From Castle Crag in Borrowdale – scene of my first great (though cold!) day out in the Lake District, straight after restrictions from the third national lockdown lifted in early April. Alfred Wainwright called this the prettiest mile in England, and it isn’t hard to see why. Deep in the jaws of Borrowdale and it…
The English Lake District is all set to be “the place to be” again this spring and summer, with the warmer weather calling all Staycationers to our lake shores, water and mountains for swimming, sailing, walking, picnics and ice creams. At a time when we are still being encouraged to enjoy ourselves outside where possible,…
At eve: how softly then Doth Aira force, that torrent hoarse Speak from the woody glen! (William Wordsworth, The Somnambulist, 1833) The second of three autumnal meditations this year took us on a Hidden Literary Lakeland walk in search of the Ullswater Way. I often like to catch an Ullswater Steamer from Glenridding to…
This Hidden South Lakeland walk from Beetham to Milnthorpe is a walk of glorious contrasts, taking in bucolic hills, dappled woods, farmland, saltmarsh and the sea. It’s a treat as much for the feet on the ground, with stretches of limestone pavement underfoot, as it is for the head in the clouds, with blue September…
I recently shared a series of photographs taken by guests on my tours last summer on Instagram. It was both therapeutic as well as fun, revisiting the summer of 2019 at a time when I was unable to physically travel into the Lake District – at first, because of the UK national lockdown which started…
At last, the all clear for sustainable transport! When lockdown in the UK was eased in late June, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged us to drive, walk or cycle if we couldn’t stay home. In the weeks that followed, the Lake District welcomed day-trippers, picnickers and more recently Staycationers flooding in by car and camper…
Huge thanks to Cumbria Chamber of Commerce for helping me start up my sustainable tourism business for Japanese visitors to the Lakes back in January 2018, and for the wonderful aftercare since. When the Chamber interviewed me for a case study published on June 3, I had the opportunity not just to review what the…
I’ve been thinking a lot about childhood during the lockdown, probably because this was when I last had time on my hands. Day after day with nothing to do in the summer beyond figure out how to pass the time. Feeling that I should be doing something, but what? I wake up exhausted, forehead furrowed,…
On 15 March 2020, I guided Mariko-san from Nagasaki together with her daughter and family friend around Windermere, Grasmere and Rydal in the Lake District. Starting with a cruise from Bowness, we enjoyed red squirrels and breath-taking views of Grasmere at Allan Bank before visiting the Wordsworth graves at St Oswald’s Church, then walking the…
Was it a visit or satogaeri (coming home)? I wondered about this over the seven weeks I spent in Japan late last year, having arrived there just in time to watch England lose the last game of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Tokyo from a hospital room in Kyoto with an old friend recovering…