I emerged from the corridor of obscurity on 19th November. Half-term week in late October we took the grandsons, aged 12 and 10, to North Wales. They had requested rocky mountains so we did Snowdon via the Pig Track with wind, rain and cloud at the top; the north ridge of Tryfan in high wind and cloud, and finally Pen yr Ole Wen from Ogwen with Carnedd Dafydd thrown in. Tryfan and Snowdon I had undoubtedly done as a child along with others in Snowdonia and the Lake District, but lacking any details I am doing these again. Next, husband David went off to help deliver a yacht from New England to the Caribbean so I went to Cardiff for a few days and added eight lowly Marilyns around there - by train and folding bike as well as foot. Good examples of an area one might not visit were it not for a list to tick. Then took my Mum for a week to Cyprus. Mount Olympus disappointing... 1952m but from the tourist trap at Troodos it looked hardly more impressive than Box Hill. Did not go to the top.
Back home with a couple more days free I swallowed my anti-car principles and drove to Hereford for the night. Drove 400 miles over the next two days for four Marilyns plus four SubMarilyns. And 14 trig points. To do the four Marilyns - May Hill, Ruardean Hill, Burton Hill and Seager Hill - by train, bus and bike would have taken two, possibly three nights. More expensive too I would think.
So my 600th was Burton Hill. Pity it was done by car and wasn't something more exciting but it had eluded me on a previous trip - train to Hereford was so late I missed the only bus that would have made it possible. And this time it did not give without a little resistance. Trouble finding somewhere to park. Can't throw the car into hedge or ditch like a bike. Paths overgrown. No trouble locating high point despite brambles but where was the trig point? Spent time wading among brambles and expecting to see it camouflaged among multi trunks of ash trees last coppiced years ago. Finally found it further from the summit than I had supposed, bright white and perfectly obvious. Jaunt, car to car, took 75 minutes rather than the 45 I had predicted.
