Grassington Camping

Kids on the Bridge.

Didn't leave home Until 5:30pm but made good time and arrived just before 7pm. We had booked onto the Caravan Club site just above Grassington, this was the second Caravan club site we'd visited this year. l was still in a lot of pain after the 3 peaks walk and I wasn't sure about how much walking l would he able to do.

We had some tea and then the kids rode their bikes around the site, it wasn't long before it came dark.

Saturday morning and we decided to walk into Grassington, thankfully my leg held up and we were soon in the village. We looked at a few shops and got some fish and chips, eating them while sat on one of the benches in the square. We spent more time looking around and headed to one of the many pubs, the Foresters Arms, the kids soon got board so we headed back to the campsite.

Big Wheelies.

For tea we headed to the Gamekeepers Inn that was just 5 minutes walk from the site. The food was very nice, the kids ran around and enjoyed the outside playground. Heading but to the van we settled in for the night.

Sunday morning, we had a bacon sandwich and headed home.The weather broke as we set off, heavy rain, we'd been pretty lucky.

Yorkshire 3 Peaks Walk

We've had this arranged for several months. All week we were keeping our fingers crossed for reasonable weather! All week at work the weather had been pretty poor and the forecast didn't look any better for our walk.

We all met up at the car park in Horton In Ribblesdale at 7:30am, several of Andreas friends from the Halifax Harriers and a few fiends from Queensbury. Everyone wrote their names and addresses on paper and pushed it through the letterbox at the Pen-y-ghent cafe, so that you can get a certificate to say you've done it!

Top Of Pen-y-Ghent

We headed off towards Pen-y-Ghent, the summit was shrouded in mist. It was very busy, at the steep part we had to queue, some of the people in front thought they were perilously close to disaster. I got sick of being polite and made my own route through the blockage. We soon got to the top, had a quick drink and headed down the path towards Ribble head.

It was still very busy and we had to queue over the styles as we headed through the fields. It was a long walk up the valley, but we were all in good spirit, chatting as we walked briskly up the valley. As we neared the railway an A4 Pacific steam train rattled past, if we had been 10 Minutes further along the path we'd have Sean the train on the bridge. When we got to Ribble Head the girls used the toilet at the Station Hotel. They did have to buy half a coke!

Time for lunch on Whernside.

l knew my knees would cause me trouble and my right knee was starting to hurt so l took some pain killers. Heading out of the valley past the viaduct we followed the train track on the start of the walk up Whernside. A couple of the girls were struggling with their feet and changed socks. We took the opportunity to have a few snacks. As we climbed the steeper parts of the path my knee was giving me more jipp. By the time I got to the top l was struggling, more pain killers. I was wondering how l could manage to walk all the way back!

Heading down the Steep path l started to work out strategies around keeping pain at bay. From here on didn't stop walking, just kept plodding on. At the Hill Inn a couple of people went to the toilet , l walked through. gradually people passed me but I caught up with every one at the top of Ingleborough. As we walked back off the top of the mountain we caught up wits the last few of Our fiends.

Done It! Top of Ingleborough

I gritted my teeth and kept going. Thankfully my left knee was still good. By now I was walking like Quasimodo, keeping my right leg straight swinging it around the side! It was a long way back to Horton In Ribblesdale. We all trudged along, by now we'd stopped talked, we did stay together. We arrived back at the Cafe taking 10 hours and 10 minutes!

The cup of tea did just the trick. The last of our friends arrived 20 minutes later.We all did the Walk, no one bailed out!

It took me a couple of days to get my knee to appoint where I could get comfortable. No long lasting damage, but to me doing all 3 peaks in one day makes 3 nice walks into a chore!

Jack at Velodrome Manchester

Jacks second visit to the velodrome, he was a little less anxious. The session was very different. All the kids were on the track at the same times so Jack pretty much got 3 hours of track time. I enjoyed watching the session. I could see that Jack was having to push pretty hard, he was one of the smallest.

At the end of the session all the kids did a one lap time trial was pretty cool to see Jack on the track all by himself. Jack did an 18 second lap, he was 11th out of 15.

Afterwards Jack said he'd not really enjoyed the session and had found it hard. Hope this hasn't put him off!