Solving the World on a Ramble

Before my recent two weeks of walking in the UK’s Lake District and Yorkshire Dales gets too far behind me, I want to record a few thoughts and memories about the experience.

While I do a fair amount of walking and backpacking in the U.S., this journey was unique in a couple of ways. We walked every day. It was sort of like our job. We would get up in the morning and set out on that day’s walk. We would walk pretty much all day. The average day’s walk was in the neighborhood of 12 miles, with a couple of longer ones, 15, 18, even 21 miles on one occasion. (First photo, a church in Patterdale, which incongruously advertised “Free WiFi Inside” on a banner.)

While we were aware of the destination for the day, it was the walking itself — more than the destination — that was the thing. And each day’s walk was in itself quite varied with twists and turns of the trails. In the Lake District, there was a sort of pattern, up a fell (hill, mountain), down a fell into a dale (valley), usually with a mere (lake) nestled in the dale. Fell, dale, mere — and repeat.

It was similar in Yorkshire, although the fell’s were less steep, being true of the descents. Often in Yorkshire, it wasn’t a lake we found, but instead followed a path along a river to that evening’s destination. Walking this way really gave me a sense of the landscape itself as it unfolded, changed, and carried you along.

Walking is facilitated in the U.K. by something that is different from the U.S. You can pretty much walk anywhere there because of public footpaths and access across private lands. You open a gate (then close it again behind you), follow a path through a pasture that has sheep or cows, cross a rock wall or two, and then find the next access point. You go right through a farmyard, being careful not to nose about or get in the way but maybe catching sight of sheep being sheared or cows being milked, or a herd being moved by dogs from one pasture to another. It seems to work. (Second photo, as we began the Dales Way out of Bowness on Windemere).

It was to me astonishing that in a relatively small island nation, there is so much open land and active farmland. Along rivers and lakes there isn’t the development we are accustomed to in the U.S. as most of it, at least where we were, is held by the “National Trust,” which preserves open land and farmland. Beatrix Potter of “Peter Rabbit,” was a pioneer in this. When farmers in the Lakes District had to sell she would buy a farm and then lease it back to its former owners, keeping it in agriculture and them in their home. In other places a National Park designation keeps new hotels and resorts from popping up.

I’m sure there are downsides and challenges to these arrangements. But preserving these historic landscapes, where human stewardship seems to interact well with nature, is a lovely and very special gift. In some measure, the difference with the U.S. is symbolized by the beautiful rock walls there contrasted with barbwire fences here. We’re more zealous about private property signified by “keep out” and “no trespassing” signs. Different cultures.

There’s a Latin phrase, attributed to St. Augustine, Solvitur ambulando, meaning “It is solved by walking.” I thought of it often during our walk. I had the feeling that such walking, steady physical activity, negotiating ups and downs, rocky paths, tree roots, and changing vistas was really what the human body is designed to do. At the end of a day I was tired, but never wiped out. It felt right. Walking all day, then resting well at night.

Of course, making it an “inn to inn” trip added a lot, like a shower and bed, not to mention an “English breakfast” to start to the day and a pint of beer and dinner in the evening. This also meant we carried lighter packs with our clothes, first aid kids, toiletries and guidebooks, but not the tents, sleeping bags, stoves and food of backpacking. (Third photo, yours truly on a rocky, and windy, crag in The Dales. Nice legs, don’t you think?)

I don’t know that we solved any of the world’s problems as we walked and talked, but we did at least for a time solve the modern problem of living in a high-tech, too much information, too much sitting culture. Body and mind were more often one. We absorbed the information that a landscape, rather than the internet, provides. We ate well but the proportion was right as we expended a couple thousand calories a day by walking.