Hike # 3: The Aspinall Arms & Ribble Valley

It seems that every time I do a ‘hike’ post, it’s not quite as interesting as the last one. I hope I’m not boring you all to tears with these articles.

After yesterdays ‘bad run’, it was back to the hiking today, or walking to be truthful. This one was a relatively easy farmland 3 mile walk that was not on the moors or contained any particularly hard walking. I wanted something easy to gain my leg strength back.

Once again I used the iFootpath application to find this one, which is here: https://www.ifootpath.com/display-ifootpath-walk?walkID=3178

It’s always good to start in pub car parks, as you don’t have to pay. I have a bit of a ‘thing’ about paying to park and try to avoid it at all costs. Nevertheless @bingbabe mentioned that someone was giving us funny looks for ‘using’ their car park space though it was almost empty.

This was a casual stroll along the banks of the River Ribble which coasts its way through rural Lancashire. I had a feeling the adjoining fields would be full of sheep in the fields, but was proved wrong and saw none at all. Consequently my dog ‘Shadow’ had a free reign for most of the walk.

He did have a bit of an issue with this stile but eventually figured it out and hopped through it.

We came to a farm and had to put him on the lead. Farmers seem a little bit more relaxed than when I was younger about ‘trespassers’ on ‘their land’. The footpath system is extensive in England but some are still very possessive about you walking through 'their farms' when in fact it is a public track.

This small diversion was a puzzle to me. There’s a sign that says ‘footpath’ but you can clearly see the other side with the gate, or you can just walk on the road. Someone went to some effort to create a very short footpath.

Continuing past the farm we walked down rough country roads until we got to what I think was a field full of wheat.

I have to confess I haven’t seen one of these close up and it did look quite picturesque with the ‘hobbit hill’ in the background. Getting rid of my photography silhouette is a skill I still need to master!

Walking past this semi-dead tree I figured this would be good for the @googlyeyes competition. It’s got arms and even a snout looking nose, the eyes just need to be placed.

Walking through some trees I got this snap of ‘shadow’ heading back to us; probably my best picture of the day (cover picture).

There’s a lot of fungus growing on trees at this time of year and I ventured into a thistle patch to get a close up of this one, hoping it was not a wasp’s nest or something equally nasty.

This shady looking character is actually @bingbabe and not someone about to accost me and take my money and belongings.

The final part of the walk was the most boring; roadside. We did contemplate heading back the way we had come just to avoid this but the heat was getting ever worse the longer we were out.

The footpath was really narrow and it was a 60MPH road, so we had to watch out for speeding vehicles.

I noticed some ‘conkers’ on a horse chestnut tree and ruefully thought about when I was a kid and climbed these trees in hope of getting some. Nobody bothers or cares about conkers, and they are now plentiful.

‘Conker fights’ I believe are now banned in schools. I never suffered any injuries, the world has gone mad.

The last stop before we hit our start point was a big country house named ‘Mitton Hall’. I used to visit this place during the early 90’s as it was then a really good Indian restaurant of all things!

We visited it maybe two years ago for some regular food and found it average at best. Being big and grand doesn’t always mean quality, though it is usually at high cost.

We both agreed that this was a good walk, except for the ‘road part’. We will likely return and walk this one again as it quite close to home and relatively easy.

Hiking Icon courtesy of https://www.flaticon.com/free-icon/man-in-hike_71860

All other photographs were taken by myself.