Blog (Current)

Blog updates are only on an "ad hoc" basis when I have something to say and will not be particularly regular. Latest entries first.

Pinned Blog Comment

It has been suggested to me by several people that I should charge for my walk information and indeed I have had unsolicited offers of payment (declined) from people who have used my directions. I am flattered that people think the information is worth charging for but I have deliberately chosen to keep it free to encourage walking. If you want to be kind, you could make a donation to the funds to build a bridge over the River Wharfe via the Burley Bridge Association website at http://www.burleybridge.com/donate.html

I live in this Wharfedale village, which is the only one in Wharfedale not to have a bridge to link it to footpaths at the opposite side of the river. Crossing of the river Wharfe, one of the fastest rising in the country, is currently precarious and internmittent, over stepping stones. There has been one campaign or another to have a bridge built for 120 years and finally, there is now a chance, as both North Yorkshire and Bradford Councils' Rights of Way Improvement Plans and the Burley in Wharfedale Neighbourhood Development Plan, adopted by Bradford Council after the village referendum in May 2018, are all in support. However £400,000 is needed to build the bridge and provide a long term fund for maintanance. It will not be funded from council funds.

A bridge will link the south side of the river to footpaths stretching into Nidderdale and beyond. Various fund raising events have been held and more are planned but, as they say, every little helps!

18 April 2021

On this day in 1936, a group of surveyors gathered around a white concrete pillar in a field in Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire, and began the retriangulation of Great Britain. Happy 85th anniversary to these relics which are extremely useful for walkers. It’s all satellites now!

26 March 2021

I received a complaint yesterday from the resident at a farm that walkers had been trespassing on their land and on enquiry, she discovered they were using my walking directions! When I looked into the matter, it transpires that since I did the walk, the official footpath route has changed. I was able to verify this by checking my original map with the current one. The lady concerned very kindly provided a corrective paragraph which I have inserted in the instructions and corrected the maps..

Footpath routes sometimes do change, notably to divert walkers from the traditional route through farmyards. I don't mind this, if the diversion does not add greatly to the distance, as many farmyards can be a little "messy" to walk through. However, I do not regularly re-walk my routes because there are too many and they are too geographically spread. I cannot therefore be aware of changes unless someone lets me know. If you do, some indication as to exactly which part of the instructions are outdated and some replacement wording would be appreciated.

In this way, the instructions can be kept relevant for everyone.

12 March 2021

For personal reasons, I have decided to discontinue accepting direct adverts from advertisers. These primarily relate to accommodation. As an Amazon Associate I earn a comission from qualifying purchases plus fees for the insertion of Google adverts and this income will contribute towards the costs of the website and incidental costs. I also donate to charity occasionally, most recently to the Just Giving page for the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team member who suffered life changing injuries, whilst on a "shout" to rescue someone who should not have been on the fells at all during the Covid lockdown! The rescued person was one of two campers who were subsequently fines £200 each for breaching lockdown.

The remainder of the site will remain the same and I will continue to add walks, assuming the pandemic rules allow greater wandering eventually. It seems to have been a long haul!

On the plus side, I have had my first Covid jab with no ill effects at all and have some new summer walking boots to break in.

It is now obvious that the new Ordnance Survey Open Data system mentioned in my Blog comments below (7 January 2021) is going to result in the cessation of the little OS maps I display for each walk. The full story can be seen on my Cessation of OS Open Space page. This is a shame and I feel I am in an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" situation but OS have decided to "fix it". The sketch maps I provide should enable you to identify the routes on an OS map without too much difficulty. I would always advise puchase of "proper" maps, at least as back up and not rely solely on electronic navigation.

5 February 2021

Unbelievably, happyhiker.co.uk has now been in existence for 10 years. It seems like yesterday when I tried to follow walk directions in a well known newspaper, which were rubbish and thought surely I can do better. An element of conceit perhaps. At any rate I decided to have a go and after some stumbling around what is now some very ancient software, I managed to put something together. I have learned a very small amount about websites but the mysteries of coding remain impenetrable. The website seems to have been a success judging from the lovely emails I receive and people seem to find my directions easy to follow and accurate. There has been the odd query or suggestion and I always reply and consider whether any improvements/corrections are appropriate.

My main regret is not moving with the times and shifting to some better software, probably Wordpress but it is the learning curve and the time to do it which puts me off. The small amount of revenue I derive from adverts does not permit me to employ the services of any experts and in any case, I want to keep control. Maybe I'll get round to it. I know the site does not display ideally on mobile phones and tablets but the directions are still the same.

I have had two or three offers to buy the site but never got as far as the Yorkshire question ('Ow much!) as I have not wanted to sell it. Maybe the time will come, who knows.

Covid has been a pain to say the least and although I have followed the rules, they now seem strict than previously so I am currently restricting myself to walks from my home. Consequently, not many new ones are being added to the site, though have added a short one today.

Many thanks to all those who support my site and I hope to keep adding walks as long as I can put one foot in front of another!

7 January 2021

Happy New Year seems a little hollow, given what is happening around the COVID-19 pandemic. It is alarming the number of "Covidiots" who are claiming it is all part of some conspiracy theory. All Governments want to get re-elected and trashing the economy will not further that end. I think it is reasonable therefore to say that if the Government tell us there is a dangerous pandemic, there is one!

A major downside of the pandemic and the consequent lockdown is that we are prevented from travelling to areas we might like to go to to walk. Although it is tempting to "stray over the edges" of the rules, even if you can get away with it, please stay in your own areas to walk. If you live in the centre of a city with no immediately convenient green space, I think the rules permit a short journey to find some. "Short" is not defined but it sure as hell will not mean you can travel 50 or 60 miles to visit the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales or whatever is your prefered beauty spot. Police are checking number plates to see where cars have come from and anyone who has to be rescued by Mountain Rescue Teams can bet that if they have come from outside the area, the police will be waiting. The more closely we stick to the rules, the sooner the country will get on top of the pandemic and the sooner we can all return to visiting out preferred areas.

On this subject, in case you haven't noticed, it is winter. It is colder, it snows and the days are shorter. Mountain Rescue Teams have already had a high number of call outs resulting from incidents arising from inadequate equipment or knowledge with the usual proliferation of poor clothing, risking hypothermia, slips/falls due to lack of correct footwear/crampons and of course the reliance on mobile phones with no map/compass backup. It is not fair. Mountain Rescue Teams are made up of volunteers, with jobs and families. Call outs put them at risk anyway but there is now the added risk of COVID-19.

Finally, I have made no progress on my understanding of the new Ordinance Survey setup in relation to the little OS maps I have linked to each walk (see Blog 2020 last entry). It still looks as though from about August 2021, these will cease to work.

All information on this site is given in good faith and no liability is accepted in respect of any damage, loss or injury which might result from acting on it.