Up the hill. Extreme sports of one odd kind and another.

 Yesterday we ventured out into the wild and windy (but not wet) weather to walk up Lark Hill again. We’ve not done it for a few weeks and it’s probably good for your soul as well as your heart and lungs to tackle it every so often. The gradient alone is enough of a challenge but the rough, uneven, seriously eroded, lumpy, bumpy surface makes it harder. You need to concentrate on where you are putting your feet. 

 

We were overtaken on our way up by three young off road motorcyclists, determinedly and noisily negotiating their way round the various stony obstacles on the track - and incidentally polluting the atmosphere with the smell of their two-stroke engines. We decided to stand aside and let the wind do its job of clearing the air a little before we continued on our upward quest. Near the top of the hill we crossed paths with a brave or foolhardy or perhaps just plain crazy cyclist riding down. He told us it’s easier going down than up! Maybe so but personally I wouldn’t try either option.

 

We made it to the top without incident and were rewarded with some fine views, including the sight of a hawk of some kind hovering over the fields. After that the way was mostly straightforward. We saw some fine autumn colour as we descended from Dobcross to Delph once more. 

Thinking of daft sporting activities, later in the day I came across this article about the increase in wood chopping as a sport. It seems there are clubs such as Alba Axmen in Scotland and there are organised competitions. “The sport is growing, with clubs across the UK reporting an increase in membership, and more competitions this year. The number of women in the sport is also on the rise, with this year’s British championships featuring a women’s category for the first time.” 

Good grief! I thought women had more sense but some will take the women’s equality hing to extremes! 

And what do they do with the wood that has been chopped? Is it sold as firewood (environmentally questionable) or put through a woodxchipper and sold by garden centres as wood chips to put in your garden? Goodness knows! 

 

Competitors wear chainmail socks to avoid chopping their feet off. “If you hit your foot, you’ll probably break the bone, but that’s a lot better than cutting a few toes off,” said Glen Penlington, who was crowned British champion in June Penlington.

I was reminded of the Basque Country in Spain, not forgetting some it being in France. Among their odd sports such as harri jasotzea (stone lifting) and ingude altxatzea (anvil lifting) and sokatira (tug-of-war) they have aizkolaritza:- 

“Wood-chopping competitions by aizkolaris (‘wood choppers’ in Euskera) are among the most popular of Basque sports. They had their origin in the woods, when coal workers need wood for vegetable coal and woodcutters had to use it for construction. In those days, bets were made to see who would fell the tree first.

The aizkolaris use axes to chop the trunks. The game has two modalities: either participants are asked to chop a fixed number of horizontally laid trunks while standing on a plank or they have to chop a single trunk with the lowest possible number of blows.”

I suspect that these odd sports go back to the days when the Basque people were largely cut off in their mountain villages - hence the survival of their strange and ancient language - and didn’t see much of the outside world and had to make their own entertainment! My stereotyping of the Basque people is done tongue-in-cheek by the way. I don’t want any protests and social media harassment! 

The Basque Country is a lovely place, well worth a visit. And it’s not obligatory to go and watch an organised and well attended aizkolaritza event. I don’t think the azkolaris wear chainmail socks, by the way. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!