Don't blame The Townies

As lockdown restrictions finally begin to properly ease - hopefully for good this time - there will be some people dreading the thunder of a million feet heading towards the Lake District.  This is understandable, last year there were some dreadful scenes of people disrespecting the landscape, leaving litter, wrecking trees, parking inconsiderately and, sadly, leaving gates open that resulted in the deaths of livestock.  Hopefully things will be better this year but, if they're not, please don't collectively blame 'the townie'.

I was raised a townie.  I had no control over where I was born and raised and, as soon as I was able to, I escaped to greener pastures, but it was drilled into me at a very early age to respect the countryside.  (For anyone who knows the West Mids, Walsall Arboretum was our nearest decent sized area of greenery, trips to Sutton Park were a *massive* treat and Cannock Chase was like taking a trip abroad!)  

Closer to home we'd play in the rough strip of ground behind the house, making dens and swings and eating enough blackberries to make us sick.  Although we promised that we would never to go further than the end of the road, clandestine trips to Reedswood were the highlight of many a summer - untethered by phone calls demanding to know our whereabouts, or trackers to show where we were at all times, we explored and adventured far beyond where we were supposed to. 

We may have wandered beyond our boundaries, but we never left litter or caused any permanent damage - although there were no mobile phones, or CCTV, we all knew that our mums had eyes everywhere and would somehow know if we'd left an empty crisp packet in one of our dens.

Me, somewhere in Wales, circa 1977

I was lucky enough to holiday in Wales regularly, and that always included a daily walk somewhere.  I was taught how to dress properly and wear the right shoes and I was expected to observe 'The Countryside Code' at all times (as well as being sure to 'Keep Britain Tidy')

Because I grew up far away from the countryside, to me it is still a rare and beautiful thing and I still get excited every time I see lambs, or calfs, or birds, or the sea, or a million other things that I never saw regularly as a kid.  I am keen to protect it, plant the right flowers and bushes to encourage bees and butterflies and try to keep my 'footprint' as small as possible.

Grange Prom

Being controversial, in my experience, sometimes it's the people who grew up with all of that around them that take it for granted.  We live in a conservation zone and have neighbours who have lived in the area all their life, but they have ripped up every flowering plant and concreted over their entire garden, turning it into a natural desert.  Every leaf is swept the moment it touches the floor and jet washing of the paved backyard is a monthly event. A very few, select, green things are allowed, but they are strictly confined to colour co-ordinated tubs.  On the brightside it's inspired me to go a little bit 'wild flower crazy' to try and compensate for their concrete wasteland.

The point is that it's never as straight forward as blaming one type of person or another, that simply causes division where there doesn't need to be any.  We need to focus on doing more to educate everyone about what, I absoultely agree, should be basic common sense, such as taking your litter home, closing gates behind you and not parking like a wazzock.  

I don't have all the answers to the big questions, but I do know that there are amazing groups like the Lakes Plastic Collective who are doing fantastic work to keep the region looking beautiful - check out their Facebook page here and support them if you can - we can achieve a lot more by working together than we can by creating more division.  (You can also find them on Twitter here and Instagram here)

We don't cover the blog in adverts and rely on a steady sale of our books to fund the site.  You can find them all here - please feel free to have a browse. Thank you.

Secrets and lies

Should we keep our favourite fells secret?

I'm not good with secrets and right now I'm sitting on two whoppers - both good (fantastic actually) and, over the next few weeks everything will become apparent but, right now, I have to keep my mouth shut.  This is not natural for me (as anyone who knows me will attest - seriously, if you want to win money, play me at poker, my poker-face is non-existent!)

Anyway, it got me thinking about secrets in general and, more specifically, secrets in the outdoors.  Hikers, cyclists, swimmers, campers, we all have our secrets - our favourite spots that we sneak away to and hope no-one else is there but, as someone who writes books about the outdoors this leaves me with a conundrum.  If all we do is write books about the places everyone already knows about, no-one will buy our books (same old, same old) BUT if we write about new 'secret' places we run the risk of upsetting people who prefer to keep such places under the radar.

It's something that's been in the news a couple of times recently.  Access to a famous beauty spot lake in Snowdonia has been blocked by the farmer that owned it after some visitors left piles of litter - as I understand it the lake was on his private land (rather than a public right of way) but he was happy to let folks enjoy it responsibly - sadly too much of an ask for some people.

Stunning views on NC500

The North Coast 500 has also been in the news again for all the wrong reasons.  On the face of it

promoting this stunning drive along some of the most spectacular roads in the UK should be nothing but good news for the local economy - lots of new people visiting, spending money on campsites and in shops, cafes and bars.  The problem is that it has been a victim of its own success with some folks lacking respect and consideration for the environment.  We visited in 2015 and took six weeks to complete the route; during that time we never left one scrap of litter, we pulled in and let faster vehicles past at every opportunity and we always camped somewhere away from everyone else.

We also see it in Cumbria, people get upset when we talk about 'secret hideaways' but surely nowhere is secret if you have an OS Map?  I've read that Wainwright was miffed when his books proved a huge hit, leading to his previously favoured quiet routes becoming clogged with people following his guides.  I also once interviewed Julia Bradbury and asked if there were some places that she kept to herself and didn't share on TV and she said that there were.

We all have secret places we like to escape to, but it's not the many that are the problem, it's the few and it's not the fact that we talk about the places that's the issue, it's the fact that we have somehow stopped educating people about how to behave outdoors and how to treat the landscape with respect.  I'm not talking about becoming well-versed on conservation matters, I'm talking about the basics of taking your litter home with you, not damaging property and having consideration for everyone else using the route - if everyone understood those things then there would be no issues.

Hidden woodland walk

When I was researching one of our books I read about how remote paths used to be kept clear of brambles by farmers leaving shears or clippers on a hook at one end of the route.  A passing hiker would collect these, clip any wayward branches along the way, then leave the clippers on another hook at the other end of the track for the next hiker.  Can you imagine that happening today?  I would say that Health and Safety would have a fit but we all know that the clippers would be nicked long before anyone got hurt clipping branches.

There's really not a simple answer to this.  Or rather there is: treat the countryside with respect, but embedding and enforcing it is the problem.  If people are happy to risk their lives heading up Helvellyn in flip-flops, then they're really not going to worry about picking up the wrapper from their Mars bar.  At the crux of the issue is where does the responsibility lie for educating people?  I've seen rants against local councils for not clearing grass verges and fly tipping spots but the anger needs to be directed at the people throwing the litter and dumping the rubbish in the first place.

I'm genuinely interested in hearing everyone else's thoughts on this as I know it's a subject close to a lot of our hearts - maybe between us we can find a solution?

In the meantime, as for my secrets, well you'll just have to hang around and see what happens over the next few weeks.  While you're waiting you could always take a look through our books and see where our favourite hideaways are - click HERE for more info.

Out June 15th - available to pre-order here

30 Days Wild : Day 9 - Picking up the litter

I'm getting in early today & with a good deed too.  I hate litter. I mean I *really* hate litter. It messes up the local area & has a massive impact on wildlife globally.  Take a look here to see what I mean.

The top pic is the view from my training room window today.  It looks lovely so I nipped out to commune with the ducks and but it was hard to get a clear photo at first due to all the litter - so I did my good deed & cleared it up.  

It doesn't take much to just pick up a bit of litter instead of just moaning about it, and if we all did just a tiny bit each things will begin to look a whole lot better.

And nice that the ducks came over to say thank you. :-)