R*n 944: Milnthorpe

A selection box of landscapes

A little bit of trepidation after the previous day’s wet weather was thankfully unfounded for this interesting hash around Milnthorpe, organised by Spare Bed, Big Fish, Spare Rib and Bedtime Stories!

Starting off from Market Square, the hash didn’t get too far before being halted by an extremely lengthy pelican crossing, however it was finally on on, and into the very lovely Levens Deer Park.

Following the path by the River Bela the Rambos then got to running by the Kent estuary and mud and saltflats, with some lovely views (and lovelier flat terrain). I got somewhat distracted here on finding the wing and feet of a ringed bird (once a conservationist, always a conservationist) and snapped a couple of photos of the numbers on the rings to follow up when I got home later (fyi - it was a racing pigeon, probably caught by a sparrowhawk).

A little bit of road running after this section, until we got onto a paved coastal path before turning off (and almost missing a red chalked arrow pointing into a field!).

A couple of kilometres across farmland ensued, including one with a pretty huge bull and cows in - one of my biggest fears! I calmly walked through (just internally panicking), trying to get the the wall on the other side as quickly as possible in case there was a need to clamber over - thankfully, the bull was quite uninterested in everything and didn’t move an inch!

A few more fields, with some ‘sparing’ use of flour on the way causing a minor bit of apprehension that myself and LP were lost, but we finally made it into a rather lovely limestone woodland, being treated a short while later to the beer stop.

Feeling slightly refreshed, it was a little back the way we came, heading back into the woods on the other side of the road, and eventually returning into the deer park.

This time the full herd of fallow deer were there, clustered together, probably wondering why these idiots were running past them (same tbh).

Then back the way we came finishing once more in the car park for the circle.

Down downs for myself and Sir Tom Tom having both just celebrated birthdays in the past week, for White Noise and Off His Trolley for being a tad off trail at points and Speedbump and Dormouse for tardiness!

Overall great job hares!