The training for my trek up Mount Snowdon continues. One thing that I know I must particularly focus on is stamina and walking uphill (up mountain!) I have been looking at local walks I can do and I found the perfect place to do something a bit hilly. About 25 mins from where I live is Beacon Hill near Woodhouse Eaves. I have been to the adjacent Bradgate Park several times but never to Beacon Hill so I decided the time had come to rectify this.
I made my way there and was reassured that they have good Covid-19 advice and precautions. They manage how full the car park is to reduce the amount of people walking and there are lots of social distancing warnings. There is also advice to sanitise your hands after touching gates which I thought was a good reminder.
There is a choice of routes and rough times are given for how long they take. I decided to take the long route but I'm not sure that I went on the right one. Anyhoo, it did not matter. It was a nice sunny morning and set off. New walking boots were getting their second outing, I had a rucksack with some water, a chocolate brownie I found in the freezer and a flask of hot blackcurrant. My daughter says hot Vimto is the stuff to drink to celebrate a good walk, but I had not got any of that so blackcurrent had to do.
There are two car parks, an upper one and a lower one. I chose to park in the lower one so that I would have to walk uphill and then get the easier downhill walk back to the car. This worked well.
I wandered along enjoying the peace of the walk, looking at the trees, nodding hello and sometimes even saying hello to people as they walked by. I rather liked the friendliness of the wander. It was nice.
There are wood sculptures along the path as you walk. The path starts to slowly climb after a while.
and then you realise you really are going up hill.
and then you turn a corner and there is the summit.
So I went to say hello to the summit and then found a bench and had some of the hot blackcurrant. It turns out it really is a nice way to celebrate.
The view from the top is just wonderful. I sat and admired the view. You can see for miles across Leicestershire. What a beautiful county I live in, I am so lucky.
I looked at the rocks that are jutting out around the summit. I remembered how when my children were younger we used to scramble around the similar rocks at neighbouring Bradgate Park. It is a happy memory.
