UKY Ramblers

This thread is dedicated to Tin, who asked me to restart the old one...except it was 'Country Rambling 2008', so a bit out of date!  I kind of left off the old thread because I was recovering from a knee injury and so wasn't walking much, and also it got to where I was talking to myself more on it than anything else - so here's hoping there are some other ramblers out there now! 

I still mean to do an entry for 'Just Do It' on country rambling (hiking) in the UK, sometime.  I have a horrible confession to make though in that I am hopeless at reading Ordinance Survey (O/S) maps and that is always Steve's job! 

We went for a lovely walk last weekend in Hackfall Wood, near Ripon in North Yorkshire.  A couple of Steve's photos from that walk:







We are thinking about training for another long distance walk next year.  We have discovered another easier (less physically challenging apart from the distance factor) walk that I didn't really know about before - the Yorkshire Wolds Way.  So we may try that.  It's apparently one of the quieter, less walked trails.

Awesome photos! 

Those photos are beautiful!

Is it easy to find local walking paths/trails? Are there good websites for that? I'd love to start doing that after the move.

Thanks for the compliments on the photos - hubby did them, not me (it's his hobby). 

Getting that dragonfly was hard and he still didn't capture it the way he would have liked.  It kept teasing us - coming near until he had the camera set up with the right lens (again and again and again) & then when he was ready to shoot, it would flit away (again and again and again).  Mischievous little thing! 

Is it easy to find local walking paths/trails? Are there good websites for that? I'd love to start doing that after the move.

Yes!  There are websites, but I'd sooner recommend getting a book of local walks if you're starting out.  The AA (Automobile Association) has good books available for this, as well as the Pathfinder Guides are also good.  You can get these from amazon.co.uk, Borders, local walking shops, etc.  However, a good Ordinance Survey map is often indispensable as well - to accompany the book you have.  I really ought to get on my 'Just Do It' topic because I don't think new folks often realise just how fabulous the UK is for footpaths & hiking! 

Hope some other walkers will chime in!

Just another fan of the photos. Your husband has a talent!

lisa

I've been waiting all week to post about our walk last Sunday! 

We went out with persephone & her hubby for a 6-mile walk in the countryside north of York.  The walk itself was quite easy - very flat & undemanding, upon request of our company...unfortunately, this also meant we looked at a lot of fairly uninspiring, flat farmland.  We also ran into bits of the walk where landowners have blocked public rights of way.    I recently read on the Ramblers website that North Yorkshire is the worst county for that, btw.  Hey ho - it just means we have to climb over their gates if they have clamped them shut on a public footpath access route. 

We started with a pub lunch, and we saw this:



(pic from a visit yorkshire website)  That is Sheriff Hutton Castle.  It's on private land, however, with no public rights of way right up to the castle so you can't get very close to it. 

And we looked for some ruins of an abandoned medieval village, but no joy - as that was the part of the walk where the landowner has diverted or rerouted things.  Boo!

Steve hasn't done his pics yet (busy week at ours).  I think persephone has done some though, so maybe she will happen along & share hers. 

YAY!  Thanks for the thread Mrs. R! 

How is your knee doing now?  My knees keep popping.  Whenever I go up or down the stairs in our house it's pop, pop, pop, on each step.  I'm hoping it's from running (which I would give up in a heartbeat...indeed I already have) and not from walking.

How is your knee doing now? 

Well it took more than a year to fully heal - until it didn't feel bruised any longer.  My GP said that is because I bruised it hard down into the bone and the surrounding soft tissue and that (bone bruising) apparently takes what seems like forever to heal.  I still have a small numb spot right at the skin surface which will probably always be with me (nerve damage), and I can't really spend much time kneeling on that knee or it will start to hurt.  It also plays up once in awhile - occasionally being painful or awkward, but for the most part, it's doing okay or as good as it's going to get.  I don't think falling on it again would be a very good thing, so I am even more careful now than ever.  I'm sure getting some more weight off would be good for the knee though.  Thanks for asking!   

Wow Mrs R, over a year to heal. Take care of that knee!

What a wonderful Indian Summer we've had for walking where I live.  Lots of good rambles and very little else accomplished.

We went for our usual two(ish) mile walk on the common last week and when we got to the beloved ice cream factory it was shut.  Summer is over.  Nevermind, it just means we'll have to get up there earlier in the day when it's still open!

Thanks Tin for looking after the thread!  

I think Indian Summer is over here!  Brrrrrr!  I'm freezing after spending two weeks in Spain with 30C+/- degree days.  

We didn't do any mountain walking this time whilst there - just lots & lots of city walking, sightseeing, etc.  My feet were so blistery & hurty & swollen after so much nonstop city walking (and booze and jamón ibérico and manchego  ), I couldn't wear the pretty 'going out' shoes I bought for the trip.    Fortunately, I had comfy sandals & flats to wear for going out instead.  

We flew into/out of Malaga from Leeds-Bradford.  Spent one night in Malaga, three nights in Cadiz, two nights in Jerez, six nights in Seville, and two nights in Ronda - then home again.

So guess it's time for autumnal walks, huh?  Just in two weeks, I can't believe how many more leaves are on the ground, trees barer, etc etc.    It snuck up on me while we were away.

Good to have you back Mrs. Robinson!

I just wanted to put in a plug here for one of my usual walking paths, The Cotswold Way.  This summer they started coming up with a series of circular walks along the trail (well many of them already existed but they weren't marked as such) so that it can be done in pieces.

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/Cotswold/

If you look on the site's "Latest News" bit you can see that the Cotswold Way is soon going to appear on BBC Country Tracks.  Someday I'd like to do the whole trail in one go so I can get the badge. 

If you look on the site's "Latest News" bit you can see that the Cotswold Way is soon going to appear on BBC Country Tracks.  Someday I'd like to do the whole trail in one go so I can get the badge. 

Go and do it!  You can make a week's holiday (or more) out of it!  We've done two long distance trails (I think you already knew) and we have looked at that one before.  I think we are going to do the Yorkshire Wolds one next summer though.  I don't think it will be as dramatic or scenic as the Dales Way and the Cumbria Way were, but hoping it'll be a bit easier (than Cumbria) and drier (than the Dales Way) experience and get me back into the swing of doing that. 

If you look on the site's "Latest News" bit you can see that the Cotswold Way is soon going to appear on BBC Country Tracks.

This is off topic, but when I looked at the picture they have of filming I had a little surprise.  It was a moment of instant happy recognition.  Not "what a pretty view" or "I recognize that view" as it once would have been, but a feeling of ownership as in "that's my view", "my Sunday afternoon", "my town", "my home".  I don't know when the shift happened, but it did. 

Oh I'm jealous - I want to see your town! 

When I saved this copy of the Weekend section of the Times in December the title was Walking? It's the new rock'n'roll!!    They have it set up slightly differently online but it's Alex James, Johnny Borrell, Pearl Lowe, and Peter Hook talking about walking.  Also 20 "Christmas Walks" (really just winter walks - nothing particularly Christmassy about them) which are supposed to be good to do with or without children.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sitesearch.do?query=The+Times+Christmas+Walks&x=0&y=0&turnOffGoogleAds=false&hitsperpage=10&jumpToPrevious=0&mode=SIMPLE&nextOffset=0&offset=0&leftStartIndex=1&leftEndIndex=10&submitStatus=searchFormSubmitted&sectionId=674