Thorney How Hostel

 When Shaun "thomas cook" bades booked the wrong dates to go on a hike to Grassmere i feared the worst! I had booked the 7th March off but not the 7thFeb! But not wanting to let him down as he's not really safe on his own, i decided to finish my shift and try to grab a few hours kip on the way, plus he had booked the train tickets and would of moaned for the next thirty years if i didn't pay him for them.
He had booked us in at an independent hostel called Thorney How which is ideally situated at the foot of Helm crag.
We were not traveling alone , we had my English springer spaniel Lizzy in tow and luckily the owners said that she would be fine. We jumped off the bus near the gallery in Grassmere and walked up the road opposite the corner bookshop with the field to your right , at this point i must say a plusbus ticket is much cheaper if your coming to Windermere via the train. Anyway once you've walked past some picturesque cottages you will see a sign on the right saying Thorney How 400m , i think the guy with the trundle wheel had been on the wobbly bob or something as its a wee bit further than that but you can't grumble with the scenes your taking in.
We were met by the owner Taylor who gave us a guided tour and showed Lizzy to her deluxe kennel, the hostel is short of nothing and unlike many i've stayed in before it has a pub like charm and not that stuffy atmosphere, the study is a leather clad reading room for the map readers and thinkers yet the dinning room is were you can share stories of conquering the Eiger, both rooms have open wood burning fires which are fueled by locally resourced sustainable logs, We decided to walk to the travelers  rest pub in the evening and plot our route for the next day, its only a ten minute walk away but if there's a few of you i would stay in the hostel and chew the fat as your not missing much in the pub.

 We had a great nights sleep in the end upstairs room overlooking Fairfield and i decided to take our lizzy for a quick walk before breakfast, just as i walked down to her woodland kennel i spotted a roe deer walking back into the woods after its nighttime jaunt, we walked down a new pathway which leads you to the base of Easedale and some crystal clear streams, on the way back i saw a good number of birds including green and lesser spotted woodpecker which is remarkable seeing i had a 200 mph gundog on the loose.

 I must suggest that you fuel up on the full English here, the eggs couldn't be fresher as you can hear the hens from the dining room and both me and shaun didn't need to eat another thing until mid afternoon.We said our goodbyes to Taylor and his family which includes a very friendly cat , an  inquisitive tortoise and of course the hens, then ambled up Stone Arthur and then onto Great Rigg.
There is no shortage of things to do here and if you have done a walk once before then do it again in another  season it will look completely different. Thanks again thorney How see you again soon.

Christmas in Denmark 2012

Waxwing in Denmark at Christmas

Super fast rabbit catch by a Harris Hawk

Hawking with ferrets on a sunny scottish hill

Lancashire/Yorkshire real ale trail

After watching Oz clarke get in a right merry state on TV, i decided to follow in the great mans footsteps and travel from Dewsbury all the way back to Manchester. I would be accompanied by my good mate and real ale connoisseur Chris " The moores" Moores.
We both live in Atherton Lancashire so the best tickets to buy are a Greater Manchester Day ranger at £4.60 and a West Yorkshire day rover at £6.20, these allow you to hop on and off the train whenever you like all day, just don't loose them as its around £5 per stop between stations. The train from Manchester Victoria takes about an hour so you might want to take some snap, you travel trough some fantastic scenery including the beautiful calder valley, passing through Todmorden and the now flooded Hebden bridge.  We arrived at Dewsbury for lunchtime and the bar on the station was already overflowing into the car park so we got directions from a star trek extra and wondered into the town. If i was led blindfold into the first bar i would have said i was in a geriatric ward for ugly fuckers, so we supped up and moved on, by the time we got back to the station a few beer monsters had moved on so we had a pint of Taylor's Landlord and jumped onto our train .

You get 40 minutes between trains so sit near a door and rush to get in or you might end up waiting twenty minutes to get served. The choice is yours were to get off as there is a pub at every station, but i must suggest The Wellington in Greenfield, about a ten minute walk away but full of real characters and the landlord has a cracking lunchtime menu. I won't bore you with the details of every other pub just go and explore for yourself, but not on a saturday when all the stag and hen parties are out its a fucking nightmare. The one thing i must recommend is to sit in the bar at Stalybridge  station and take in some of the fine surroundings before a load of men dressed as banana's ruin it. Well chin chin and enjoy xx

A quick mooch on the moors

This was another £3.90 return special to Greenfield with mi good mate john and 18 month old Lizzy, we walked from Dove stone reservoir up past the old grouse butts and onto Ashway moss. Once you get to Ashway stone you will see the path leading to Chew reservoir, a GPS is handy here as the path is not well used and the heather grows pretty quick. You also need to watch your footing as John found out when he went up to his nuts in a bog ( even the bloody dog laughed ).

We gave lizzy a bit of dummy training in the reservoir and walked back down the hill and into Greenfield , were we stopped for a quick pint in the King Billy. I walk this area at lease once a month but i suggest week days as the trains are like the Bombay express on saturdays, one good thing about traveling with a cute dog on a train full of drunken women is you do get a right eye full :) and it makes time pass a little easier.