A Boxing Day hill walk

With all the hustle and bustle of cooking Christmas dinner over, I decided that early boxing day morning was going to be set aside for a walk over the Malvern Hills. The weather on my phone looked promising, with a clear sky all night predicted and a cold, dry morning. The Midlands were still steeped in several inches of snow and I'd checked the moon tables and knew there would be a half moon still in sky at sun rise.

For Christmas and new year I stayed with my family in Worcester, it's only a few miles drive from Malvern, and I left well before first light.   I did wonder how far I would be able to take my car before being stopped by snow as the smaller roads on the hills had not been gritted. My car crawled round a sharp right turn and up the steep, ice covered road leading to the Clock Tower car park in north Malvern.  I couldn't get into the car park because of snow so parked in the street.




I began climbing the hills and night turned into dawn.  Looking west towards south Wales, the landscape was a wonderful patchwork quilt of snow and hedges.

Fog quickly covered the flood plains, towns and villages below, drifting like cotton wool sheets above the landscape and softening the light, distant hill tops pocked through the clouds.  The colours were so soft and subtle with light reflecting off the white snow and fog covering the rising sun.

 The Malvern Hills are an eight mile ridge of rounded summits that contain some of the oldest rocks in Britain, wooded on some slopes, grassy on others, the ridge runs from north to south. The highest point being Worcestershire Beacon at 1400ft aprox (425m). To the west lies the County of Hereford and to the east lies the flood plain of the River Severn.

From the top of the highest hill, Worcestershire Beacon, looking towards south Wales.

Looking East at the fog layer above the flood plains

Descending the north side of Worcestershire Beacon on the way back to the car, the fog began to lift and the gathering clouds threatened rain.

Between Table Hill and North Hill

The Snowy Brecon Beacons

The drive from London on the M4 was easy but negotiating the icy, snow covered Welsh hills at night was a challenge.   Sixteen cavers were making their way to Croydon Caving Cottage in Ystradfellte,  a little Welsh village surrounded by mountains.  Three were stuck half way up a steep hill.     As I climbed up the hill and approached Caroline’s car it started to slide backwards down the hill towards me, with no one in it and the hand-brake on.  I leapt up the steep bank and out of its way.  One of the cavers,  a girl who was planning to do her first caving trip this weekend,  was standing on the far side of the  car and pushed it into the bank as it passed her, where it stuck.  Steve, another caver, arrived at the bottom of the hill.  We attached a caving rope to the front of the stricken car and six cavers slowly lowered it back down the hill, hanging onto the rope to slow its decent. 
 

Approaching mid-night, our three cars continued the last four miles as a convoy.  We took turns to drive down each hill and up the next.  Neil took his car first, then walked back to drive Caroline’s car.   The cars were driven slowly down each hill, accelerating towards the bottom and up the next in a low gear, while trying to keep the wheels on fresh crunchy snow, rather than the hard icy stuff.  Knowing that if we stopped our cars would slide uncontrollably backwards.  We arrived in the early hours to a warm welcome.

Ystradfellte, in the Brecon Beacons is a wonderful base for caving, walking, wild swimming (not this weekend though), mountain biking and of course photography.   Sunday the  light was gorgeous, so instead of heading down the caves, Neil and I headed up the Ysgubor-Wen  mountain  towards the old kiln mines, careful not to step on the snow covered frozen ponds, lest they break.  The rest of the country was thawing out and loosing its white blanket, but not here.   Many of the old field boundaries that have been here since people first started farming animals are lost beneath the snow.  With no grass to munch on, sheep and cattle stand silently waiting to be fed. 

I love the stark contrast between isolated trees and the whiteness of the snow.   We pass shake holes, which are steep-sided holes in the ground.  They are often found in limestone areas and usually indicate the presence of caves; they are formed when the ground literally falls into an underground hole.

  

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