I was doing some blog maintenance and I happened to look at the Dales Walk countdown on the sidebar of the blog. 1 month 17 days. That’s not long at all.
I’ve got quite a few bits of information I need to get out there, so this is going to be rather lengthy I’m afraid.
As you probably already know Dave has agreed to act as quartermaster for the hike, and he, Oli, Kerry and myself had a planning meeting last Sunday where we discussed various practicalities of the trip. The following was decided: If you disagree with something or think you have a better idea then let me know.
Kerry has kindly agreed to be our sherpa. However she will only be available from the beginning of Day 2 of the walk, so we are going to have to carry some stuff with us.
This is how we envisage it working:
Day 1 - Meet at Huddersfield train station in morning and take train to Ilkley. Walkers to carry walking gear and change of clothes with them. Buy lunch from shop/pub. Buy tea from shop/pub. Sleep in B&B.
Day 2 - Walkers to carry walking gear and previous day’s clothes with them. Kerry will go to bunk barn(a) where we will be staying and drop off sleeping bags, food, and bag of clothes. Have breakfast at B&B. Buy lunch from shop/pub. Make tea at bunk barn(a). Sleep at bunk barn(a).
Day 3 - Walkers to carry walking gear and lunch with them. Kerry will pick up sleeping bags, food, and bag of clothes from bunk barn(a) and take it to bunk barn(b). Make breakfast and packed lunch at bunk barn(a) in morning, make tea at bunk barn(b). Sleep at bunk barn(b).
Day 4 - Walkers to carry walking gear and lunch with them. Kerry will pick up sleeping bags, food, and bag of clothes from bunk barn(b) and take it to camp sites where she will also drop off the tents. Make breakfast and packed lunch at bunk barn(b) in morning, make tea at camp site (bbq?). Sleep at camp site.
Day 5 - Walkers to carry walking gear, change of clothes, and lunch with them. Kerry will pick up sleeping bags, food, bag of clothes & tent from camp site. Make breakfast and packed lunch at camp site in morning, buy tea in shop/pub. Sleep in Youth Hostel.
Day 6 - Walkers to carry walking gear & previous day’s clothes with them. Have breakfast at Youth Hostel, buy lunch/tea from shop/pub. End of the walk. Some people are planning on staying on at windemere. We are unsure at this point how we can get people home but it is likely to be a combination of lifts and the train.
It sounds complicated, but hopefully it will all go smoothly. Kerry wont be staying with us at the bunk barns, but will be with us when we camp.
Some further points regarding logistics
Tents. Kerry and I already have a tent that will comfortably sleep at least 4, and two tents that will comfortably sleep two. That means that we only need enough tents to sleep a further four people, which we’ll be able to dig up from somewhere. If you ahve a tent let me know. I understand that people probably would like to have a tent to themselves, and this is fine up to a point. But the space in the car is relatively limited and 10 individual tents would be quite hard to fit in with everthing else.
Bedding. We will need to take our own pillows and sleeping bags (and towels) to both the bunk barns and to the camp site. Ten pillows would take up a lot of room in the car so it would probably be better if you just took a pillow case and then stuffed it with your clothes.
Bag of clothes. Similarly if you could keep your bag of spare clothes and stuff relatively small in order to conserve space in the car.
Food. We are going to be self catering for a relatively large proportion of the trip. Dave is organising this and he envisages making a big vat of chili or bolognese or something similar rather than cater for people individually. Let him know if there is anything you don’t like. Kerry will be doing the shopping for us, and we thought it might be a good idea if everyone gave her about £50 at the start of the walk. She would then act as banker and buy food and any booze people ordered for us and deliver it. She will work out who has spent what (with cost of food being shared equally but cost of booze calculated individually) and give any left over money back at the end of the trip.
Walking gear. I’m no expert in this, but i found a list of “essential walking equipment that you might want to consider for inclusion in your backpack:
- Walking boots
- Waterproof jacket and trousers
- Suncream
- Spare socks
- Walking stick/pole
- Hat
- Torch
- Whistle
- Plastic bag to keep stuff dry
- Insect repellant
- Water
- Sunglasses
- First aid kit
- Mobile phone and charger
Anyone think of anything else? I’ve got a set of maps of the walk, but feel free to buy more if you want to. I’ve also got three walkie talkies with pretty good range so we can keep in contact with each other if there ends up being a slow walking group and a fast walking group. Sandip has a GPS device, but if anyone else has one or wants to buy/borrow one then that would be great.
That will do for now. I’ve got some other things I want to ask you about but I’ll do that later today (you are going to be hearing a lot from me today I’m afraid).
Please let me know by email, text, or comment on the blog if those arrangements sound ok to you. Also I’d like to know if you have a tent we can use or any other bits or bobs (GPS etc) that might come in handy.
On another note Oli sent me some photos that he had taken during the meeting. His captions amused me somewhat so I thought I’d share.
I think it sums it all up very well.
Dave, the Quartermaster was looking at “Things to Eat”, stroking the crinkle cut crisp.
Evan was pottering around, handing us things.
You were trying to work out which of the four maps to open first.
I couldn’t even focus the camera.
At least I didn’t get a bit of lego stuck in my foot!
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This shows the true cohesion of our planning group. You’re pointing at a path, and Dave’s indicating the motorway. Marvellous
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And finally, a photo in focus, and with a big smile. (are you actually sitting on Amy?!)