Lawks a mercy! The walk I'm writing about today happened a whole week ago, when the weather was glorious. I've been rubbish at writing this week, just because work's busying up for its usual August and September busy spell. To ensure I don't fall down a black hole of work and zero walks, I've made a list of places to go so that I can't use lack of ideas as an excuse to lie on the couch at the end of the day. August and September at my work are stupidly busy and people tend to get a bit ill. Last year, my feet and ankles swelled up because I never left my desk for three weeks. So it's especially important that I don't give up my walks – let's see if they can keep me healthy.
So, a week ago, Matthew and I went to Bull Beck. It was lovely and warm, but Matthew insisted on keeping his hoodie on – there he is, walking back to the car for something, not sweating. You know you get those people who don't feel the cold? Well, Matthew doesn't feel the heat. I was sweating, waiting for our sausage and egg butties. I wasn't sure if the butty bar would be open, but it was, with excellent covid precautions in place.
We went over to sit on a bench in the shade to eat our butties – mine had a runny egg, Matthew's didn't, but he'd ruined it with ketchup anyway. Bleurgh! While we were eating, I was gazing over here, trying to remember how to get down to the beck. That wall of trees and shrubs looked rather impenetrable, and very nettley.
Butties finished, no messing about, we found a very narrow path through the nettles – it was a bit dicey because I had no sleeves and had to breathe in and lift my arms over my head. Matthew had to put his hood up. I think the place has gone a bit wild, which is nice. I would imagine that the reason for this is that Narnia is claiming it back.
I think I'm right, because you don't get much more Narnia than this. It's got absolutely everything. Dryads (tree nymphs) and naiads (fresh water spirits), Aslan just out of sight – you only get to see him if he needs you for something – and all manner of woodland creatures that obviously talk. This is one of the world's secret places; almost no one comes here after their butties because they don't know it exists – always a sure sign that a place is in Narnia.
I think the rain last week had made the brook higher than usual because I'm sure we used to be able to scramble around here without getting wet feet. Not so today. We tried for a few yards to pick our way across by standing on the biggest rocks, and we did get about halfway down.
This fallen tree had to be got under, which was easy for Matthew but a bit more tricky for me with my dodgy back and complete lack of suppleness and flexibility. We came here on my birthday a few years ago and I climbed across this tree. Man, I've really let myself go! There's no real reason for me not to still be able to climb up onto a tree like this. This needs fixing. I will aim to walk along this tree again by this time next year.
Just after the fallen tree, I decided to give up trying to keep my feet dry. It was only water, and it was very fresh and clean, so what did it matter if my trainers got soaked – they'd soon dry. Matthew tried to keep his feet dry for a bit longer, but he gave up eventually too when I told him how deliciously cool it was. It really was the best idea – just what you want on a hot day. We could've taken our shoes off of course, but we were too lazy to carry them. We could've rolled our jeans up as well, but, meh, whatever.
The beck isn't very big, so we decided to head over the road to the river. You have to cross the road where all the bikers come in to grab a bacon butty and a cuppa, then avoid the Black Riders on the cycle path – you're only in Middle-earth for a couple of minutes – and then through a kissing gate.
The river's very narrow here. I hadn't really noticed that before. But of course, rivers do get narrower the further inland you go, I suppose. Even if a river becomes no bigger than a stream, is it still a river? I wish I'd paid more attention in geography. When you think of geography lessons at school, is the first thing that comes to mind oxbow lakes? I remember those, and also scree. And glaciers. And escarpments. I think geography has the best words of any school lessons.
Anyway, we went down into the river and, well, got in it. We still kept our trainers on and our jeans as they were because these stones were really slippy. Can you see the wee fishies here? They're teeny. I guess they're minnows – I've Googled and I can't see what else they might be. I don't think I stood on any – they are pretty clever at getting out of the way really fast.
Here's what the river looks like from the water. I just can't tell you how glad I was that we decided to just get in. It was heavenly. It wasn't even the hottest day, but the water was very pleasant indeed, not at all too cold. If we'd been more prepared, I might have had a little swim in the deeper bit, but we had our phones with us and car keys and all of that, and no one to look after them for us. If we get another fine day – which I guess is not that likely now – maybe we'll come back for a swim.
This bit over here is really good for getting right under the water. People bring kayaks here and various other things – I don't know what other things, but we've seen people in wetsuits here lots of times. I think it's quite deep just on the bend. I believe there was some kind of legendary family day out here once when I was about three. I have a vague memory of my Uncle Andrew, my mum's little brother, dive bombing into the river from a rope swing attached to one of those trees – he would only have been about twelve at the time. I know the whole of my mum's family were here, but I can't remember anything else about it, other than a feeling of happiness. I think most of my young life felt like that, which is nice.
The benefit of flared jeans is that, when you get them soaked, they flap around your legs afterwards in a very cooling way.
I took another video for you. Mother, you can watch this one – it shouldn't give you motion sickness like the one on the beach probably did. Just a little bit of the river so you can see how fast it was, and also how very pretty.
I put my phone down on the bank eventually and we just messed about in the river, soaking up a bit of vitamin D at the same time. Ahhhhh, wonderful. Just imagine, if I hadn't started these walks. On this day, I probably would've stayed at home, reading or something. And while reading is a perfectly lovely and valuable pastime, I do plenty of reading every day. Being outside doing absolutely nothing but watching and listening in a beautiful place somehow seems more valuable. There are lots of places that we've visited recently that I could just stare at for hours.
But eventually we did need to head home – we usually forget to eat before we walk, so it's our stomachs that decide when the walk is over. We'd drifted down the river a bit, so we had to get out and clamber over these little hillock things. There were little stagnant pools all over here, so we had to navigate carefully – trainers wet with clean river water are one thing, but trainers dipped in boggy peat water are quite another.
We found ourselves here, wondering how the hell to get out. It involved a bit of leg stretching and climbing, which is always a good thing. Slightly easier for me than for Matthew because I've got longer legs.
This was the reward for our climb. Quite magnificant, is it not? If we followed the river down that way, we'd eventually come to the geese and lambs place, but not today.
Matthew was getting a bit tired now, poor fella. I don't really know why – we'd only done a bit of paddling, but he's always tired these days. Probably just because he's nearly thirteen. I think I remember being tired all the time when I was nearly thirteen. Also, he's done a lot of growing over the lockdown, and that'll take it out of ya, for sure.
Also, take a good look at his blue hair over the next two weeks – if he lets me take photos – because it'll have to go before school starts again. Oh no! School starting again! I won't lie, I don't want them to go back because I've absolutely loved having them at home these past five months. They've been completely wonderful and made me laugh and smile every day. Still lazy little buggers that have barely lifted a finger to help, but hey, that's not what I'll remember in years to come.
Last thing today, we walked through another field. This is starting to become a bit of a habit that I really love. Fields! They're as wonderful as they look from a distance. I can't tell you why because I don't know. You'll just have to go and walk in one to find out.
And that was our short walk done. It was only just over a mile, but we had the loveliest afternoon. How much longer do you reckon we've got with this warmish weather? About a month? We'd best make the most of it then.
Until tomorrow, meadow flowers.
WQ
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