Nimrod ***with track and voice and videos***
May 20, 2018 § Leave a comment
The rest day was over. It was time to get back to business.
Today (Saturday) was much shorter than average – less than 20 kilometres – for no other reason than that I couldn’t find any affordable accommodation a little bit further on. That means tomorrow is going to be correspondingly longer than average. We’ll sort that when we come to it!
Having this short day today turned out to be an excellent idea, for three reasons. Firstly – most obviously – it eased me back gently into the walking business. Secondly it gave me time to spend in Felixkirk, the small and still peaceful village from where some of my forebears came six or seven generations ago. Thirdly it meant that what is probably the steepest climb on this whole walk – Whitestonecliffe – would be carried out on what will probably turn out to be the walk’s shortest day.
That climb was seriously strenuous. It was up a bridleway – still a bit muddy – that presumably had originally been used by trains of pack horses. As I struggled up it I found myself wondering just what sorts of animals those pack horses were, and what sorts of loads they were carrying.
The climb was up through thick woodland, and it was only as I neared the top that I could see any hint of sky. But then suddenly the climb was over. I emerged onto the almost flat top of the escarpment, bare entirely of trees, with a magnificent panorama back over towards Thirsk and Ripon and the distant Pennines.
Strange, but I found myself unconsciously humming Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’. What my mind had done was to parallel the climb I had just finished with the hunt that Elgar was portraying. First the gentle introduction, then the action getting more and more intense, then the climax, then suddenly the majestically tranquil finale.
I watched a YouTube performance of Nimrod in my tent later in the evening: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgoBb8m1eE Daniel Barenboim conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It brought tears to my eyes, just as it always does. Now it will also remind me of that wonderful climb.
St Felix, Felixkirk
St Felix, Felixkirk
Roadside near Felixkirk
Whitestonecliffe
Whitestonecliffe
Escarpment top above Whitestonecliffe, looking northeast
Thirsk to Scawton
Videos looking out into the Vale of York, one taken in Felixkirk and the other taken from the windy top of the escarpment above Whitestonecliffe, can be downloaded at:
and:
A voice recording made in Felixkirk can be downloaded at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/huu8utbiqx501z5/180429_0189.WMA?dl=0
End to End 