By: Blonde One
I have often stood on top of a hill looking at the valley below and then beyond to the next hill wishing there was an easier way to get to that next hill rather than going all the way down just to come back up again. A zip wire would be the answer! The Lake District are having a dilemma at the moment about whether a zip wire should be installed at an old mining site to provide extra, much needed coffers from the thrill seeking tourists. The most recent application has been rejected despite some campaigning from some high profile people. If this was Dartmoor I would be horrified and be first in the queue to prevent such a monstrosity being built ‘in my back yard’. I suppose I can concede to at least understand some of the arguments for having such a tourist attraction in such a beautiful place. However, the purist in me says that a zip wire or any other 21st century contraption should never be allowed to spoil our ‘green and pleasant land’.
Anyway, with a zip wire across every valley, I would never feel the burn in my legs, the thumping of my heart and the immense satisfaction at reaching the top of another Dartmoor hill.
Fleetwith Pike is a lovely, dramatic hill. I’d hate to see it tangled up with wire and pylons. I always have trouble with zips – especially trouser zips; maybe I need to leap up and down the Pike a few times. Disaster has struck, which is probably why I am rambling on. I’ve run out of Smarties.
And it would defeat the “fitness” side to walking!!!
I was quite pro the zip wire in the Lakes since it was in an area already scarred by the quarry so not really an area of outstanding natural beauty! Also I would find flying through the air quite a lot of fun!!!
Afraid I’m with Chris Bonners on that one – the mining is an ugly enough human scar that to not reinvent it with a functional tourist attraction that encourages local economy and possible education about our open spaces is uninventive to say the least!
In Monteverde, Costa Rica is a cloud forest with the most amazing zip wire system, giving a birds eye and otherwise unexperienceable view of the trees. Walking below the wires on the trails is very peaceful, they are pretty unobtrusive really. And it’s very exciting riding!