Country Rambling / Hill Walking 2008

Glad your ramble turned out so well Mrs. Robinson!  We love the Lake district too!

Sorry about the blisters. And the buzzard attack?! 

It would be great to see a picture on here!  But how would you choose?

Oh yeah!  He finished the pictures some time ago - 

Here they are:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/unclebucko/sets/72157605629199085/

This was the buzzard that attacked us:



Who also attacked these people about one week earlier than us:

http://phreerunner.blogspot.com/2008/06/friday-6-june-2008-whoosh-friendly-bb.html

(our experience was pretty much the same as they described - same place)

And also attacked at least one other fellow we know of, in early July, after our walk!

Oh what an absurdly beautiful walk Mrs. Robinson!!  I'm incredibly envious.  You were very lucky with the weather too.

Loved the photo of your knee.   It doesn't look too bad, but real knee injuries don't show do they?  I'm sorry.  That must have put a damper on the rest of the walk.

How strange that several groups have been attacked by that buzzard?

Loved the photo of your knee.   It doesn't look too bad, but real knee injuries don't show do they?  I'm sorry.  That must have put a damper on the rest of the walk.

Yeah, the photo was taken right after it happened - once we had tweezed the gravel out of the cuts, wiped it down with wet wipes, applied Neosporin & Bandaids.  (My husband at the beginning of the walk when I was loading up our daypacks: 'Why are we taking all this crap?!!!' )  The knee had already started to blow up (swollen and puffy and numb) but the facing photograph doesn't really show that.  And the full deep purple flower of the bruise (which encompassed my entire kneecap and then some) had yet to develop.  Luckily, I had loads of ibuprofen and a bit of co-dydramol, which helped see me through the walk - plus Steve carried both our daypacks on the final three days because it was getting to be really hard going for me by then.

As A&E told me, I should have stopped the walk when it happened...but like you say, the weather was absolutely perfect (compared to our Dales Way walk last year!) and we had been planning it for so long - I didn't have the heart to stop as long as I could keep walking, but it was definitely hard.

I am mostly recovered now - although I still have a small, slightly sore knot on my knee that is numb on the surface of the skin (apparent nerve damage).  Hopefully, all the feeling will come back eventually, but I'm told nerves regrow really slowly.

Well I think my knee has finally mostly mended!  When I was at the doc in late August (3 months after I first injured it) - I asked him why it still felt a little sore.  He said that I had probably bruised it right down into the bone, which is why it was taking so long to feel 100% better.  It will probably never be 100% because it seems like I might have a little bit of permanent nerve damage - with a numb spot still.  As I said before, nerves take (I'm told) a long time to regrow and the doctor said that even then they don't always knit back together good as new.

But we were back at it today - doing this walk.  And a gorgeous day it was for it too! 

There are blackberries all over the place!

Feels like I'm starting over on the training however - with being down with the knee for so long.  I'm knackered after a 5.8 mile easy walk!  And to think I was doing 12 miles a day on a bad knee back in early June. 

Oh well.  It's nice to be back at it anyway.

That guy's website - The Walking Englishman is really a good one for walks.  I know he's got some walks posted for all over the place, but the site is pretty heavy on Yorkshire walks though (he lives here in my town & no I don't know him!). 

Thanks for the Walking Englishman link Mrs. Robinson.  Too bad he doesn't do more walks down my way.

We were out walking today in this wonderful weather too.  My husband and I walked and the kids rode their bikes, mostly on level path.  We only went about 7 miles but we're exhausted too!  Hopefully this fall will have more good days for walking than we had this summer.

I saved that link, thanks!  Glad your knee is almost all better and you are out hiking again.

We were out walking today in this wonderful weather too.  My husband and I walked and the kids rode their bikes, mostly on level path.  We only went about 7 miles but we're exhausted too!  Hopefully this fall will have more good days for walking than we had this summer.

I hope so too!  See, Tin, you're way ahead of me!  7 miles - impressive! 

This was yesterday's photo of the day!  (Steve took it.)



Stainburn is just a really tiny village (hamlet?) with an old 'redundant' church (no longer in use for worship).  The church yard is getting completely overgrown!  We had our picnic lunch there.  (Not really sure if Stainburn is in West or North Yorkshire, because it's kind of right there in the area where it could be either!)

Love that photo!

What a nice headstone, and I like that it's tipping over with plants growing up all around. Much nicer than tidy lawn. 

Anybody go on a good walk for Boxing Day? 

We walked up to Tyndale Monument and climbed the 121 steps of the monument. You can hear Vaughn Williams up there if you listen carefully.  On a bit of open ground my son tested out the baseball bat he got for Christmas with me pitching.  It's strange to me that he's never swung a bat or learned to play, and that he never will unless I teach him.  I was always rubbish at baseball and sports in general!   My daughter had a go at batting too and she liked it. We created a little piece of America up there.

We've done some beautiful walks lately.  I finally figured out how to put a photo as my avatar, so the picture I have was taken on the Cotswold Way footpath within walking distance of our house.  It's one of my favorite views.  If I ever work out how to put a photo on a thread I may include one on this thread sometime.