Cobden at Winter Camp 2012

With temperatures reaching -4 over night, everyone earned their Polar Bear badge along others.

Christmas @ Cumberland Cottage (Part 1)

Network went to Cumberland Cottage over the weekend 25th – 27th November to prepare the Cottage for the visit of Cobden Scouts and the Explorers the following two weekends (2nd – 4th & 9th – 11th). Over the course of the weekend Cumberland Cottage was turned into a Christmas Wonderland!! (Photos to follow, don’t want to spoil the surprise)

6 Networkers left the Scout on Friday evening and headed to Tesco in Mac. to stock up on supplies for the weekend. It was then off to Wildboar Clough and Cumberland Cottage. We arrived at the bottom of the hill at about 8pm and proceeded to carry the equipment and food the 600 metres up the hill to the Cottage. We then started a fire and barricaded ourselves in from the wind and cold for the night.

After breakfast on Saturday morning, two of our company left for a wedding (Greevy) and a 21st birthday party (Statham). This is when our struggles started.

The first issue we had was that we had no tea bags, only coffee, most people weren’t impressed. The second problem is linked with the first, the spring for our fresh water wasn’t a spring anymore, we had no drinking water! So we decided to press on with collecting wood for that night. This is when problem three arises, the two-man saw had disappeared from stores and with nobody we asked knowing of its where abouts we were resigned to a weekend without it. We thought we’d be alright with the two bow saws and two big axes we had taken, this proved not to be the case. With plenty of wood that would have been easy going with the two-man was inaccessible because with axes and small saws it became far to time consuming and hard work.

With some wood collected and the arrival Mark, Nippie and I thought we should get some drinking water and tea bags. We tried the farm at the bottom of the hill, but were told by the old lady that she had used her spares and couldn’t afford to give us some. She did however suggest trying The Crag Inn, a pub not far away. This was a good bit of advise as we managed to get water and tea bags for free by saying we would be there that evening for a drink. On arrival back at the Cottage to our disappointment, issue four, the milk hadn’t come with us, so it was black coffee or tea with no milk that we had to make do with . Mark left and we were down to 4 Networkers again and not much wood with the sun going down too quickly. With just under an hour of daylight remaining a big push on wooding was made and with the sun setting and darkness setting in we were moderately satisfied with our woodpile and the fact it would see us through the night.

Gaz and Frodo wooding

Tea on Saturday was fish fingers, peas and home-made sweet potato chips (I bought the wrong potatoes), this was a success. Then we got down to the serious business of the weekend, Christmas decorations. Disappointingly Nippie banned listening to Christmas tunes because it brings bad luck (apparently!), however, all the Christmassy decorations soon got us in the mood, who needs Christmas Songs?, and we were soon dangling baubles and draping tinstle to our hearts content. We all thought the finished product look AMAZING, and for the rest of the night we all sat in our mattress sofas and admired the decorations, getting a bit excited about Christmas!!

Nippie wanted to be home for 1pm on Sunday afternoon, this did not happen. This was what time we got up, instead! Due to the fact that we board the windows up with spare mattresses to keep out the wind, of which there was a lot of on Saturday night, the room was pitch black. As a result of this none of knew what time it was. It was only when Nippie got bored of lying in bed awake and got up did anyone look at the time and think oops. After a quick tidy up we left Cumberland Cottage and headed back home. On the way home we spied Mr and Mrs Sigley outside Poynton looking at cars for Andy Sigley’s sister.

Looking forward to Christmas @ Cumberland Cottage (Part 2) with Cobden Scouts and (Part 3) with the Explorers!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

Jonathan ‘Nippie’ Nolan 023
Mark Ridgway 028
Chris Greevy 033
Ollie ‘Hibbo’ Hibbs 034
Andy Statham 042
Gaz ‘Gibbo’ Hibbs 044
Julian ‘Frodo’ Taylor 045

Bullock Smithy 2011

The Bullock Smithy Hike is a Long Distance walk that is organised by 3rd Hazel Grove Scout Group. Competitors have 24 hours, 12 noon on Saturday to 12 noon on Sunday to complete the ‘56 miles in the glorious Peak District’.

This year the Hike was taking place on the first full weekend in September (as is tradition), the 3rd and 4th, and Tommy Tognarelli, Adi Tognarelli, Andy Thorpe and Ollie Hibbs (me) had entered. Tommy, Adi and Andy had entered with the aim of not only beating Tommy and Adi’s record of 14 hours 25, but going sub 14!! I had a time of 19 hours 15 to beat, therefore sub 14 was a massive ask, but I’d give it a go.

Saturday morning, race day!

Adi, or designated driver picked us all up and we headed to Hazel Grove Scout Hut were we had to check in and have our kit ‘checked’. We were given a list and asked do you have these? The obvious answer, yes. No one wanted extra weight to carry for 56 miles. After ditching most of our maps except the one Tommy had with the split times to beat 14 hours, we headed to the start line in Devonshire Park, where we collected our tag cards that get clipped at each of the 14 checkpoints around the 56 mile course.

Waiting for the starting Anvil

At 12 o’clock the Bullock Smithy anvil was struck and we had started, we left the park at a run and were leading the Bullock Smithy!!

After about 15/20 minutes I knew I wasn’t going to maintain the pace that the other 3 were doing and had to stop running and start walking, costing them (apparently) 1.5 minutes, as good lucks were said amongst asking whether I had maps, which I didn’t as they got left in the car. I’d completed the course twice before so I had a pretty good idea of the route, plus there is always enough people to follow without needing a map.

The view from Bow Stones across to the Peak District

The route takes us through Lyme Park to Bow Stones via Poynton canal basin, at this point I was still jogging the downhill sections. However, coming to the first major uphill, Chinley Churn, my legs weren’t feeling too great and it was hard work getting to the checkpoint at the top of a long, quite steep climb. From here it’s across to Edale Cross up another fairly long climb but this steep the gradient wasn’t as steep.

Looking across to the Edale Cross Climb where the other 3 are (I think)

I passed through Edale Cross checkpoint and from there it was all downhill to Edale itself. At this checkpoint, there is the option of an interesting concoction of fruit salad and rice pudding, something I have never quite felt the need or urge to try! From Edale it’s over Hollins Cross and down into Castleton.

The view from Hollins Cross looking towards Castleton

This is the last photo I took as from this point on, my legs decided they did actually want to walk, where as before I was quite happy to wander along taking nice photos. From Castleton onwards it was all about the walking. From the checkpoint there was a group of about 10 that left for Cavedale and beyond that Peak Forest. This group stretched out on the climb out of Cavedale and I was left with a group made up of me and two two’s, Caroline and Steve and Brad and Liam. We were all has it happened aiming for a time of around 19 hours.

We were all very happy to reach Peak Forest in the daylight as last year the other 4 in my group had arrived just needing torches. We were even happier to get between Peak Forest and the half way point of Millers Dale, still without needing a torch. Now it was onto Chelmorton, otherwise known as ‘the doughnut one’, something all 5 of us had been looking forward too!! This year there was no caravan as in previous years but a collection of canvas, but there was still the jam doughnuts, so we were satisfied. Next stop Earl Sterndale and beyond that Bran Top and a hot dog.

At Earl Sterndale we were greeted with claps and cheers as I was the 100th person to make it to the checkpoint, this was a massive boost to our group as this confirmed that we were doing very well. We also enjoyed tracking people down and overtaking them, as there we had a couple of groups leaving as we arrived, it spurred us on, we wanted to overtake them. Which we did, passing two groups before reaching Bran Top. We also passed a wedding reception whilst the live band were playing teenage kicks, something we sing-a-long to! After a quick hot dog it was onto Cumberland Cottage.

The navigation between Bran Top and Cumberland has in the past caused problems, but not this year, all out navigation was being done off Steve’s GPS device, nicknamed the Oracle. He had the route programmed in and all we had to do was follow the little arrow as it moved along the blue line, too easy! Cumberland was a short stop where we briefly picked up another walker but he was soon dropped as he fell off the back of the group. We negotiated the notoriously bouldery and treacherous track from Cumberland to the road, then the route takes you round the edge of Macclesfield Forest and onto Walker Barn.

Walker Barn to the penultimate checkpoint of Whitley Green is a nice section, down through Rainow and then along a well worn path through fields and down into the top of Bollington, where we walk down the deserted streets except for us and another group of walkers (which we overtook). Onto the canal and two bridges later is the checkpoint. Next stop home and a full English breakfast!!

Middlewood Way is a large part of the final and it goes on and on and on and on! There are two options off Middlewood Way, the first is the recommended route along Towers Road and the A523 past five ways (Tommy, Adi and Andy went this way) or continue to Poynton Station and does the start of the 56 mile course backwards. We chose the second option. This is where Liam and Brad dropped of our group as Liam was struggling a bit (it was his first time). Now it was just a matter of dragging our aching legs and feet over the finish line at the Hazel Grove Scout Hut. Somehow Caroline and Steve managed  to run up the final drive way and I wasn’t far behind as we all finished with the same time. Brad and Liam finished about 15/20 minutes after us and joined us for breakfast.

One thing that had kept us going to the end was the promise of a beer at the end courtesy of Liam. This was a refreshing end to the walk. Cheers!

The 56 mile route

Finishing times:

Tommy Tognarelli – 14 hours 10 minutes

Adi Tognarelli – 14 hours 10 minutes

Andy Thorpe – 14 hours 10 minutes

Ollie Hibbs – 18 hours 7 minutes

We’ll see you next year 1st – 2nd September at a checkpoint near you!

Cub District Outing – Magna Science Museum

The 18th of June at 8.45am cubs and leaders from Goyt district met at Rose Hill train station to catch the coaches to Rotherham and the Magna. After a few games of I-spy we arrived at Magna at about 10.30 and excited to start the day.

After a quick safety briefing of don’t run because the floors are hard and will hurt if you fall on them, we were allowed to start exploring the museum. There is four parts to the museum, Earth, Fire, Water and Air. Read more »

Arkwright’s Photo Challenge

The cubs were given a list of 10 things that they had to be photographed with and they had an hour in which to complete the task.

The things to be photographed were:

1. The Scout Hut
2. Canal tunnel  under the road
3. Wood carving
4. The Library
5. A lock
6. Derby Way shops
7. The Fire Station
8. The Playground
9. The War Memorial
10. Anywhere else they wanted Read more »

Episode 1 : Explorer Kayaking

The first event of Andy Togs’ week long marathon of activities for the splorers.

We all met at Scout HQ at 1pm and everyone then headed down to Roman Lakes to meet Roger (King of the Kayaks). Once kitted out with buoyancy aids, helmets, kayaks and paddles, we hit the water!

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Network @ Cumberland Cottage 2011

As all that were going to Cumberland were povo students, we left Marple earlier than the standard 6pm; it was more like 3pm. We arrived at Cumberland, and after shifting all our food and a bit of kit to the top of the hill (the rest of the kit Explorers had left from the week before), including the candles that we had made on the Wednesday night the week before. We found a half-decent wood pile that most people would be happy to find left for them (thanks Explorers!). However, being Network and our tendency to like big fires and late nights, we set about collecting more wood!

Our Candles

There were only four of us (Hibbo, Greevy, Frodo and Cubby) for the first night, which meant we could all fit nicely around the fire without anybody being too far away to feel cold. There was a brief thought of playing whizz-bang or this is the witch, but seen as we were all ex-Cobden scouts this idea was quickly dismissed as it probably would have turned into chaos!! We decided it would be safer to just chat, and then head to bed.

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