So… if you didn’t guess, we went to the Benelux countries for a spot of country-topping. Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg’s highpoints completed bringing, along with the UK and Japan, our total to FIVE countries.

The full writeup appears on The Intrepid Micra.

We woke up yesterday not really knowing what we were going to do with our day. I phoned mum to see if she’d be around for a cup of tea and to tell us all about Iceland. She wouldn’t be. So H said “How about a couple of county tops?”

We’ve been eyeing up Rutland and Peterborough for a while. They’re not too far apart, and separated by Rutland Water. It promised to be a nice little trip out.

The highest point of Rutland is actually on private land, belonging to a hunt pony club, but there are public footpaths very nearby. We parked the car in a convenient location at the side of the track and walked along the footpath, regarding Rutland Water far off to our left and looking for a trig point to our right. There was a pony meeting of some sort on, with cars coming and going across the adjacent field. When we spotted the trig point, it was in the adjacent field.

Hmm… what to do? It was clearly just a field of grass - no crop to destroy. There were clearly cars coming and going, so despite being private land, it had access to the main event. We made our decision upon finding a gate that was held shut with nothing more than a loop thrown over the post - classic accessible gate closing. We crossed the field towards the trig point, and it’s then that we spotted the fences around us…

Oh no! The horses will surely come thundering through any moment and we could nearly die.

Luckily they didn’t, and the top was bagged without unneccesary drama.

Peterborough’s top was on Racecourse Road, a moderately impossible-to-find place not helped by one end of it being closed. A great 2km section of dead straight, level road though…

Despite setting out late, there was still plenty of time to enjoy ourselves, so it was then on to somewhere I’d only read about a week or so ago, and just happened to be pretty close (ie. within 50 miles) of where we were… the Lowest Point of Britain.

Holme Fen, Cambridgeshire lies around nine metres below sea level. The surrounding land is around one metre above, but the ground in the Fen consists of peat which has been shrinking as the area was drained. In fact, in 1852 the shrinkage was already apparant and a post was sunk into the peat into the clay below until its top was flush with the ground. The post is still standing…

The ground has shrunk A LOT. But it’s still strangely spongey underfoot. In fact, it’s an altogether very funny bit of the world. Well worth a visit. On the way out, we had to drive over what felt like a small mountain just to cross the ‘level’ crossing of the mainline railway.

A quick potter to Ely for a look at the magnificent cathedral, and then into Norfolk for the old Bedford River - where the Bedford Level Experiment was carried out in 1838 thereby proving beyond all doubt that the earth is, indeed, flat.

On the way back, as darkness fell, we passed within a couple of miles of the highpoint of Leicester City, and it would certainly have been rude not to visit.

And that is how we visited three tops, a bottom and a flat earth.

Statistics

Total: 137
Done: 36
Todo: 101
Completed: 26%

First date: 09/05/2007
Last date: 05/10/2008
Days elapsed: 515
Days per visit: 14
Projected finish: 15/02/2014

Four years ago today, I posted about a little trip round the Cotswolds. I was surprised to see Belas Knap mentioned because on the 3rd of August this year, we passed by just that location.

We visited on the way to the highest point of Gloucestershire - Cleeve Hill. It’s possible to park a few tens of metres from the summit for a relatively flat, short walk. However, we chose a much more picturesque route.

Parking in Winchcombe, past Sudely Castle, and up the long climb to Corndean Lane and on to Belas Knap. Then a more gentle climb to Cleeve Hill for a panorama over Cheltenham including an excellent view of the Racecourse. Across the golf course, down a very steep slope into a deep valley where local stone was traditionally quarried, along a babbling brook, and then bushwhacking our way through thistles and nettles due to a) only having a 1:50,000 map and b) a couple of waymarkers being missing from their posts.

What I find most interesting, though, is looking at how my fitness has improved over time. What was an unattractive three-quarter-mile climb has in just four years become a pretty trivial three-quarter-mile section of a ten mile walk.

You know, in just four years, your life can go down paths that you can’t even begin to imagine right now. Hopefully by chance, hard word and preparedness, those paths will be the right ones.

If you were to, for example, already be a little bit ill and then walk up Scafell Pike and have to wade through a river up to the middle of your shins and hug rocks to avoid being blown off the top by the 60mph winds… you would become very ill and spend the first three days of the week in bed.

I’m back in the land of the living now, so I might blog soon.

(Made it to the top, though - county top #33)

One of the county tops we did last weekend was Holly Hill. The views were magnificent…

That was a successful weekend… brought the projected completion date in by over a year!

Statistics

Total: 138
Done: 28
Todo: 110
Completed: 20%

First date: 09/05/2007
Today’s date: 26/08/2008
Days elapsed: 475
Days per visit: 16
Projected finish: 23/01/2015

Note… the total has gone down by one because we hit one of two equal tops of Brighton + Hove which in my book allows me to a) claim the county and b) delete the other one.

More Japan soon, honest.

I wrote a neat little program to help me with my peak-bagging. It also generates HTML reports…

Completed peaks sorted by Date

Statistics

Total: 139
Done: 24
Todo: 115
Completed: 17%

First date: 09/05/2007
Today’s date: 22/08/2008
Days elapsed: 471
Days per visit: 19
Projected finish: 09/02/2016

Just a little side note to myself in support of my peak bagging…

#1 - 528m - Tan Hill Inn
Keld, North Yorkshire (NY896067)

I’ve not yet visited this occasional employer of our very own DogBoy.

#2 - 515m - The Cat and Fiddle Inn
Buxton Road, Cheshire (SK002717)

Two visits so far. One (April 22, 2007) when tackling Shuttlingsloe, and another after Cheeks Hill.

#3 - 451m - The Kirkstone Pass Inn
Ambleside, Cumbria (NY401080)

Also not visited… but all being well, that will be fixed in under four weeks’ time.

#4 - 432m - The Warren House Inn
Postbridge, Dartmoor (SX674809)

I’ve been here once, maybe around 2001 (and have a couple of letterbox stamps to prove it!)

On my last trip to Dartmoor last year, we failed to go in due to soakedness of the members of the party who had unsufficient waterproofs. They do good pie and I shall therefore introduce H next time we’re there.

#5 - 404m - The Lion Inn
High Blakey, North Yorkshire (SE678997)

Also not visited. The Kirkstone, Tan Hill and this one form a kind of line across approximately the same latitude. Looks like one to do next time we’re going up to Newcastle.

Video is done at last.

Made it.

More later…