Craig Leek

Gleaned from Ian's Strava:

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Northumberland 2024 - Day One

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This was the 15th year since we began these walking weekends back in 2010. One year - 2021 - was missed due to Covid but Ken, our leader, has attended all 14 others. Dave and I have been on 11 each and Gordon and Ian Sharp 10. This year we had a new recruit - Rob D, who had briefly met up with us last year in the Lake District. He became the 16th person to be on one of these weekends, bringing the aggregate attendees over the 14 years to exactly 100. Car sharing has been the norm in the past but this year various factors meant that all of us travelled to Northumberland for Day One in our own vehicles - not exactly eco friendly. Ken had, as usual, done meticulous research and checked the tides, which were in our favour and we could cross the causeway over to Holy Island - Lindisfarne. We weren't the only ones to take advantage - the large main car park was packed almost to capacity when we arrived. Jeb had car problems and allied to a desire to attend a friend's memorial wouldn...
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Northumberland 2024 - Day Two

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Friday was originally scheduled to be the ridge walk on the Simonside Hills but a combination of the weather forecast for high winds and the fact that Jeb wouldn't arrive until Friday evening led to a late switch so we did the St. Oswald's Way instead. Crossing the bridge in Rothbury we took a left turn up the slight gradient and set about looking for the Way which starts off near an old railway line. We had been led to believe that this was largely a riverside walk so we took a path that seemed to lead us down that way. We should have listened to the friendly farmer's wife who told us that this path was pretty overgrown. She was right - after fighting our way through heavy undergrowth thick with nettles, we decided to backtrack and, in so doing, experience even more stinging sensations. Those of us wearing shorts suffered the most but even some in long trousers were stung through the fabric. We found the correct route and the railway line high above the river but there was...
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Knock Castle

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Good Friday - and a lovely morning it was, so Jo and I decided we would combine some CAMRA deliveries with a short walk round the Ballater area. The most popular walk round there is the Seven Bridges Walk ( http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/cairngorms/seven-bridges.shtml ) but Polhillock Bridge is still closed after the floods, so this wasn't on. Plan B was just to do part of it and walk out to Knock Castle. We crossed over the Dee bridge at Ballater and, rather than just walk along the South Deeside Road, we headed up the hill, following a sign that read "cycle path to Glen Muick". You have to be a fairly strong and intrepid cyclist to do this route - at least the first part, which was steep, technical and pretty wet in parts. We came across what had once been a Land Rover track which seemed to be heading in roughly the westward direction we wanted to go in - unlike the cycle track which headed further southwards up the hill. This led us eventually to a fenced off ar...
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