I sit in the Nags Head watching walkers in shorts and tee-shirts stride out for the fells. It is a lovely feeling watching someone else making the effort for a change.
I visit the excellent new Moorland Visitor Centre, replete with waterfall and moorland roof and excellent host / manager. It is an excellent place and I find some of the exhibits fascinating - there is more on the carbon store of the blanket bogs that the chaps I met on the Offa's Dyke were researching, and lots on the wildlife and the people who live and work on and around the moors - a true insight into life in the area rather than the anodyne effort at Knighton.
The chap running the place is an enthusiast and sets up the 45 minute film on the Pennine Way for me to watch and finds me a (free) accommodation list, with the accommodation listed in the correct order!
The camp-sites are packed and just about every accent from Britain is heard in the pub. This is a tourist hot-spot that has got it spot on - it is welcoming, informative and sits in one of the prettiest places in England.
I am now just back from the Nags, and have called Lynnie from the Phone Box - she related an interesting postscript to Jonny's Broken Leg drama:
As he was laying there beside his skip, a lady walked past walking her dog. He beseeches her to pop into his house, telling her where the phone was, so she could call an ambulance.
The lady disappeared inside, but after twenty minutes or so, did not re-appear. Jonny started calling for help - getting increasingly desperate. Eventually his neighbour appears and summons help and then goes into Jonny's house to find the woman - who it transpired had Alzheimer's and had no idea why she was in this strange house...
Jonny is in hospital having his leg rebuilt at the moment.
Get well Jonny!
Enjoying every step of your lejog walk blog, Alan. A surrogate pleasure, as I could never do it now; thankyou for the story.
ReplyDeleteStu
BTW: That word is spelled 'anodyne', if you wanna change, OK?