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Intrepid Exploring Again...

We have just returned from an intrepid tramp around the moors and (ex) forest of Stang, just on the border of County Durham and Yorkshire!!  We can see this hill from our house so felt it warranted an explore.  This was another of Dr Freds slightly misleading walking tours... he did warn me - he said it was a hill but not a big one - that's ok... he said yes its very windy but we will mostly be on a path through a forest so we will be sheltered - that's ok... there is a crag with a path to the trig point and then a path back down to the road making it a nice reasonable easy sheltered 5/6 mile circular walk and we will be able to see our house from the top. (except we forgot the binoculars so we had to guess).
non existent forest
Off we go... christmas cake and teabags at the ready - the wind was quite wild as we left the van heading for the forest track... the track was there but alas the forest was no longer!!! There were 15 trees a little way along, but that was the sum total of tree life - all the trees had all been felled and the wind was raging, howling haha... at least 10 on the Beaufort scale - no shelter at all, it was very strong and very noisy, especially the bit with the 15 trees ( I counted them, how many trees does it take to make a forest?) We came to a place where the track did an interesting circular movement like an alien, crop circley landing pad back on itself . The alleged track branched off looking suspiciously like a sheep path rather then a people path into nothing but heather and bogland...

Yes up and over the wellies several times, ruts, bogs, ice, puddles, snow, more boggy bits and eventually a crag to be touched and climbed and then more bog and heather to the trig point where amazingly the was no evident path to be seen!!
our house is out there somewhere 
I love these walks Dr Fred takes me on, I should have learned by now what to expect - I suppose I do know or I wouldn't even leave the house - the views were spectacular when you could stop to look at  them but the terrain was difficult for short legs and it was a lot of eyes down to avoid ruts and bogs or the fear of suddenly finding yourself swimming in the wet lands of the North York moors!!  However the sky was brilliantly blue and the sun mostly shone - in the distance we watched the clouds scudding along in the gale force winds, it was fresh and quite exhilarating although I do admit to being very pleased to have a cuppa and choccy digestive once back into the relative warmth of the van.

esoteric crag ticked off!

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