Bathos

29/30/31-10-12

Oh, to be back in England. However, there was someting in Wales that I need to clear up. Earlier in the year one of the Tamperers had laboured through the nights and days to identify new Humps in Wales. As someone who has made a previous claim to having completed all the Humps in Wales, England and the Isle of Man I was duty bound to do the four new Welsh ones. It made sense, to me anyway, to get them on the way home.

Path to Hascombe hill

This meant that from Dover I set off more westerly than northerly. On the way I passed the sub-Hump Hascombe hill (195m P95).
Hey, there are no paint marks - how am I supposed to know which way to go? And there isn't a cross - where is the summit?

Hascombe hill summit

After an overnight stop on Swansea docks I went to free the first of the Myrddin Welsh Humps Four.
Because I was so used to starting off from huttes I decided to start from the Masons Arms for Mynydd Gelliwastad (213m P100). From there was a good view of Swansea, Port Talbot and the Severn estuary.

Mynydd Gelliwastad summit

Not quite Wilder Kaiser -  the Y Glog range

Then it was northwards for the next one in mid Wales - Y Glog or Draws Drum (574 P106) - which is also a Dewey and hence a bit higher. It is on a ridge(?) that includes some other tops so I made this one into a bigger walk and also bagged the sub-Dewey Y Glog SW top (574m P20) and the Dewey Pen Dihewyd (513m P36).

Pen Dihewyd

Next day I tackled the last two in north Wales. Firstly there was Llechwedd Melyn (196m P100) just inside the Snowdonia National Park, near Tywyn. It is possible to park within 400 metres of the summit, but by time I had wandered around looking for ways through the trees and brambles I managed to walk three kilometres. And enjoyed every moment.

Llechwedd Melyn summit

When I reached the final Welsh Hump (again) it was late afternoon and it had been raining heavily. Luckily the rain sort of stopped whilst I bagged this one. Cefn Yr Ogof (204m P101) is that hill with a castle on you drive by on the A55 near Colwyn Bay. I have often looked at it and wondered whether it was worth exploring.









I parked in a side road in Terfyn and, not sure why, tackled the hill by a direct assault by the edge of an old quarry. There were a few desperate sections but it wasn't too difficult really. This meant I was soon on the top plateau. From there it was a wander through scrubland to the summit trig point. Just beyond the summit there were several large fairy rings of  mushrooms.
I didn't fancy sliding back down the quarry and although I did not have a map with me I was fairly confident that if I kept going I would find an alternative way down and be able to circle round to the start. Somehow, in the dusklight,  I lost the faint path and ended up climbing over barbed wire fences, creeping around ploughed fields, right next to a farmhouse and then came out on the road at Rhyd-y-Foel.
I celebrated with a veggie burger and chips from a chippie in Abergele - where the owner made a special point of cooking the burger in oil that had not been contaminated by fish or meat products.

My last Welsh Hump - ever?

Brussels' little sprout

28-10-12

Back in Belgium, I set out to complete one of the lists that appear on Peakbagger, namely the Belgian Province high points. I considered carefully what kit I should take and what provisions I would need. And, then put an apple and camera in my pocket and set off.









The first goal was the highest point in Brussels. This turned out to be in a wood next to the ring road. I set off from Welriekendedreef, down the Willeriekendedreef path, turned left on Hendricksdreef and then a sharp left on Damesrustdreef to the summit - which could have been marked by any one of a number of trees. I continued down Damesrustdreef until it met Willeriekendedreef, which inexorably took me back to the start. And, yes, all the paths in this wood really do have their own names.

Brussels HP

UNESCO World Heritage site - Grand Place, Brussels

VF kit on ready

Having never been to Brussels before^, I decided to have a quick wander around the centre and have a look at the Grand Place - yet another UNESCO World Heritage site.
Brussels Grand Place was, deservedly, voted the most beautiful square in Europe in 2010. See:

^{http://www.stedentripper.com/blog/2792/mooiste-pleinen-europa/} 

Note, San Marcos Piazza is not even in the top ten.

Micturating minor

It's all a facade

You don't need to go to Nepal to get your souvenirs

Kemmelberg summit

Signal de Botrange is the highest point in Walloon, so all I needed to do was to bag the Flemish high point to complete the list and become the first person registered on Peakbagger to do so.
This meant driving out into the West Flanders fields and back into WW1 history again to a village called Kemmel.
 Nearby is the Kemmelberg (165m), also known as Mont Kemmel. Kemmelberg was captured by the Germans in April 1918 and recaptured in late September 1918. The trees have grown back since.



From there it was a matter of driving into the French Flanders and heading for Calais and the DFDS ferry to Dover.

Maastricht treat

27-10-12

The Eifel mountains extend into Belgium and so, in sunshine, I drove into that country.
As it happens, my Satnav took me past the Signal de Botrange (694m), the highest point in Belgium, located in the Hautes Fagnes. I have been there before, but I could not resist bagging it again.  
 

Via ferrata descent route from tower

In 1923, the Belgians built a six-metre-high tower on the summit to round off the altitude to 700m.

Not true

 Just down the road is another 'summit' listed on the Peakbagger website, the Baraque Michel (674m). Apparently, before the annexation of the Eastern Cantons by Belgium in 1919, it was the highest point of Belgium.
I think this cow was at the highest point.

Chapel at Baraque Michel

Another hill listed on Peakbagger is Sint Pietersberg, near Maastricht, Nederland. It forms a ridge between Nederland and Belgium.
You'd think that, because they have so few hills, the Dutch would leave this hill alone. Far from it, it has been mined and quarried since Paleolithic times. Even now, there is a huge limestone quarry in the middle.

Even so, there is still a pleasant walk through woodland on the outer edges. I managed to get in a ten kilometre walk as dusk descended. And to make sure I bagged it, I visited all the tops.

I had planned to stop the night in the carpark, but I was moved on by the police and therefore headed back into Belgium.

Quarrying on Sint-Pietersberg

Is this the summit?

Or is this it? More likely, the other one

Eifel eyeful

27-10-12

View from top of the tower

After following the Rhine for a while I headed off north west and up into the High Eifel mountains and stopped for the night on a patch of land off the road. In the morning I discovered that it had been snowing and it was so cold that the door was frozen shut. To warm up I drove a few kilometres to the car park at the foot of Hohe Acht (747m P536) before attempting to open the door and have some breakfast.







Hohe Acht is the highest point in the Eifel mountains and is an old volcano with a basalt summit. I made my way through the snow to that summit on which there is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm, a tower built in 1908 to celebrate the Kaiser's silver wedding. If you have been following this blog carefully enough you will realise that this Kaiser has been mentioned at least a couple of times before. Because of the breeze, it was quite cold at the top of his Eifel tower.

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm

Hohe Acht summit

Rainy Rhein

26-10-12

River Rhine from Loreley rock

From Gr. Feldberg I headed for the Rhein/Rhine and met it at its narrowest point at the Loreley rock (194m) on the eastern bank near St. Goarshausen. And would you believe it, is part of yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

To make it a proper walk (between showers) I walked down to the Rhine and found one of the Loreley statues then came back up to the summit to find the other one.

Loreley siren 1

Loreley siren 2

Misty mountain

26-10-12

I arrived at the top carpark of Großer Feldberg in the dark and in a thick pea-souper mist, parked up and stayed the night. In the morning there was slightly less mist but more rain.

Großer Feldberg is the highest mountain (879.5m P666, a Major) in the Taunus mountains and there is a great big transmitter mast. However, there is room for a cross and a bus-stop. Bet not many Majors have their own bus-stop on the top.

Royal chair - Königstuhl

25-10-12

Rubbish looking king

According to Wikipedia:

"The Königstuhl (German pronunciation: [ˈkøːnɪçˌʃtuːl]), translated "Kings seat", is a 567 metre high [P296] hill in the Odenwald Mountains and in the city of Heidelberg, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The Königstuhl summit allows visitors a spectacular view of the city of Heidelberg and the River Neckar as well as the Rhine Valley. On days with good conditions the view extends to the Pfaelzerwald (Palatinate Forest), which is roughly 40–50 km away." 

Obviously, I have chosen a day when conditions are not good.

I parked up and headed off down this path:

And came to this sign.

Obviously, the wrong way, then.

But I am sure the highest ground is past this sign.

I wandered around the woods and made an arbritrary choice for what could be the top.

My arbritrary choice

Actually, the highest ground was probably inside the fence and is probably not natural either. If you look closely you will see there are two fences - the outer fence could be climbed relatively easily, however the inner one has some vicious looking razor wire coiled round the top. It wasn't until after I took the picture that I realised the sign said 'no photography'. I had visions of a repeat experience as to what happened to me at Karlskrona naval docks.

Handy seat

Alien space ship