Off The Green Paths
On the walk in to Gillercombe Buttress the other week, the Bearded Lexicographer mentioned that you never see anyone on the classic routes on Great Gable these days - Napes Needle apart, the crags are deserted. That, said the Actor-Manager, was because no-one ever strays off the bridleways and footpaths marked on their maps: they're scared the fellside will put them beyond the help of a health and safety regime.
KER-CHING! I thought, and immediately proposed that we write a guidebook to the Lake District you can encounter off marked footpaths and bridleways, never mind the landscaped adventure tracks. Off The Green Paths would be a surefire bestseller. I could not have anticipated my companions' reaction. The Bearded Lexicographer offered to shoot me on the spot. The Actor-Manager was clearly unhappy. Then I realised: they're both incomers and they want their Lakeland to stay the way it was when they first knew it. The reaction of the native is quite different: most of us spend lifetimes waiting for our places to change profoundly from the way they were when we first knew them. The Lexicographer opined that, so far as he was concerned, the more people who came to the Lakes and never set foot outside Center Parcs the better: it simply meant the hills would be his alone. The Actor Manager agreed, though less vehemently.
So now I'm contemplating a different sort of local guide: a look at the best & worst Lakeland pubs and restaurants, many of which feature legendarily bad service and dull food - the twin perils of a location that needs to do little or nothing to attract visitors. Some early entries may appear in posts on this blog . . .
KER-CHING! I thought, and immediately proposed that we write a guidebook to the Lake District you can encounter off marked footpaths and bridleways, never mind the landscaped adventure tracks. Off The Green Paths would be a surefire bestseller. I could not have anticipated my companions' reaction. The Bearded Lexicographer offered to shoot me on the spot. The Actor-Manager was clearly unhappy. Then I realised: they're both incomers and they want their Lakeland to stay the way it was when they first knew it. The reaction of the native is quite different: most of us spend lifetimes waiting for our places to change profoundly from the way they were when we first knew them. The Lexicographer opined that, so far as he was concerned, the more people who came to the Lakes and never set foot outside Center Parcs the better: it simply meant the hills would be his alone. The Actor Manager agreed, though less vehemently.
So now I'm contemplating a different sort of local guide: a look at the best & worst Lakeland pubs and restaurants, many of which feature legendarily bad service and dull food - the twin perils of a location that needs to do little or nothing to attract visitors. Some early entries may appear in posts on this blog . . .
posted by Nick at 8:59 pm
3 Comments:
Now that will helpful and also interesting. The good and bad eating establishments and pubs in the Lakes.
Brilliant idea. Clearly you need to recruit a small but select force of inspectors to go round sampling Cumbrian hostelries and providing you with their comments. I suspect that even you are incapable of doing it all yourself! Count me in immediately. I can certainly give you a list of utterly dire hostelries in the South Lakes.
Dr John - all offers of help on this noble, selfless quest gratefully accepted. Send 'em on . . .
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