Leaving the Lakes September 18, 2006
Leaving the Lakes September 18, 2006
We went down for Christine’s BreakFest at 8 AM and got 100% of her attention since we were the only guest last night. We decided we were going to take a little walk after breakfast and we would walk from the farm so we asked her for her advice on which path to take.
In England they have what is called ”right of way” which allows individuals to cross private land marked as having public footpaths (walkers only) or bridleways (also includes horses and bicyclist) as long as they stay to the route. This allows millions of British people to don their boots and get a little fresh air and exercise every weekend. Unlike Scandinavia the British access law does not allow camping on private lands without permission. New legislation now allows walkers to leave the “right of way” in some open areas such as mountains or moors and wander about. With most land being privately owned, including national park land, “right of way” is a big part of access to the outdoors in England.
After our briefing by Christine, Holly and I walked into Hesket Newmarket found the “Public Footpath” sign where it pointed the way across the stonewall surrounding a pasture and within moments we were enjoying the privilege of “right of way” Reality reared its ugly head all too soon as we found no path on the other side of the wall. Out came the map and the compass and back to orienteering. The last few years we have walked trails or had guides as we hiked so it took a few minutes to get back into the swing, but we soon established a heading and off we went. We crossed numerous pastures and fields and had a standoff with a large cow but forty five minutes or so later we reached our first waypoint which was a house and barn only missing it by about 100 yards. (a waypoint is an intermediate destination when you are navigating toward a final destination) We changed directions and started off again and within ten or fifteen minutes we came to a large pasture that contained several hundred sheep. Not wanting to stampede the herd we detoured to a more open area and around the large pasture. This took us across land that was boggy and harder to walk on but there was no livestock to deal with. We were heading toward a wood that appeared to be close to our next waypoint but my rusty orienteering skills failed us and we ended up missing the next mark by several hundred yards. When we did reach the waypoint we had a country lane to lead us back to Hesket Newmarket. The walk had been about two and a half hours but hopefully gave us a little practice as we expect the walking in Scotland to be a little more on the wild side.
We drove to Keswick after cleaning up and saying good-bye to Christine and took advantage of a laundry-matt in town and did some internet work followed by a pub lunch. We are becoming quite fond of pub food and we continue to be surprised by the variety. It’s not just “bar food’ as we Americans would think of it.
We left Keswick (by the way the w is silent) and drove the 60 miles to Bush Nook a B&B about 20 miles east of Carlisle. We met Paul and Judith, who are our hosts and a lovely couple and settled in for a four night stay. Woo-hoo! We came to Bush Nook because it is located about a mile from Hadrian’s Wall. This is another one from my long time list and we will hike a section or two of the wall as well as touring a couple of the Roman Forts and visiting the nearby Roman Army Museum. More tomorrow on Hadrian’s Wall.
We went down for Christine’s BreakFest at 8 AM and got 100% of her attention since we were the only guest last night. We decided we were going to take a little walk after breakfast and we would walk from the farm so we asked her for her advice on which path to take.
In England they have what is called ”right of way” which allows individuals to cross private land marked as having public footpaths (walkers only) or bridleways (also includes horses and bicyclist) as long as they stay to the route. This allows millions of British people to don their boots and get a little fresh air and exercise every weekend. Unlike Scandinavia the British access law does not allow camping on private lands without permission. New legislation now allows walkers to leave the “right of way” in some open areas such as mountains or moors and wander about. With most land being privately owned, including national park land, “right of way” is a big part of access to the outdoors in England.
After our briefing by Christine, Holly and I walked into Hesket Newmarket found the “Public Footpath” sign where it pointed the way across the stonewall surrounding a pasture and within moments we were enjoying the privilege of “right of way” Reality reared its ugly head all too soon as we found no path on the other side of the wall. Out came the map and the compass and back to orienteering. The last few years we have walked trails or had guides as we hiked so it took a few minutes to get back into the swing, but we soon established a heading and off we went. We crossed numerous pastures and fields and had a standoff with a large cow but forty five minutes or so later we reached our first waypoint which was a house and barn only missing it by about 100 yards. (a waypoint is an intermediate destination when you are navigating toward a final destination) We changed directions and started off again and within ten or fifteen minutes we came to a large pasture that contained several hundred sheep. Not wanting to stampede the herd we detoured to a more open area and around the large pasture. This took us across land that was boggy and harder to walk on but there was no livestock to deal with. We were heading toward a wood that appeared to be close to our next waypoint but my rusty orienteering skills failed us and we ended up missing the next mark by several hundred yards. When we did reach the waypoint we had a country lane to lead us back to Hesket Newmarket. The walk had been about two and a half hours but hopefully gave us a little practice as we expect the walking in Scotland to be a little more on the wild side.
We drove to Keswick after cleaning up and saying good-bye to Christine and took advantage of a laundry-matt in town and did some internet work followed by a pub lunch. We are becoming quite fond of pub food and we continue to be surprised by the variety. It’s not just “bar food’ as we Americans would think of it.
We left Keswick (by the way the w is silent) and drove the 60 miles to Bush Nook a B&B about 20 miles east of Carlisle. We met Paul and Judith, who are our hosts and a lovely couple and settled in for a four night stay. Woo-hoo! We came to Bush Nook because it is located about a mile from Hadrian’s Wall. This is another one from my long time list and we will hike a section or two of the wall as well as touring a couple of the Roman Forts and visiting the nearby Roman Army Museum. More tomorrow on Hadrian’s Wall.
posted by Gary and Holly Davis @ 11:24 AM
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