Restless feet but happy memories

I am fortunate enough to be spending a week in my favourite place with my family. We’ve been busy but I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on my Coast to Coast experience and it never fails to bring a smile to my lips. 

I have flashbacks to special moments such as sharing Inge’s Dutch hot chocolate on the walk into Patterdale or discussing Zan’s wedding plans whilst clambering along the path beside Haweswater or crossing Old Gang Beck on makeshift stepping stones with Liz to find the perfect spot to eat lunch or discovering Mark huddled in his bivvy bag above Grisedale Tarn or hearing all about Brian’s family as we gazed out across the Moors towards his hometown of Middlesbrough or tucking into a tasty home-cooked dinner with a whole gang of Coast to Coasters at New Ing Lodge.

More often than not, each of these memories (and many more) plays out against a spectacular backdrop and is accompanied by the sensation of the sun on my skin or the wind in my hair, as well as the odd twinge in my knees!

It hasn’t escaped me that most of these highlights involve either my old friends or new but there were also times alone with only the sheep for company which were just as evocative and contributed as much to the overall experience.

I am enjoying messing about on the beach with my nieces and having lots of tea and cake but I did catch myself gazing rather longingly at the Cheviots earlier today and found myself buying a book in the Alnwick Castle shop about St. Cuthbert’s Way, a 60-mile walk in border country which I’ve wanted to do for while.

Marie asked me if I’d experienced any great epiphanies during my walk.

I suppose walking, especially alone, does give you plenty of time to think but I’ve learned that the most wonderful thing about it is that it also gives you the space not to think. Just to be. 

So, I’m not sure that it counts as an epiphany but this walk did confirm how much I enjoy being outdoors and having the chance to breathe. So I plan to do more of it and working a 9-day fortnight will get me off to a good start. 

I’m sure it won’t be very long before my boots are back on again.


“If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.” - Anatole France 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Post watershed

Day 7 and, after a hug and a point in the right direction from Mark, I was on my way again - this time solo. This must have been exactly how Christopher Columbus felt when he set out to discover new worlds! I wonder if it was raining quite as much on him.  Dressing for a long walk when the forecast for the day is mixed is no mean feat and it’s probably no bad thing that no one else had to see me as I stripped off my wet weather gear later in the day only to find that you could still wring me out underneath it all! The big focus for today’s walk was to reach the Nine Standards Rigg which marks the point at which you cross the watershed of England and any rain that falls drains eastward to the North Sea instead of westward to the Irish Sea. Fortunately, I could just about make out the nine giant cairns through the mist but, as far as I could tell, the rain was still going nowhere other than running down my face and dripping off the end of my nose!  I struggled...
Read more

The ocean at the end of the lane

The three or four people reading this blog already know that I successfully completed the Coast to Coast Walk yesterday afternoon at around 1:40pm. Either because they were there to cheer me in and buy me the obligatory pint (thanks Mum and Dad) or because they have since been sent copious amounts of photo evidence. I dipped my boots in the North Sea, which must have added an extra 200 yards to my walk as the tide was fully out, and made a wish as I cast our pebbles carried from St. Bee’s beach into the water. How do I feel now that I’ve done it? I think it’s too soon to say. Perhaps more on that in a day or two. As Terry Marsh, the writer of the excellent guide that has accompanied me on this journey puts it: “success, in the final analysis, is a very personal thing. Few people will know of your triumph and most of those will think you are mad.” He also says, “There will have been bad days, almost certainly, when spirits were low, or feet and shoulders ached, or the p...
Read more

Lightning strikes

I spoke too soon about the brilliance of my friend rota. My friends, of course, remain brilliant but the rota is in tatters. A few bolts of lightning struck the East Coast mainline during Thursday night’s storm and the kind of transport chaos that only the UK specialises in predictably ensued. Poor Dan spent several hours at King Cross trying to move north but to no avail. So, I will be doing the last 6 days (instead of 5) on my own. But every (storm) cloud has a silver lining and the delays and cancellations also disrupted Liz’s journey home to Newcastle  meaning that we could spend more of my day off together. We walked the castle walls, ate ice cream down by the river and drank coffee on the market square. We also had the perfect start to the day visiting the stunning Millgate House garden. We were the only ones there and the overnight downpour had left everything smelling fresh and sparkling with raindrops.  Having seen Liz off on the bus back to Darlington, t...
Read more