A Couple More Walks

13 September - Kirkby Lonsdale – Whittington – KL Walk (Library and shopping)



We decided to grab the opportunity between showers to do a short local walk. We chose a circular one from Kirkby Lonsdale to Whittington; a distance of about 10km. We learned once more that the instructions for most of the walks in the UK don’t score highly. The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ are used instead of compass bearings – and before you say “what if I don’t have a compass” it is absolutely essential that you take a compass and a proper map on any walk especially in the UK. The reason is that here a track may only exist on the printed page and not on the ground. Even if the track does appear on the ground it may be one of many heading in diverse directions or even an animal track. Another common fault in walk instructions is that distances are rarely cited – for example, ‘We come to a stile in the field corner and we need to cross it and go left’ No mention here of the distance required to traverse the field or the angle or bearing required to make the crossing.


We have recalled from our last visit that the tracks can be very muddy. The Dales (Yorkshire/Lancashire/Cumbria) are worse than the Lakes District in this respect. In the Lakes the main cause is the two legged animals but in the Dales it is exacerbated by four legged animals and the ubiquitous English tractor.


Anyway on this occasion we were spared any rain and successfully managed to deduce the correct directions and distances and completed the walk in the specified time range.


Being in KL we took the opportunity of using the computer in the library to post the last blog and check emails.


14 September – Liverpool Visit


Today we drove to Liverpool to meet up with Marilyn and Bill Hadley. Bill’s sister Marie showed us the Museum of Liverpool, The Cavern Club and Bill’s favourite, the Western Approaches Museum.


15 September – Ingleton and it's Falls


The village of Ingleton is just down the road in North Yorkshire. We had a walk around the village in the morning and the in the afternoon did the very famous Ingleton Waterfalls Trail. We will post the pics on our picture gallery – hopefully soon.