Monthly Round Up

January Round Up

I had a thought.

I know, I know, it’s dangerous.

But anywho. 2018 went so well with our adventures and little holidays, that I have decided to do a monthly round up in 2019 for each month. To document everything properly. I’ll explain where we have gone, what we’ve seen and our highs and lows of each month.

So, January 2019 has been a difficult month to start with. As we all have full time work and school, the only time we can get out has to be a Sunday.

01/01/2019

Our first walk of the year was a jaunt up to Mam Tor, on New Years Day, where 100 other people had the same idea! The car wasn’t doing too well after our tour up to Scotland and we were quite frustrated when we got there. Still, the skies were blue, the weather was fairly mild and the views were uplifting. On we walked for around 3 miles towards Lose Hill but headed back when the sun started to set. We had started out fairly late due to some alcohol involvement the night before!

13/01/2019

Fuelled by the promise of mild weather, we planned Chrome Hill for the next walk. For why I hadn’t bothered to check the weather reports, I honestly don’t know. It was the most horrendous wind we had ever encompassed. High Wheeldon was our first port of call, but we got merely halfway before it was abandoned. Poor Molly couldn’t stand up, the boys were crawling on hands and knees and nobody was particularly enjoying themselves. The best idea of the day was to go home, have a roast dinner and watch the storm from the safety of our four walls.

20/01/2019

Attempt number 3 was a local hill, in Shropshire. Part of the Shropshire 6, it seemed a nice option for our struggling car and our dampened spirits from the week before. All started well, we had a good trudge through mud soaked fields and found the right path (for a change!) towards Caer Caradoc. Only, we couldn’t see. There was a fog so low, we could barely see 10 feet in front of us. An attempt was made to find our way. We made tracks to find our way back, and we tried to teach the children how to navigate their way in case of an emergency. Arrows were made out of rocks and we scuffed the grass with our feet to make Hansel and Gretel type tracks.

Unfortunately, it got too much and safety was an issue in terms of navigation and not knowing what was out there. So again, we aborted. Feeling very disheartened with our January attempts at getting out, I was uneasy about the following weeks adventures.

27/01/2019

This was the day we had arranged an Instameet. I want to create a group of likeminded parents and kids, who love to get outside. So, I set up the community on Instagram and invited families to come and walk with us in the Peak District. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we had a few people drop out and there ended up just being us and one other family. Oh and Dicky’s cousin and her husband also joined us for their first hike.

Despite the horrendous gale force winds, and the inability to access the summit of Mam Tor due to being thrown around like rag dolls, we had a lovely 4 mile walk towards Castleton and up Winnats Pass. The kids enjoyed themselves and I finally felt like we had completed a walk in January! The first #hikerkidz meet up was a success, with the prospect of another one lingering in the plans.

So, there we go. January 2019 tried to fight us with windy summits, car trouble and 5 long weeks of financial strain. But, we did it. We ventured outdoors and carried on with our hiker ways. We visited new places, tried new things and we are ready to see what the rest of the year brings.

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