although the landscape looks beautiful to many those with an ecological eye see little but the remnants and scars of a ravaged land.

Unfortunately there is now a Phytopthora fungal disease which has been identified as coming from South America which is attacking them.

This stand looks healthy enough

The tradition of sheep-farming goes back many hundreds of years, probably to the Vikings if not much earlier perhaps even the Bronze Age - it's a long long time since the hills were fully forested with an accompanying suite of animals such as Wolves, Wild Boar, Eurasian Brown Bears, some still linger in the names of the hills and valleys.
Here's a few more trail pics.

Eventually we came out of the forest and on to open fellsides to find the sun had come out and the mist lifted to give us splendiferous views of the higher ground.

The Fairfield horseshoe - we've climbed that many times

Red Screes in the left middle-ground, Ill Bell and Yoke in the distance

With snow Red Screes Froswick, Ill Bell, Yoke and Buck Crag

At the foot of Buck Crag is an old road, Garburn Pass we worked on in the 80s making culverts and putting in drainage so that it was passable to vehicles. Sadly now it is closed to motorised vehicles due to the prejudices of some in the walking fraternity. If they knew how much effort we put in moving rocks up to two tons in weight with just crowbars and muscles.
We'd love to get up close and personal with that part of the world again but it is now beyond our walking capabilities - thanks a bunch Ramblers...NOT...and with getting so many lanes closed you've made honey-pots out of the remainder making you complain even more and some of those are also used by the farming community so will still have vehicles on them anyway. Have you seen the 'motorways' your boots have made across the high tops? They're a bit wider than the trails we've used today,

The Langdale Pikes

Wetherlam

Bowfell? top left with snow

 There's a bit of architectural heritage around these parts too

Old church at High Nibthwaite - think that's where it is

By the size of the windows we reckon 16th or 17th C. And look at the Sedum on the ledge above the window

Elterwater village at the end of our journey

Here's a trek we did a few years ago covering some of the same trails

In wildlife news we've just had a couple of Swallows (Garden #25) go over and weren't sure that we didn't hear a Sand Martin earlier.
Patch 2 has been kind to us with a Yellow Legged Gull (P2 #45) yesterday and the day before and a probable 1st winter Caspian Gull today, it was distant in the dark rainy gloom but we hope we got enough of a description to get it past another CB.

Many thanks to BD for his exceptional pics - far superior to the usual out of focus poorly exposed rubbish you normally see on here - you've been spoiled this week that's for sure.

Where to next? Looking good for some migrants tomorrow

In the meantime let us know who's wobbling about in your outback

Plan B failed so on to Plan C

The Safari went back to the nature reserve with the intention of bumping into the Otters again. We tried a different vantage point which we hoped would give a better view, or  at least a different perspective. They tend to hang about in the bay marked on the pic...but not today!

We were told we'd just missed the Iceland Gull but luckily we refound it a little later, we'd also missed an adult Mediterranean Gull :-( . Prior to refinding the Iceland Gull we picked out a dark and chunky 'argentatus' Herring Gull amongst the four dozen or so 'argenteus' birds. The gulls came and went throughout the morning with two adult Great Black Backed Gulls and a 1st winter marauding over the rest trying to find a weakened Teal or Wigeon. 

We noted a large number of Teal, later counted at 580 by MMcG with at least another 50 out sight from where he was sat. Wigeon too were in decent numbers for the site. We joined CR (his Iceland Gull pic here is an absolute cracker) in his favourite hide - aka Ice Station Zebra for its 'comforts' - and waited to see if the Otters would make a late appearance - they didn't! But we noticed a breakaway flock of Wigeon sailing out from the edge of the reeds towards us - one was an 1st winter Red Crested Pochard (207) Most unexpected and most welcome!!! But will it be there tomorrow or the day after before we go back to work?

C, M and PT got some shots off; PT's are likely to be brilliant with his new double mega 600mm lens. We were so taken aback at our find we forgot about the camera - will post some links when the pics appear.

Where to next? Well it all starts again in the morning...having narrowly beaten Monika two years running in our challenge she is up for revenge starting in the morning!

In the meantime after getting mud under the wheels yesterday we hope to able to do some of this during 2012...this is one of the 'Pay n play' sites we like to visit

The old 'leafer' does really well! We've tried that rock crawl and it's not easy and some of the crunches that come from underneath your feet are quite un-nerving - we destroyed a steering damper!

Happy New Year to all our readers wherever you are 

We hope 2012 brings you health, wealth and happiness - and plenty of wildlife to enjoy of course

Calling International Rescue....Discovery 1 is Go

Not a wildlife safari this time. We left Base Camp at dawn and headed to the Yorkshire Dales. After a whole day and night of torrential rain the River Lune had broken its banks in many places.

Ribble Head viaduct is a feat of 'navvy' engineering.

Water was gushing out of the hillsides all over the place, what were normally little rivulets had become torrents.

This small spring being a perfect example.

Deeper into Yorkshire the River Ure beyond Hawes had also broken its banks.

This lady from Holland was trying to get to the Newcastle ferry and come to watery stop. We gave her a lift back to the nearest village shop, bearing in mind it was still before 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Hope she found someone to help and got going again.

Eager to reach our rendezvous we surged through the flood - only to reach another where it was impossible to tell where the road was and where the river was - nothing for it but to turn back and find a detour. This bow wave is on the return and is not as neat as my first pass. Maximum depth of water was just above the bottom of the door! At this point one of only two raptors we saw all day flew over - a Buzzard.

From the higher vantage point of the detour lane we could see the small linear fields each with its own barn that typifies the Yorkshire Dales.The start of our Green Lane drive took us in to a disused quarrying area. easy enough driving but I haven't had the opportunity to try out the biodiesel on anything other than tarmac until now - 'how would it fare under pressure?'

So far so good no worries about the bio it has plenty of power, perhaps a bit too much as I was consistently catching up the car in front despite driving mostly just above tick over. He did have extra passengers which would have made him heavier but I think it more likely that the bio is more calorific than normal diesel.

The start of a long steep climb with a tricky rock step at the top, all the group managed it without too much problem. One disadvantage of having a tow bar is it hangs low and catches rocks with horrible crunching sounds.

The tricky bit was just above this beautiful spring.


Lunch stop was at this stunning viewpoint. Looking down (or is it up?) ??dale because, by now, not having sat nav and not being familiar with the Dales, I was totally lost.

The picture below shows a perfect example of an old farm lane formerly used by horse and cart or for droving stock. The walls show the 'through' stones (the dark line half way up) very well. These support the upper portion of the wall. It is A shaped being about 3 feet wide at the bottom tapering to 1 foot at the top. The walls were encrusted with lichens and in damper areas moss. Our favourite was a particularly splendid bright reddy orange lichen. Also shown well is the divide between the fell top and the 'inbye' in the distance. The inbye is the managed farmland with field boundary walls showing the signs of improvement where it is green as opposed to the rough grazing higher up.

River crossings are always fun but this one was much less tricky than the flood we'd already encountered on the way. (Twice!)

The overnight rain had created plenty of opportunities for big splashes but driving to rashly can cause unnecessary erosion so it was gently gently through the puddles. If you want to make a splash go to your nearest 'pay and play site.

We had the distinctive flat top of Ingleborough Hill in our sights. We had it surrounded, it was to our left, our right, in front of us and behind. The only place we didn't get was to the summit - no vehicular access and rightly so.

This very steep rocky decent ended as you will see in a bit of a drop off.Mind the step. If your 4x4 is fitted with side steps take them off, they will be broken off when you come across an awkward bit like this.

Side slopes are probably the most hair raising bit of the drive. This one is quite moderate. My co-pilot and photographer in chief had her eyes closed and hands tightly gripping the grab rail on the more extreme ones. Black mark for letting go of the camera. The 200 foot drop on her side didn't help matters

The last river crossing of the day was watched over nonchalantly by this pair of geese.

Many thanks to Colin and all the team at UKLandrover Events (see links on right hand side) for a great day out. And big thanks to to the other participants a day of great camaraderie...and not forgetting star of the show, Lucy the Labrador.

No problems what so ever with the biodiesel. Total mileage for the day 200 of which about 40 off tarmac in low ratio. Fuel used c.30litres - 5 litres normal (26kg CO2) 25 litres bio (6.5kg CO2). Footprint for the day = small (Less than most of the ramblers out that day probably). Other people out enjoying the sunshine and showers (including a bit of early sleety rain) a few ramblers, three guys on trials bikes and some mountain bikers one of whom gets the medal for fastest man of the dales - I've never seen a cyclist go so fast...he was whizzin'.

Where to next? Local trip probably...but there is still the Ross's Goose on the south side of the Ribble.

In the meantime let us know what you have seen or where you have been in your 'outback'.