26th February 2006 - Meanwood Valley daywalk
The early Sunday morning welcomed everybody with rain. However, as the Meanwood Valley daywalk didn’t require an early start, the sun was out by the time 22 people set off for a walk starting in the middle of Leeds, to be precise from Hyde Park Corner. The pub was still closed at that time, so, no risk anyone could change their minds.
The walk certainly proved that Leeds and the countryside around – particularly towards the North – does offer a lot of enjoyable nature. Meanwood Valley Park and the Meanwood Valley Trail led us through the woods to our lunch stop, where Eirik ( the great leader of this extremely complicated walk (?)), fulfilled Jenia’s wish that the very grey clouds won’t bring any rain – which they didn’t… instead it was hail!
After that and once everybody had been invigorated with chocolate, crisps, etc. (except Martin who completed his 2nd week of healthy eating; so, fruits, vegetables and all sorts of other healthy stuff were on his dietary plan) we continued our walk into North Yorkshire, passed by “Emmerdale” (the village where the homonymous famous British soap is filmed and finally finished – planned to finish – the walk at Harewood House. Unfortunately the pub in Harewood was not walker-friendly, stating “dirty boots unwelcome”, so we headed back to Leeds. Although everyone started on foot along the very busy road, the traffic became frustrating and half the group decided to take the bus back into the centre. The other half was brave and kept on walking, and Eirik? Well, nobody has heard from him since… the last thing we know is that he left us and disappeared into the Harewood woods and wanted to find his own way on prohibited territory.
It was a nice walk, with a good finish in “La Cafeteria” at Hyde Park Corner where some of us enjoyed their dinner and even though the “first signs of spring”, announced before the walk, were nowhere to be found, we had a very good day! |
17th February 2006 - Ice Cube!
Well, many of those who promised to come skating backed out at the last minute, leaving a rather small group of just 5 on the ice. More members turned up throughout the evening, although most chose just to watch! There were no great falls, nothing too eventful, although Laura & Eirik nearly got into trouble for sharing skates right in front of a steward!
After skating we all went to the Victoria, where many members had been hiding most of the night instead of skating. Curly Matt was visiting, and a few other old faces were hanging around too. As the night went on the numbers slowly deminished, and it was a rather small group which moved on to Oxygen for loud music and a subtitled film... |
10th-12th February - Lake District Weekend
With many new (and of course old) members, we hit the road fairly punctually and drove up northwest to one of England's most beautiful National Parks, the Lake District. Tom set a Walking Club record as he completed his 3rd year without having missed a single weekend trip of the Club. Extreme commitment or no other social life? Whatever it was, he was awarded for it the next day. Another (not confirmed) record: six Norwegians on a trip was also a novelty.
The bunkhouse, well-known to some of the Club members, had just enough room for the 35 of us, although not everybody got a bed! We started off the evening with a signature-collection-Get2Know-game which was both fun and interesting – there were people from 9 different nations on the trip, and guess whose home nation is going to win the football world cup 2006? 9 different nations – even tho' Norway didn't even qualify!
Later everybody accepted the strenuous (and actually really freezing) walk to the pub which was round 15 minutes away from the bunkhouse. Our Spaniards immediately chatted up some of the locals. And the rest had a good time too.
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Saturday's hard walk saw a group of 16 heading up Helvellyn and tackling Striding Edge ridge. The ascent was quite long and steep, but the path was good and the weather started off clear and calm, if not a bit cold. |
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Starting from the edge of Patterdale, we made our way upto Striding Edge from the East at a reasonable pace - despite some people wearing trainers! As we approched the ridge of striding edge, the cloud started to lower making visibility poor, and there were patches of ice on the ground. Crossing Striding Edge took a relatively long time due to the conditions and the size of the group, and some of the more difficult sections had to be avoided. The final scramble after the ridge took us to the summit of Helvellyn, where the snow and wind had been patiently awaiting our arrival.
The lunch break was short, as even with shelter it was too cold to sit around. Heading west, we descended from the summit into head-on winds carrying hail and snow. To make things more difficult, there was much ice on the ground and few people managed the entire walk on their feet. The wind eased for a while, allowing for a short rest break and a photo opportunity with some impressive icicles. The rest was short though, as people were eager to keep moving. Unfortunately, due to the harshness of the weather, the walk progressed slower than expected, and the route had to be shortened slightly. Although the weather had eased a bit with the descent, the water had already found it's way into peoples boots and clothes. However the thought of a hot shower and fresh clothes kept everybody marching on back to the minibus. There was just time for most people to get showered before the evening meal, which saw the welcome return of the traditional Spag Bol - a favourite that hasn't been seen for a while.
After the meal, many went to the pub, whilst others stayed back at the bunkhouse playing games and having a few drinks which carried on until the early hours of Sunday morning.
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There was a hard walk on Sunday, and the very few people who were brave and strong enough to go for it, deserve to be mentioned by name: Liz (she’ll be somebody else who’ll receive an award one day for always having chosen the hardest available walk of all the trips she joined), Eirik, Henning, Chris and Michael. One should also mention that Chris and Michael wimped out earlier on and instead of walking, they rather went for a shower, a coffee and a nap back in the bunkhouse!
The medium walk which was actually a re-run of Saturday's easy walk by Lynne and Steesh, as nobody had chosen it the day before. The vast majority of people chose this option, as hardly anybody felt like too much adventure after a stormy, icy and especially very wet Saturday.
It was a lovely walk, hardly any rain. We started along the valley, had a serious uphill bit included (very serious considering that the walk was described as “flat”). Then it was down into a wide valley where, at the end, we made our lunch stop next to some rare red squirrels.
At this point Steesh and Martin need a special mention. It was Martin’s last day to eat unhealthy stuff such as crisps, chocolate, etc before his detox, so every single chance for getting sweets was taken by him. Steesh, equipped with a whole pack of chocolate bars, was very supportive and gave Martin around 10 bars during the walk. The Bavarian enjoyed it, making the thought of his ‘healthier living resolution’ even more painful.
But back to the walk: we finally got the great chance to see a lake in the Lake District National Park on that walk as we returned along the eastern shore of Ullswater while heading back towards Patterdale. The fact that there is actually only 1 (or is it 2?!) actual lakes in the Lake District and the rest are ‘waters’, ‘meres’, ‘tarns’ and more will be ignored at that point.
Sundays easiest walk was led by Driving Paul, and was designed specially for those that still had wet boots, or that had only had a couple of hours sleep. It consisted of a walk to the pub, followed by a walk to the next pub, followed by a meal, followed by the minibus home. It was a good walk, and was very well led. Well done Paul.
In Patterdale chocolate fudge cake and soup were eaten in the ‘White Lion’ before everybody got ready for heading back to Leeds. Problem: two people were missing – but in the end it turned out that Tindara and Kerstin just were in the next village. All the frustration from looking for them was forgotten immediately when they invited everybody for fudge and ice cream at Nazam’s back in Leeds – it was a good, last day full of sweets for Martin and a very good weekend trip for everybody; for some even the very first time seeing mountains and proper lakes (or meres, or waters, or whatever... ;-) )! |
8th February 2006 - Martin's 24th Birthday
Not really a club event, but the President's birthday could hardly go by without a mention, could it?!
Everybody met at 8.30pm at La Tasca on Greek Street. Well, not really everybody - just Lynne & Dan - everybody else was fashionably late...well, it was a Spanish restaurant afterall! We were finally seated, and most opted for the fixed menu of various tapas. Despite mistaking them for onion rings, Paul managed to avoid eating the calamari by mistake - thanks to Dan and his big mouth! Never mind, all the more for the rest of us! It was 11pm when we finally left the restaurant, opting for coffee & cake at Martin's house rather than dessert at La Tasca.
The choice of 4 different cakes, 2 flavours of ice-cream, 3 different teas, fresh coffee, 4 pints of milk which nobody asked for and Carnation condensed milk....great combination, much better than La Tasca could ever have done!
There is one thing to be said, 24 seems to agree with Martin as he finally relaxes and tells us exactly what he thinks...not only was he heard to refer to people as "Lazy B***ards" on several occasions in the Lake District, but also confirmed the fact that Ruud Van Nistelrooy is officially an arsehöhle... |
05/02/2006 -Studley Pike Day walk [photos online]
A big turnout for the first day walk of the semester. We met at 9.30am at Leeds train station, which was painful, especially for those of us who were out the night before! From Hebden Bridge we made our way up onto the hills overlooking the Calder Valley. Our walk coincided with the Pennine Bridleway Relay; the runners didn't seem too impressed with our presence on the race route, but that didn't put us off.
The closer we got to Studley Pike the darker the clouds got, and by the time we'd climbed the dark steps to the top we were surrounded in mist. We huddled round the sheltered side to eat our sandwiches, then a change of route took us down off the tops and out of the rain! The alternative route took us back along the Rochdale Canal into Hebden Bridge early enough for a visit to the local pub. Tom ordered the largest plate of fish & chips in history, whilst Martin & Liz tucked into the tradtional chocolate pudding. Not to be out-done, Lynne & Maria found room for rhubarb & ginger crumble...it's not surprising that everyone fell asleep on the train home!
Once in Leeds everybody seemed to disappear without a trace, except for Renato, who was left running back across the station retrieve his bag which he left on the train... |
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