Dexter the Border Terrier: 2023 Update on my year

My year got off to a great start with lots of short walks in different places, I don't mind short walks, I just like being out and about, although I do prefer to have a lie-in after breakfast if possible. Quite a lot of my short walks seem to involve a coffee stop, I'm not allowed to drink coffee but love going to places where I can meet more humans and be made a fuss of. Sometimes I meet other dogs but I generally don't make a fuss over them.

So where did I go in 2023? Well I covered quite a lot of miles, from Kent in the south was Kent to Cumbria in the North. Of course a lot of time was spent in Cymru, my favourite place in the whole world.

Many of my winter walks and runs are in Cheshire and the Wirral, I have had a few walks from West Kirby over the sand to Hilbre Island which is just 1.8 km offshore from West Kirby, one of my walks was with my nephew, Toby the terrier, he's from Buckinghamshire so he's quite posh.

It was very cold out on the sand so I was wearing a very smart new coat!

This walk can only be done when the tide is out and before it starts to come in as the islands are surrounded by deep water. In February I was back at West Kirby for a walk along the Wirral Way to Hooton. This was a great day out, I got the train to West Kirby and the walk took place in glorious sunshine. Inevitably my human stopped a few times for coffee which is always time for a treat and a drink for me. I was lucky to get some lovely winter sunshine for one of my local runs as well as a trip to Stowe to watch some small humans running in the schools cross-country races. I'm happy with the cold in wintertime but I really do not like going out in the rain.

So all-in-all a great start to 2023 which got even better with a trip to the Lake District in March. I was a bit annoyed that one on my humans had gone away on a course on my birthday and had been mountain running while they were away...I was told I couldn't go along because Youth Hostels do not allow dogs. A poor excuse methinks, and anyway my human is far to old to be in a 'youth' hostel. But, moving on, what a great trip to the Lake District, really sunny and dry but quite cold. We did some runs that I have done before, you will see from the photos below how good the weather was.

The first three photos are on the run to Ullock Pike above Bassenthwaite Lake. The views were fantastic over to the Isle of Man, the Mourne Mountains and the Scottish Borders.

Then these two on a smaller hill called Dodd which is an easy run from where we were staying:

Bassenthwaite Lake from Dodd summit

Me admiring the view towards Keswick...

As well as running on the hills in Cumbria I had some great walks in Grizedale Forest and at Loweswater, Loweswater is quite an isolated lake in the north west of the Lake District with very few humans there on the day I went, rain just started as we finished the walk so I jumped back into the car and then off for lunch.

I didn't get to do much running after leaving the Lake District as my human running buddy had damaged his leg so walking was the main exercise for a few weeks. One of my walks was around a castle in Kent, I hadn't visited Kent so yet another part of the world to add to my list of places visited. Here's a picture of Scotney Castle.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/kent/scotney-castle

The year continued with plenty more running and walks in different places, there was a very hot part of the year so my humans did not take me out at the really hot times of day but I did manage to get out and exercise. I carried on with running when I could and as always had some lovely runs and walks in Gwynedd.

So a lovely walk by the Afon Treweryn one day, then on another day a walk to see a steam locomotive that could run backwards of forwards but I couldn't tell which end was the back !