My very first experience of hill walking was when I was in my teens and my folks took us camping in the lake district. We spent a glorious fortnight in THAT SUMMER – the summer of ’76 – the hottest summer on record until very recently camping at Derwentwater. We swam in the lake, walked the hills and had a fantastic time. That was my only positive camping experience ever. On every other camping holiday we ended up packing up our stuff in the middle of the night in pouring rain and then having a fight on our hands to get the tent dry before mildew set it!

Anyway, on that holiday we took our “adopted sister” Karen with us. Karen is my sister’s best friend and she’s always been treated as one of the family. She refers to our parents as Mum and Dad as well as calling us her sisters. On one day, when we were walking to the top of one of the hills, we kept thinking that we were coming to the summit because we could see no more high ground and then when we got to what we thought was the top, we discovered a small dip then another rise. This went on and on and the joke on that day was Karen saying (every five minutes) “when we get to the top and it really is the top, I’ll thank the Lord”. That’s been an expression that’s oft quoted by all of us over the last thirty years. I find it hard to imagine that it is thirty two years since that summer but it’s true.

I’ve only seen Karen a few times in recent years, at my sister’s wedding when her little daughter Gemma was Jan’s bridesmaid. Then at Jan’s son’s christening and most recently at Karen’s Dad, Gordon’s funeral. A sad day indeed.

Anyway, with glorious weather and a pair of dogs who felt they’d been hard-done-by because we’d been out without them on Saturday, we decided that we’d make an assault on Kilmar Tor. That’s the next tor away from us, past Bearah Tor, where we went last weekend. My Dad, who is an experienced walker and has walked the Coast to Coast walk (Wainwright) twice. However, he is now nearly 70 and his knees won’t stand up to scrambling up and down steep slopes any more so we have to choose walks that are a bit less challenging. They can be long, as long as they’re not too steep.

Getting to Kilmar Tor means a short-ish section of steep slope but once we get onto the high moor at Sharp Tor, there is only gentle slope to pass Bearah Tor and on to Kilmar. The final assault is pretty steep but with the aid of a stick and slow progress, he made it to the top and it really was the top (well, except for that granite boulder on the right). I choose this shot of Mum, David and Archie rather than the one of my Dad on the summit because there are more of my precious family in the shot than in the one with my Dad on it but that’s no reflection on Dad, simply that I got better “love value” out of three rather than two!!!!

So, here are Mum, David and Archie enjoying the panoramic views from the top of Kilmar Tor, 1200 feet above sea level on a February morning in the sunshine. Weirdly, despite my general tiredness, I don’t feel any more tired from being out walking than I do from being on the sofa, which means I fill my lungs with fresh air and my eyes with a feast of fantastic sights.

Last year, Looe.