Two Years On .............

Once more I arrive home, dripping with sweat, legs burning with lactic acid. I never ever want to run that far again. That's what I say to myself after a 15 mile training run. But I know that next week I'll run more. And the week after. Because that's what you do when you're training for the Robin Hood Marathon: a 26.2 mile (42 km) race which charts a course around Nottingham in a giant figure of eight.

When I last sat down to write something for the Appel I had just started my working life in Nottingham. I was finding my feet as a working adult and discovering the questionable joys of exercise. I still live in Nottingham and I still work at the same desk for the same company. Well, actually the company name has changed twice since I've been there but it still feels the same! I still do pretty much the same work: designing, installing and developing IT systems which display real time train information to the travelling public. But more and more I find that people are asking me hscotland3.gif ow to do things. Increasingly my job is about helping other people get their jobs done. I guess that means I'm moving up the company food chain!

    But the biggest change in me over the last two years surely has to be my appreciation of the great out doors! It all started on New Years Day 2002. I made a resolution to go walking in Wales every month and promptly booked myself a B&B for the end of January. On that occasion I walked alone and got hideously lost. Just when I thought I had reached the safety of my car I realised it was actually 24 miles away by road. I walked 18 of them in the dark and managed to hitch a lift for the remaining six. Needless to say I slept very well that evening and awoke the next morning with very sore limbs! However, despite this inauspicious start, I was hooked! Hill walking was for me! So I made many return trips to the Welsh countryside that year. With my Dad, friends, colleagues or alone I saw wonderful sights and had wonderful days.

The same year I decided to join the ranks of my (English) Grandfather and other members of the Gieles family by tackling Wainwright's Coast To Coast walk. It is a fabulous route: 195 miles through three national parks. I set off from St Bees Head on the west coast on 3rd June and walked alone carrying all my camping equipment on my back and cooking for myself each evening on my trusty petrol stove. The experience proved to be deeply fulfilling and certainly learned me a lot about myself. It was not easy and there were bad days as well as good. But when I finally made it to Robin Hood's Bay after ten days of walking and ten nights of camping I had a new perspective on life! I have written a full account of the w alk and, no doubt, I will sooner or later get around to putting it on the Web for all to see.

This year I decided it was time to discover Scotland! This started in February when I enrolled  myself on a Winter Skills training course. I spent a week as one of a group of four with one instructor walking and climbing through snow covered hills in Aviemore, one of the few Scottish ski resorts. Dressed out in warm clothes, crampons, ice axes, climbing harnesses and helmets we had a fun time as we learned how to try and keep ourselves safe in the snowy mountain environment.


Photo:Winter Walking - me far left (click on photo to enlarge)

Photo: dressed for the weather. (click on photo to enlarge)
 Later on this year, in June, I returned north of the Scottish border to drive from place to place and walk on various hills that I had not even seen before. Highlights would have to include Ben Nevis and wild camping in Knoydart. Surely, however, the most spectacular walking and scenery was to be found in Skye.
The Isle of Skye is home to the Cuillin ridge which is 11km long and only a few feet (a meter) wide in places. Its entire length, formed by an impressive range of 18 mountains, never dips below 760m which makes it high by British standards. What makes the Cuillin ridge particularly spectacular when you are on the Isle of Skye is the way they rise from flat lands virtually at sea level dramatically upwards.Although people can and do undertake the entire ridge in one go I contented myself with more modest walks in these hills.
Photo: Cuillin Ridge (click on photo to enlarge)


During my first outing I climbed up the Inaccessible Pinnacle which gave a great sense of adventure because it is narrow and not straightforward. You feel that if you make a mistake you will end up hurting yourself, badly! But I made it to the top and, from there, abseiled down the other side. This is the traditional method of descent from the pinnacle and a very fine experience indeed! Gradual at first but, after five metres, suddenly an almost overhanging 20m high drop!

On my second outing I walked up some more peaks and again had to make an abseil descent in one place. Whilst on the Inaccessible Pinnacle I had been shrouded in cloud but, on this day I had clear weather and beautiful views all the way along the ridge.


Photo: Perched on Iaccessible Pinnacle (click on photo to enlarge)
After Skye I also visited the Outer Hebrides before returning home. They were desolate islands with single lane roads and incredible beaches. With the right climate they would be a holiday resort by now. But when I was there, in July, they were being swept by 40km/h winds and I'm not sure the temperature was ever much above 10 degrees (at least it never felt it!). So I don't think there is much danger of their shores being invaded by apartment blocks and hotels. Having said that, everywhere I went whilst I was there I couldn't help but bump into Dutch tourists! Who would ever have thought that I would bump in to more Dutch than English people when visiting almost the most northerly and certainly the most westerly point of the British Isles!

There is only so long you can spend looking at mountains without wondering what it is like to get to the top without just taking the easiest route. I think there are only so many walking trips you can go on before you start to see imaginary lines on cliff faces. Inevitably these thoughts lead you to the conclusion that perhaps it is time to give climbing a try. I started last year by visiting the local climbing wall in Nottingham. For £5 you can spend as long as you like practising your skills on the indoor walls of what used to be a church. Before long I was itching to have a go on "real rock" so I went on a weekend course in rock climbing skills where I was shown the basics of using a rope, harness, helmet and other more exotic looking equipment. Then later on in the same year me and my Dad put the skills to the test in Wales by attempting a genuine climb. The climb was easy by most peoples standards but I still think that, looking back, we were a little out of our depth! Nonetheless we lived to fight another day and many memorable moments are now behind us: from intimidating 1000ft cliffs to enjoyable sunny afternoons where we've climbed no more than 15m at a time!

So I think that summarises what my main interests outside of work have been. And I can honestly say that being outdoors and having my own mini adventures has been fantastic. The memories will live on for a long time and, with every new experience and emotion, I find myself growing more.

Meanwhile the Marathon training continues. Quite what the attraction is of running this kind of distance I can't tell you. Somehow the idea drags you in and, once you've committed to it and got to a certain stage in your training, there is no going back! I know now that I will complete the full distance even if I have to hobble through the last 11 miles in agonising pain! But even so, please wish me luck. And spare a thought for me on the 14th September, any time from 10:00am onwards. Send me as much positive energy as you can spare and, you never know, I might even enjoy it!

David - August 2003

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