@Eutychus posted back in March that a return to the Longstone on Exmoor (UK) is on his bucket list. We are staying on Exmoor, and I have just spent a glorious day in the hills visiting Chains Barrow, Pinkery Pond, Wood Barrow, Longstone Barrow and the Longstone itself. As Eutychus said, it really is a remote setting (for England) in the middle of quite a boggy area - glad it has been fairly dry recently as it would have been a bit of a slog after prolonged rain.
With Holy Week's emphasis on liturgy and the word, it was great to spend a few hours alone enjoying God's creation - what "Celtic Christianity" sometimes calls the “Big Book” (the “Little Book” being Holy Scripture).
@Eutychus posted back in March that a return to the Longstone on Exmoor (UK) is on his bucket list. We are staying on Exmoor, and I have just spent a glorious day in the hills visiting Chains Barrow, Pinkery Pond, Wood Barrow, Longstone Barrow and the Longstone itself. As Eutychus said, it really is a remote setting (for England) in the middle of quite a boggy area - glad it has been fairly dry recently as it would have been a bit of a slog after prolonged rain.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, but gutted that I'm going to be within just a few miles of the place in a few days' time and apparently without the time to cross that particular item off my list.
Thanks for that Climacus. I had been told that the rings recorded years when there was strong or weak growth, but I had not thought about looking at them to see if there was evidence of climate change. Also the effects of climate on civilisation (like the fall of the Ming Dynasty) was totally beyond anything I could have even suspected.
I realise in theory that things are interconnected, but I found this outworking of that mind blowing.
Being a Bear of Very Little Brain can be exciting as there is so much to learn and stuff like this enhances my sense of wonder.
Bempton is lovely, I am planning to spend a couple of days birdwatching at Bempton, Flamborough and Spurn Head in the next few weeks. Puffins should be about by now.
This weekend though I am heading to Dovedale with a borrowed brace of hounds - wilderness (sort of), water and an ice cream van are all we require of life.
Offa's Dyke Path for many reasons, not least it passes close/ very close to several friends and relatives so I can have a bed for the night and company for part of the day.
Last summer I had hoped to walk from coast-to-coast along Hadrian's Wall Path but I got diverted by other things so that is still on the wish-list.
The Devil's Punchbowl at Hindhead is lovely, especially as the A3 was rerouted underground a few years ago. And nearby are a couple of good-sized Giant Sequoias (for GB) I like to go and pat.
Just back from a long weekend on the Gower in South Wales with the Journeying organisation, walking in the spirit of pilgrimage. Based at Nicholaston House Retreat Centre, our day long walks across beaches, woodland, dunes, pasture, moorland and out to a tidal island visited places connected with the Celtic saints. Three days of good scenery, exercise, food, conversation and spirituality; all with a great group of people. Refreshed, and ready to face the would again!
Glad you enjoyed being with Journeying. It is years since I went on one of their holidays. I ever so often play with the idea.
Today I got walked myself out of Sheffield, so my walking season for 2019 has started. I now need to contact a friend and arrange a date for the next walk, ideally on the next bank holiday but we will see.
I started with a walk along Manawatū Gorge^, Te Apiti, and I may be back soon. I got a message telling me there are glow worms along this shorter track, and with winter approaching here the shorter days may mean early evening is a good time to take a look.
^ to quote its uniqueness from Wikipedia: "the Manawatū River is a water gap, that is it runs directly through the surrounding ranges from one side to the other. This was caused by the ranges moving upwards at the same time as the gorge was eroded by the river, instead of the more usual erosion of an already existing range.
The Manawatū River is the only river in New Zealand that starts its journey on one side of the main divide and finishes it on the other side."
...We’ll be doing about 12 miles a day - but at a good pace, there are six of us and the other five are much fitter than me.
Just see it like this: you do a 6 mile walk in the morning and it's easy and you enjoy it so much you might as well go and do another 6 mile walk in the afternoon.
I'm in Andalucia on a walking holiday at the moment. Three very different walks so far, all in beautiful countryside with the added enjoyment of a nice bar at the end of the walk. Only downside being I can't appear to be able to walk and talk at the same time as I tripped over a rock yesterday and ended up with a grazed head. No lasting damage but annoyed with my lack of ability to walk on uneven surfaces.
Andalusia is rather lovely, lots of olive groves, holmoak, wild flowers and an amazing amount of large birds. We did the caminito del rey yesterday. It used to be called the most dangerous walk in the world as it clung to a rock face down a gorge. Now all board walks and hard hats but still spectacular. Today we walked up into the hills for lunch at a panoramic bar, and I managed to fall over agin on the way down. No I hadn't had any alcohol, just a poor sense of balance and dodgy ankles . Today's injury was scraped knees!
This year marks Liechtenstein’s 300-year anniversary, and it is using its tricentennial to reintroduce itself to the world. As part of its yearlong festivities, the principality created a 46.6-mile trail traversing the country, crisscrossing through all 11 of its towns — count ‘em, 11 — partly on village roads but mostly on twisting and mountainous trails.
Andalusia is rather lovely, lots of olive groves, holmoak, wild flowers and an amazing amount of large birds. We did the caminito del rey yesterday. It used to be called the most dangerous walk in the world as it clung to a rock face down a gorge. Now all board walks and hard hats but still spectacular. Today we walked up into the hills for lunch at a panoramic bar, and I managed to fall over agin on the way down. No I hadn't had any alcohol, just a poor sense of balance and dodgy ankles . Today's injury was scraped knees!
Hope there was no lasting damage. I’ve taken spills a couple times of late. The cause was misjudging if I was stepping high enough to clear unevenness on the trail. Fortunately rolling out of a spill is deeply ingrained and still paying dividends.
We mostly do day hikes locally in the San Francisco Bay Area now. Camping is out as sleeping is challenging enough under the best circumstances. But we got in a good number of nice hikes sc eh oss the states before that became a problem.
A few years ago, before I met him, my partner did all the Wainwright summits in the Lake District (214 of them) in one calendar year. Since then, we have set ourselves the target of doing all the outlying fells (114 if I remember correctly) - we hope to complete the task this summer.
An update ... Well we did it! Beginning of last month we completed our final walks in the Wainwright's Outlying Fells book - several fairly long (for us) walks of around 10-12 miles in the lovely and often overlooked eastern side of the Lake District. It's an area the tourists usualy ignore, with generally only one single track lane in and out of each dale. Longsleddale, Bannisdale, Crookdale and the eastern Wasdale and Borrowdale. We walked every day and never saw another soul!
So on to next year and we hope to tackle some of the biggies ... Scafell, Skiddaw and Coniston Old Man hopefully, and some of the smaller jewels like Helm Crag and Catbells. Don't you just love the ancient names of these fells?
A couple of weeks ago husband and I did Aylesford to Canterbury , the last bit of the Pilgrim's Way. It was lovely, both scenery and the weather. Despite more or less constant light rain being forecast we only got wet twice and one of those was the last couple of miles into where it didn't really matter. We took four days, so no really long walks, though several were longer than they should have been due to our dire map reading skills!
And I didn't fall over once. One it was very easy walking and two I've been trying to get my ankles to move a little more flexibly and it may be working. We are keen on doing more next year, maybe taking a week or two over it.
BTW being a 'pilgrim' meant we got into Canterbury Cathedral free.
Comments
With Holy Week's emphasis on liturgy and the word, it was great to spend a few hours alone enjoying God's creation - what "Celtic Christianity" sometimes calls the “Big Book” (the “Little Book” being Holy Scripture).
An article for you if, like me, you only really thought tree rings told age.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, but gutted that I'm going to be within just a few miles of the place in a few days' time and apparently without the time to cross that particular item off my list.
I realise in theory that things are interconnected, but I found this outworking of that mind blowing.
Being a Bear of Very Little Brain can be exciting as there is so much to learn and stuff like this enhances my sense of wonder.
This weekend though I am heading to Dovedale with a borrowed brace of hounds - wilderness (sort of), water and an ice cream van are all we require of life.
Last summer I had hoped to walk from coast-to-coast along Hadrian's Wall Path but I got diverted by other things so that is still on the wish-list.
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Today I got walked myself out of Sheffield, so my walking season for 2019 has started. I now need to contact a friend and arrange a date for the next walk, ideally on the next bank holiday but we will see.
^ to quote its uniqueness from Wikipedia: "the Manawatū River is a water gap, that is it runs directly through the surrounding ranges from one side to the other. This was caused by the ranges moving upwards at the same time as the gorge was eroded by the river, instead of the more usual erosion of an already existing range.
The Manawatū River is the only river in New Zealand that starts its journey on one side of the main divide and finishes it on the other side."
If only you looked after Huskies instead than guide dogs...
Haha, yes!
We’ll be doing about 12 miles a day - but at a good pace, there are six of us and the other five are much fitter than me.
Rinse and repeat!
Sounds wonderful. Walks and the bar! What is the Andalusian countryside like?
Thank you for sharing; it sounds absolutely amazing.
Hope there was no lasting damage. I’ve taken spills a couple times of late. The cause was misjudging if I was stepping high enough to clear unevenness on the trail. Fortunately rolling out of a spill is deeply ingrained and still paying dividends.
We mostly do day hikes locally in the San Francisco Bay Area now. Camping is out as sleeping is challenging enough under the best circumstances. But we got in a good number of nice hikes sc eh oss the states before that became a problem.
An update ... Well we did it! Beginning of last month we completed our final walks in the Wainwright's Outlying Fells book - several fairly long (for us) walks of around 10-12 miles in the lovely and often overlooked eastern side of the Lake District. It's an area the tourists usualy ignore, with generally only one single track lane in and out of each dale. Longsleddale, Bannisdale, Crookdale and the eastern Wasdale and Borrowdale. We walked every day and never saw another soul!
So on to next year and we hope to tackle some of the biggies ... Scafell, Skiddaw and Coniston Old Man hopefully, and some of the smaller jewels like Helm Crag and Catbells. Don't you just love the ancient names of these fells?
I took a (no damage) tumble the other day when I was too busy watching a bird and not my step on a steep hill. The joys of getting older.
And I didn't fall over once. One it was very easy walking and two I've been trying to get my ankles to move a little more flexibly and it may be working. We are keen on doing more next year, maybe taking a week or two over it.
BTW being a 'pilgrim' meant we got into Canterbury Cathedral free.
More gorgeous Lakeland fell names:
Helvellyn, Glaramara, Blencathra, Dollywaggon Pike, Crinkle Crags, Haystacks, Steeple,
Bakestall, Bleaberry Fell, Fairfield, Saint Sunday Crag ... and of course never forgetting ...
Great Cockup