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Here you can see the report from our latest walk and also some of the pictures that were taken.
Unless otherwise stated, report by Paul Coates and pictures by Keith Bilton.
Thursday 9th. April 2009
Birk Nab Farm, Hanging Stone, Cinderhill Wath, Brown Hill, Piethorn, Bent Slack, Sun Inn, Laverock Hall, New House, Roppa Wood, Snaper Farm, East Moor Wood, Lund Farm, Birk Nab Farm (10 miles)
Misty morning, cloudy afternoon.
The long winding lane up to the lonely Birk Nab Farm has grass growing up the middle and is generously coated in mud and slurry. So ideal conditions in which to drive your (nearly) new Jaguar on then, or so we all thought. However Bob may disagree. We pulled the same trick on him a few years ago with another new car of his, so we are nothing if not consistent.
The last time we visited Birk Nab Farm the lady of the house allowed us to park in the farmyard. No such luck today though as the farmyard was full of plant machinery. So we made do with a grassy slope outside the farm.
Opposite our parking spot were some over friendly horses. Horse whisperer Craggsy soon befriended them offering them clumps of fresh grass from our side of the wall. A couple of the horses were wearing fancy red body warmers and we did wonder if Craggsy was perhaps after one of these.
There was quite a bit of open moorland walking to contend with including heather short and long and some squelchy bog. Much use was made of Keith's GPS as we attempted to navigate across the trackless moor. Even Sherlock had brought his GPS along just in case Keith should have been swallowed up by one of the bogs.
As we had our morning break at Cinderhill Wath alarm spread through the group as Ray was seen putting his jacket on. This tends to only occur in times of extreme weather conditions and temperatures of minus 20. Neither was forecast today so we assume he was just trying it on just to make sure it still fitted him.
A Foggy morning
Our destination today was the Sun Inn, the last unmodernised and unspoilt pub on the North Yorkshire Moors.
As ever William the landlord made us welcome and it was pleasing to see that the Formica topped tables, lino floor and pictures of long disbanded cricket teams still adorned the pub.
Some pubs claim to have fires that have been constantly burning for 200 years or more but the fire at the Sun Inn can boast the opposite claim of not having ever been lit. Still who needs a fire when the generous whiskey measures dispensed at the Sun Inn give you an inner flame, it certainly made Jacks face glow bright red anyway.
There was no pudding on the menu for Stu, and indeed no coffee or tea. In fact there wasn't even a menu for him to nibble on. 
The Sun Inn is an old fashioned type of pub with bar snacks running to crisps, nuts and for the gourmet diner, pork scratchings. At least it saved him some money.
Putting on the bluies
The second half of this walk has a couple of storming climbs, the first of which is up the east side of Bilsdale.
Before the climb started we passed Laverock Hall which had a variety of unusual ducks including Red Crested Pochard and some that even Jack couldn't identify. Sadly there was none of Paul's favourite, the ordinary duck, in residence.
The climb up from Laverock Hall to New House (it may have been new once but it's a ruin now) is certainly a steep one. Fortunately the bracken that we have had to battle through on many visits in the past dies back at this time of year so that made the climb marginally easier.
We have never been able to find the moorland track that, according to the OS map, runs from New House to the corner of Roppa Wood.
With the aid of Keith's GPS device we decided to trace this long lost track. It was tough going though with much heather bashing and hidden rocks to stumble over so in the end we gave it up as a bad job and just made for the track that runs from the Northern end of Bilsdale Moor to get to Roppa Wood.
We had our afternoon break in a gully not far from Potter House. Stu enlightened us on the various methods he has used to quell attacks from rabid dogs while he has been out jogging. It would be unfair to say he doesn't like dogs but he clearly would have dog owners shot on sight if he could.
Meanwhile Keith entertained us with a practical demonstration on how not to take a picture using a standard compact camera and a gorilla tripod. This flexible tripod allegedly allows you to take pictures almost anywhere, apart, that is, from on top of Col's rucksack which is resting on loose shale and rock. His first attempt ended in failure as the rucksack fell over with Col's groundsheet going one way and Keith the other. The laughter could be heard over in Farndale.
Keith persevered and his 2nd attempt almost got everyone in frame along with much foreground. It was almost as funny as the time he placed his camera on top of a gatepost and set it to take a picture. Just as the shutter clicked the camera fell off the gatepost capturing a blurry image of the sky as the camera plummeted towards the ground.
Somehow or other we managed to miss our path at Snaper Farm and ended up deep within East Moor Wood, and this is with a finely detailed map and two GPS systems. A classic case of too much talking and not enough attention being paid to the route. However with the aid of the GPS we found an alternative route out of the wood and we soon regained our intended path.
The second big climb of the day was from Lund Farm in the valley bottom up to our journeys end at Birk Nab Farm. As we reached Birk Nab a passing workman claimed he was knackered just driving his dumper truck up and down our recently climbed hill. It was suggested he could have given us a lift up but he reckoned there was too much combined weight for his dumper to cope with.
Happy Splasher
And so ended another day on the hills. The weather forecast was just about right with the only rain falling as we enjoyed the comforts of the Sun Inn. However the sight of Bob's mud spattered Jag brightened up the overcast afternoon, it had well and truly been christened.
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| Craggsy crossing a stream | New House | White horse |
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