Reasons for Reasons
I was ‘raised’ – to use a phrase from our American friends – in south Lakeland and it has always remained home. Even though I left to study when I was 18 and didn’t return untill September 2010. A lot of years.
During those interim years I have had a great life, travelled and met some wonderful people and also have a managed to bring up my son fairly successfully. So, it although it was sort of ‘on the plan’, my move back North was not without trepidation.
As part of my ‘self affirmation’ that I had made the right decision I started a Facebook album ‘Reasons To Move North’. This has had wonderful comments from my friends but I never had the courage to make it public. Then recently I went on a Travel Writing Course with Zoe ,and much to my delight and surprise received more affirmation from positive comments on my travel writing. Something else which has always remained strictly within closed leaves.
A mindful review of my first year here followed and I realised that I had had an amazing twelve months. Yes, I have travelled away, but I have also done more here in the North West than I would have previously thought possible. And I have had so many visitors! People like it here! I have become a guide for friends and acquaintances who then spread the word about how wonderful the Lake District is. This led to my providing itineraries for weekends or longer visits. Some I accompanied, others I simply provided a ‘bespoke’ itinerary, with or with accommodation booked.
So, now it’s time to go Global!
And now I have built my own blog I have used my technical, from a previous life in IT, to build one for the Howgill Harriers. If you would like one put together then please contact me for a quote.
Harter Fell to Harter Fell
There are not many days where the skies are so clear. Where the whole of Cumbria stretches out. It was certainly a day to stop and “sniff the daisies”. As my friend likes to say about her pace of walking. A little bit constrained by time we wanted to get up high, with out the slog of a long walk in. The passes from Cumbria’s east to west enable a little bit of cheating. Wrynose backs nicely on to Langdale and what takes ‘some time’ to reach along Oxendale Beck can be scrambled up in an hour or so from Wrynose. Pike O’Blisco sits above the...
read moreRain to Shine
and back again. Sometimes the rain is a pain. Sometimes plans are change. Other times there is no choice but to go out anyway, and it is wonderful. In her month’s holiday, Friday was the only full day my cousin from Oz and I could grab together. The forecast was a bit grim so a boat ride with walk options. If nothing else we could see the drama from the lake and circle back to Glenridding. Up the lake, or should I say ‘water’ and cloud vied with sun and rain splashed over the boat. Under the canvas and over us. This was looking like a...
read moreDales and Details
A weekend for repeating, well worn tracks, looking at detail. Taking friends to see Malham Cove, Levens Hall. Everyone sees things in different ways. Small details and views previously unnoticed suddenly become clear and interesting. More details on Malham here and here And to Levens Hall gardens with detail Then out for a stroll in the park. With the big trees and small stuff. Details about visting Levens Hall and its fabulous gardens here
read moreForest of Bowland
Having only recently, with some surprise, discovered Clougha, in the Forest of Bowland, Then I find this AONB has a Mountain Rescue. Which appears a bit odd at first as there are no mountains. I spent the weekend under the watchful eye of the Bowland and Pennine Mountain Rescue team, on a course provided by them for the Mountain Training Association. Having glorious weather, the former royal hunting ground was shown off at its best. Blue sky and rolling hills. Autumnal misty mornings burning off to sublimely warm days. Away from the...
read moreMountain Rescue Training
You might have expected to find Mallory, Hillary and Bonington in the high Himalayas. Now you find them loitering on the heady heights of Bowland Forest. Don’t expect an easy find. Peat bogs will distract you and heathers humble as you battle with nature’s attempts to send you headlong into the roots. Many of us love to wander around hills. Aimlessly, With purpose? Some even do it in the dark. And so, just for practice Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue put on a weekend of wandering with intent to find. On Friday Night Nav, (jargon for...
read moreHard Tarn
When I threw into the wind that I wanted to do another wild camp somewhere near a tarn. ‘Hard Tarn’, flew back. It’s not much more than a puddle on the map. Nestled underneath Nethermost Pike. A perfect glacial bowl. Stand by it and you can almost see the ice folding over the hard rim and down into the valley below. Search and ask and there are a few blogs about how wonderful it is. Some reports say don’t go as far as the Climbers’ Hut, but head up to Eagle Crag from the foot bridge. Some say go as far as the Climbers’ Hut and then strike...
read moreSkiddaw
Though one of the North Cumbrian icons, sitting bold and brash above Keswick, I can’t say Skiddaw is one of my favourite hills. Going up the front is a tedious zigzag over Little Man and maybe Latrigg, depending on how energetic you are feeling. Choose this way and you’ll be accompanied by many, One of those tracks thronged by flip-flop clad tourists in summer. Winter, when covered is snow was definitely my best experience of the hill. Clear sky and wonderful views over fells to the east, south and west. Maybe Scotland to the north. Not this...
read moreWales Wild Camp
The plans that were for Wales last weekend went astray. It was bank holiday, So traffic. Thinking we were being clever and setting off Friday morning, we’d miss the traffic. Not early enough. The plan to catch a bus away from Betsw y Coed and walk back over Carned, camp en-route, was wiped out in a haze of bank holiday fumes. Things change. So a little later in the day cars were left at Capel Cruig and instead we walked away. Slightly up the road but soon branching off at bridleway over the hill to Llyn Cowlyd Reservoir and what proved to a...
read moreMirror Lake – Oregon
Yet another scenic byway heads west from Portland. A little south from the Columbia River. Through peripheral towns of Wood Village and Gresham. Round the south side of Mount Hood where it turns north and ends at the Columbia River Gorge. Just beyond the delightfully named Zigzag and Rhododendron is a trail head scrunched alongside a far from scenic stretch of the I26. Cars wedged into a barely widened road where lorries heaped with timber, grind gears to get up the hill. Hardly an image of peace and tranquillity. Despite having stopped...
read moreColumbia River Gorge
Columbia River Gorge is billed as a ‘must see’ if you’re in the Portland area. The Columbia and its ancestral glacier, have carved a wide crevice between Washington and Oregon states. Used as a natural transportation route by native Americans, then traders and settlers, www.columbiarivergorge.info Early in the 1900s its value as a tourist destination was realised, bringing visitors to see the string of waterfalls cascading into the Gorge. Now designated a ‘scenic byway’ we set off from the west end. We were good tourist and...
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