Small notes from slow routes. We write what we saw, not how amazing it was.
Dates, places and people in the journal are fictional.
12 September 2025, 3 min read
On the third morning in Harrowfell the cowbells came from the left and then, a minute later, from behind us. Our guide stopped without saying anything, so we stopped, and the herd went past in a slow brown river. A calf was looking at the group the way you look at a very slow bus. Nobody took a photograph for two minutes. That was the best part.
2 June 2025, 4 min read
In Saltreach the day starts when the water leaves. We pin the tide table to the door of the guesthouse, and breakfast is whenever the table says. It sounds restrictive; it is the opposite. Nobody argues about when to leave because the sea has already decided.
19 May 2025, 2 min read
A wall on the way into Hollow Quay is covered with at least six kinds of moss. Someone counted. We were late for supper and did not mind at all.
30 August 2025, 3 min read
The ferry to Tern Landing takes forty minutes to go two kilometres. The deck is bare wood and there is room for a flask and six people. We did not talk much. A gull took an interest in the biscuits.
4 October 2025, 3 min read
The best meals on our routes are not the largest. A table, a loaf, a bowl of butter, a pear and a glass of water, with the window going dark. We think about that table when we plan.
21 April 2026, 4 min read
By day five on Kestrel Plain the horizon stops looking far and starts looking like a wall that keeps retreating. The group went quiet in a good way. In the evening someone said they could hear the grass and everyone agreed.