Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey

The track went past four reservoirs: Blackstone Edge, White Holme, Light Hazzles and Warland. At the end of the Warland reservoir there is a wheel to open and shut a sluice gate. The last time I was here, Calse and Mo were with me. I remember them muttering to each other. When I asked what they were chuntering about, Calse said that they didn't need to put Open and Shut labels on the wheel since you could use the Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey rule. This was a new one on me, but Calse explained it as a way of remembering which way to tighten a screw. You turn it right to tighten it and left to loosen it. I told Calse it was a rubbish way of remembering it. I said it all depends on whether you are looking at the top or bottom of the head of the screw. If you look at the bottom, then you get the opposite of what you intended. Also, if you were stood behind the screw, and looked at its top, then you would get the opposite happening. She said that only stupid people would do that. Well, that was a red rag to a bull. I said that if you used this stupid rule on this wheel, then you'd end up opening (loosening) the sluice gate, when you actually wanted to shut it (tightening). I said the reservoir engineers had the best idea by just writing on the handle which way opened the sluice and which way shut it. It was an open and shut case as far as I was concerned. Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey indeed. I'd never heard such nonsense.

Mountain Rescue

Stoodley Pike comes into view just after the reservoirs. It appears like a Saturn V rocket perched on the edge of the moor. It seems within touching distance, but it feels an age before you actually reach it. This is because the path meanders quite a bit, and at one point goes down into a hollow on the edge, where the Withens Gate Stoop is revealed. This looks like a large stone gatepost that has been set at an angle. As I waited for the sun to appear from behind a cloud, to illuminate the stone, two border collies barked vociferously at me. They were with two members of the Mountain Rescue Team who were up here on a training exercise. One of the team would go away and hide something and then another team member would take his dog and search for it. The dog would scan the moors in a zigzag fashion until it found the hidden object. Their reward, when the object was found, appeared to be the use of a squeaky toy. That is, the dog got the squeaky toy; I'm not sure what prize the Mountain Rescue person got. The sun came out and I took a photo of the leaning stone and then headed off for the last stretch to Stoodley Pike.

Stoodley Pike

Stoodley Pike is a 37-metre obelisk. It is a notable target for Pennine Wayers irrespective of whether they are heading north or south. You can see it for miles. The first iteration of the obelisk was built in 1815 and commemorated the defeat of Napoleon. This fell down in 1854, after an earlier lightning strike weakened it, and was rebuilt in 1856. It wasn't until 1889 that somebody thought to attach a lightning conductor to it. There is a balcony around it, and this is accessed by an internal staircase that has, wait for it...39 steps. I've been up to the balcony a few times, but you really need some illumination and I'd forgot my head torch. Instead, I wandered over to the edge of the moor to get a better view down into the valley. As I admired the view, a woman came up to me and we started chatting. She said that this area was new to her and that she was house sitting for some people at a place called Eastwood in the valley below. 'Are they your friends?' I asked. 'No, I'd never met them before this weekend. I'm with a house-sitting company and they match clients with house-sitters'. 'I could do with some of that,' I thought, 'it'd make a pleasant change to live in a house where the central heating is actually switched on.' I wondered how many house-sits there were in places like this. I was about to make further enquiries when she wandered off and I could see her attempting to stumble up Stoodley's stairs.

Reservoir Circuit

I retraced my steps to the leaning stone. The Mountain Rescue team and their dogs were still there and barking (the dogs, not the Mountain Rescuers) as I walked past. I hiked almost as far as the Warland Reservoir but before reaching it, turned off east on a path labelled as The Reservoir Circuit on a fingerpost. This path does what is says on the tin by taking a contour line around Turley Holes Moor to meet up with this morning's outward-bound track at the White Holme reservoir. The last time I did this path I found it extremely wet and muddy, but the dry summer had left it in a good condition. It gave me a good view down on to the Withens Clough Reservoir, a Yorkshire reservoir and a welcome tick for my Yorkshire Reservoirs Venture. On a couple of sections of the path, a reinforced concrete pipe was exposed, and these provided a useful bridge to bypass some boggy sections on the path. An old culvert runs alongside the path, although it is largely unrecognisable with all the soil and plants in it. The Turley Holes moor is the subject of one of the largest conservation projects in Europe. 360 tonnes of lime and fertiliser were scattered, and the area revegetated with heather, grass and other plants.

Bare Faced Cheek

The path brought me around the back of White Holme reservoir. The water was well down, and the area looked very bleak under the grey clouds. Eventually I reached the outward track that I'd taken this morning to Stoodley Pike. The morning mist had long gone by now although a slight haze still lingered. A couple of paragliders drifted along Blackstone Edge further to the south. As I entered the car park a couple of people heaving large paraglider rucksacks, crossed the road to make their way up to Blackstone Edge.

A curious incident happened as I was driving my car out of the car park. A completely naked man (he didn't even wear shoes), walked along the road from the direction of the White House pub and then got into the back seat of a Range Rover that was parked near to the roadside. It is a busy road, and the surrounding area was busy with people too. I noticed that he had an even tan over his body, and so maybe the practice was familiar to him. Anyway, a peculiar end to what had been an excellent day.