Been everywhere

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Jdsk
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Jdsk »

Another fan of the Old Man and of Helvellyn. The Lakes play a big part in our family life. Now planning the next trip with the grandchildren.
Tangled Metal wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 10:13amPeople really need to know that once mining was the biggest industry in the lake district. It was internationally important and played a role in Britain beating napoleon!
I think that was rather more of an international joint effort.

Jonathan
Last edited by Jdsk on 16 Sep 2021, 7:24pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mick F
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Mick F »

Blondie wrote: 15 Sep 2021, 8:10pm How much off road have you ridden in Cornwall?
Just about none other than a few bits of cycle path locally. The Camel Trail is the famous one, but the idea doesn't inspire me at all.

Done more in Devon .......... Route 27 from Okehampton to Plymouth, plus other cycle routes through Plymouth city.

I have a plan to ride to Meeth (Devon) on the roads, then onto the Tarka Trail then cross the bridge into Bideford - where Daughter1 lives. It's 50miles to Bideford from here, so Mrs Mick F can drive up to meet me as I don't fancy doing a century.

Off-road isn't my bag, though I have done some of the Tamar Trails just over in Devon from here. Walked just about all of it with the dog! :D

https://www.tamartrails.co.uk/walking/
Mick F. Cornwall
Tangled Metal
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Tangled Metal »

Jdsk wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 10:21am Another fan of the Old Man and of Helvellyn. The Lakes play a big part in our family life. Now planning the next rip with the grandchildren.
Tangled Metal wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 10:13amPeople really need to know that once mining was the biggest industry in the lake district. It was internationally important and played a role in Britain beating napoleon!
I think that was rather more of an international joint effort.

Jonathan
The role I'm thinking of was the borrowdale graphite. Being a very pure source it had many strategically important uses. Not least in the mould for high quality and closely toleranced cannonballs. This allowed for more accuracy and better performance of the cannons.

Such high quality graphite at that time was only available in a very small number of locations. The lake district was the biggest producer and we were able to restrict French access to graphite. It's why they paid for a mercenary group to smuggle some out. Graphite was called black gold and was a big smuggling trade in the area. Graphite out and alcohol back led to such routes as Moses Trod aiui.

BTW there's a crag to the west of borrowdale somewhere with the remains of a building hidden up the crag. It dated from those times and iirc was an illegal still house or smuggler staging post. Inaccessible other than climbing and not visible until you reach it I believe.

There's a lot of stories about that area and not all are myths or exaggerations.
Jdsk
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Jdsk »

Tangled Metal wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 1:14pm
Jdsk wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 10:21am Another fan of the Old Man and of Helvellyn. The Lakes play a big part in our family life. Now planning the next rip with the grandchildren.
Tangled Metal wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 10:13amPeople really need to know that once mining was the biggest industry in the lake district. It was internationally important and played a role in Britain beating napoleon!
I think that was rather more of an international joint effort.
The role I'm thinking of was the borrowdale graphite. Being a very pure source it had many strategically important uses. Not least in the mould for high quality and closely toleranced cannonballs. This allowed for more accuracy and better performance of the cannons.

Such high quality graphite at that time was only available in a very small number of locations. The lake district was the biggest producer and we were able to restrict French access to graphite. It's why they paid for a mercenary group to smuggle some out. Graphite was called black gold and was a big smuggling trade in the area. Graphite out and alcohol back led to such routes as Moses Trod aiui.
I wasn't clear... I was asserting that beating Napoleon was an international effort, not the production of graphite!

:- )

Jonathan
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Hellhound
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Hellhound »

Jdsk wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 10:21am Another fan of the Old Man and of Helvellyn. The Lakes play a big part in our family life. Now planning the next rip with the grandchildren.
I've ridden up/down Helvellyn and Skiddaw about a dozen or so times as well as walking them many,many times.Great Gable and Blencathra are my personal favourites and if I do nowt else in the Lakes I try to get up both at least once a year.
The Lakes is also a big part in our lives and our 21 year old daughter recently introduced her Uni-mate to the area and she's now hooked too 8)
Jdsk
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Jdsk »

Hellhound wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 7:23pm... and our 21 year old daughter recently introduced her Uni-mate to the area and she's now hooked too
That happened with both of our children. What a privilege. : - )

Jonathan
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fausto copy
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by fausto copy »

Jdsk wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 7:25pm
Hellhound wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 7:23pm... and our 21 year old daughter recently introduced her Uni-mate to the area and she's now hooked too
That happened with both of our children. What a privilege. : - )

Jonathan
That's why it's so damned busy. :roll:
We used to visit every other year and always found nice quiet routes and tearooms.
The last time we were there (10 years ago) it was so manic and extremely commercialised that we have been put right off.
Still miss it though. :(
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Hellhound
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Hellhound »

fausto copy wrote: 17 Sep 2021, 11:41am
Jdsk wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 7:25pm
Hellhound wrote: 16 Sep 2021, 7:23pm... and our 21 year old daughter recently introduced her Uni-mate to the area and she's now hooked too
That happened with both of our children. What a privilege. : - )

Jonathan
That's why it's so damned busy. :roll:
We used to visit every other year and always found nice quiet routes and tearooms.
The last time we were there (10 years ago) it was so manic and extremely commercialised that we have been put right off.
Still miss it though. :(
It has got noticeably busier in the last 25 years or so.Both a good and bad thing.We avoid certain areas at certain times of the year.I wouldn't for instance walk up Scafell Pike,Skiddaw or Helvellyn May-September unless going very early or very late!If you avoid the obvious honeypot towns and villages,even in high season,you can still find a quiet spot.
It is a very different place from when I first visited in the early 1970s but then so are all the other NPs.
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fausto copy
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by fausto copy »

You're telling me!
Pembrokeshire has been absolutely rammed full this summer.
Traffic horrendous, car parks full, supermarket shelves empty (and that's down to the volume of people shopping).
Thankfully, it's quietened down a bit this last week.

When we used to do a lot of walking in the lakes, we had a tactic to miss the crowds, even on fairly popular routes.
Most of the guide books had the same walks in them, invariably doing the exact same route and direction.

We simply walked in the opposite direction to that described, and it really worked.
It was surprising how we'd come across a fair few people around about the same time and then once passed, we were on our own for the rest of the day.

Bit it was the commercialisation that really got me.
Even ten years ago, the cafes were charging an astonishing price for a basic sandwich with a bit of cucumber as salad.

A few days later, we moved on to the Forest of Bowland area and we stopped in Longridge to ask a couple of locals where to park our motorhome for an hour. They advised us to use the town hall as no one from the council worked at weekends. :lol:
They then advised us which cafe to use and I had the largest ham bap with lashings of mustard for just over a quid. :mrgreen:
Ben@Forest
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Ben@Forest »

fausto copy wrote: 17 Sep 2021, 11:41am That's why it's so damned busy. :roll:
We used to visit every other year and always found nice quiet routes and tearooms.
The last time we were there (10 years ago) it was so manic and extremely commercialised that we have been put right off.
Still miss it though. :(

You were of course part of the problem. It's amusing that the people who think 'they were there first' then complain about the people who come after. About 20 years ago I heard it from a couple who'd been going to Thailand for 20 years and were complaining about British (and other European) tourists now ruining it. If they started to go to Vietnam or Cambodia instead I'm sure they'll be complaining about that being ruined too now...

I live very close to the North Pennines AONB, it has little tourist infrastructure but I'm sure it will increase. Then people will complain it 'isn't like it used to be'.
Oldjohnw
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Oldjohnw »

A bit like saying "I am stuck in traffic.".


You are traffic!
John
francovendee
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by francovendee »

I had thought that with the restrictions on coming to France for a holiday it would be quieter but it wasn't. French have also stayed home and not gone to distant shores. Away from the coast it's quiet as normal. :)
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fausto copy
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by fausto copy »

Ben@Forest wrote: 18 Sep 2021, 6:27pm
fausto copy wrote: 17 Sep 2021, 11:41am That's why it's so damned busy. :roll:
We used to visit every other year and always found nice quiet routes and tearooms.
The last time we were there (10 years ago) it was so manic and extremely commercialised that we have been put right off.
Still miss it though. :(

You were of course part of the problem. It's amusing that the people who think 'they were there first' then complain about the people who come after. About 20 years ago I heard it from a couple who'd been going to Thailand for 20 years and were complaining about British (and other European) tourists now ruining it. If they started to go to Vietnam or Cambodia instead I'm sure they'll be complaining about that being ruined too now...

I live very close to the North Pennines AONB, it has little tourist infrastructure but I'm sure it will increase. Then people will complain it 'isn't like it used to be'.
Perhaps I should have used the 'wink' emoticon rather than the 'rolling eyes' as my reply was meant partly in jest.
I was trying to respond to the earlier post mentioning that the persons family continue to go as it expands.
I'll accept I was probably part of the problem, but as I've not been for 10 years I hope I don't count now. :wink:

This year has obviously been a bit different with the staycation and it's unfortunate that certain parts have suffered more than others.
Scotland appears to have been badly hit with all the with masses of motorhomes travelling there.

I've got no intention of ever flying again and haven't had a passport for 15 years, so am restricted to this country.
We've used our motorhome three times this year and have only once ventured just outside Pembrokeshire, so perhaps I'm adding to the problem here as well. :roll: :mrgreen:

Edit: I see that the South Pennines area wants to be recognised more as a tourist area, and I fear they'll be next on the hit list. :(
Ben@Forest
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by Ben@Forest »

fausto copy wrote: 18 Sep 2021, 9:29pm
Ben@Forest wrote: 18 Sep 2021, 6:27pm You were of course part of the problem. It's amusing that the people who think 'they were there first' then complain about the people who come after. About 20 years ago I heard it from a couple who'd been going to Thailand for 20 years and were complaining about British (and other European) tourists now ruining it. If they started to go to Vietnam or Cambodia instead I'm sure they'll be complaining about that being ruined too now...

I live very close to the North Pennines AONB, it has little tourist infrastructure but I'm sure it will increase. Then people will complain it 'isn't like it used to be'.
Perhaps I should have used the 'wink' emoticon rather than the 'rolling eyes' as my reply was meant partly in jest.
I was trying to respond to the earlier post mentioning that the persons family continue to go as it expands.
I'll accept I was probably part of the problem, but as I've not been for 10 years I hope I don't count now. :wink:

This year has obviously been a bit different with the staycation and it's unfortunate that certain parts have suffered more than others.
Scotland appears to have been badly hit with all the with masses of motorhomes travelling there.

I've got no intention of ever flying again and haven't had a passport for 15 years, so am restricted to this country.
We've used our motorhome three times this year and have only once ventured just outside Pembrokeshire, so perhaps I'm adding to the problem here as well. :roll: :mrgreen:

Edit: I see that the South Pennines area wants to be recognised more as a tourist area, and I fear they'll be next on the hit list. :(
I guess it's recognising we're all part of the problem if we're tourists - it probably applies as much to airbnb properties in London affecting residents. But of course for some residents of anywhere tourists are a good, and possibly even necessary, income stream.

I'm about to go ride into the North Pennines, even l will affect it by putting money into the café economy - l think a new one has just opened in Middleton-in-Teesdale. Demand is up...
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Been everywhere

Post by [XAP]Bob »

Presumably you know which side of the road you rode on each time... so ride the other side?
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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