Wigtwizzle - Norman Smith's Travel Blog.: January 2018

To the Cove and back.

The Malham Cove, Malham Tarn and Gordale Scar walk has just been voted the third best walk in Great Britain behind Helvellyn and Snowdon which is no mean feat. This walk was just a small part of it.

I walked to the Cove via The Pennine Way and returned to the village by taking the limestone footbridge over Malham Beck and then following an old and rarely used path which comes out at the Youth Hostel. You get the best of both worlds doing it that way round: you have the Cove in front of you on your way there and then you have the whole of Malhamdale in front of you on your return. The return path is also very good way to appreciate the many fine limestone walls and buildings in this area.

It also gives you a good insight in to how the limestone dales were once farmed. The archaeological remains of early farms and their field systems are scattered all around the Malham Cove area. The earliest fields are probably Iron Age, but they are overlain by Medieval strip lynchets and terraces. On hillsides, the terraces provided a greater depth of soil in which to grow crops.

On Sheriff Hill (to the right of the Cove) there once sat a large cairn, the remains of which was excavated in the mid 19th century when it's reported that human bones and an iron spearhead were discovered. Also during further excavation in 1955 pottery was found which has subsequently been dated to the middle of the Bronze Age. Unfortunately today it is just a mound of rubble.

I eventually re-joined the road into Malham just above The Lister's Arms. If it had been a warm day I would have bought myself a pint and sat outside but although it had been sunny, it had also been bitterly cold so consequently I just headed off home. As you can tell from the photos, the weather was very kind to me, the sun came out as I approached the Cove and stayed out for the remainder of the afternoon. It's not very often that has happened this winter.

Sunlight of Ewe Moor

Malham Beck

Malham Cove

Malham Rakes

Malham Beck

Limestome Bridge over Malham Beck

Malham Tarn

Above Malham

Old Boundary Wall

Footpath to Malham Cove

Limestome Walls above Malham

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Moss on Limestone Wall

A chilly afternoon in Kettlewell

After a couple of days of being snowed in at home, me and Sal decided to bite the bullet and take our chances on a drive up Wharfedale. As it turned out, the road up the dale was clear and looked to have been treated better than our local roads. It was a bit of a bleak and colourless day apart from a thirty minute spell when the sun broke through in Kettlewell but it was nice just to get out.

We just did our usual thing, calling in at Kilnsey Trout farm for a coffee before heading up to Kettlewell for a walk around the village and a pint in The Blue Bill Inn. It might sound a bit unadventurous but it's what we like doing, especially at this time of year when the days are so short. We did manage to take a few photos although I don't think any will be world beaters.

The village, as with most Dales villages, are so quiet at this time of year due to the majority of the properties being holiday lets. We hardly saw anyone around the village and there was only a couple of people in the pub. It makes you wonder if its worth their while opening but we were very thankful they had and even more thankful that they had the log fire burning away.

As I previously said, it was nice to get out and it was an added bonus to feel the warmth of the sun albeit only for half an hour.

Kilnsey Trout Farm

Kilnsey Crag

Kettlewell

Upper Wharfedale

Sal with camera

The Blue Bell, Kettlewell

Racehorses Hotel, Kettlewell

Kettlewell

Upper Wharfedale

Looking up the dale

Kettlewell Weather Stone

River Wharfe

Gate Cote Scar

River Wharfe

Out with the old, in with the new.

Nearly two years ago I decided to buy a mirrorless four thirds camera as my DSLR gear was getting a bit too heavy to carry about when I was out walking in the Lakes and Dales. I plumped for the Fujifilm X-T1 which was marketed as being an enthusiasts camera i.e. you can use it in manual, aperture, shutter speed modes as well as the normal program mode where everything is set for you. It was a brilliant camera and everyone raved about it but, try as I may, I never really got on with it. And I did try, I tried for nearly two years to like it.

I think my problem was that there was just too much on it. There were dials here there and everywhere and frequently I would accidentally move one which would either overexpose or underexpose my photos plus lots of things were menu driven as well. For example if I wanted to take a close up photo I would have to troll through the menu system and turn the macro setting on and then do the same to turn it off. For someone who is as blind as a bat and has left their specs at home, that can be a real pain. As I said earlier though, it is a brilliant camera and I took some great photos with it.

So what did I do? I sold it along with its two lenses and went back to a brand I have always felt comfortable with - Panasonic. I plumped for the Lumix GX8 and immediately felt at home with it. The layout is simpler but that doesn't mean it is any less of a camera than the X-T1. You can set it up to be as simple or as complicated as you wish. At the moment I have it setup in Program mode until I've trawled through the extensive manual and got a fuller understanding of what it can do.

It is certainly is an impressive piece of kit and its amazing how cameras have developed just in the two years I've had the Fuji. I've lost count of the number of times I said to myself "bloody hell, that's clever" as I read what it could do. I think we could become very close friends over the coming years! I would never give up my Nikon D610 though, it is solid, reliable and has a far superior dynamic range to anything else I have ever owned. Add to that the 24-70 f2.8 lens and you have the ideal partnership albeit a rather weighty partnership.

Anyway, these photos of The Leeds Liverpool Canal are the first photos I've taken with it and, for what it's worth, I'm suitably impressed by what it has produced.