I’ve had a summer away from Lakeland doing other things but as I drink my morning coffee a thousand feet up the Wrynose Pass watching the sun rise over Wetherlam it’s like meeting up with an old friend again. Shared experiences and years of familiarity mean the relationship is comfortably secure and time and distance apart is quickly forgotten. Every corner tells a story, and my particular memory here is of pushing an old mark three Cortina up an icy Wrynose Pass just after Christmas sometime in the mid eighties on our way to Eskdale YHA.
Continue reading “Great Carrs, Swirl How and Grey Friar from Wrynose Pass”
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I forget that it’s market day and we’re stuck in traffic crawling through the ancient walled town of Alcudia on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. To pass the time the taxi driver puts his AC/DC playlist on, Highway to Hell is the first song and I’m hoping it isn’t an omen for my planned walk today. Eventually he drops me just outside Campament de la Victoria which is the start point of my walk up Talaia d’Alcudia, the highest mountain on the Alcudia peninsula. As the cab pulls away the sunshine on my face and the silence in my ears are both equally welcome.
Continue reading “A walk up Talaia d’Alcudia, Mallorca”
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The alarm goes at 6am and by ten past we are on the road, half awake and unwashed with the bed still warm in the back of the van. All is quiet as we drive out of Lake Louise Campground through the sleepy town and out onto the Trans Canada One heading west. The sun is breaking through but clouds still cover the higher peaks and mist floats over the Bow river as we head up Kicking Horse Pass and back into British Columbia and Yoho National Park. The only other vehicles on the road are gigantic trucks, engines labouring up the incline.
Continue reading “A walk around Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park”
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It’s always nice to start a walk straight from the campsite and Chapel House Farm has the added benefit that I can have breakfast looking up at my first hill of the day, Rosthwaite Fell. Wainwright dedicates his book on the Southern Fells, the book I’m currently walking through to “The Sheep of Lakeland, the hardiest of all fellwalkers”. In what has been a sustained spell of dry weather these hardy Herdwicks are suffering a little. Richard, the farmer and campsite owner tells me the dry weather has not been good for his flock of a thousand Herdwicks who are suffering from the lack of water and parasitic infestations growing in their wool. For his livelihood and the sheep’s well-being I hope Lakeland has some rain soon, maybe just not today.
Continue reading “Rosthwaite Fell and Glaramara from Rosthwaite”
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Before starting my book by book journey through Wainwright’s iconic 214 I had climbed many of them before, one hundred and one of them to be precise. Coniston Old Man was one of those and my walking journal tells me I climbed it on Friday 14th August 1987 with a couple of other guys and the weather was clear. To be honest I don’t remember much about that walk but the 80’s and early 90’s were years when long social evenings in the pub were as much a part of any visit to the Lakes as the walking itself so that may account for my somewhat hazy memory.
Continue reading “Three Wainwrights from Coniston Village”
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The day is turning into a very fine one for walking as I park in the very same spot I occupied two months ago. The sky is cloudless and eggshell blue, the sun is beaming but it’s April and the temperature is still pleasant and there is not so much as a breath of wind to rustle the leafs. Busyness has been ruling out any visits north but the diary and the weather have both become clear and my season opener is to be a not too taxing leg stretch up Holme Fell.
Continue reading “A walk up Holme Fell”
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A visit to the far north west of Scotland is an invitation to slow yourself down and reset to a quieter, simpler way of living. It’s a place where the demands on your time and the notifications on your phone can be turned off for a while and you can instead, absorb the silence or watch fishing boats bringing in a catch of prawns in the golden hour whilst listening to the tide gently lapping on rocks that are among the oldest on earth. In the highlands you can find the time and space to think about things, to breathe out, or just do nothing at all, when was the last time you did that? These are rare treasures indeed in our ever busy, scrolling world. “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom” to quote E O Wilson.
Continue reading “A walk around the Shieldaig Peninsula”
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Walks throughout Europe that can be completed in a day. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to locate the route.
I forget that it’s market day and we’re stuck in traffic crawling through the ancient walled town of Alcudia on ...
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We’ve been visiting Mallorca for decades. In the early days it was Santa Ponca in the South West but over ...
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Walks throughout the UK that can be completed in a day. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to locate route.
A visit to the far north west of Scotland is an invitation to slow yourself down and reset to a ...
The car park for the Falls of Kirkaig is empty when we arrive with two steak pie and mashed potato ...
What they undertook to do they brought to pass; All things hang like a drop of dew Upon a blade ...
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It’s early but the summer sun has already lifted above the hills as I pull into a little lay by ...
It's a clear fresh Autumn morning as I pull into the top car park at the end of the Aber ...
Autumn in the Lake District can often be one of the most sublime times of the year, truly a "Season ...
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My walks in the United States including Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to see the route.
“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its wall seems to glow with life.” ...
Our campsite, just outside Moab, Utah is in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. The plateau varies between three to ...
The Arches National Park is like no place I have ever walked in before. Set high on the desert plateau ...
‘Don’t worry Mom, I know all about cannibalism, I saw it on TV’. Like Danny in The Shining, it’s all ...
Reading the news recently that there are now more redwoods in the U.K. than in California (read here) reminded me ...
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