Wainwright Walks 81: a Hartsop Doddle

• Hills: Hartsop Dodd (also a repeat of Caudale Moor)
• Classification: Wainwright (152)
• When: Sunday 20 June
• Who: Me and the mountaineering minion
• Distance: About 6 miles (I think)
• Weather: Sunny 
• Post walk drink: Hawkshead Pale Ale (too warm for Malbec)
• Post walk watering hole: The Queens, Windermere
• MAMBA factor: Medium. Had the hills more or less to myself to start off with but that didn’t last!
• Uses of the arse crampon: Still MIA. 
• Mishaps: Unless the fitness level counts, nothing really. Work was a mishap later in the week.

One of these days I will write a blog which does not start with either an apology for not having written it before, or a COVID related rant… yet again, this is not that blog! Once again this post has taken a long time to crawl out of my brain and actually make it on to the internet and yet again the usual reasons are in place. 

I’m still fed up with how the last two years have panned out. I’m still completely unfit and it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I’ve still got too much on at work and specifically in respect of this blog work totally got in the way. To cut a very long potential rant short I ended up having to work on several days of my supposed holiday which meant that this was the only hill walk I managed during what was supposed to be a week away. I did do a wonderful swim/ hike later in the week but far too much of the ‘holiday’ was taken up working which is emphatically not what a holiday is meant to be about. 

As regards the pandemic, whilst things seem to be returning vaguely to something which bears at least a passing resemblance to normality in some areas, in others they are still a long way apart. I still have friends who are hardly ever leaving the house. I got caught by the ‘pingdemic’ despite being double jabbed (though I do know people who have had COVID despite having been double jabbed). I still hate wearing face masks as I feel as though I can’t breathe, though I do when I need to. I’m actually starting to wonder if ‘normal’ will ever actually return or what it will look like (and hearing the phrase ‘new normal’ still makes me want to punch something). This disease isn’t going to go away – we have to get on with our lives eventually. 

Wainwright Walks 80: 52 on number 151!

• Hills: Lank Rigg
• Classification: Wainwright (151)
• When: Friday 4 June
• Who: Me and the mountaineering minion
• Distance: About 6 miles
• Weather: Sunny with a bit of a breeze
• Post walk drink: Pinot Grigio. Still too hot for Malbec!
• Post walk watering hole: The Crafty Baa, Keswick
• MAMBA factor: High
• Uses of the arse crampon: Still MIA. Hard to see how it would be needed on this one.
• Mishaps: A bit of a hangover, a minor navigational lapse. Also still knackered.

For whatever reason, this blog post has again taken a long time to crawl out of my subconscious and actually make it to the page. It’s difficult to know what the reason for this is: some of the usual reasons are definitely present, for instance having too much on at work (and outside of work) but also a bit of inspiration was rather lacking (or should that be lank-ing?) Probably not a word but definitely should be! It is probably a case to a large extent of simple tiredness: due to work, to trying to fit too much in and also due to a general sense of being completely fed up with how the last two years have panned out. 

It’s not just the pandemic, or the restrictions; it’s all the tension the whole thing has created between people with differing opinions and I’ve been shocked to find out how many people seem to think that it would be perfectly okay to be in a state of lockdown for years, or that a zero COVID strategy is a good idea (or even achievable). Or who don’t understand why I found not being able to go out and do outdoor stuff, or other pleasures like going to the theatre, so hard (example quote ‘Why would you even want to leave the house when there is a nasty bug around? I thought you had Netflix?). Friends who have been resistant to meeting in pubs even since it has been allowed. People who have become so afraid of what – although clearly a very nasty bug indeed – is now likely to become endemic that they haven’t left the house in weeks. What was the vaccination programme for if it wasn’t to try and get us back to something at least vaguely approaching normality? But that still seems a long way off.