A first visit to the beautiful Peak District is the latest location for Keith and Nicky in their 50 Peaks in 50 Weeks charity hill-walking challenge.

Mam Tor and the Great Ridge is a classic, yet gentle, introduction to walking in the Peak District.

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The mixed weather forecast proved accurate but we started in bright sunshine from a National Trust car park half a mile of so from the top of Mam Tor (off the A6187) and, as they say, the only way is up.  But not before we clocked a minibus from no less than Wymondham High School in the car park – the very school our children had until recently attended – some 205 miles yonder.

A short but steep ascent saw us walking through the extensive ditch and rampart earthworks of an Iron Age hill-fort, the second highest in Britain, which encircles the summit of Mam Tor.

The Tor is also known locally as the Shivering Mountain, consisting as it does of layers of gritstone and shale, making for an unstable mixture, reputedly moving at the rate of around a metre every five years.

The ridge from Mam Tor heading east is well marked and well populated, on the day we chose at least, by not only walkers but fell runners and mountain bikers as well.

Heading down over Hollins Cross, the impressive Back Tor rose in front of us, a rocky outcrop with obvious signs of recent weathering with scree, barely covered in grass, on it steep slopes.

The Great Ridge separates the beautiful Hope and Edale valleys. Hope Valley contains Castleton, the geologically stunning Winnats Pass and picturesque villages including the world-famous Blue John Cavern, Peveril Castleand the incongruous Blue Circle cement works – but we will not dwell on that.

The beautiful Edale Valley forms the southern edge of the Kinder Scout plateau, a possible destination for a further more adventurous walk later in the year.

From Back Tor, we kept heading east to Lose Hill, the end of the ridge and, as the weather was closing in quickly now, we turned straight around and headed back the way we had come.

We skirted round the summit of Mam Tor, crossed the road cutting through the ridge and headed straight up Rushup Edge to our final target, Lord’s Seat.

By this time the crowds had disappeared as we were off the popular trail, but we were accompanied by a short and very sharp hail shower which had us reaching quickly for the waterproofs.

Natural history, panoramic views and the full range of weather from bright sunshine through rain to hailstones – what more could you ask for. We drove back down through the steep Winnats Pass and past the Blue John Cavern, which, if we had had time, could have filled the rest of the day, promising ourselves we would return again.

Walk factfile

Peaks: Mam Tor 1,696 ft (517 m), Lose Hill 1,561ft (476m), Lord’s Seat 1,772 ft (540m)

Miles: 6.5

Difficulty: Easy

Starting from National Trust car park off the A6187

Challenge factfile

Total peaks – ten

Total height –  14,253 ft

Total miles – 23.5

50 Peaks Challenge

We are attempting to conquer 50 peaks in 50 weeks to mark our 50th birthdays and to raise some money for a very worthy charity, started by two Norfolk doctors. Mercy Flyers flies specialist medical care to poor people in rural parts of Zambia who would otherwise go untreated.

We are aiming to raise enough money to pay for 50 life-changing operations such as eye surgery (cost £30), or life-saving surgery on a child (£100). Please consider sponsoring us by visiting www.bmycharity.com/50peaks 

Current fundraising total is £2,760

The third leg of Keith and Nicky Morris’ 50 Peaks in 50 Weeks charity hill-walking challenge took them to the two highest points of the Cotswolds. 

You can find very surprising things at the highest points of the Cotswolds, including radio masts, a golf course and a tower folly.

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Cleeve Hill is the highest point both in the Cotswold Hills range and in the county of Gloucestershire, at 1,083 feet (330 m). Bizarrely, it is also the location for the very challenging Cleeve Hill Golf Course.

A free car park right next to the clubhouse (off the B4632) provided at ideal starting point for our walk, with easy access to Cleeve Common. It is also located on the Cotswold Way National Trail, which you can follow right across the Common.

Cleeve Hill, with a trig-point, is around a half-mile from the car park, and entails weaving in and out of golf fairways and greens with a few hardy golfers, as well as horse riders and dog walkers, in evidence.

It is not though, the highest point in the Costwolds. That lies a further one and a half miles due south, across the Common and just past three giant radio masts to provide an easy means of navigation.

Once up on the Common, the walking is easy and to find the highest point you must go straight past the radio masts and follow a dry-stone wall in which a second trig point can be found.

Wonderful views of the very close-by Cheltenham and its racecourse are afforded, as are vistas of the River Severn and into Wales.

A four-and-a-half mile circular walk brought us back to the car park and onto the second leg of our Cotswolds tour –Broadway Tower.

Possibly the most iconic location in the Cotswolds – an imposing folly – is located on Broadway Hill, near the picturesque village of Broadway and renowned as the second highest point in the Cotswolds – though the truth is slightly less romantic, as we found out.

There is parking at Broadway Tower Country Park, just off the A44 south of Evesham, and 13 miles from Cleeve Hill.

The mock Saxon castle tower was the brainchild of the great 18th Century landscape designer, Capability Brown. His vision was carried out for George William 6th Earl of Coventry with the help of renowned architect James Wyatt and completed in 1798.

Broadway Tower’s base is at 1,024 feet (312 m) and from the top battlements, 17m up, there are views across 13 counties on a clear day. Near the tower is a memorial to the crew of a wartime RAF bomber that crashed there during a training mission in June 1943 with the loss of five lives.

If you are peak-baggers like us, you will want to find the exact high point which, contrary to popular belief, is not at the tower, but instead is a short walk of less than one mile up the road due south, at Seven Wells Hill. The high point is indicated seemingly only by a solitary small tree on a field edge, marked on an Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map at 319m (1046ft).

Walk factfile

Peaks: Cleeve Hill 1,083 feet (330 m), Seven Wells Hill (Broadway 1046ft (319m)

Miles: six

Difficulty: Easy

www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cotswold

www.broadwaytower.co.uk

Challenge factfile

Total peaks – seven

Total height –  9,224 ft

Total miles – 17

50 Peaks Challenge

We are attempting to conquer 50 peaks in 50 weeks to mark our 50th birthdays and to raise some money for a very worthy charity, started by two Norfolk doctors. Mercy Flyers flies specialist medical care to poor people in rural parts of Zambia who would otherwise go untreated.

We are aiming to raise enough money to pay for 50 life-changing operations such as eye surgery (cost £30), or life-saving surgery on a child (£100).

Please consider sponsoring us by visiting www.bmycharity.com/50peaks 

The 50 peaks in 50 weeks challenge has made it onto Radio Norfolk, for one week only. You can hear Keith waxing lyrical at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00bxlpb, run on to 2hrs 21 mins.

Only available until March 31

Keith and Nicky Morris headed to the Yorkshire Dales for the second leg of their 50 Peaks in 50 Weeks charity challenge, but all did not go according to plan.

Our first visit to the Dales got off to the most inauspicious of starts – I obviously need to brush up on my map reading skills and buy a GPS, PDQ.

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We were up in Leeds for a training course for Nicky and a visit to see Hannah and Tom at Leeds University.  The Yorkshire Dales were within spitting distance and so we drove up to Malham Cove. We parked at the National Trust Visitor Centre and merrily set off – heading in exactly the opposite direction to everyone else. Now this should have rung warning bells for me, but sadly it did not.

I was following the map – and the instructions of the helpful man in the centre – religiously. It all looked good as the dry stone wall lane led up the fell exactly as expected. It was then we spotted a stampede of sheep hurtling down the narrow wall-lined lane towards us, chased by two dogs plus two shepherds on a quad bike – fearsome.

We took a quick left turn to avoid being trampled, but the sheep had the same idea and continued to rush towards us. We stood, backs against the wall, trying to be as thin as possible (Nicky is much better at this than me) and just about survived to tell the tale.

I blame the sheep for throwing us off course – Nicky begs to differ. We continued down the now wrong track and ended up walking up a boggy ditch which got boggier by the step. I realised we could not continue or we would end up with soaking boots and trousers, so we cut out and headed straight up as the only way to get back on track and towards our target – the 1,788ft high Kirby Fell.

It was steep, very boggy and a couple of fields of cows – some with horns – had to be negotiated. We did not know if we were in the right place until, with some relief, we reached the stone cairn on the top.

With success in our nostrils we spotted the path we should really have been on and headed back on what we thought was a circular path towards Malham Cove. A mile down the track, and with a farmhouse up ahead which was not on the map – or at least the part of the map I was looking at – I realised our mistake, again. We turned turtle and headed in the opposite direction.

Finally back on track and up on our right was Pikedaw Hill, at 1,500ft the chance to bag a second peak on our walk and a reminder that we need to get hold of a decent hill-walkers sat nav before we next venture out on the hills.

An uneventful walk back down to the pretty village, with great views of the limestone Malham Cove, and the unnecessarily difficult six-mile climb in four hours was complete. As a reward, we drove up to the natural Malham Tarn expanse of water and eyed up a couple more peaks for a possible later trip.

Walk factfile

Peaks: Kirby Fell – 1788ft, Pikedaw Hill – 1500ft

Miles: six

Difficulty: Moderate

The Challenge – so far

Total peaks – five

Total height –  7,095 ft

Total miles – eleven

The challenge

We are attempting to conquer 50 peaks in 50 weeks to mark our 50^th birthdays and to raise some money for a very worthy charity, started by twoNorfolk doctors. Mercy Flyers flies specialist medical care to poor people in rural parts ofZambia who would otherwise go untreated.

We are aiming to raise enough money to pay for 50 life-changing operations such as eye surgery (cost £30), or life-saving surgery on a child (£100).

Please consider sponsoring us by visiting www.bmycharity.com/50peaks

Keith and Nicky Morris began their 50 Peaks in 50 Weeks charity hill-walking challenge on the very first day of 2012, marked by a surprising royal coincidence.

We thought the only way to start our year-long quest was on New Year’s Day itself and the ideal location, the beautiful Malvern Hills on the Worcestershire – Herefordshire border, would be a gentle way to open our account.

It was also close enough to my childhood home to pick up a first walking partner, my Dad Len, a sprightly 77-year-old who still plays county level veterans tennis.

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As a youngster I climbed the Malverns quite regularly, so it was familiar territory to start off and what more appropriate hill as No 1 than the county’s highest point, the 1,395 ft Worcestershire Beacon (425m).

We parked on the nearby West of England car park (WR14 4DG) and began the first of many climbs. The steep zig-zag path brought us to the top within 30 minutes and on a bright day the view was just fantastic. You can see 13 counties from the top as well as the cathedrals of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucesterif you have a keen eye and very good pair of binoculars. The hill was used as a beacon point during World War II and for the Millennium celebrations.

Once on the summit we found a toposcope which told us what could be seen and in which direction. It also indicated, by an amazing co-incidence, that this was indeed the perfect spot to begin our challenge in the Queen’s diamond jubilee year, as it was erected in 1897 to mark the diamond jubilee of QueenVictoria.

Buoyed by this start we headed north to the furthest tip of the Malvern Hills, North Hill, at 1303 ft (397m) via the Happy Valley where you can find St Ann’s Well, an original source of the famous Malvern Water.

Flushed with our first success, we ignored the longer pathway, and scrambled up a long grassy slope to the top from where a great view of the Worcestershire Beacon can be had. Skirting round Sugar Loaf Hill, we worked our way back to the car park, a round trip of just over three miles.

If you have a whole day, and someone to meet you at both ends, you can walk the eight miles from one end of the Hills to the other. We didn’t have the time or forethought for this, so hopped in the car to our final destination for the day. Towards the southern end of the Hills is the Herefordshire Beacon, accessible from a car park at its foot (WR13 6DW), conveniently next to the Malvern Hills Hotel and less than a mile from the hill-top.

At 1,109 feet (338 m) high, the Herefordshire Beacon is not the tallest, but it is the steepest peak in the Hills and around its top is the Iron Age hill fort of British Camp. Extensive earthworks, including two large ditches surrounding the entire top of the hill, are clearly visible and must be negotiated to reach the top. A Norman castle and a Medieval castle or hunting lodge were also built on the site at various points. A second hill fort a mile south at Midsummer Hill is also worth a visit if you have the time.

We decided to invest our time more constructively, with a pint and a natter at the aforementioned Hotel, which was packed with similarly minded walkers, as evidenced by the huge pile of muddy boots at the door.

So three down and only 47 to go. Next time we will be heading to the Yorkshire Dales for an expedition with quite different challenges.

Walk factfile

Peaks: Worcestershire Beacon (1,395 ft), North Hill (1303 ft), Herefordshire Beacon (1109 ft)

Miles: five

Difficulty: Moderate

www.malvernhills.org.uk

Challenge factfile

Total peaks – three

Total height –  3,807 ft

Total miles – five

50 Peaks Challenge

We are attempting to conquer 50 peaks in 50 weeks to mark our 50^th birthdays and to raise some money for a very worthy charity, started by twoNorfolk doctors. Mercy Flyers flies specialist medical care to poor people in rural parts of Zambia who would otherwise go untreated.

We are aiming to raise enough money to pay for 50 life-changing operations such as eye surgery (cost £30), or life-saving surgery on a child (£100).

Please consider sponsoring us by visiting www.bmycharity.com/50peaks 

A mad idea to celebrate the 50th birthdays of Keith and Nicky Morris and raise some money for a very worthwhile charity – Mercy Flyers – at the same time.

The challenge is to climb 50 peaks in 50 weeks. 

Keith is committed to 50, Nicky to as many as possible and we are inviting our family and friends to join us for part of the challenge, or to sponsor us to do it, or both.

We aim to raise enough money to pay for 50 life-changing operations (bit of a theme going here), performed by our good friends  doctors Craig and Rae Oranmore-Brown, who left Norwich a couple of years ago to set up a vital flying doctors service in rural areas of Zambia in southern Africa.

In Zambia there are medical facilities dotted around the country but no specialised doctors to perform life-changing operations and no roads to get them there if there were.

This is where Mercy Flyers comes in.

Craig, who is also a pilot, flies in doctors and provides the anaesthetist role. Wife Rae and other medics perform the operations.

Just £30 would help pay for a vital cataract operation to restore sight, £50 covers the cost of consumables for a fistula operation, £125 covers the cost of an above knee amputation replacement limb and £270 is enought for a foot amputation replacement limb.

To find out how to sponsor us online, visit http://www.bmycharity.com/50peaks

www.mercyflyers.org