Four-Times-Illegal Cumbrian Hunters

I object to thugs hunting illegally here and trashing our wildlife but this took the biscuit I thought!

No photos – I was looking where I was driving!  Probably time I got a dash-cam though…

I was on my way back from a good day on the hills… the ground had frozen solid so I was no longer having to trudge along through sodden ground squelching all the way as I’ve been doing all summer and autumn.  I’d done a quick seven hills and had only started at 1330 hours so, for a change, must have been going pretty well.

I drove to the hills and back very carefully as, although the roads were mostly dry, it was around freezing all day and so any wet patches were shot ice and you never knew where those patches would be until you reached them.  My return road went over the high moors where I was surprised but pleased to be following the gritter.  I had a single track road which goes in a dead straight line downhill for two miles and is north-facing but I thought it would be pretty dry so safe – just the same, I was going carefully.

Suddenly, the normally deserted road started to fire vehicles at me coming the other way.  If you get as close as you can to the verge you can often pass these safely so I got as far over as I could.  I soon noticed that, apart from the odd pickup truck, most of these vehicles looming out of the dusk towards me were quad bikes.  Quad bikes in great numbers around our back lanes always mean one thing – illegal hunting (their hunting has been illegal for over 10 years now).

The annoying thing was that, out the of the 30 or so quad bikes (most of which won’t be legally on the public road), only about two were showing any lights and were practically invisible – you could just suddenly see a dark shape.  There were two thugs on each bike and they weren’t slowing for anyone. 

In amongst all these was a solitary, very dark and unlit horse and rider!  Unluckily for him, when I brake hard in the Polo, my brakes squeal loudly after a certain amount of pressure – and I had to apply quite some pressure to come to a crawl to pass an invisible horse!  The horse wasn’t happy and I swore out of the window at the rider to tell him what a prat he was.

Suddenly, one of the quad bikes with lights on swerved across to my side of the road just as I reached it (he was looking down at something – he obviously didn’t see my lit car coming down the hill).  Of course I also had to swerve to miss him and that was it – I was off the road and on the slippery sides and heading into the ditch.  I got control back over my car and persuaded it back onto the tarmac from the icy grass.  Did he stop? Did anyone else stop?  Did they hell!

So… to sum up, they were illegally hunting, they were in the main riding non road-legal bikes, they were mostly driving without lights AND they ran someone off the road!  I’m sure they count that as a great day out – morons!  I wish someone would hunt them to extinction.

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