The Beast From The East: A Wild Winters Walk With Me

in #walkwithme7 years ago (edited)

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Walk With Me Into a Winters Storm

Heavy snow, blizzards, 50mph winds,freezing fog and -14 windchill .. perfect day for an eight mile hike across the moors .. I think?

But I have to get there first and it's a long drive!

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Finally I made it, now it's time to start the walk .. I will add that I'm an experienced hiker and climber. If I wasn't proficient I wouldn't be out here, the moor is approx 400 square miles and is of high altitude .. if you get lost in weather and temperatures like this it would be life threatening.

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Whoops it's a bit deep at the bottom of the moor! I will also add don't worry about the dog, these dogs are an exceptionally hardy breed and they are good in temperatures -40 to +40 .. and that's no exaggeration. Indeed if there was water I know who would be swimming

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The higher I climb the worse the weather becomes. The pictures are a bit blurry as the camera lens keeps freezing up!

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Although it's way below freezing we also have freezing rain which instantly freezes upon contact and coats everything in ice.

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Now lets take a look at some of the tors .. I'm now at about the highest part of the walk. I think so anyway as I lost the path about an hour prior to this picture.

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The snow is getting deeper, the wind is absolutely biting cold and it's really picking up pace!

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Now this is where I start to head back down the hill (via some frozen water). As strange as it may sound to some, I just love being in wild weather like this .. it's so invigorating and makes me feel so alive!

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It doesn't look as though anyone's been down these old mines in a while.

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That ice rain really isn't messing about!

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The lane back to the car.

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The car is de-iced but it's a long and winding road back

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I hope you've enjoyed this walk with me .. until next time many thanks for taking the time to look at my post.

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Written by perceptualflaws
Original pictures by perceptualflaws
Gifs courtesy of @justcallmemyth

I'm proud to be both a member and supporter of the Minnow Support Project - brought to you by the hard work of: @aggroed, @teamsteem, @canadian-coconut and @ausbitbank,
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Awesome walk my friend, it was freaky how quickly it all went away over the past few days.
I found it invigorating too, a good winter like this is better than the normal boring winters we’ve had in recent years.
It’s amusing how the brutal weather is being spun as another terrible thing coming out of Russia by the halfwits in the MSM, when will they give that up? Sighs
I love your dog by the way, he looks like a tough bugger.

Hey my friend, thank you for the support .. I know what you're saying, this walk was a week ago today and what a difference a week makes! It's been pouring with rain all day and the daffodils are coming out .. if you'd told they would be out last week I wouldn't have believed it. That said although it's gone here there may still be snow on the moors.

Yes I must admit to rolling my eyes when I first heard the term (even though I've jusy used it lol) .. they really seem to be building the rhetoric up.

Thanks dude, I do have another dog but he's a bit old so I didn't think he would have appreciated this walk :D .. hope you have a great weekend ahead of you.

Oooh wow!! What a beautiful walk, and your dog is sooooo cute, I love the excited and joyful expressions you managed to capture.

These crystal-like ice formations are too cool!!

Hey @lyndsaybowes .. hope you're well and have enjoyed a good weekend .. I'm fighting fit and ready to dive into the week ahead .. just about .. I think? lol

Really glad you enjoyed the ice pictures .. I tried to take loads, plus loads of where the rocks were covered in ice but the camera kept freezing! The ice is actually grass that has been covered by layers of freezing rain and it was the same on the rocks .. it was crazy weather, never really seen ice forming like that before so I'm glad a couple of the pictures came out.

Thanks again!

I definitely admire how well all the shots turned out considering the foul weather!! Great work xo

Picture 13, 14 and 15 are super awesome... Yeah you mentioned the rock formations... Those are absolutely stunning... You're absolutely right, you're nuts to go get lost in such a climate and it's also incredibly beautiful... I wish I could have been there with you...
Having your beautiful companion go on the walk with you would have made it more fun though!
So many stupendous sights... I need to get out and do some hiking... I can't imagine how good for the soul this must have been...
To think we have ancestors that routinely did this a la caveman blows my mind though... Imagine if you had to do something in this weather, and the best you could hope for is to find a few hundred calories and head back to your cave, where you would promptly light a fire (unless your fellow human dwellers were already there keeping it going) and try and warm yourself up...

Ice man

The very thought is chilling to the bone... Great little adventure my man, thanks for sharing with us!

Hey @imp-unity really glad you like the post and pictures my friend! .. it would be cool to head out to the wilds with you for the day, I'm sure the time would fly by!

The whole area is notorious for fog and the visibility was pretty bad at the top .. if you got lost and wandered off into the wilderness it would be pretty dangerous. The also have vast blanket bogs on the moor so if you wandered into one of those that had a covering of snow you'd certainly regret it! They have a very old prison in the middle of the moor and there are stories of prisoners escaping into storms and then banging on the prison doors a few hours later to be let back in! lol

I would love to live a complete back to basics lifestyle my friend, hunter gatherer, log cabin in the woods .. that's my aim, hopefully one day I'll realise it :) Thanks again @imp-unity I'm really glad you enjoyed my post.

Definitely
I'm down for that!

Yeah, if I was venturing out there on my own, I would at least want to be with someone awesome like you, or at the very least your furry companion! That and a army-grade set of wellies lol. And yeah, wouldn't want to go to prison in that environment! Yikes

I totally hear that about the anarchy-primitavism... I think for months at a time as a kind of spiritual retreat I think it would be such a valuable experience... Like do a whole season or two like that...

Depends on the circumstances that life has dealt, but I could certainly see that as being an experience we'd want to do at least once (especially as a man right?)

My first goal is to set up a self-sustaining renewable energy commune in the global south... Somewhere with year round avocados and mangos will do :3

Hunting and gathering in the woods might be an extra step beyond this original agricultural preservationism dream I'm chasing :3

I got cold only by looking at the pictures. Amazing dog by the way.

Thank you for the support and comment, it's much appreciated.

That looks freezing cold man. But the dog looks happy tho. Did he found some trees on top?

Man, it was a cold day that's for sure! There are no trees on top of the moor .. only once you get down into the valley.

I m sure he found some rocks to piss on haha . My dog has to sniff, and piss on all the good-looking trees and rocks, sometimes on shoes too

What a awesome walk with you ❄
Could feel the energie through your photographs!
Beautiful dog, blue healer?
Love the rocks formations and wild weather 🐾

Hey my friend .. thank you or the kind words and support, equally I'm really glad you enjoyed the pictures! Yes the dog is a blue -heeler .. I also have a much bigger red healer but he's an old boy now so I think he was best warm at home lol

The rock formations are amazing and millions of years old .. I will add some pics in nicer weather as the year progresses .. thanks again @shasta

The beast from the easy...... oh how I enjoyed last week going around the office telling people to stop talking about my polish mother in law 😁

Haha that's a good one .. mine is more of a mouth from the south lol

Wonderful walk thanks for sharing, look proper baltic there, is that Bodmin? Brr it was clearing here then we had another downpour last night. Melted now though, it is funny how crap England is with weather considering how bad our weather is! 💯🐒

Hey @vibeof100monkeys hope you're well my friend? I was actually high up on Dartmoor .. and you're right it was absolutely freezing! I had to keep my face covered or I'd have got frostbite in the wind. I have family right up in the Highlands and it's been relentless since before Christmas .. but they can deal with it a bit better up there. You're right with England though, everything just grinds to a halt .. I watched a documentary the other night about the winter of 63 .. I shudder to think what a winter like that would do to modern England!

It doesn't bear thinking about! Today we had a surprise storm and it was like a massive god know what had happened. We are lame really these day's! If Google can't tell people they are screwed 💯🐒

As much as I like snow (having only touched it once in my entire life) I wouldn't like to be in a place as cold as that!

Rain that instantly turn into ice? Too extreme for me pal

Although the pics turned out great!

Yes the ice rain was something else and it had literally coated everything .. I had never really seen it like that before! Thank you for lending your support and commenting, I'm really glad you enjoyed the post/pictures.

any chance the entrance to the mines was open?

Ah a man after my own heart :) .. if they were unlocked I would have checked them out so unfortunately the answer is no :( But watch this space .. I'm planning a trip into the box mines complex at some point, which is one of the largest mine systems in the world :)

I saw a door. and wanted to know what was behind it. Before reading what it was, I thought it was your bunker or something haha. Looking forward to the box mines!

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