The Art of Navigation

Once upon a time ago I had a cracking sense of direction. My sense of direction was so good that whenever I went anywhere with my friend Karen she relied entirely on my famed sense of direction and followed me blindly. This in itself is probably nothing to be proud of, as she herself would attest to the fact that she cannot find her way out of a paper bag. Nevertheless my sense of direction was good. I found my way around London, Manchester, Boston, Hanoi... the list goes on. All this (gasp)  in the age before an iPhone or City Mapper.

Then I met my husband. My husband who worked for Tom Tom. The man with the maps, if you will. Naive as I was I didn't spot the "Me Man. Me Navigate" situation I was in, but over the years I stopped paying attention. I didn't give much thought to where I was going or which road was taking me there. I guess it really was a case of "use it or lose it".

Turns out, I was not the only one facing the phenomenon of meeting a Man Who Navigates. My sister got married and lost her sense of direction too.

None of this is really a big problem in the grand scheme of things. In an age where Google maps follow us everywhere we go, there is probably more chance of Siri sending a helicopter to a lost soul than one truly getting lost. Except in the curious case of the The Lewis Sisters in Barnet.

Picture the scene. A cloudy morning in Mill Hill. Two intrepid sisters step out for a casual training walk. They decide to tackle a road less travelled - the Dollis Valley Greenwalk. Two sisters who have lived in Mill Hill for 20 combined years and who have never understood where the Green Walk led to, brace themselves for a lovely morning amble. Spoiler alert, it was us. Team Lewis off on our 17k hike.

The clouds parted ways as we stepped into the Green Walk. The sun came out and shone down on us. The air once heavy with pollution gave way to the sweet smell of summer grass. Everything was just deliciously perfect.

The first hour walking seemed idyllic. Smiling to people along the route like tourists, we nattered away about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. We happily chatted and commented on how lovely it was to be out. We loved being away from the roads.

We realised we were a little out of our depth when we came to the first open space. Now is time to revisit the fact that neither of us had any clue where on earth we were going. The Green Walk is a great idea, but would it really be too much to ask to just make the signposts a little clearer??

The walk was a delight, we climbed over wooden gates. We plodded carefully past grazing cows (I wont mention the terror on my sister's face at the prospect of walking past a cow) and we threw caution to the wind as we watched out for swarms of bees.

We also got horribly lost. Of course we found our way out and of course we were fine in the end... but we sure did spend a lot of time wandering through fields and asking people where they were going.

Here are a few things we learned:

1. Two men cycling past us came from Bedfordshire. They cycled from Bedfordshire to Barnet, and they were on their way to The Spaniards Inn for a pint. I guess that beer must be pretty good.
2. Cows are not dangerous. Even Bulls.
3. Despite how terrible I am with directions, I am not quite as bad as my sister. 
4. Always apply sun cream before any long walk. I have been explaining to just about everyone I have seen since then that no, I have not been on holiday. I am just a tomato from a walk.

If you are in the market for a walk, I really recommend the Dollis Valley Green Walk. Make sure you look out for the tiny yellow arrows pointing out the route though - or you could end up, like us, going around in circles!!

Thanks for reading! Did I mention we are training for a mammoth walk? There is still time to sponsor us and help raise money for Cancer Research UK:
https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/lewis-girls