Well, my wife was there too but it seemed a good thread title...Anyhow, with short daylight hours and a need for my fix of sweating and panting in desolate moorlands ever present, I've decided to give a try to night hikes.
Tonight was our third walk with a 100% certain part of it in the dark, we're quite used to end up in semi-darkness but this was the first time we had proper night (although with the glow of the urban spread below us). We stuck to a tried and tested short 6 miles hike up Anglezarke Moor, just above the abode of Rogin of this parish. We started at 1515 and upon completing the latter stage of our ascent, we had some wonderful dusk and twilight views whilst the temperature was dropping like a stone. Once we reached 250m asl, ice appeared and the part of the walk on stone was treacherous due to it. That's also when it became time to switch our headlamps.
During our descent, twilight turned to night and the stars appeared. On our left, the red glow of the Winter Hill TV mast was rendered more spectral by a large bank of freezing fog but above us, the sky was lit by thousands of far away sun. No wind, just the odd noise of animal life, a scared pheasant/grouse or a puzzled sheep and our ever present,steam train like, breath exhalations, swirling ahead, in the dazzling shine of our headlamps. Pure peace, we switched off our gear at some point and just walked in the dark, with just enough visibility thanks to the urban spread glow. It was very cold, even after going up a last little hill, we barely warmed up. We got back to our car at 1815 and head straight to the nearest pub, which turns out to be a very nice place, for a pint and some warmth by the fire.
At some point, earlier in the walk, when it was still dusk, we saw two bright spots move at speed high in the sky, one seemed quite large. They disappeared completely when their course took them far enough along the curve of the Earth for the sun to be obscured. I wonder if this was the space station...?
Tonight was our third walk with a 100% certain part of it in the dark, we're quite used to end up in semi-darkness but this was the first time we had proper night (although with the glow of the urban spread below us). We stuck to a tried and tested short 6 miles hike up Anglezarke Moor, just above the abode of Rogin of this parish. We started at 1515 and upon completing the latter stage of our ascent, we had some wonderful dusk and twilight views whilst the temperature was dropping like a stone. Once we reached 250m asl, ice appeared and the part of the walk on stone was treacherous due to it. That's also when it became time to switch our headlamps.
During our descent, twilight turned to night and the stars appeared. On our left, the red glow of the Winter Hill TV mast was rendered more spectral by a large bank of freezing fog but above us, the sky was lit by thousands of far away sun. No wind, just the odd noise of animal life, a scared pheasant/grouse or a puzzled sheep and our ever present,steam train like, breath exhalations, swirling ahead, in the dazzling shine of our headlamps. Pure peace, we switched off our gear at some point and just walked in the dark, with just enough visibility thanks to the urban spread glow. It was very cold, even after going up a last little hill, we barely warmed up. We got back to our car at 1815 and head straight to the nearest pub, which turns out to be a very nice place, for a pint and some warmth by the fire.
At some point, earlier in the walk, when it was still dusk, we saw two bright spots move at speed high in the sky, one seemed quite large. They disappeared completely when their course took them far enough along the curve of the Earth for the sun to be obscured. I wonder if this was the space station...?
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