UKC

Hi all!
Meself and my girlfriend having made the two mistakes of living bastard miles from any rock and not being able to drive, we'd still quite like to get as many weekend trips as possible in this summer.

So I'm looking for destinations that fit the following criteria:
* Reasonably possible to get to by public transport (from Cambridge, to be precise, although I'm not expecting people to look up specific bus and train times for me or anything) after work on a friday
* Cheap camping or bunkbarn within a sensible walk of the station
* Good beginners cragging within a sensible walk of the campsite
* A decent pub would be a bonus, too.

The Hope Valley trainline seems like the obvious choice - Grindleford seems to be crap for camping, but there's North Lees near Hathersage or Edale for the southern edges of Kinder.

But is there anywhere else I'm not spotting?

Thanks!

In reply to Ramblin dave:

hi dave
i have stayed in bamford before ina bunk house on one of the frams i cant remeber the name but it has a 4 bed place and a 15+ place on the same farm. in a day i *was solo* walked up to bamford did a few routes walked to stanage did some more routes moving along then walked down in to hathersage and took the train back to bamford.

north lees is easily walkable from hathersage. are you studying in cambridge or working there?

In reply to Ramblin dave:

You could get to the Gower without too much hassle from Cambridge I reckon. You would have to get a bus or taxi onto the Gower proper however. There is a nice campsite at Three Cliffs Bay which meets the 'good beginners cragging' part. You can camp at Pitton Cross, which is near the main trad crags on the Gower and there are a decent number of low grade routes there as well. There are also a number of non-tidal crags. If you're at Pitton Cross the Worms Head Hotel is a decent pub.

In reply to Ramblin dave: We often get the train from London on a friday night up to sheffield, and from there the hope valley train to hathersage. Takes just over half hour to walk to north lees camp site, and you get it slightly cheaper (5 quid a night per person) for not bringing a car. From there, Stanage is a 15 minute walk on the saturday morning. Burbage and Millstone also within walking/hitch hiking distance. We usually walk back down to hathersage on the saturday night for pints and food.

In reply to Ramblin dave: yeah I'll second the sheffield to hathersage option. The north leas campsite is really good and cheap. Alternatively there is a bunk house just down the road, decked out kitchen etc. That £10 per night. Alternatively if you fancy Froggatt then get the same train and get off at grindleford then a good half hour walk to the crag. The route to the crag isn't as obvious as the hathersage train station to stanage route though. Not hard though with OS map, have fun

In reply to Ramblin dave: the campsite near the train station at Hope is also pretty good 30 min walk to bamford and approx another 30 minutes to stannage chinese pup in hope resonably good as well also cheaper if no car
catch same train from sheffield to hathersage it s the next stop

In reply to Ramblin dave: Join the CUMC (university mountaineering club) or the CCCC (climbing and caving club). They run (roughly) weekly trips to various places and people just share cars and you pay petrol money.

It's definitely way cheaper than the train and you'll get to meet other climbers and learn from them too.

In reply to Ramblin dave:
Thanks, everyone!

I'm not a student, but I'm planning to join the CCCC (as soon as my finger tendons are in a state to meet them at the wall, basically). Plus we've got various friends from other places that we can get to the hills with if needs be. But I quite like the independence of being able to go climbing without having to beg a lift if I want to...

Is there anywhere other than the Peak and the Gower where public transport and hills / crags actually come reasonably close to each other? And (broader question) why oh why is it so hard to figure out what I can and cannot do? You'd think there'd be a massive commercial incentive for bus and train companies to actually tell people what they can do using the existing services, but getting information about buses seems to be like getting blood from a stone...

In reply to Ramblin dave:
Where will you be comming from? I used to live in Derby and as a teen used to get the train from Derby to Matlock. Cromford a couple of stps before was faily easy for Wildcat and Wilersley castle. Used to take bike on train too and Black Rocks and Harbourgh were easy on the bike. Bit steep up the old railway incline but great fun boming back down. High tor and Pic tor both easy from Matlock too.

In reply to blanchie14c: This is a copy of one of my own answers:- The Derbyshire County Council site http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/transport_roads/public_transport/default.asp has a good map http://www.derbysbus.info/maps/county.htm with the bus route numbers on it and timetables in the same place. A good campsite guide is http://www.campsitesuk.co.uk/. North Lees campsite is of course about 30-40 minutes walk from hathersage and a short walk from Stanage; there seem to be some sites in the Hope valley and Bradwell on the 272 route though I haven't stayed at them.

The other area I know is Dorset (train from Waterloo); for Portland the only camp site convenient for public transport is Pebble Bank on the edge of Weymouth; the First Hampshire and Dorset bus service is very frequent and you can walk to all the areas of Portland from a stop; it does have the advantage of a fairly cheap weekly ticket. There are also bunkhouses (one called "Fathom and blues"), a YMCA and a YH on Portland.

Another route that may be worth looking into for you could be the X5 bus to MK and a west coast train from MK to the Lakes. Cumbria County Council has a site with public transport.

In reply to Ramblin dave:
Not sure on the camping side of things but Avon gorge is pretty accessible from public transport.

In reply to Ramblin dave:




Climbers in Cambridge become very dedicated.
I'd have thought that the CCCC would not require you to be an ace climber before joining. That's half the point of clubs.

Re trains. For a weekend it's really only the Peak, as described above. There used to be camping in the field by the Plough Inn in Hope. There's a climbers bus to Stanage from Sheffield in the summer. Froggatt and Stoney Middleton are accessible from Grindleford station. Millstone/Lawrencefield from Hathersage. But you do need to leave early on a Sunday to get home. From Cambridge a train from Peterborough via Doncaster may be the quickest route.

The Lakes is possible but you have to leave the hills very early on the Sunday (like 3pm - not compatible with having an epic on a crag). As well as the line into Windermere there is a bus from Penrith to Cockermouth via Keswick which connects with most train arrivals. Cumbria have a bus-booklet, which is probably also online. There is also a coach from Preston to Ambleside and Keswick but not at a time of day useful to climbers.

North Wales is easy enough as far as Llandudno junction or Bangor, but buses up to Betwys or Llanberis fade out too early for Friday night use, and disappear entirely on Sundays.

As you'll gather, I have spent quite a bit of time working out how to get to the hills without use of a car, but not really got the perfect solution. And I no longer live in Cambridge.

In reply to Ramblin dave: Thanks all. Again, I am planning to join the CCCC but like the idea of being able to do stuff with just me and my girlfriend by public transport if we want to...

Out of interest, does anyone else think a wiki that collates and sorts information about getting to outdoorsy locations by public transport would be useful? Somewhere where, rather than going and looking at the massive derbyshire bus map, finding a promising looking route, going and downloading the pdf timetable and finding out that it only runs at 11am on the second tuesday in april, I can say "how can I get into the Peak from a mainline station?" or "where can I go climbing by public transport from Leeds?" or "what local buses are useful when you're staying in Keswick?"

Precise structure and details tbd, but it's something that doesn't seem to exist and I'm wondering about setting something up...

In reply to Ramblin dave:

Bamford is a fairly good bet, we stayed there last Easter with no transport and stayed in the campsite near to the train station, luckily the owner gave us lifts to Stanage on two days but we walked back via Hathersage and on other days caught the train to Grindleford and walked to Froggat. I am sure there must be more options as well if your willing

J