Off camping for 8 days....

[citizentwiglet]

So any naked sun-dances would be appreciated!!

Off to Ullswater in the Lake District..looking at the forecast I'm glad I have in my possession a nice new pair of all-singing-all-dancing waterproof hiking boots (my old pair were nearly 20 years old and leaking and VERY stinky so thought I'd better treat myself; but at least being a size 4 I can buy boys' boots and save some cash, LOL!)....
Ellis very excited about his 'new' blow-up Thomas the Tank Engine bed, procured from a neighbour in pristine condition and his big-boy sleeping bag...
My legs have decided to rebel on me and go all achey - don't know whether it is pregnancy, or whether I have picked up whatever the sprog had at the beginning of the week, but I feel ruddy awful at the moment. Baby-brain means that I have spent most of the week writing lists, lists of lists, revised lists....then promptly lost the lot of them. CANNOT be doing with organising this getaway just now, I just want to sleep!

Anyway....you'll not hear from me now for a week or so, and I didn't want anyone worrying - I know I always worry when forum-friends (particularly pregnant ones!) go missing in action.....

Hope you all have a jolly nice 8 days or so, and I look forward to catching up with you all soon xxxxxxx

[Ratty]

Are you back? Are you ok? How was the camping? Bet Ellis loved it! x

[shell]

hope you had a good time,sounds like fun,going to give it a go myself
shell

[hedgewitch]

Hope you had fun.

[citizentwiglet]

It was wet, it was cold, it was VERY muddy; but we had a great time! Ellis was extremely naughty, had me in tears quite a few times (pregnancy hormones don't help, either!), but that was because he was so excited to be somewhere new, I think.

I must say I was rather disappointed by certain aspects of the area - particularly with regards to ditching the car and going for a walk. We had an Ordnance Survey map which was updated in early 2008, yet found many of the public access/footpaths had been completely blocked off or were so overgrown with nettles and brambles as to be completely impassable. This left us very little option but to walk at the side of some very busy roads (pretty congested with Winibagos, caravans etc) that had no pavements....very bendy 60mph roads at that, which isn't ideal with a toddler in tow...lost count of the times where we all had to leap into soggy hedgerow as some nutter in a big car sped round a blind corner! I would really have thought that the local authorities and the National Trust would have been keen to actively encourage families out of their cars, yet we found that we drove more than we wanted to purely for safety reasons. Put it this way - there is no way on God's Green Earth that I'd cycle around the area, which is a crying shame.

Fell / hill paths were in excellent condition, but of course that kind of activity is pretty limited with a young family (although we did manage a few) so I'd really love to see some practical improvements to areas for low-level walking, really. Even cutting the speed limit on some of those country roads would help - I wish people would realise that just because the sign says 60mph, it isn't a mandatory limit and you CAN go slower!

[Ratty]

Unfortunately it's not down to the local authorities nor the National Trust to keep footpaths "open" and clear. Much of the land in this country is owned either by the Crown (especially Prince Charles) or privately. Whilst the recent legislation stated that all of the footpaths around the coastline and ancient ones across the land be "open", there seems to be no way of enforcing this. Some local rural areas (I know this used to happen where my parents live in South Yorkshire) and Ramblers Association groups have organised walks in order to keep footpaths "open" - basically ensuring the area marked on a map as a footpath is just that & that might include trampling down weeds & ocassionaly crops if a farmer has over-sewn the area.

It is frustrating I know because I used to Geocache and things were hard to find if footpaths have become overgrown and you have a kiddie in tow.