On my first attempt, I went with John and had to stop about 4 times on the way up. Hot weather, no air, lack of fitness and lung problems don't make for a healthy climbing combination. Thankfully, he was very patient with me and we finally got to the top.
A few days later, I tried again on my own, and only had to stop a couple of times. Next time, I went with Ed. He wanted to walk the dogs through the woods at the bottom, so we split up and he went along the bottom, while I went over the top. About 10 minutes later, I saw someone walking down the path in a red t-shirt and black shorts, and wondered how on earth Ed had got ahead of me like that. A few moments later, I realised it was a totally different man, that happened to be wearing the same colours as Ed. How funny. When we met up at the other side, he was quite amused too.
I logged the route with a mapping system, and it is a 5km walk. That may seem simple enough, but it has an elevation of 200meters (600 ft), and most of that takes place in the first 2 kms. No wonder I found it hard going.
It is certainly worth it for the view, but the thing that surprised me most, was that only once did I do the trip without meeting anyone. There are cyclists and couples, as well as single people using the track regularly - which is a good thing (in case anything happened).
In fact, the fire brigade did a training exercise up there recently, involving fire engines, and helicopters. It was very entertaining from here.
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