Safe Return Doubtful

A quiet day reading, watching some of the day-night test from Birmingham and taking a break from the sun. This campsite amongst others will be mayhem this weekend, but by that time I hope to be far enough south to be out of the 100% zone. It’s much too many people for me, and everything that goes along with it, especially the noise. This site, Grey’s River, is $10 a night for tents and no car, with all facilities, so recommended certainly. There’s a big wind this afternoons, but I think they are very localised in these pets. This one is straight off the reservoir. Yesterday’s that I headed into, was down the canyon I wa headed up. I will see if my theory is right after tomorrow. The Campsite ‘host’ here is Jack from Memphis, Tennessee. These people host the site for the summer season, from May until October, and live in their own RV, managing the site, for that time. Jack is the easiest to get on with of all the hosts so far. He travels around the site on a golf cart (as all the hosts do, a sort of perk of the job), with a fat cigar in his mouth, but he is easy going and stops for a chat despite being busy, and I’m not just saying that because he said I am his guest tonight, no money. It’s his first season, many I have met have done far more, in Starvation Lake, more than 20 seasons.

8 pm last night outside the Bull Moose.

I mentioned a few days back that I have fairly recently moved house, to live inside the Lake District National Park in an old cottage. When Nigel last visited me it was after a wine trip to the north of Spain, and he caught an Easy Jet flight back to see my parents just after their wedding anniversary. They drove down to me for a day and dad, Nigel and I took a walk up on the Coast to Coast Path near Orton Scar. There’s a particularly beautiful spot not far down that path called Robin Hood’s Grave. It’s a cairn of stones tucked away on an old Holloway where there once was a cart track between Orton and Crosby Ravensworth, high up on the moor. I used to run there a lot, so for me it is a place of special significance, as that was such a memorable day. Legend has that Robin’s body has split amongst 4 graves around the country to avoid grave robbers. After our walk there was an England rugby international on, so we sat back and watched it with a few beers. In the early evening we went out for dinner to the Crown and Mitre, where I now live next to. A really good meal capped an excellent day.

Robin Hood’s Grave

Certain places have special significance for me, and it will be no surprise that they are in the hills. On the day that Nigel passed I went for a run with the dog, and as is not rare, veered off paths to find a new route. There’s a place in the hills above Burnbanks (Haweswater) where there are two standing prehistoric stones. Ironically it’s called Four Stones Hill. Above there is a place that gets an incredible view of all around. By the wonders of technology these days you can give a place a name, by making it a Strava segment. That day this became the ‘Nigel Weston Memorial Path’. If you’re in the area please take a walk there, you will see it’s magnificence

“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand alone”