Lying back on the grass, I exhaled for what seemed like the first time in 18 months. I was miles away from civilisation and a world away from the long days of solo lockdown in my London flat.
Now I was alone again, but in happier circumstances. I could hear faraway sheep and feel a gentle breeze as I gazed at the Lake District countryside and sky. I was a few days into walking from Cumbria’s Irish Sea shores to the North Sea on the Coast to Coast, a network of paths created by fell-walker and writer Alfred Wainwright, and it was absolute bliss.
