Tag: walking

Hadrian’ Wall Day 1: Bowness-on-Solway to Carlisle

Jess GuthLeave a comment

We are tucked up in our Bed and Breakfast in Carlisle after a good day getting wet through walking in the rain. Our adventure started yesterday with a train journey from Keighley to Carlisle. This includes the Settle to Carlisle line which is a stunning route. From Carlisle we got a taxi out to our B&B – basically the route we’d be walking back today.

I’ll review the accommodation separately on Trip Advisor but Bowness House Farm, now Hunters Leisure complex or something like that was fine. Not luxury and with interesting decor (diamanté encrusted toilet roll holder anyone?) and average food but fine. After a little stretch of legs on the beach we ate and then settled in.

This morning the earliest we could have breakfast was 8am so that’s what we did. Then we left our bags ready to be picked up and transported on to the next B&B and off we went. We’d spoken to a guy at breakfast who had just finished the walk the other way had described our Day 1 as boring. it was anything but!

After the obligatory start selfie and stamp in our Hadrian’s Wall passports we made our way out of the village and along the road for a bit. The Solway Firth is quite spectacular really and we paused every now and again to listen to curlews and oyster catchers. We soon picked up the off road path for a bit before making our way past a Holiday park and along a lane. A little stretch along and we stopped to put our rain jackets on. And we didn’t take them off again all day.

A brief nod to Drumburgh Castle and we were on the Burgh Marshes. That’s a roughly 3 mile stretch which we walked part on the road and part up on the grassy mound. We could still hear and see curlews and lapwings. Once we crossed the cattle grid at the end of the marshes, we were heading into Burgh-by-Sands. Our taxi driver had told us that the Pub there was pretty much the only thing open for refreshments along the route and that it opened at 12. It was only 11.30 so no coffee and pee stop. It was raining quite heavily and as we continued on I got completely drenched by a car driving through a puddle. I lost my sense of humour for a few minutes and am marched on with soggy knickers.

We had been leapfrogging a woman walking on her own and she stopped at a portaloo by the village green and we decided to do the same. Feeling more comfortable we continued on with a brief stop to look at St Michael’s church. After that we walked along a few fields navigating the cows and sheep. We arrived in Beaumont with St Mary’s church sitting sort of above us on the hill and a welcome look bench round a tree inviting us to pause for a bite to eat. In addition there was a coffee trailer.

We had our packed lunch and coffee, briefly chatted to two women also walking the wall and then set off again. More fields, more cows and lots more kissing gates as we made our way alongside the river Eden into Carlisle. We walked all the way round the Sands Centre to find the entrance so we could stamp our passports. We saw the two women there again after having leapfrogged each other a couple of times. We realised we didn’t actually have to go all the way round and used a back exit to get us back on the path.

Technically the route for today was complete just before the Sands Centre but we decided to add a bit of tomorrow’s route on as we would need to walk to the B&B anyway and continuing on the path was really only marginally further. I jumped straight into the shower to get the worst of the mud off legs (I’d been wearing 3/4 length pants) and we rested a little before going for food in town. We went to Franco’s. Good pasta and pizza and the best espresso I’ve hard in a while!

So that’s what we did. About 17 miles all in. But how did I feel. My shoes aren’t quite right. They are quite hard/stiff and then they got wet. So my feet felt quite tender from quite early on. I’m considering my trail running shoes for tomorrow but they are quite tight so not sure yet. I got in my head every now and again. Early on I had a panic about whether I could do this and there were bits where I was anxious – some stone flag steps, fields full of cows, significant mud… but I’m fine. I’m tired because I’m not fit and my feet are a bit sore but it’s all good and tomorrow looks like it might be drier – which would be lovely!

Fell Pony Adventures Mosedale Trek – Day 3

Jess Guth1 Comment

After Day 2 of the trek I was expecting to maybe be a little achey but overall everything felt fine. I slept relatively well, waking up just a few times. It was still raining and grey and seemed set in but as we had breakfast (charcoal stove toasted croissants again – so nice) and started to pack up there were also glimmers of blue sky. Tom had moved the ponies onto some better grass so they were all happily munching away. We got packed and on our way fairly quickly and day 1 started much how day 2 ended but it was less windy and while there was the odd little bit of rain we seemed to be mostly walking in the dry. The ground was wet though and there were some really boggy bits to navigate round.

Kath and Pansy

After a little while of walking and crossing a beck that Prince didn’t seem too keen on (we took the boxes off him to make it easier) and Pansy navigated in a rather undignified manner sliding down the bank on her bottom, Teddy took a good long look at before deciding it was ok and Fay and Trouble navigated really well, we soon arrived at Gatescarth Pass. We stopped for a few minutes to reduce layers of clothing, have a drink of water and I had a good look at the up that was coming. I was partly anxious and partly just trying to remember that the views would be worth it and that I would just get to the top when I got to the top.

We set off and very quickly Prince started picking his own way zig zagging along behind me and then past me. He was going faster than I could manage and I didn’t want to make it harder for him to carry his load up so chucked the rope over his pack saddle and let him get on with it. He made some interesting choices about his route and sometimes he trotted along like an idiot and I was worried he’d hurt himself – but of course he knew what he was doing – he’s a fell pony, he’s made for that terrain. So I huffed and puffed my way up. Sue chatted with me at the back and we got there eventually. It’s a stoney path which going up was fine but we were going up and over and that meant down the other side.

I started the downhill with Prince and for a while that worked well. He pinged from one side of the track to the other often walking on the grass bank. A couple of times he went further off piste than I had rope for so I let him go. Once he pulled me over into quite a high banking which I sort of belly flopped against and which made me giggle. The downhill was not my favourite part. The lack of core strength meant I felt ill equipped to deal with any slips and trips and rolling pebbles and sliding scree and I got in my head a bit. I caught up to Prince and on a less steep section took the rope again and hung out with him. I quickly focused less on me and my silly anxiety brain and more on where he was going and if I could go with him and how and did a bit better.

We stopped for lunch at a beautiful sport overlooking Haweswater. We tethered the ponies and set up the shelter so we could stay out of the rain which started again just as we stopped. Tom made a pasta and pesto lunch and we had a cup of tea and a biscuit. Then out of nowhere several mountain bikers came racing down the pass. They didn’t slow down for the horses and spooked them a bit. The last rider to come down obviously scared Trouble who managed to pull the tethering pin out of the ground as she bolted towards the others. Thankfully she settled down quickly as we all swore at the cyclists more or less under our breath.

After lunch we did the final little bit down the pass and then a little stretch along the road before another climb. This time we went over the Old Corpse Road. It’s steep but not as long as the previous up and because it was pretty narrow – certainly at the start – I just let Prince go ahead. I walked at the back with Sue and we kept Prince going vaguely in the right direction with the help of her dog Jess who seemed very pleased to finally have a job. The Corpse Road up was hard. I was probably getting tired and the up is very definitely up! Once at the top we stayed at quite a high level and started to make our way back towards Naddle Farm. Tom had already said that a lot of the final bit of the route was off piste but that he had discussed a potential route in with someone from Naddle Farm and was aiming to try that.

Well, we didn’t get that route quite right and had good chunk off piste with pretty boggy bits. I was definitely tired at this point and was just leaving Prince to it and just making my own way at the back. After a little bit of navigational backwards and forwards we committed to a route and eventually found the gate that Tom had been told about and from there took a good track through a gorgeous valley all the way back to the farm. Somewhere along this track Kath had taken Prince – I think she retrieved him from a random wander off and I took Pansy off Sue so I could enjoy the last stretch walking with a pony again. Pansy was lovely too. Less zig-zaggy than Prince and very responsive to voice and being talked to. I enjoyed the last stretch very much and was once again lost in my own thoughts occasionally talking to Pansy and trying to drink in as much of the scenery and bottle the calm.

We arrived back, wet, tired and very happy. Once we unleaded the ponies, retrieved our belongings from the packs, we got changed into dry clothes (dry socks are bliss!) and said our good byes. We stopped at Tebay services and got a sausage roll and chips to eat in the car before driving home, unpacking the worst of the wet gear and collapsing into a hot bath and then bed.

Saturday I woke up and wowsers, haven’t been that achey in a while. Hamstrings, quads, hip flexers and hips and lower back in particular were all there to say ‘Hi’. I stretched a little but I couldn’t even reach my toes. It eased slightly during the day and today it is noticeably easier again with just my back still being a bit unhappy. I miss the ponies and I miss the almost meditative walking along with them. I am so glad we decided to go and do another Fell Pony Adventures trek and I am proud I made it up and over those hills. Was it hard – yep, was it worth doing – absolutely. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat!

Fell Pony Adventures Mosedale Trek Day 1&2

Jess Guth1 Comment
Picture of bell tent in a field with tree line in the distance and blue sky

Not a running adventure, but an outdoor moving sort of adventure. From Wednesday to Friday last week Kath and I did the Mosedale Trek with Fell Pony Adventures. On Wednesday (Day 1) we drove up to Naddle Farm at RSPB Haweswater to meet Tom and his ponies and the other 2 trek participants. The tents were already up so there wasn’t anything for us to do other than enjoy the sunshine, meet the ponies and learn a little more about Wild Haweswater from the RSPB Visitor Experience Manager Annabelle. It was really nice to see ponies Fay and Pansy again and meet Prince, Teddy and the affectionately named youngster Trouble – who wasn’t actually any trouble at all.

After a really yummy tea of quorn chilli we moved into the badger hide that is on site and settled in to wait. After about an hour a first badger appeared and a little while later a second one joined and eventually there were three of them. I’d never seen a badger in the wild in the UK and it was very cool to just see them doing their thing, foraging for food. We were all tucked up in our tents at not long after 10pm and I slept quite well. I woke up a few times and noticed that it was raining – which was a little disappointing as we were really hoping for a dry trek (wasn’t to be!) and then there was a noisy dawn chorus about 4.10am. I eventually woke up fully at a little before 7am.

After breakfast of bacon and eggs on a warmed croissant we started packing all the gear and getting it into the pack pony bags with Tom carefully weighing them to make sure we got even pairs for each pony. Then we got the ponies. Tom and Mountain Leader Sue had suggested who takes which pony and it worked really well. So Kath took Pansy and I took Prince. Tom showed us how to put the saddles on the ponies and then how to lift the packs on and then, after a quick ‘this is how you lead a pack pony induction’, we were off.

Pansy

I really liked walking along with Prince. He was lovely and mostly well behaved but with a clear idea about exactly where he wanted to walk which seemed to mostly involve zig zagging across the path behind me. The first stretch was a gentle path back through the field where the ponies had been turned out and through a little wood and then across to Swindale on a narrow up and then down track. We stopped for a little break and then made our way along Swindale Lane and onto a path which then took us to our lunch spot at Mosedale Beck. It turned wet and windy while we had a lovely lunch of soup and bread with nibbles of olives, hummus and local cheeses. The rain then eased off again and we set off on the afternoon section of our walk in grey but dry weather. We had come about 3 miles at this point and it had all been absolutely fine.

After lunch we headed up. This was a little more challenging and my lungs weren’t playing ball. It felt like I couldn’t really get any air in but Prince was patient with me and we stuck together and made it bit by bit with little stops where I focused on breathing and he focused on eating. I was slightly conscious of people waiting for me but everyone was really patient and the ponies happy to graze. There were one or two bits where Prince had ideas about where he would go that didn’t really match the path and I ran out of rope so left him too it and there was a steepish section where he was too fast for me.

Prince (Day 3, bottom of Old Corpse Road)

Mostly I managed the up with Prince and once or twice he saved me from a slip. When we reached the top and Mosedale Common, the wind was nippy and it was raining fairly consistently so we just all plodded along lost in our own thoughts avoiding the boggiest bits. In some ways this was my favourite bit of Day 1. Just me with Prince trudging along in the rain and wind with 4 other ponies and 5 other people doing the same. There was no point trying to talk to anyone, with hoods up and wind you couldn’t hear anyway so we were all in our own worlds and it felt perfect. A sort of being alone together which I really quite like.

Eventually Mosedale Cottage and with it our home for the night came into view. We unloaded the ponies and tethered them behind the cottage for a little shelter from the wind. We settled ourselves in and had a cup of tea and a biscuit and chatted a bit. It was nice to be out of the wind. Then Tom made another delicious meal (Flat bread with chick peas and peppers, tomatoes and herbs and spices). Not long after we’d eaten 3 lads appeared absolutely soaking wet through and rather clueless. I think they were happy to have a bit of advice and help and be able to come in out of the dry and warm as we had brought some firewood and lit a fire. They had some camping gear but the wrong sort of gas canister for their stove so Tom gave them one of his – that didn’t stop an attempt to warm tinned curry on the fire though. They were probably also a little embarrassed but they gave us a good giggle and deserve some credit for being out there and giving it a go. I don’t want to be preachy but please take the the Lake District fells seriously, things can and do go wrong quickly, get a proper map and learn how to use it, don’t rely on your phone and think about clothes, waterproofs and suitable footwear. Go with someone who knows what they are doing if you don’t.

I went to bed tired and happy. Yes, I had to go slow coming up onto Mosedale Common but I had made it without any drama, the terrain under foot hadn’t actually been an issue – I think leading Prince and chatting to him and focusing on that meant I hadn’t really thought about the ground partly being uneven, partly being slippery and partly being wet. I was just getting on with it – so yay to not overthinking. As I slowly dozed off snuggled into the sleeping bag I thought about how calming overall just being around horses is, how being out and moving puts everything into perspective, makes stresses melt away and how doing it with a fell pony out on the fells acts as a reminder of the importance of just being. Thursday had been 6 miles of moving at fell pony pace and a day of just being. I fell asleep happy.

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Morning Coffee on Top of the World

Jess GuthLeave a comment

Ok well not quite on top of the world. But perched on a rock at the top end of Low Wood Nature Reserve (Yorkshire Wildlife Trust). Kath had suggested this particular adventure the other day and while getting up really early doesn’t appeal to me very much at the moment, sitting outside listening to the birds wake up in the morning light very much does.

Of course, for the first time in ages, we were both asleep when the alarm went off at 5.30 and I just turned it off and dozed a little. It was clear I wasn’t actually going to go back to sleep so we got up. Kath fed the cats and made coffee and then we set off. We walked the mile and a half down to and along the canal to get to Low Wood. Then we followed the path.

By the time we got into the wood I was much more awake. I was really conscious of how achey and heavy my legs felt from walking yesterday and how overall tired my whole body felt. I didn’t like it at all but I tried to push all of that to one side and just focus on the beauty of being outside.

The path slowly winds uphill running parallel to the canal for a bit. Within minutes we had seen several deer, 4 nuthatches, loads of blue tits and great tits and a squirrel or two. At the end of the wood there’s a dry stone wall and the path turns right and heads up. It’s a pull but a perfectly walkable proper path. Still I kept having to stop and catch my breath.

The last bit up is a tiny little scramble. Nothing major at all and if you have long legs it’s probably no more than a couple of slightly awkward big strides. For us with little legs it was a short little climb up. Then perfect path again. Looking down I felt slightly nauseous until everything adjusted and I got used to the view. It’s a lovely time of year to be there. The buds on the trees are beginning to be really vibrant but there’s no leaves yet so you can see through the branches down to the canal and the sea of green from plants below really stood out. It’ll be stunning when the bluebells flower.

We walked along a little and found a nice looking rock to sit on and have our coffee. Height induced jelly legs made sitting down on the rock a little trickier than it really needed to be and after brief thoughts of falling to our death because the rock might just decide that today is the day it’s had enough of just hanging around there, I settled in. We had our coffee mostly in silence watching all the little birds go about their morning. We were shouted at by a little blue tit who seemed to think we were way too close to its tree.

After a while, not sure how long really, time was a bit irrelevant, we got ready to leave and slowly make our way home for breakfast. Kath got up first and then gave me a pull back onto the path. There were several trees with spectacular woodpecker holes in them along the path and we stopped to admire them and two more deer that were just ahead of us on the path. The deer negotiated their way down the steep hill so gracefully and quickly it was almost like they just beamed down.

My downhill was of course less graceful and far less quick. You cross a little stream and then turn down the hill. It’s a path, it’s fine as long as you are not me with my silly fear of downhill. I think it felt worse because everything felt so achey and tired but really it wasn’t horrendous and is perfectly walkable without really giving it a second thought. It’s just me being weird.

We left the nature reserve and walked back along the road, saw more deer (well probably some of the ones we’d seen earlier again) and picked some wild garlic from the wood further along to make pesto with later. It was a lovely start to the day. I might not feel quite right at the minute and I might fatigue really easily and ache even when I have hardly done anything but I am grateful I can do things like this.

Walking tired

Jess Guth2 Comments

I meant to post this last night but eventually I realised I was both cold and too unfocused to upload the pictures into the post and went to bed instead. But here you are, a slightly frustrated rant about not really being able to do much and pictures from a lovely walk.

I haven’t been running. I haven’t been doing a lot of things. I don’t know whether I have long Covid because I don’t know if I had Covid but I have something. I can do some things but I can’t do all the things. I am getting better at the HIIT sessions and definitely feel fitter for the short burst exercise. I can work a full week, I can even write a little. I can cook and do house stuff, I can read for pleasure and I can go for walks, do yoga and file my admin crap and sort of vaguely function as an adult. What I can’t do is all of that in any sort of consistent way.

I was doing quite well with the fitness stuff. I managed the workouts and some running. Then I went back to work and also had to deal with stuff and my system put the brakes on. I can hear my inner self screaming, well whimpering really, ‘stop, too much’. I have activated my brain again and that feels really good but energy is finite and using energy for brain power stuff takes it away from other areas. Rest becomes an imperative and I have never learned to properly pace myself through a day or a week. Finding a balance between rest and exercise that is calibrated to a very flighty system in hyper-vigilant overdrive is not easy. I realised that I can’t do the Body Coach App 5 sessions and run as well at the moment. I sort of thought I’d prefer running and drop the HIIT sessions accordingly but I’ve felt vulnerable out running, anxious. So I have stayed in and done the sessions. I have also realised that sometimes it is tempting to do sessions on several back to back days. But then it suddenly hits me and I feel exhausted. Maybe 2 days on, 1 off is a better pattern for me right now. Maybe. Today was a workout day and I had every intention of doing it but we went for a walk. It was 5 miles and lovely but it felt much much more tiring than just walking 5 miles. I feel so physically tired after that but it’s too soon to go to bed because my brain is still too active.

We have talked about exploring the footpaths round here ever since we moved in over 15 years ago but we always stick to our same routes that became routine for one reason or another – the route to Kath’s Mum’s, running down to the canal to make use of the flat, the sheep fields where we had our flock, the road up to the moor for the curlews and lapwings and the moor to the stanza stones and trig point via the grumpy grouse. Familiar. But random. So today we went for a walk to explore a footpath loop I have never been on and Kath has been on once, long before we met even. The first mile was just up the hill as if we were heading for the moor but then we turned off following a footpath sign down a track. And we stuck to that track through a farm and followed it until we came to a point where a sign told is that we had to decide whether to keep following it or take a path through a wood on the edge of the glen. Part of the reason for walking this route was to see if it would be runable for Kath and as it was clear the track would be, we went for the wood option.

It was a lovely trail, slightly undulating and skirting the edge of the glen. You can’t get lost, you just follow the path which is clearly well used although we didn’t see anyone else. Kath had her OS map app open on her phone to see how well it worked and it was actually really fun to see where we were and remind ourselves what things look like on a map. We did miss the original turning (or rather we followed the track and turned when we shouldn’t have done) that was the original route plan but the way we went was actually much more fun. Well into the wood we crossed a little stream with a little waterfall using a little bridge that was less than confidence inspiring and then continued along the woodland path which eventually brought us out just above Sunnydale Reservoir. I had no idea it was even there. I didn’t much like the look of the steps going down to it, they were a bit ‘steps of doom’. Ok, I am being dramatic but they looked in urgent need of some TLC and by TLC I mean rebuild. In spite of the washed out steps we made it safely down. There was someone else enjoying the tranquility and solitude and there was another walker behind us just approaching the steps as we had got down so we didn’t linger.

  • Little Waterfall
  • Nightmare Bridge
  • Steps of Doom

We picked up the track again and noted the point at which we would have come out if we had chosen track over wood earlier. Useful to know for another adventure. The track took us through fields and would have been a lovely stretch of the walk had it not been for loads of dead rabbits. There were loads. It seemed particularly disturbing because it felt like someone had hunted down all the world’s easter bunnies. Hm. They must have been hunted or poisoned or something. The track took us to a road at the edge of East Morton. Instead of heading towards the village and home that way, we turned sharp right and up another track, a grass road, called, according to the app, wait for it, yep, Grass Road. It was clearly a well used bridle path and was actually the track we had meant to come down on when we originally decided on what route to walk. We followed it all the way back up to the farm at the start of our adventure and then back onto Ilkley Road. We stopped frequently to watch the lapwings and curlews or just stand and listen.

As we were out and about having adventures we decided we would check out a footpath we keep missing. We have a footpath at the back of our house which opens into fields and then goes up through a farm and up a road to the main road but we know there’s a footpath that runs up the hill from the farm earlier and would therefore allow us to cut off some of the main road. We just weren’t quite sure where exactly it goes through the farm. As we were coming down the hill, we decided to track it from that end which would make it easier to find and show is where it came out on the farm. Once you know it is actually really easy and obvious! The path took us down through a couple of fields with sheep in and it was lovely to see the lambs bouncing about. Once through the farm we were in familiar territory and on the home stretch. We stopped to watch more lambs and then made our way through the fields and onto the path that took is straight to our back gate. It was a lovely walk.

Lovely as it was though, I felt absolutely shattered. Walking not quite 5 miles with lots of stops to look at things and at a very leisurely pace seemed to have completely tired me out. I haven’t done anything since we got back. I feel physically tired but mentally in over drive. It’s odd and I’d like it to stop.