These Boots Are Made For Walking

In my determination to a) get myself a bit fitter and b) make the most of the recent (and probably short lived) sunshine, I have enjoyed two good longish walks in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside within the past seven days. I have mentioned my passion for walking in previous blogs so you will understand that this was an opportunity not to be missed. Those of you that are familiar with Cumbria will know it to be particularly popular for the beautiful area known as the Lake District. The scenery there is quite stunning and it happens to be one of my favourite places in the world.  While both walks did not take us into the heart of the Lake District, we were definitely in sight of the magnificent northern fells.

On the first walk we began in the city of Carlisle and walked 15.5 miles to the picturesque village of Caldbeck. The sun shone and we enjoyed the very pleasant scenery around us. In the village of Dalston we paused for lunch and as one of our party was celebrating a birthday, a few bottles of wine and a chocolate cake mysteriously appeared from various rucksacks. Very civilised, but how do I possibly explain to others that I can walk for 15.5 miles and still put on weight? The waistline was not helped at all by the two pints of Cumberland Ale in The Oddfellow's Arms in Caldbeck to celebrate our achievement of completing the walk.

My aching feet had hardly recovered from those exertions when I agreed to walk almost 13 miles a few days later. This time our finishing point was in the town of Brampton and our walk took us alongside many sections of the Roman Wall..

In case you are not aware, the Roman Wall, better known as Hadrian's Wall was built as a fortification in AD122 during the rule of Emperor Hadrian. The wall begins on the west coast in Cumbria and ends in the appropriately named town of Wallsend in what used to be Northumberland but is now North Tyneside. As I live not too far from Wallsend, I am familiar with the sections of Hadrian's Wall in the Northumberland countryside. This Cumbrian walk however brought me close to sections of the wall with which I was less familiar. We paused for refreshment at the remains of Poltross Burn Milecastle and later in our walk passed by Birdoswald Roman Camp. Strategically placed information signs advise visitors about the history of these locations. You can't say that our walks are not educational.

As we were passing one field we came across two sheep in some distress at a covered feeding trough. It became clear that they had succeeded in putting their heads between the same set of bars and had become stuck. Two of our group climbed the fence and amused us with their attempts to free the struggling animals. Obviously this led to a number of comments from us spectators but they are far too rude to repeat here! Anyway the sheep were freed and we carried on our way towards another rewarding pint.

Rumour has it that we are off to North Yorkshire for our next outing in a few days time. That is as long as I have cleaned all the mud off my boots.