We’d arrived up at Mum and Dad’s here in the Lake District on Sunday. Pete arrived before us and we’d both been able to avoid the majority of nasty traffic and the really foul weather.
We had planned for me and Pete to do our big walk on Monday but the weather forecast was horrendous, guaranteeing 100% rain all day in Ulverston. Also the threat of some nasty blustery wind. So my plan to climb Helm Crag near Grasmere had to go on hold. Instead I drove my Dad to the dentists in Barrow and then went shopping with Jane to Booths, the local supermarket for the last minute emergency items (sprouts, beer, bread sauce, pork pies of different sizes etc).
The rain really started to come down when I was with Dad and even just filling my car with petrol, I got absolutely soaked. It was blowing a gale with rain sheeting horizontally across the forecourt. Naturally, when I’d done my chores I wanted more of this wild weather and persuaded Pete that we needed to go out. Especially so I could keep up my record of at least one walk per week this year. It was already by now quite late and so we couldn’t go far. I decided that we should climb The Hoad. This is a 450ft hill and has a famous monument on the top that you see as you enter Ulverston, where Mum and Dad have lived for the last 23 years. I’ve never actually climbed up the steep hill to the tower and so now was my chance. We drove down to the car park below the Hoad and walked past the cafe and little kitchen garden. Surprisingly, we were not the only mad dogs out today. The lighthouse looking thing at the top is in fact a monument to Sir John Barrow. Not to be confused with John Barrowman, this fellow was a son of Ulverston born in 1764 and he was a naval administrator and explorer. Of course, the other famous son of Ulverston is Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame. He has his own more modest monument near the Coronation Hall.
The path spirals up to the top and was rather steep but Pete kept the pace up keen not to finish in the dark. It kept threatening rain but for the most part it stayed away and we made it up to the top quite quickly. It was really windy up here and after a quick turn around the ‘lighthouse’ admiring the views over the town, the Glaxo factory by the sea and the Lakeland fells, we came back down.
When we got back I hadn’t really had enough so we went with Dad down to Bardsea beach and had a short walk along there too. It was going dark by now and we could hear the sounds of the oyster catchers and other unidentifiable birds on the shore. We enjoyed reading the sign that threatened all sorts of danger on this path especially as we’d arrived in the dark! Quite lucky then to get back to the car in one piece.
I was kind of glad in the end that we hadn’t gone for our big walk today. It really was a bit blowy but it was nice to get some fresh air. Pete and I did get to do our big walk on Christmas Eve but I will write about that separately. However, we did also have one more outing on Boxing Day when we all went to visit Cartmel village, home to Sticky Toffee pudding. Even Mum and Jane joined us here.
Although none of these little outings involved walking much distance, I’ve included them here as a bonus. That’s because, although I’ve been focused on completing numbers of walks this year, the best thing about all this has been spending time with friends and family, no matter how far we walk. And for me, that’s what Christmas is all about. Bonus!
Walky Talky 