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Sue on Mont Blanc

Milton Mountaineers

NEWS AND EVENTS

News

PRIVACY POLICY
Our privacy policy can be viewed by clicking on the link at the bottom of each page

A word from Kevin
‘Thank you to all those members who have expressed an interest in joining the First Aid course. There has been a good response. The courses will be held in September to avoid any problems arising from holiday absence. Further details will be issued shortly’.

A tip for members: We have found a couple of very useful free apps for your smart phone. Firstly, OS Locate will give you map co-ordinates which will help the emergency services to find you should you find yourself in trouble. It also has a compass. The second one is Maps.me which can help you find your way home in the event of you becoming lost (or maybe in thick mist). It shows you where you are on the map and has already proved itself useful to us a couple of times. Neither require mobile data to work away from home. Of course, there are many more apps. of this type on the market, I’m sure you’ll find one to suit you. Lesley

“Walk the Isle of Man" – 2019 Walking Event
The scheduled dates for the walks will be Monday 30th September – Friday 4th October 2019.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, it has now been decided that ‘Walk the Isle of Man’ will stage its first event in 2019 rather than 2018.   Isle of Man Event Services and Go-Mann Adventures intend that the revised dates will allow time for a fuller and more widely advertised programme of walking activities on the Isle of Man, for those both visiting and those living on the Island. They are very grateful for the support to date that has been given on the Isle of Man for this venture and to those who have offered help with leading the walks. They will be in touch with further details once they are confirmed.

Tour du Mont Blanc July 2018 by Sue Furner

I went on this guided walking holiday with HF Holidays.  Eight walking days in total with a rest day after five days in Courmayeur, an Italian ski resort, with the new Skyway cable car up to a fantastic view of Mont Blanc. Around 110 Miles in total.  After flying to Geneva, the walk started in France, near Chamonix. By the end of day 2 we had already arrived in Switzerland. Day 6 saw us in Italy and Day 8 we are back in France again.  The weather and views were amazing on all but the last two days, when we had low cloud and some drizzle on the final day, but we had seen plenty of Mont Blanc and the surrounding mountains.  It had been a hard winter, so on the 3 separate occasions when we were at 2500m there was more snow still around than usual.  One of the most enjoyable things about the trip was our daily picnic in the mountains.  Our English guide would buy the food each day and we would each carry something and at lunch time a table cloth was spread out on the ground and we tucked into local cheeses (sometimes goats), local meats, French bread, tomatoes, cucumber, apricots, peaches. Delicious.  And each evening we could sample a different local wine or beer.  The other walkers came from Tasmania, UK, France, Canada, USA, Northern Ireland. 14 of us in total, mostly women.  I was the 4th youngest and generally the 4th slowest. It was a challenging walk with some difficult steep rocky descents, and the steep ascents were taken very slowly.  Every day offered different scenery and sights and the best thing of all were the alpine flowers, so vibrant in colour, and so many varieties, truly breath-taking. We also saw marmots, ibex, goats and of course various breeds of cows with bells on.
Sue

Milton Mountaineers

In June Debbie, Alison, David, Jim & Lesley spent three days walking with the Milton Mountaineers. This group is made up of very adventurous visually impaired people from all over the UK. Their organiser, local man David G, did a great job of organising the trip to the Island and three good walks for the group.  We really enjoyed meeting you all and thanks for inviting us to join you.  We hope you come back soon.

Dear Foot Sloggers 

Have you ever contemplated the way the sun’s rays travel through the small gaps in the tree’s leaves high above our heads? If the trees are high enough and the sun is shining then you will have noticed the patterns on the surface of a road. You will have noticed that what you see is not the shape of the holes in leaves but a series of circles or more accurately eclipses. So what is going on. I am sure that you are all ahead of me but just in case there is the odd one that has not yet cottoned on, I am going to bore you with the explanation.  The photographers will all know the answer, especially those who have a little knowledge of the history of the first ever camera. What we see on the road surface is the result of the holes in the leaves acting as a pinhole camera. we are looking at a series of images of the sun. As in a camera the image will be inverted (upside down). This might be difficult to prove but you could probably be able to verify this when we have an eclipse the sun.   So, the next time you are walking on the road under some reasonably high trees with the leaves on and the sun is shining, stop talking for a few seconds and look down on the road surface and contemplate.                                                                                                                                                                                                John N (Tuesday Group)

Ramblers Association Holidays

Did you know?...That the MFCG is affiliated to the Ramblers Association. When you book a walking holiday through the Ramblers Association and you say that you belong to an affiliated walking club they will pass on a small sum of money to the club. It costs you nothing extra and it benefits YOUR club.

DISTURBANCES AT FALCON AND OWL NEST SITES

Already this season, Manx BirdLife has received a number of reports of irresponsible and illegal behaviour around the nesting sites of some of our most special and rare birds. It has come to their attention that people have been:

1) Climbing down cliff faces to Peregrine Falcon nests

2) Approaching Hen Harrier nest sites

3) At night-time, illuminating locations in which Owls potentially are nesting

All of the above involve Schedule 1 species, which are specially protected by the law. IF YOU WITNESS anyone approaching or disturbing the nest, young or nesting site of a bird of prey (owls, falcons, harriers etc.), please take photographs and send these to Manx BirdLife. We shall be pleased to pass these on to the Island's Wildlife Crime Officers (anonymously if you wish). You can also send these yourself directly to the Wildlife Crime Officers: PC Mark KERRUISH and John HILLS Ramsey Police Station 812234. Some disturbance is of course inadvertant and can be resolved by calmly advising those at fault of their error. But some disturbance is clearly deliberate. The motivation might be simply wanting a closer look, a better photograph, or worse - for example, stealing eggs or nestlings. You are our wildlife's guardians, so please keep an eye out. Thank you.

The following MAJOR footpaths have been temporarily closed

RoW 329 Majestic Coastal path(Onchan) from King Edward Road to Majestic Apts will be closed DAILY from 07.30am to 5.30pm from 25th April to 24th October.

Temporary closures are currently in place for each of the following three tracks/paths. However, a more prolonged 6 month closure has been applied for on each of them. This is due to the extensive amount of damage that they have suffered. There is currently no date set for when works will be carried out. The closures will be published on Roadwatch.                                                  
The byway known as 'The Dowse' (map ref: 304828 to 285824) 
PRoW405 - Lynague, German
PRoW632 - Riverbank Road, Ramsey

The Heritage Trail from Glen Darragh Road towards Union Mills is now OPEN – Hooray!

The ‘Tony Wright’ bridge on the Spaldrick footpath, used by walkers to get along the coastal path to Bradda Glen and tourist attraction Milner’s Tower in Port Erin has been closed for safety reasons.

For further details the contact number for DoI is 850000.