hi...last week was my 40th birthday so i booked a chunk of holiday and off we went to cornwall (south penquite campsite...been there before...on bodmin moor fringe...lovely mix of rugged/quiet/remote and great quality facilities, perfect for families without any bling or idiots and yes you can have a fire on the ground)...poured down for first 4 days but the sun finally came out and sort of held up till we came home saturday....on the last day mrs angst was kind enough to look after ray mears jnr to give me a chance to have a good scramble so we opened os map109 for bodmin and looked for the highest peaks nearby...being rough tor and brown willy (bring on the jokes). the plan was that i'd get about 2-3 hours max to do it and that littlun would sleep most of it in the car however when we pulled up to the end of the 'road' near camperdown farm there was a sign saying no access for vehicles. i had really wanted to do both peaks but with weather conditions worsening and the fact i now had a 2 mile trek to the nearest across absolutely flooded and rough terrain made that impossible...i was able to stay on the track till it started bending away toward brown willy but half of the walk was with rain beating down, ankles getting twisted and squelching socks...getting to the tor took twice as long as actually climbing it and was just as difficult....well, i am 40....gettin old lol! read on and i hope you like the pictures...
the track from camperdown farm looking up to louden hill to rough tor on left...brown willy in low cloud on right
getting off the track and wishing i'd brought scuba kit
zooming in on rough tor from louden hills shoulder
at the bottom, already knackered...looking forward to having a brew at the top...this is the steepest/rockiest climb...next time i'll do the easy stroll up from the right lol!
looking toward the weir and highertown...the rough tor actually has two 'peaks'....this is the slightly lower one....
and on top of it looking toward the weir...i was lucky so far that the low cloud had stayed away though all i can say is that walking boots are certainly not climbing shoes and with the wind and smooth wet lichen-covered rock certain parts of me were twitching a little...they were to twitch a lot more 10 minutes later....
toward brown willy
toward the higher peak and crowdy reservoir
approaching the second and higher peak...theres a war memorial about here
and this is where i really had a scare....as i was about the pull myself up onto the very top stone it MOVED!!!!!!!!!....yup the whole thing rocks with just a slight pull....so theres me...edging along on the rim of a wet smooth and curving-away-from-me rock, crap*ing it already and about to heave myself up and nearly did an aron ralston...(no dis-respect intended)....except if this thing had come away it would simply shoved me right off and down....from the angle i'd first approached it looks like theres plenty of contact between the top two stones...but if you skirt round you can see this angle...
so...with my pants now browner than brown willy i decided to quit whilst i was still alive...not worth leaving my son fatherless....(but if i'd been with steve581, who's an experienced climber, on a dry day and had some rope and a pair of red chili sausalito climbing shoes....well yeah i'd've probably gone for it)
going up to logan rock on louden hill on the return i came across this once cosy little set-up....
looking back toward rought tor from logan rock
and finally i made it back to the car at the farm only to discover that 'the grizzlinz' had woken up just 15 minutes after i'd left and poor mrs angst had to entertain him for nearly 3 hours....she'd planned to get some sleep too as we had a 4.5hour journey back that night....however they'd scaled alex tor whilst i was away so it was a good days exercise all round.
next stop.....everest for my 50th birthday.
the track from camperdown farm looking up to louden hill to rough tor on left...brown willy in low cloud on right
getting off the track and wishing i'd brought scuba kit
zooming in on rough tor from louden hills shoulder
at the bottom, already knackered...looking forward to having a brew at the top...this is the steepest/rockiest climb...next time i'll do the easy stroll up from the right lol!
looking toward the weir and highertown...the rough tor actually has two 'peaks'....this is the slightly lower one....
and on top of it looking toward the weir...i was lucky so far that the low cloud had stayed away though all i can say is that walking boots are certainly not climbing shoes and with the wind and smooth wet lichen-covered rock certain parts of me were twitching a little...they were to twitch a lot more 10 minutes later....
toward brown willy
toward the higher peak and crowdy reservoir
approaching the second and higher peak...theres a war memorial about here
and this is where i really had a scare....as i was about the pull myself up onto the very top stone it MOVED!!!!!!!!!....yup the whole thing rocks with just a slight pull....so theres me...edging along on the rim of a wet smooth and curving-away-from-me rock, crap*ing it already and about to heave myself up and nearly did an aron ralston...(no dis-respect intended)....except if this thing had come away it would simply shoved me right off and down....from the angle i'd first approached it looks like theres plenty of contact between the top two stones...but if you skirt round you can see this angle...
so...with my pants now browner than brown willy i decided to quit whilst i was still alive...not worth leaving my son fatherless....(but if i'd been with steve581, who's an experienced climber, on a dry day and had some rope and a pair of red chili sausalito climbing shoes....well yeah i'd've probably gone for it)
going up to logan rock on louden hill on the return i came across this once cosy little set-up....
looking back toward rought tor from logan rock
and finally i made it back to the car at the farm only to discover that 'the grizzlinz' had woken up just 15 minutes after i'd left and poor mrs angst had to entertain him for nearly 3 hours....she'd planned to get some sleep too as we had a 4.5hour journey back that night....however they'd scaled alex tor whilst i was away so it was a good days exercise all round.
next stop.....everest for my 50th birthday.
tho its warmer in the house
