Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
A circuit of Crummock Water Today didn't turn out as planned, but could prove to be one of the best days of the trip. An overnight weather forecast for strong winds, risk of lightning and the chance of solid rain didn't bode well on the day that I had my longest walk planned.By the time … Continue reading A Lakeland Round (2011): Day 4 – Thursday 7 July
Keswick to Buttermere Today was a day of comparisons with past trips, in particular my long Lakes trip during my sabbatical 4 years ago.After some overnight rain, the day dawned relatively fine, with Skiddaw looking colourful opposite my bedroom window. Breakfast was a bit disappointing today - only 1 rasher of bacon and only one … Continue reading A Lakeland Round (2011): Day 3 – Wednesday 6 July
Whinlatter Fells There are few things more annoying than busting a gut to meet a deadline, successfully meeting it, and then finding the deadline moved earlier and no one told you. That's what happened today.It started ok, though, and because I couldn't start walking until quite late, I took it easy with breakfast and didn't … Continue reading A Lakeland Round (2011): Day 2 – Tuesday 5 July
A Quick (?) Leg Stretch Today I arrived in the Lake District for 11 days of walking, on a mission to mop-up some odds and ends of fells and also to knock off most of the western fells. Travelling up today, meant a short walk in the afternoon, with the only sensible choice being Dodd, … Continue reading A Lakeland Round (2011): Day 1 – Monday 4 July
Now just one day until I go, and it feels like a long time since I had a walk. Â I've not been out on "terrain" for just over a month, and despite best intentions, haven't done the amount of flat walking I'd hoped to do in preparation for this trip. Â But I've done a couple … Continue reading A Lakeland Round (2011): Preparation
My Pacerpoles arrived today so I took them out for a trial run before my Lake District trip next week. Â It was a nice afternoon, warm but not boiling and the sort of weather that is perfect for a walk. Â I took my new friends to a local footpath that runs alongside the Mardyke, … Continue reading Pacerpoles – initial thoughts
I'm well over halfway through my career break, and I'd originally planned to be doing the second half of the Cambrian Way at the start of July, having done the first half in early May. Â That plan changed when I realised that I didn't want to do it in two parts, which my Cumbria Way … Continue reading Planning a Lake District Round (2011)
5 years after I started the North Downs Way, I walked down the lane from the centre of Knockholt Pound, retracing my steps on my last day. We skirted around the edge of the Chevening estate and followed waymarkers through the woods. Emerging at a stile liberally festooned with NDW arrows on every side we … Continue reading North Downs Way 5: Knockholt to Wrotham
Planning Although we've done a chunk of the pub for the last 3 years, this year's ultimately turned out to be the hardest to arrange and felt really expensive too. And there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly as we get further west, travel time to the south west gets longer and also … Continue reading South West Coast Path 2011 – Debrief
During the trip we ate in the following places... Day 1 - the Start Bay Inn, Torcross A seafood place (not surprisngly), we had a large cod and chips, a medium haddock and chips and a steak. As our table was right next to the dessert display, I topped off with lemon cream cake. Food … Continue reading SWCP 2011 – Meals
We stayed in the following places this year. This was probably the hardest year's planning due the need to find accommodation in places that fitted with the distances we wanted to do, how we wanted to cross the rivers (especially the Erme) etc. We found ourselves going over our budget per night cost on a … Continue reading SWCP 2011 – Accommodation
River Yealm to Plymouth After some hopeless navigation on the part of the taxi driver, we were eventually dropped in the lane to New Barton farm, then we walked down the track to Warren Point, where the SWCP resumes on the west side of the river Yealm. Given the weather forecast for a breezy day … Continue reading South West Coast Path 2011 – Day 6
Little Orcheton to River Yealm After an early breakfast we had our earliest start yet - 8:35 - and with a hint from the landlady took a shortcut across one of the farm fields to the woods on the bank of the Erme. We followed a woodland track before descending to the river and crossing … Continue reading South West Coast Path 2011 – Day 5
Waking as early as the preceding days wasn't a surprise but was annoying due to breakfast not being until 9. I couldn't even update my blog as I'd done this the previous afternoon due to arriving so early. By the time 9am came we were all packed and ready to leave. We took breakfast and … Continue reading South West Coast Path 2011 – Day 4
I yelped and recoiled in pain as the warm shower water struck my sunburnt legs. I turned around and then got the full force of the water on my burnt forearms. Yelp! I made the shower a quick one. Now, a cup of tea and all the biscuits supplied in the room later, I'm lying … Continue reading South West Coast Path 2011 – Day 3