The Snowdon Chronicles - let's get hilly with it

 The training for my trek up Mount Snowdon continues.  One thing that I know I must particularly focus on is stamina and walking uphill (up mountain!)  I have been looking at local walks I can do and I found the perfect place to do something a bit hilly.  About 25 mins from where I live is Beacon Hill near Woodhouse Eaves.  I have been to the adjacent Bradgate Park several times but never to Beacon Hill so I decided the time had come to rectify this.

I made my way there and was reassured that they have good Covid-19 advice and precautions.  They manage how full the car park is to reduce the amount of people walking and there are lots of social distancing warnings.  There is also advice to sanitise your hands after touching gates which I thought was a good reminder.
There is a choice of routes and rough times are given for how long they take.  I decided to take the long route but I'm not sure that I went on the right one.  Anyhoo, it did not matter.  It was a nice sunny morning and set off.  New walking boots were getting their second outing, I had a rucksack with some water, a chocolate brownie I found in the freezer and a flask of hot blackcurrant.  My daughter says hot Vimto is the stuff to drink to celebrate a good walk, but I had not got any of that so blackcurrent had to do.
There are two car parks, an upper one and a lower one.  I chose to park in the lower one so that I would have to walk uphill and then get the easier downhill walk back to the car.  This worked well. 

I wandered along enjoying the peace of the walk, looking at the trees, nodding hello and sometimes even saying hello to people as they walked by.  I rather liked the friendliness of the wander.  It was nice.
There are wood sculptures along the path as you walk.  The path starts to slowly climb after a while.

and then you realise you really are going up hill.
and then you turn a corner and there is the summit.  
So I went to say hello to the summit and then found a bench and had some of the hot blackcurrant.  It turns out it really is a nice way to celebrate. 


The view from the top is just wonderful.  I sat and admired the view.  You can see for miles across Leicestershire.  What a beautiful county I live in, I am so lucky.
I looked at the rocks that are jutting out around the summit.  I remembered how when my children were younger we used to scramble around the similar rocks at neighbouring Bradgate Park.  It is a happy memory.
I did not tarry long though, I set off down the path back to the car park.
The total walk was around 50 minutes and when I got to the car park I did not feel hugely tired and I still had plenty of time.  So I set off on a second lap.  I am going to need to be able to walk a lot further than that so it seemed sensible to keep going.
It is not a difficult walk but it did take a bit of effort on the uphill bits.  I need to be able to leap up this hill like a mountain goat if I am to last on my Snowdon challenge.  I will be finding more hilly and longer walks as the weeks get closer to the trek itself.

I am raising money for the horticultural charity Perennial on this walk.  As I write I am at 40% of my target which is fantastic but there is still much to do.  My JustGiving page is here please note that I am paying for the trip myself so all the money raised goes directly to Perennial.  Please support me if you can.

Now to decide where the next walk shall be.....

The full story of this quest can be found here

Comments

  1. It seems a really well organised place to walk. Vimto though is disgusting - you were much better off with Blackcurrant.
    My legs have got a lot stronger since I moved to Halifax. Not only is EVERYTHING a hill, there are three flights of stairs in my house. They are very good for me! I could do with a little more stamina though. When are you going up Snowden? I was there in January when it was surprisingly sunny but all the touristy things were closed. If the trains had been running I would have cheated and gone on the little train.

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    1. I’m doing the trek in May which I am looking forward to hugely. I am also staying nearby in February but I think it is not safe for a novice me to try then - I’ll find some lower local hills..

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  2. Did you have a second celebratory sit down when you got to the top again?!

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    1. No I was good and kept going the second time. :)

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