Escape route?

A major step forward in my road back to normality today. I had a dental appointment in the morning so I wasn't able to do much, however I had the afternoon free so I set myself another target.

The last time I was able to walk any distance was when I was helping with the surveys for the BTO Bird Atlas 2007 - 11. At that time as it was decided Cumbria would spend 2 hours on each tetrad survey I was out walking for 2 hours at a time. Up to date all my walking (apart from a little bit on road verges)has been on even tarmac surfaces. So I decided to set off and follow a large part of one of my survey transects.

With the exception of 300 to 400 yards all of the walk was on uneven surfaces mainly grass and rough farm lanes. In all I completed 3 miles taking 2 hours. However this was punctuated by a number of stops to take pictures. Clickychick very sensibly suggested I take a shooting stick which we happened to have. This meant that when I stopped to consider shots I could take the weight off my legs and also the added benefit that I was more stable while taking the shot.

The picture shows the stile where the path branches off from what was the main road to Keswick. This is now so over grown it is little more than a very narrow lane. So I escaped over the stile across the fields to another farm lane along that for quite a distance, a short detour on the return to have a look at a disused sandstone quarry (now a wood) to see if I could find the Buzzards which often nest there. I didn't see them but did hear the calls. There were points when I felt if I meet somebody they will think they have found the village idiot. Who else would be wandering along with a huge smile on their face chuckling to themselves!

All in all a good day.