Source
Center Parcs guest map.
Today’s Walkers
Neil.
Start Grid Reference
Essentially irrelevant….
Map of Route
The helpful map
Type of Walk
Holiday camp roads with some ‘off road’.
Distance and Time
7km / 4½ miles, 2 hours (no stops).
Difficulty
Astonishingly low.
Our Rating (up to 5*)
1*
Description
Having felt left out by the other walkers, ok only because we were in different parts of the country, this was a solo walk around the Center Parcs Whinfell Forest estate near Penrith. The aim of the walk was to a) complete the Owl Trail and b) avoid at all cost the swimming pool (due to sinkage issues).
The ‘village’ itself opened in 1997, although it does seem to have been longer based on the many visits made to it by the family. Here you can see the official opening monolith as well as a view to prove it’s not all just holiday chalets and shops. Didn’t see any monkeys bashing bones on the ground though.
So, setting off in a clockwise direction the walk took me along various roads and tracks. The aim was to find all of the owls on the trail, a task which was duly completed. Here are a sample of just three of them.
Of course some other areas of interest were noted, such as:
- Top left – bit of irony in the first photograph as it claimed to have Seven Pines but there were obviously at least 94!
- Bottom left – four ‘dads’ enjoying some quad biking. What you can’t tell from the photo is how slow they were restricted to. I could have walked quicker.
- Right – a radio mast heavily disguised as a pine tree, and rather well done.
Finally, and in honour of our Chair/Secretary¹ of the Prudhoe Pathforce, a rather useless Public Footpath. Useless in the sense that there was no stile over the fence and all fences were protected with electric wires. Somewhat destroys the ‘public’ option.
¹ Delete as appropriate.
Middle Aged Ramblings 