Lockdown Breakout

My 2nd week of summer holiday sees me on the near empty train to Leicester which I wouldn't (shouldn't) have been able to visit a week ago due it's extended lockdown. Bruce meets me at the station and we whizz away from downtown Leicester to the allegedly safer suburbs. We go for a walk around the wetlands feeding vicious swans and picking blackberries and then go for a cycle ride to Bradgate Park. Back home we see a sparrow hawk take a small bird about 12 feet from us (with a window between) and fly off. Not spotted the local puma which frequents the steam railway track. Wednesday sees us cycle to Loughborough to see the steam railway gap and lunch next to the carillion tower. After a pleasant cycle home we go for our wetland walk and have a drink outside the Earl of Stamford. Thursday and it' off to north Yorkshire and after a very pleasant lunch at a York container park we arrive at Mr Malcolm's Marvellous Wild Campsite which is not wild but is pretty basic. But not quite as basic as last week's site as we have showers here. Soon Ramsay and Jo arrive with my tent (thanks guys) having fled extended lockdown Leeds and we pitch up on a lovely flat bit of ground with amazing views out over the valley. We dine on BBQed sausages and then tell yarns around the communal fire. Friday is a scorcher and we head for Runswick Bay which Debbie saw mentioned as one of the best beaches in the UK and indeed it's a lovely place. Trouble is thousands of others think so too and we park in a farmers field that looks like Glastonbury car parking. Of course what with social distancing and walking a while along the beach we get to a relatively quiet spot where I can find a bit of shade and the others can bask in the sun. The water is damn cold but bearable - as the saying goes "it's lovely once you're in". It seems especially buoyant too and laying on my back just drifting I wonder if there's more salt in the water here than in Devon and Cornwall. Bruce and I go for a walk along the cliffs for an amazing view back along the bay (of course neither of us brought a camera or phone) and return past hikers with very sensible footwear commenting on our bare feet. As the afternoon draws to a close our chauffeur Bruce (thanks mate!) drives us into Whitby which is pretty crowded. We have a drink in the market square and then I get about 20 chips for £2.50 at the terrible bar and restaurant overlooking the harbour. By this time it's raining off and on and we are surrounded by a lightning storm which weirdly doesn't seem to be overhead. A perfect time to ascend "Dracula's Steps" to the ruined abbey which is especially atmospheric with the rumbles and flashes. Then home to bed. Saturday and I'm up early to a cloudless sky and I sit alone sipping tea watching hawks circle overhead. I then go for a walk through the wood a safe distance from any campers to practice my harmonica and on the way come face to face at 12 feet with a large owl. After about 30 seconds of us staring each other out I try to ease my camera from my pocket but he's photo shy and nonchalantly flies off. Having desecrated Dirty Old Town I wander back to see if anyone is up yet. We drive to Boggle Hole and walk along the cliffs to Robin Hood Bay then picnic on the beach. The water is possibly even colder today. It starts to rain a bit so we go into the village and have a pint before wandering back to the car. By this time I'm listening to the FA Cup Final and The Arsenal are 1 nil down to Chelsea which is turning my mood about the same colour as the sky. We go back to Whitby abbey as we spotted a micro brewery there. There are 3 likely looking characters in pirate hats at a table sporting bondage trousers and bum flaps. Young punk rockers. Of course we are drawn to each other and they end up sitting with us invalidating all the social distancing we've been practising over the last few days. Although from Sunderland one turns out to have a Spurs crest tattooed on his arm so of course wants The Arsenal to lose the final but we've equalised and soon enough score the winner. The last 10 minutes plus another 10 of added time I'm just listening intently on the phone but after an age I'm elated. The record number extended. Who cares if it's started raining? We leave the punks as we've exhausted discussions on bands and whether punk is dead or not (and this is over 30 years after that debate was first had) and with a last shout of a certain anti Spurs song directed at our new found and newly lost friends we go back to camp for another BBQ and interrupt a romantic couple by the fire. Sunday is sunny at first to dry the tents and after breakfasting and packing up it starts pouring just as we've packed the cars. We say our goodbyes to Ramsay and Jo at an acceptable distance and Bruce and I head back south over the moorlands. Bruce's team are meant to be playing at Thrumpton so we decide to lunch there but the covers are still on and we have to eat watching the grass grow. Evening we have our habitual walk to the wetlands rudely interrupted by having homophobic yells directed at us by the morons outside the Stamford so my silver won't be passing that bar again. On our way back the same blokes keep quiet so I guess they realise that we aren't intimidated by a few drunken yobs. More likely cos there's only 6 of them there than the original 12. These people are all cowards and only hunt in packs. Monday Bruce drives me to the station and on a slightly busier train I speed from the locked down north to the safety of London, but for how much longer? A fantastic few days away. Thanks fellow campers.

Put 1st so's it's the one picked up by links...

Swan action

Bradgate Park

Bradgate Park route

Loughborough station

Loughborough Gap - new bridge

Loughborough Gap

Loughborough route - got hilly on the way back

York picnic spot

The motor

View from my tent

Blissful easiness (note unused bikes)

Everyone else thought it was a good idea too...

A bit of space

Ready for the plunge

Back along the beach - clearing in the late afternoon

By Whitby Abbey during lightning storm

Album Cover

Whitby by night

Early morning walk

View from the tent - with old faithful pot bellied stove

Our little encampment

Shopping in the time of Covid

Robin Hoods Bay

Jim thoroughly enjoying himself in Robin Hoods Bay village pub (pre match nerves)

Me, scared of Dracula? It's the Covid Punks I'm more worried about...

... the Covid Punks (note tattoo)

Sensible Covid Bubble

You're getting a bit too close mate

Whitby Abbey

Thrumpton Cricket Pavillion

Thrumpton Cricket Club cancel due to Covid

Woods in the Wood

 Now that we are allowed to leave our local vicinity for the simple reason of keeping sane Debbie and I book three nights at a Kent camp site which is in a wood on the Pilgrims Way (North Downs Way). Tuesday traffic on the south circular is OK and within an hour we arrive at our pitch which is a big space and extremely socially distanced from anyone else. New tent erected in a jiffy we go for a walk through the woods and corn fields and then just chill out in the hammocks before a BBQ style evening meal and chatting around the camp fire wondering at the infinite number of ways that flames can go. At a macro level you can predict what the fire will do but at a micro level it's impossible to predict each flame. Probably something to do with chaos theory. After a good nights sleep on our new mattresses we wake to a proper dawn chorus of dozens of birds singing away like it's some battle of the bands competition. We breakfast slowly before a lovely walk along the chalk escarpment looking south then down to the corn fields and back up to the wood where we see the WWII trenches built for practice. More hanging out in hammocks reading and snoozing. Dinner is various veg packed into a casserole dish and dropped into the fire. Some caramelisation and tastes delicious. Thursday we have a cooked breakfast and then walk down to Birling for a drink and peanuts at the Neville Bull pub fortifying us for the steep uphill climb back to camp. An early evening stroll through the woods and into the nearby meadows wondering at the colours of flowers. Sausage and veg casserole in evening and ekeing out the last of our wood on the fire. Friday up with the lark, or rather our local wood pigeons and friends, and we strike camp for the easy drive back home. Lovely.

South across Kent

Our driveway

Camp

Firepit

Poppies

Birling All Saints

One of the locals

Getting the fire going

No better way to make dinner

Bliss...

Quantocks 2020

Corona.

Friday late afternoon I get the train to Salisbury and it's pretty quiet. Probably due to the fact that this is about to become the big Corona Virus shut down weekend. Duncan picks me up from the station and cooks a delicious meal.

Saturday we drive west stopping off for a walk around Glastonbury. We navigate the levels, canals and a very muddy hill, due to bull, and down the other side see the stump of the original Glastonbury Thorn planted by Joseph of Aramathea. We then get to the Tor which before drainage of the levels would have been an island at this time of year. We have great views over the levels up to the Mendips, across to Exmoor, Wales and the Pilton festival site which I now know will not happen until 2021. After descending the sacred place we visit the expensive abbey ruins which was the biggest & richest in the country no doubt through the exploitation of the locals. We wander round head and other hippy shops where I pick up a bargain of an original Adge Cutler and the Wuzels album. Well, when in Zummerzet. Leaving Hippiedom we drive through my birthplace of Bridgewater where we shop then onto Watchet to the The House of Rules albeit run by a the very welcoming Jane.

Tor from the Levels

St Brides Well - the original

Tor from the other hill

Trekking up the Tor

The chapel at the top

Church in the abbey grounds - the 7 deadly sins

Abbey ruins

Glastonbury route - 9 miles

Sunday it's raining heavily as forecast. Why do we do our walks in the Spring after a season of wet weather and into the rainiest season? We decide to walk anyway and today it's the Quantocks Northern Route starting at Crowborough. It's nice an varied through lanes and muddy tracks but not too bad. Through fields and sheltering woods. We both discover what's not fully waterproof (nearly everything!)  Although hardly long distance views we do see down to the Bristol Channel and across to Minehead. Then it's out onto open heathland with great views across Bridgewater Bay, up the Bristol Channel past Hinkley Point nuclear power station looking so innocent. Wales in shape not form. Then it's down to Holford and the rain has stopped just in time to sit on a bench for lunch. As forecast. After refreshment it's back over heathlands rising for great views north  across the levels up to the Mendips and west to Exmoor. By now the sun is out and we walk through woods before descending the steep 1 in 4 road back to Crowborough which would be worthwhile tackling on a bike. Maybe. Then we're back home for local cider and a curry courtesy Duncan. Porridge (series) and well earned sleep.

Crowborough Cross

The northern reaches of the Quantocks back to Minehead

Are you sure this is the path back? Bridgewater Bay

Northern route - 20 miles (including the missing bit)

Monday morning and there's a brilliant blue sky so it's just the day to tackle the Quantocks Southern Route. We park at Broomfield church and after a quick chat with a local who says he shouldn't be walking his dog as he's over 70 (Corona advice) we are up and at it traversing heathland and beech woods. Great views and we can see further than yesterday but hardly crystal clear. Descending from the Quantocks' highest point of Wills Neck (where my parents used to take me before I can remember) we hit country lanes & muddy bridleways. We lunch next to the Trimbell Stone which is a derisory 2 foot tall (Duncan lives near Stonehenge). My sniggering at their monument is punished by the local gods as I nearly sank into oblivion into mud and mire at a cow gate which looked fairly solid. Back along busy lanes and a busy road, well compared to others round here, then over fields to our start with directions from lots of friendly locals. Pub in the evening despite Johnson's advice but the West Somerset Hotel had little chance of breaking the 10 people limit as only us 2 and the barmaid. We later find out that if we'd gone left instead of right we'd have reached a legendary cider pub. And if two days earlier would have found Jon and Scottie there.

Sunshine! Dry paths!

Up onto the heathland...

... through the beech woods...

... past the lonely tree...

... and up onto Wills Neck the highest point of the Quantocks

Typical Somerset signage - always 9 miles from Bridgewater

Exmoor pony and pond

The diminutive Triscombe Stone - trying to make it look bigger

Lambs overlooking Bridgewater

Southern route - 17 miles

Both routes in geographic context

Tuesday we decide on a shorter walk, the last two days being about 20 miles each, and drive to Porlock. Today we're ascending a wooded combe with gentle stream in full flow up to the start of Exmoor and down over the moor to the coast. We walk along a shingle beach getting windblown by the sea breeze and the police helicopters that are searching for a missing woman. I thought the two coppers approaching us were going to arrest me for chucking an apple core into the hedge or that a Corona Curfew had been mandated but unfortunately asked us about a more serious business. We return to Porlock along the South West Coast Path which here is nearly as muddy as it was on the southern coast from two years ago. We decide against the curry house and as we aren't aware of the cider pub stay in with rough cider from a bottle and Guiness from cans as it's St Paddies day. All needed to alleviate the fierce chilli Duncan's made.

Out of the combe onto Exmoor

Across Porlock Bay

Exmoor

The sea reclaims the land

Shingle strand towards Porlock Weir

Strand towards Bossington Hill

Porlock's decapitated church tower and ageing yew

Porlock walk - 10 miles

Wednesday we have a wander round Watchet finding the cider pub we missed by turning right instead of left but too early to indulge. After walking the harbour wall we head back to our respective homes stopping off in Wincanton for chips and then I'm on a deserted train speeding back to London.

Watchet harbour & marina