Country mouse goes to the big city

[djnotts]

City boy me. I like to think I like rurality but I don't really.

[iandriver]

I guess that's like if you suddenly dumped a townie in the Lakeland hills they'd feel just as lost in their Nike kit and street puffer jackets with apple wireless ear buds in their ears or massive headphones over them.

I often think if you see someone dressed like that in the lakes, you've seen a local.
The townies are usually wearing high end hiking boots, ski poles and all the gore-tex gear to stroll for 1.5 miles by a lake on a flat, well surfaced path , on a sunny afternoon.

[Tangled Metal]

I guess that's like if you suddenly dumped a townie in the Lakeland hills they'd feel just as lost in their Nike kit and street puffer jackets with apple wireless ear buds in their ears or massive headphones over them.

I often think if you see someone dressed like that in the lakes, you've seen a local.
The townies are usually wearing high end hiking boots, ski poles and all the gore-tex gear to stroll for 1.5 miles by a lake on a flat, well surfaced path , on a sunny afternoon.

Mate the ones in the good outdoor gear are probably just walking around Ambleside or Keswick or at Kendal mountain festival to see the films of expeditions by people who use the gear they're wearing for the purposes intended. Said by a guy who wears outdoor gear all the time. Well I only own outdoor jackets. Figure it is cheaper to have good kit for the hills and use them to destruction off the hills after upgrading.

Nope the townies in the hills (usually lost or contemplating a difficult route up a hill in winter having started an hour before dusk) are often wearing street style puffer jackets or similar. Brands like the North face, timberland, Craghoppers (esp the bear grylls sub brand).

[fausto copy]

We were convinced the whole of the Midlands population were there.

It's always us midlanders who get the blame for some reason. There aren't that many, relatively: a fifth of England's people, spread over a third of its area.

Yeah, all crammed onto one small beach (the tide was in).

I knew someone would come back to me if I referred to the Midlands, or any area at all.
Not meaning to denigrate the Midlanders; we've got lots of friends from there.
To be honest, the most common voice heard down here (of holiday-makers) for the last couple of years have been Dutch and Germans.

[Tangled Metal]

Don't worry, that'll change this summer.

[Ben@Forest]

I often think if you see someone dressed like that in the lakes, you've seen a local.
The townies are usually wearing high end hiking boots, ski poles and all the gore-tex gear to stroll for 1.5 miles by a lake on a flat, well surfaced path , on a sunny afternoon.

Not always. In the Howgills a few years ago l saw a couple climbing Cautley Spout. It's not far from civilisation (or at least a pub) and they had nothing but the lightest gear and were carrying nothing.

It started to rain but they had nothing to put on. At the top, obviously thirsty, l saw them drinking direct from the burn. There could easily have been a dead sheep 300 m upstream.

Of course l could be stereotyping, they could have been from Sedbergh. But l suspect not....

[Tangled Metal]

300m of aerated stream and the water should be ok to drink even with the dead sheep. Stop being so squeamish!

Seriously water makes you ill but rarely kills you before you get medical help in this country (Weil's desease/leptospirosis apart). I'd be more worried about exposure in winter or someone slipping off a crag in winter.

Walking around a mid level route one winter day we were at the point of being about to drop back to the car when we met a young couple walking in townie/streetwear including white, no longer box fresh trainers (wet through and no doubt cold feet).

They had no map or compass. All they had was a printed sheet from the hotel with a written description of all the paths around their hotel. Including one that went up scafell pike via a real scrambling route. We showed that route on our map but they had no understanding of scale.

The guy I was with was a fit guy who fell runs with a full back pack including a large dictionary and complete works of Shakespeare (sometimes telephone directories too) on to make it a bit harder. He told them it was a half day fell run to get there, back and then down the hill. It was a very rocky route that you couldn't really run on and there was an hour of light left. Even getting down for us was probably going to result in n head torches (quickest way down was our way but the pair went the other way). You can't help some people.

I've had similar so many times in winter that I've stopped getting frustrated. I give them the information to help them then leave it to them. Sometimes it's people who look well kitted out but more often they're not. Whilst cities are probably not completely safe for me (I'm not very streetwise, a little but not like a native) at least I kind of know enough to keep safe. I'm not sure if that's the case in reverse with complete townies in my local patch (I live in North Lancashire but I feel at home in the Lakeland fells such that I call it "my patch").

[Paulatic]

If they drank the water near the top they’d be fine. IME sheep usually die further down.
This drinking water takes me back nearly 40 yrs I went to see a job in Ayrshire. Full of romance the cottage was beside the Afton Water ( think Rabbie Burns) Went to look at the dipping tub which discharged straight into the burn. Bad enough you might think but 50 yds below the tub was the drinking water tank for the cottage.

[Ben@Forest]

300m of aerated stream and the water should be ok to drink even with the dead sheep. Stop being so squeamish!

Seriously water makes you ill but rarely kills you before you get medical help in this country...

That's mainly true but some of those waterborne diseases can affect you for years afterwards. Though the top of Cautley Spout is at 600m there are sheep above it, in fact there's a ring feeder up there (well there was in about 2015). And l think the chances of cryptosporidium would be high. I'd not drink from it!

[Cyril Haearn]

Both are true maybe
Sheep water, telephone books: are both equally crazy?

[Lance Dopestrong]

Country boy. Oooaaarrrraaayyy! Born that way, lived almost my entire life that way.

[Tangled Metal]

300m of aerated stream and the water should be ok to drink even with the dead sheep. Stop being so squeamish!

Seriously water makes you ill but rarely kills you before you get medical help in this country...

That's mainly true but some of those waterborne diseases can affect you for years afterwards. Though the top of Cautley Spout is at 600m there are sheep above it, in fact there's a ring feeder up there (well there was in about 2015). And l think the chances of cryptosporidium would be high. I'd not drink from it!

Collecting from the bottom of a vertical waterfall isn't necessarily safe. It certainly wasn't what I was meaning by aerated water, that is water flowing over rapids and rocks aerating a little each drop. Collecting from cautley spout is probably more like filling up at a tarn exit stream, not wise.

Decade plus ago a walking mag had water sources around a popular wild camping area. They did get a few nasties including cryptosporidium and even a type of hepatitis. Almost all the nasties were where you'd be well advised to avoid such as the tarn, tarn outlet, etc. The places that you get advised as being more likely to n be safe were clear except a couple of spots. These spots did have nasties but the less severe ones and only in low enough quantities such that your body would defeat them.

Personally, bring your own water, filter or top up when you can and coping with that. If that's not possible then a bit of knowledge and good judgement when in remote places and you'll likely be ok. Heck you'd not believe where we filled up as scouts. Never had any illness.

[pwa]

Bring your own water but if you really do need to get water from nature try to find a spring, not a stream. If you miscalculate and you do find yourself without water in hot weather, I reckon the danger from not having water is greater than the danger from potentially iffy water so I would risk it if I couldn't see a spring.

[Cyril Haearn]

Leafy suburb mouse, town with under 50 000 inmates and more action than one can shake a stick at
And only one DIY store, not seven like where I used to live

[Pebble]

country bumkin here - Think the biggest place I have been to since the start of lockdown is 9,000 and that seems a bit overwhelming. . It's going to be weird going to Glasgow Edinburgh Newcastle every week when/if we get back to normal?

Do love a day in a big city but don't miss the stinky pollution headaches I always get after a full day.