Thank you all for your responses greatly appreciated.

To answer some of the above, yes I am unemployed. I worked my notice to start this role, though unfortunately the circumstances changed.

The revised 3 month contract is a pro-rata version of the original contract.

For continuity of employment / needing to pull in an income I’ll be taking the 3 month contract as haven’t got a great deal of choice.

Looking at the positives, it keeps me afloat for a little longer, though the whole process stinks and has left a sour taste.

3 months is also no time to make any significant impact, so maybe it’s a a stop gap to bide time to convince the board for a longer term contract, by proving my worth.

Thanks for taking your time to respond everyone, greatly appreciated 👍

We didn’t report it as there was an off duty police officer there and he appeared intimidated by the confrontation and was siding with the landowners.

Given his response on the day, we felt it was likely pointless and given the technicality of us being on their land and no real physical altercation occuring (other than pushing and grabbing), it would be difficult to prove anything untoward had happened.

We were being firm that it wasn’t appropriate how aggressive they were being and didn’t appreciate how the situation was being handled and felt their request for us to turn round and walk back was a bit harsh given the context. We did end up walking back as we just wanted to end the day as we’d set out to.

They were incensed that we had bikes and it was odd that they were at the bottom of the lane as if they were waiting for people on bikes to pass.

This was on old route called wallabies revenge near Macclesfield.

Got involved in a pretty tense situation yesterday, pushing bikes down a footpath.

Was met by a man almost frothing at the mouth, with his off road buggy parked across the path. Aggressively shouting we were on his land, escalated pretty quickly with his brother and dad running down the road grabbing us, and pushing us.

Coincidentally there was an off duty police officer passing who attempted to diffuse the situation, had he not shown up not sure how far it would have gone.

Wasnt aware you couldn’t push a bike down a footpath, seems ridiculous that you can’t.

The level of aggression that we were met with Vs the act of pushing a bike down a path (was historically a bridleway, but landowner reclassified it as a footpath) was significantly disproportionate.

I agree with all of that.

The Tories have always positioned themselves as the ‘party for business’, though I’m yet to know of a bigger shambolic business deal than Brexit and HS2 is a £100 billion unmitigated disaster and it’s not due for completion for another 20 years.

How these things do not go through a rigorous due diligence process that incorporates multiple different stakeholders that are indirectly or directly impacted by these decisions is beyond me.

Some nice ideas to research here, thanks everyone for contributing.

Another day out I’m looking at is Hellvelyn, getting up there for sunrise and avoiding the crowds. Day 2 exiting Grizedale Forest.

I suspect travel restrictions will be tighter than last year with going abroad, so I imagine the British countryside is going to be pretty hectic this summer.

Thank you all for the thorough replies, greatly appreciated. We’ve got 3 days / 2 nights down there, so going to do some exploring outside of the park. I’m pretty new to all this, so will leave a review afterwards for others in the same boat. Thanks again :)

Teethgrinder – yep that’s the plan. What’s the climb up like and roughly how long do you think it would take?

I have a little in savings, though no significant other half. I think part time (after work) / taking on smaller projects is a good suggestion to get a flavour of the various ins and outs, before making that plunge. It’s good to soundboard as there’s the “just go for it, you’ll never look back” types, where as I’m sure in a lot of cases many would have wished they’d find more due diligence in establishing whether it was a sound, viable option.

Thanks for the responses guys. It’s leaving that monthly wage security which is proving the biggest mental barrier in taking that plunge.

I was bed bound for 3 months after an abscess near my spine, the frustration of daily pain took a toll mentally. Try and focus on maintaining a healthy diet (very easy to fall into the trap of snacking), putting on weight through lack of movement and comfort eating exacerbates the frustration further.

No booze, healthy eating, get outside in the fresh air and try reading over trawling the internet / watching TV.

Getting up earlier than normal, so you’re naturally more tired towards the end of the day helps get a decent healthy sleeping pattern too.

Appreciate the above may seem obvious, but it will aid the recovery and prevent any overspill into your mental well being.

Wish you a speedy recovery pal!

Ah great thanks, I’ll add them to the list. Yeah I’ve read about the o/s app, I’ll give that a try before committing to the meatier cost of a Garmin. You’d have thought Google would have manoeuvred into this space more for the outdoor pursuits (though probably a good thing they haven’t…)