Walk 88 — long and flat…

The tower that is all that really remains of Shap Abbey.

Long — 14 miles or so — but very flat, walk 88 saw me go from Penrith to Shap, via the summit of Knipescar Common, an outlying fell even amongst the outliers, which becomes number 273 of the full list of 330: I have 57 to go.

I may as well push through with more of the fells around Shap before the end of October, because at that point the #106 bus which links this region to the railway stations at Kendal and Penrith is finally going to succumb to the Tory desire to cut public spending wherever it can (while also reducing taxes that the rich pay, so proving they actually don’t give a toss about ‘reducing the national debt’ — it’s too good a political weapon to wield against the poor and marginalised). As of the end of this month, this whole region — including Shap Abbey, pictured above — becomes a whole lot less accessible.