It’s such a lovely, peaceful morning here in the Lakes today. We are parked up beside Thirlmere. I’m trying to get this blog written while Alex gets the pot washed. We are hoping to get another Wainwright ticked off this morning. Just a little one today, after yesterday’s adventure over 3.
Yesterday we did a 9.5-mile walk up the Coniston Old Man, over Brim Fell, and scrambled our way over Dow Crag. It was a brilliant day! It was a long walk with a lot of climbing. We climbed just over 800 metres. However, it did feel easier than some of our Scottish climbs.
I always think Coniston Old Man is such a lovely climb. It goes by the old slate mines and leads you up to a beautiful tarn, Low Water. I climbed it was I was 12 years old. I don’t remember all my climbs from a kid, but this is one I do. It’s just a lovely climb! I don’t think we had any views at the summit as a kid, so it was definitely nice having views yesterday. There was a little bit of low cloud, which kept rolling in. However, it was only thin and patchy, so luckily it didn’t block out all of our views.
After today’s walk, I will have ticked 58 Wainwright’s off, with 156 left to climb. My ambition right from being a young kid has always been to tick off all the Wainwright’s. When I became poorly with the wolf, I thought this dream would not be possible anymore. Like my illness had taken it away from me. Now, I feel it is achievable once again. I know I can’t be certain. You never know what’s around the corner. I always say over and over again, I never take anything for granted. I will never forget how 2 years ago when my illness was not under control and walking around a supermarket was such a struggle.
It hasn’t been easy getting to where I am today. However, with all the little changes I’ve made along the way, and with the help of the correct medication, I have regained some quality of life again. The quality of life, which makes me happy. I still have flare-ups, I still have to be careful what I do each day. I know my limits. I know when I’m pushing my body too much. You may be reading this and thinking surely this is too much for my body, what I’ve done this weekend. For me it isn’t. I’ve grown up climbing mountains. One of my first pairs of shoes was a pair of red walking boots. I had climbed the highest mountain in Wales by the age of 7.
I agree, 2 years ago this would have been too much! However, since then, I’ve slowly increased my strength and my fitness levels, as my health improved, as I got the wolf more and more under control. About a year ago, I would do a hike on a weekend. I would only manage one and would have to spend the following day recovering. Now I can hike two days in a row. What I’m trying to say, I didn’t wake up one morning and decide to climb 3 fells. I built my way back up after years of being too unwell to do it. The best way is to build your strength and fitness up slowly. This will help to prevent too much stress on your body, and hopefully, then prevent flares.
I appreciate every day my body is well enough to get me up and down the mountains. Every day, I feel well enough to just do the things I love doing. The things that make me my happiest. These moments I will always cherish like there my last. You never know when they might get taken away from me once again.
Here’s some photos from yesterday’s hike:
Good News With My Sciatica
I’m so happy, my sciatica has almost cleared up. It doesn’t hurt to walk, stand, or lay down in bed anymore. The only time it seems to hurt is when I run. I went out for my first run since my Scottish road trip on Wednesday. It felt so good to be back out running on the trails once again.
I had to take a break running as I sprained my ankle a week before I was due to travel to Scotland. After my trip, I then developed sciatica, which meant running was not possible. Plus, even though I had been walking on my sprained ankle in Scotland, it needed to some good rest too. Not only that, I was very nervous about getting back out running again, in case I cockled back over on my ankle and sprained it again.
Got Myself A Brace
Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of research on how to prevent my ankle from twisting all the time. I wear ankle supports, but I continue to cockle over on it. Every walk I did in Scotland, I cockled over on. My ankle was so bruised by the end of the holiday. Then at home, I work to walk every day. When I walk on the pavements I’m ok. However, the minute I walk across some uneven grass on my way to work, I cockle back over on it. As it is so bruised, every time I go over on it, it’s just so painful. Plus, I’m worried about the damage I may be doing to it.
I think the reason I’m cockling over on it so much at the minute, is because my tendon has been stretched too much in my foot. I’m not sure if it will fix itself naturally over time? I know I’ve been referred to see a specialist about it. So I’m sure they will explain more.
After doing a lot of research on how to prevent it from twisting all the time. I’ve found an ankle brace you can buy. It was £20 off Amazon. It’s just called an ankle brace. It’s absolutely fantastic! My foot cannot bend in any wrong direction when wearing it. So I decided to test it running on Wednesday morning. It was brilliant! My ankles felt so sturdy on the trails. I didn’t feel anxious at all about my feet rolling in. It’s a complete game changer! I’ve also purchased some new walking boots with higher ankle support, compared to my current ones. These boots make it harder for my ankle to roll.
Update On The Wolf
After feeling pretty rubbish last weekend, things have been so much better this week. I did the right thing last weekend, staying at home, listening to my body, giving the rest it needed. Even though I did miss Casper and gave myself an infected finger from a cactus needle when I decided to repot one without using gloves. I then panicked I might get sepsis as I couldn’t get it out and was all infected. I ended up cutting my finger open with a pair of scissors. Not really what I recommend you doing but thankfully it did the trick. I did cover my finger in lots of Sudocream after, just so it then didn’t infected from the scissors.
I also found out I’m allergic to spider plants this week. A few weeks back when I was in Robin Hood’s Bay, in the North Yorkshire Moors, a woman was giving them away for free. I’m somebody who loves houseplants. My house is full of them! So I was over the moon when I got offered this spider plant. Well, I was until my sinuses became very congested and painful. I was then researching about another houseplant I’m after. As I did, I saw an article about spider plants and how they are bad for people who suffer from allergies. That then made me think, it could be the cause of my current sinus trouble, which I was having. So I took them out of my house and put them in my greenhouse. My sinuses have cleared right up. Crazy!
Anyways, that’s it from me this week. Going to get out for this walk. Well, I think we are. Alex is currently fast asleep. He did the pots and then he went to lay down. He’s now snoring away! He had his 2nd dose of the vaccine on Friday and he’s been feeling drained all weekend from it. Maybe taking him up 3 Wainwright’s yesterday might no have been the best of plans!
I currently have no signal where we are parked up. So will be posting this blog later today, after our walk. Just in case if you are reading it and wondering why we are going out for a walk so late in the day.
Until next week,
Goodbye for now
Emma
xox
P.s. We did get the 4th Wainwright climbed today. Here’s a photo from the summit of Raven Crag with views of Thirlmere Reservoir:
