Welcome back to #AdventureCalling, the linky with an outdoor theme, co hosted by Lauren from The Helpful Hiker, and me. Last time, Lauren was hoping for some sunny weather for her camping trips after a bout of rain. This weekend has been glorious – hope everyone managed to make the most of the sunshine. I’m currently hobbling about after shuffling round a 23k Lakeland Trails race on Saturday. But it was so worth it!
Welcome to #AdventureCalling, the linky with an outdoor theme, co hosted by Lauren from The Helpful Hiker, and me, also Lauren, from Exploring the Landscape. I’m really excited to be joining Lauren with this. I’ve been linking up with #AdventureCalling as often as I can for a while now, and have got some really good ideas from reading everybody’s posts, including our honeymoon in Arran last year. But before we move on, all the best to David at Potty Adventures – good luck with your new adventures. Continue reading
Most of my previous walking has been done in the Lake District. When I open the OS map to plan a walk, it is criss-crossed with green and black dashed lines indicating footpaths and right of ways. This was not the case when I opened a map of Arran. Contours and streams were there, and lots of other symbols, lines and colours that make maps so brilliant to look at – but not too many footpaths. I guess the Scottish Outdoor Access Code means that much of the landscape is one big right of way (within reason). But it came as a bit of a shock when I was trying to plan a day in the hills for us. After consulting my guide book, I decided that Coire Fhionn Lochan would be the walk for us.
After listening to me harping on about walking in the Lakes, my friend Beth decided she would like to go hill walking. As it would be her first walk, we wanted something with not too many miles, but at the same time, managing to satisfy Beth’s motto of “go big or go home”. The Langdale Pikes with their stunning scenery and little bits of scrambling opportunity were hopefully, going to be the perfect walk. So, joined by Angela, we set off early one Saturday morning in July.
During my first navigation course with Chris from Walking the Wild earlier this year, I didn’t just find out about all things map reading. I also walked to the summit of a lovely little, heather clad fell rising above Stonethwaite Beck – Great Crag.
Earlier this year, we made a last minute decision to visit Sale Water Park for the City of Trees Go Wild event. City of Trees are a movement aiming to restore Greater Manchester’s woodlands and generally make Manchester greener through planting trees, and their Go Wild event was aimed at getting kids outside.
Earlier this year, whilst Rowan was off gallivanting with his Anma and Grandpa, Rick and I decided to go for a big walk. Rick had always fancied climbing Helvellyn, preferably by the edges, but we were taking Rocky and Pebble with us. A few years back, during a walk by a local canal, they had both fallen in, so Striding Edge was deemed to be just n0t suitable for our giddy furry pair. Instead, we decided walk the Helvellyn range, south to north for a brilliant high level walk.
Lying just off the A591 between Ambleside and Grasmere, Loughrigg Fell is one of the Wainwrights I had been looking forward to climbing with Rowan for a long time. It’s a busy little fell though, so we waited till mid-week in a school holiday to make a day trip for a mountain adventure.
Running up to getting married in Coniston earlier this year, we were up in the Lakes for meetings with the hotel on several occasions. After one, much shorter than expected, visit to the venue, we found ourselves with some free time but no walking gear to venture onto the fells with. We decided to make our way to Grasmere to visit Allan Bank, former home to William Wordsworth and Canon Rawnsley (one of the founders of the National Trust)
Around nine months after first walking the Kentmere Round, I found myself back in the South Lakes ready to walk those hills again. This time, I was with Sarah and her gorgeous rescue staffie, Chester, a.k.a. Chester the Adventure Dog. On my first wander over the Kentmere Round, Kathryn and I added in High Street (the route of which you can read in more detail here). Today, we would follow more or less the same paths, except instead of High Street, we would add on Gray Crag instead.
Exploring the Landscape 