As well as
beer and travel, one of my other main interests is
walking.
By walking I mean being out in the great outdoors, travelling from one
destination to another, preferably across country. This cross-country walking,
as opposed to pounding the streets in urban areas, is variously described as
hiking, rambling, hill walking, trekking, or backpacking. The latter two terms
refer to long-distance walking where participants carry their entire luggage
required for a multi-day hike, on their back in a
rucksack. Walking,
particularly in high mountain areas for several days, is also known as
trekking.
Rambling normally refers to organised groups of
between six and twelve people, following a clearly defined route plan. To me,
rambling, conjures up middle-aged men in shorts, over-sized leather boots,
brushed-cotton shirts with the sleeves rolled up and a large, stiff, and
well-worn canvas rucksack on their backs. The women are of similar age and
similarly attired; possibly with a tweed skirt replacing the shorts. Whether
it’s a
rucksack, a
knapsack, or a
backpack they’re
carrying (the terms are largely inter-changeable), it will invariably contain
an
Ordnance
Survey map, a flask of tea, packed lunch, plus that
confectionery no serious rambler would be without –
Kendal Mint
Cake.
I prefer the term walker, and most of the walking I undertake
is either a circular hike to a nice
country pub, or a linear hike following an
established long-distance footpath
(LDP), of which there are many in the
UK.
The former are normally undertaken with a small group of friends, whilst the
latter are either solo walks, or with just one fellow walker for company. They
quite often involve at least one overnight stay, and often several more. The
latter two are my favourite types of walking, as they afford a real opportunity
of getting away from away from it all; a break as it were from the stresses and
strains of modern life.
I have only completed three long-distance footpaths all of
which are in the
UK. The first of these walks was the
South Downs
Way, which is one of the oldest of
Britain’s
LDP’s. The
SDW is a
100-mile trail
which follows the line on the chalk
South Downs uplands from
Eastbourne
on the
East
Sussex coast to
Winchester – the ancient capital of
England.
The second
LDP is the
Wealdway, an
83-mile trail from
Gravesend on the
Thames
Estuary to the town of
Eastbourne, on the south coast,
overlooking the
English Chanel. As its name suggests, the walk traverses
the
Weald
area of
Kent
and
Sussex,
in a roughly north-south direction.
I completed both these walks over
10 years
ago, and last autumn
(2022), I finally finished the
North Downs Way.
The latter
LDP is perhaps a mirror image to the
SDW, as it takes
a similar east-west route, but along the chalk escarpment of the
North Downs.
It broadly follows the historic pilgrims
would have taken, from the
Surrey
town of
Farnham to the shrine of
St Thomas Becket in
Canterbury.
It doesn’t end at the cathedral city, as it carries on towards
Dover and
the famous
White Cliffs, and just to complicate matters, the path splits
just to the west of the
river Stour, with northerly and southerly routes,
both of which finish at
Dover,
It took me much longer to complete the
NDW, as with a
couple of exceptions, I walked the route a section at a time, on the odd day
off from work. This was in contrast to the other two walks which were completed
several sections at a time, with overnight stays, either at pubs or
bed &
breakfast establishments along the way. Overnight stops were a key feature of
these walks and added to the sense of freedom and relief that goes hand-in-hand
with
“getting
away from it all.”
Sometimes it's nice to walk alone, especially when you fancy
a bit of solitude, but the enjoyment which comes from shared experiences on the
trail, such as appreciating a spectacular view, laughing at a particularly
funny joke, or sinking that first pint of the evening, is something which
cannot be under-estimated. It’s nice to set a challenge, plan it out and then
set off to accomplish it. If the challenge is a physical one, then so much the better,
and as I experienced on the
NDW, walking the entire length of the county,
and then heading into neighbouring
Surrey, took me to places I hadn’t
been to before, even though they’re at most a few hours’ drive or train ride
away.
There are several other
LDPs I would like
to have a go at, Including the famous
Pennine Way, the
Cotswold Way, and
nearer to home the
Greensand Way. If I had my time again, or was
perhaps
20
years younger, the world famous,
2,200-mile-long,
Appalachian Trail in the
east of the United States
would be the long-distance walk to aspire to. The
American writer
Bill Bryson
famously recounted his experiences attempting to walk the trail, in his book,
“A Walk in
the Woods,” but the book that really inspired me was
“Journey
Through Britain,” by
British walking enthusiast,
John Hillaby. Published in
1968,
the book describes
Mr Hillaby’s epic
eleven-hundred-mile trek from
Land’s
End to
John O’Groats. My father, who was an avid reader,
as well as a collector of books, lent me his copy. I read it whilst in my teens
and still living at home with my parents. I eagerly devoured the book, fascinated
by the author’s narrative and descriptions of the places he passed through on
his epic journey. From memory, he had an interesting and slightly eccentric
view of life, and this comes across in his often-witty observations. A few
years later, he published a follow-up in the form of
“Journey
Through Europe.”
Both books inspired me to take up walking for both fitness
and pleasure, and
I have enjoyed walking since my mid-teens. During
this time, I lived in a small village, with poor or non-existent public
transport links. This meant it was often necessary to resort to shank’s pony as
a means of getting about. I was also a member of a local
youth group which,
during the school holidays, embarked on a number of
Youth-Hostelling
trips.
I’ve got the leader of the group to thank for
taking us on these holidays, which involved a fair amount of walking and,
whilst it may on occasion have seemed hard going at times, just being out in
the fresh air and enjoying the local scenery, instilled a love of the great
outdoors which I still have today.
For the record the group leader was the local vicar,
and the locations we visited, and walked, included the
South Downs,
North Wales, the Peak District, and the
Isle of Wight.
On one of these trips, I learned how to take compass bearings and follow these
across open moorland, without getting lost. You don’t lose these skills and
even though navigation by
GPS has largely augmented proper map-reading,
there is still no substitute for being able to follow a map, unaided.
A few years ago, I heard an article on the radio
entitled, “It’s the sitting down that kills you”. Apparently,
research has shown that sitting down in excess of sixhours a day makes you up
to 40% more likely to die within 15 years, than someone who sits for
less than three hours. This applies, even if you exercise! Fortunately,
as stated earlier, I’ve always been fairly active, and my current job allows me
to walk around the factory on a regular basis.
I also go for a walk most lunchtimes, covering
between a mile and a mile and a half. This allows me some exercise before
getting back to my sandwiches and a cup of tea. I really enjoy being out in the
fresh air and getting away from the factory, whilst the rural setting of my
workplace adds to my enjoyment. Following a small number of set routes also
allows me to appreciate the changing seasons; something which is obviously far
more noticeable in the country than it is in a town.
I shall end by describing briefly, the sense of
achievement and euphoria I experienced on my first LDW, which was the South
Downs Way. It was the spring of 2008 when a friend and I set off to walk
the 100 or so miles from Eastbourne to Winchester. We
completed the walk the following year, having divided the trail up into three
manageable sections.
We stayed overnight
at B & B establishments along the way; some of which were pubs, and
in the evenings especially, there was normally plenty of beer consumed to
rejuvenate a tired and aching body. I cannot overstate the enjoyment of walking
through some of the most attractive landscapes in southern England, the camaraderie,
and the people we met along the way.
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