On the first day on the Dry Stone Wall Tour of Walls eight of us arrived in Manchester where we met up with two other couples from the states and then were driven by charter bus to Langdale in the Lake District. The weather was really hot. The bus had no air conditioning and no windows that opened. No one complained but we were all quite hot. As we pulled off the motorway and entered the Lake District our eyes were bathed in the beauty of the place. Dry stone walls everywhere.
Jacky said something about it being a bit like a visual spa, being surrounded by such incredible scenery.
I said it just needs some spa music.
Matt said with the heat it was more like a visual sauna.
We met up with the other three at the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel and then most of us having sat long enough on the plane and the bus were now eager to go wall watching right away. We went off as a group and explored the surrounding area.
We saw a good number of well built dry stone walls made of local slate and granite stretching off into the distance in every direction.
We met up with Gavin Rose returning from building trails near Grassmere and might have missed him had he not heard us on the other side of this tall wall. We shook hands across the wall and after introducing everyone we went off to enjoy a great meal together at the hotel and then off for another walk with Gavin as our guide this time to see more walls and the actual Dungeon Ghyll, (a cascading beck that carves and winds its way down the steep face of the fell) and then we walked on to see the remnants of an old Viking dry stone wall that is over a thousand years old.
Inspecting the old Viking wall. Canada doesn't have many 1000 year old walls.
