Shropshire - The Quarry, Shrewsbury (3 miles)

 Sunday, 23rd August 2020

Headed down to Shropshire today to visit rellies - socially distanced, in the garden. 

After a lovely meal I decided to try and find the park I've walked past previously to stretch my legs after a 3 hour drive followed by more sitting in the garden.  I picked their brains, describing what I remember seeing (basically a statue that was in walking distance of the house!).  Top marks to them for making a best guess that it was The Quarry - a huge parkland nestled in the crook of the River Severn.

View from English Bridge towards the Abbey (flat topped building next to the 30 sign) and the Church (with the spire):

Commemorative plaque on the bridge:

View of English Bridge from the banks of the River Severn:

Bottoms up!:

Into the parkland - it was easy to socially distance here despite it being very busy:

Info board:

Hercules Statue:

Bandstand:

On the path round the water feature/sunken garden:

Curious arbour:

.... with this inside:

View from the folly bridge:

Not sure what this building is - possibly another Church (there are one or two in Shrewsbury!):

Random balustrade:

The statue I remember seeing on a previous walk:

The town walls - I'm assuming the bottom part is the original!:

Steps to nowhere (locked gate) but they overlook the parkland you have free access to anyway:

Another memorial:

And finally, a view of the River Severn from English Bridge:

A right nice little mooch.

Thanks for looking.

Lake District: High Rigg Circuit (7 miles)

Saturday, 1st August 2020

I wanted to do this walk as a bit of a driving recce to see how long it takes me to get up to the Lakes without stopping at Scotch Corner for the loos and a bit of a driving break.  It took me 3hrs 30 minutes but I think it would be quicker if there hadn't have been some heavy congestion on the A66.  I think. with clear traffic, it would take 3 hours.  Tiring.  But doable occasionally to get my fix of mountains.

Anyway, I got parked up on the verge near the start of the walk.  No gentle walk-in to get warmed up.  Through the gate off the A591 and pretty much straight up Wren Crag:

  I think somebody's flattened this path as I remember it being a lot steeper.  It did get steeper and gnarlier further up but not as I remember it somehow.  Perhaps I took a different path last time?

Nevertheless, the usual thing happened where my vision goes weird and I struggle with my balance and this sensation doesn't go away until I stop and rest and let my breathing and pulse settle right back down to normal.  Then I just have normal unfitness to contend with.  Not sure if I should be concerned about it or not but at least I know how to make it go away.  

Any excuse for a breather!  A lovely little rocky lump with heather in bloom on it:

It seems too early for heather but it has got me thinking about getting up onto the NY Moors soon.

I'm only going to post one picture of the lovely view opening out behind me of Great How and Thirlmere peeping out behind: 

I took many pics of this view on my way up but if I don't post them then you won't know how many times I stopped for a breather 😉

And a view looking the other way from the first top of Wren Crag:

What the pic doesn't show very clearly is that no sooner have you got to the top of this bit, you drop down into a gully and straight up the path on the other side, and repeat!

High Rigg in all her lumpy-bumpy glory:

The photo really doesn't do this roller-coaster fell justice.

A little peep at Skiddaw and Lonscale Fell from one of the many small tarns:

Entering bracken territory now.  Down, down, down to the stile only to go up, up, up alongside the wall on Moss Crag:

Wonderful view of the gnarly side of Clough Head:

Bassenthwaite Lake coming into view beyond Skiddaw and chums:

And the summit cairn with Blencathra behind:

I resisted the urge to re-locate the cairn to the nearby and higher lump of rock.

Instead, I had a nice chat with a chap who was on a sprint-finish to complete the Wainwrights before his 70th birthday - his birthday is in September - he has 30 more Wainwrights to do!!

I dropped down off the fell to St John's Church:

I have been in here before and wandered around to look at the stained glass windows and also the little holy well/spring - the faint path just visible off to the right of the pic.

Turning onto the bridleway now and the final leg of my route which skirts the lower flanks of High Rigg.  I didn't take any pics of this part of the walk as it's really just a path between a drystone wall and the fell side.  The views of the gnarly side of Clough Head are pretty impressive up close and personal though.  And the permissive path through the woodland is lovely.  I seem to remember seeing it covered in bluebells on a previous visit.

I was hoping Low Bridge End Farm's cafe was open but unfortunately it isn't.  I chatted with the owners who said they weren't planning on opening until next year now.  I really hope they do open next year.

Deprived of my cheese scone and cuppa I continued along the path and had a brief flirtation with St John's Beck:

....before heading uphill again - I don't remember this hill from before and again, I'm wondering if the path has been re-routed.  

Soon enough I was back at my car and preparing for my 3+ hour drive home which I wasn't looking forward to quite as much!  I did sit and have a cuppa and biscuit before I set off though and watched with amusement the little ant-people beetling up and down climbing ropes on Castle Rock.  Their excited (or maybe terrified) squeals echoing off the rocks, along with more serious sounding voices which, I'm guessing, were the leaders.  It did look good fun to be honest.

The weather was perfect really, patchy sunshine and a gentle breeze.  There was enough sunshine for me to get a bit of a healthy glow.

What I could fault though is my ViewRanger track recording decided to pause itself somewhere on Wren Crag and I didn't look at the map until I was checking that it was the gnarly side of Clough Head (and not the Dodds) coming into view.  Grrrr.  So apparently my walk was only 5 miles instead of the 7 that it really is.

Though some people may scoff at driving for 3 hours for a 7 mile walk.  I enjoyed it and, regardless of the driving, it was just the right length and amount of steep and rocky and lumpy and bumpy for my first visit to the Lake District post-lockdown.

I did feel as if I could have done a couple more miles which I'm quite pleased about seeing as I've not done anything over 4 miles for a couple of months now and, even then, that was on the flat.  So yes, all in all, a smashing day out.

Finally, a little pano-vid from the summit:

Thanks for reading 😊