Is This Land Cursed?
I went for a fell run today on the moors around Redmires Reservoir. Last time I ran over this ground, a few years ago, I got lost in marsh land. This time I was determined to be more careful. This time I studied the map in detail, I looked at the lay of the land in Google Earth - this time, nothing could go wrong. And for a while it didn't, apart from repeated face offs with rams protecting their lambs, which they do by standing head on in front of you on the path with a look in their eye that says "I have two large curly horns on my head. You're wearing shorts. What are the odds?".
As the path wears on, it gets less and less defined. I guess most people by this point decided it's not worth it and head back. But not me. I studied a map! I'd viewed the lay of the land in Google Earth! Sadly one thing that is hard to pick out on Google Earth is peat bogs. I saw one ahead of me and lept over it majestically in one bound. Then another and again I launched myself skyward, only what I thought was firm ground on the other side was in fact a continuation of the peat bog, disguised as firm ground. My majestic leap served only to increase the speed at which my right leg was swallowed by the moorland, right up to my knee.
God Damn!
I pulled myself out and carried on across the moorland. And then I got lost. I found myself at the bottom of a hill in the middle of a field of sheep in lambing season next to a far house probably populated by a farmer with a shotgun and realised that I know had to run back up the steep hill back to where I was 5 minutes earlier, and then turn right instead of left this time.
I said God Damn!
But you known what, apart from all that, and apart from the wind and rain that battered me most of the way, it was a good run. Some of the views were quite amazing. At one point I just stopped and stared out across Sheffield below me, lit by the sun finding its way through a gap in the clouds. Beyond Sheffield you could see Doncaster, and if it was a clearer day you'd probably have been able to see as far as Scunthorpe too.
If you have Google Earth you can view the run by clicking here, opening the link in Google Earth and pressing play. If you look carefully at the the hill I run round near the start, just north west of the left most reservoir, you can see some zig zagging lines in the ground. These are from the practise trenches dug by the Sheffield City Battalion.
1 Comments:
Rams? At least you weren't confronted by a charging frenchman.
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