Journeys by hiking, running, cycling and touring
Organising category for the individual categories of Long Distance Paths and walks on them
Knowstone to Drewsteignton, 29 miles, 2 days As is always the case on a long distance walk, a night spent in a proper bed and the body filled with a proper breakfast gives you a bit of a spring in your step. And so it was as we started out for day 3, tempered only … Continue reading A Different Coast to Coast – Part 2: The Middle Bit
Lynmouth to Knowstone - 27 miles, 2 days The rain started just as we got to Lynmouth, banishing the hopes that had arisen that the forecast didn't seem to be playing out. We stepped onto the beach to take the obligatory start photo and then turned our faces southward and into the rain. Before we … Continue reading A Different Coast to Coast – Part 1: Exmoor
Ice cream and tea consumed I got on my way, leaving sleepy Strata Florida behind and heading along a lane that would take me to the Teifi Pools. Climbing up gently over grass, I gained a trackway and soon saw the first of the lakes - Llyn Egnant. I stopped to refill my water from … Continue reading Cambrian Way #7: Strata Florida to Ponterwyd (Days 16-17)
It probably wasn't a great idea to begin a 4 day backpack through remote mid Wales with a night of virtually no sleep. Even less a good idea to do so with a newly hurt knee obtained in an ill-advised game of garden volleyball at a gathering with the in-laws a few hours before. And it's probably … Continue reading Cambrian Way #6: Llandovery to Strata Florida (Days 14-15)
Dover was miserable as I stepped off the train. A walk through town saw me narrowly avoiding being accosted by some rather dubious-looking characters. Not responding to their calls was probably the smart thing to do. Ironically, by the time I found the Market Square and then followed the NDW I was almost back at … Continue reading The North Downs Way 11: The End
Dad and I spent a week walking along the coast path from St Ives to Padstow. I'm not going to write a long story about this as it tends to get repetitive, so will confine myself to a few remarks and then leave it to the photos to tell the story... We headed down to … Continue reading South West Coast Path 2016
WHEN that Aprilis, with his showers swoot.... So pricketh them nature in their corages; Then longe folk to go on pilgrimages, And palmers for to seeke strange strands, To ferne hallows couth in sundry lands; And specially, from every shire's end Of Engleland, to Canterbury they wend (From the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey … Continue reading The North Downs Way 10: The Missing Canterbury Tales
I've decided what I'm going to do as my local long distance path project for this year - it's the London Countryway. The London Countryway is a long distance walking trail that circumnavigates London. It lies outside of the two better-known circular London walks - the Capital Ring and the London LOOP - and so … Continue reading A London Countryway – Planning
So I've now completed the Wealdway, my Long Distance Path project for 2015 and it's worth a look back at how it went. Actual v Plan - the stats I planned the walk to take advantage of the various railway stations the route crosses: In Kent and East Sussex railways run broadly east-west and so … Continue reading A Look Back at the Wealdway
The sun was still trying to inch its way up into the sky as it I got back to the car from last night's camp, and such was the direction I was headed in that I found myself driving almost head-on into the sun for most of the drive. Irritating but a positive sign for the … Continue reading A Long Man and a Long Walk (Wealdway: Berwick to Eastbourne)
Moonlight bathed the tent in streaks of silver, filtered by the straggling branches of the bush sheltering us from the big open field, and from the gaze of any passers-by foolhardy enough to be out on this cold night. In terms of other life, all was quiet - no birds, no small mammals, not even the … Continue reading The Last Wealdway Camp
The plan was ambitious, and as it turned out, too ambitious. A dry and warm forecast for the weekend, and the need to get out for a camp in August to maintain the goal of a wild camp every month led me to the attempt to finish the Wealdway. It was always going to be … Continue reading There may have been some swearing… (Wealdway: Uckfield to Berwick)
Day 5 The Old Man had clearly been struggling the day before, a combination of a dearth of training and a surplus of blisters. So much so that the state of his feet ruled him out of a walk today, so I set off on my tod, taking the same bus journey out to Zennor for … Continue reading The Far End of Cornwall – Part 3: Guano and Galleries
Day 3 The bus dropped us back at Porthcurno, among the tourists arriving to visit the Minack Theatre, and we walked around it as much as we could short of actually paying to get in. We had other things to do. Up on the cliffs, the views back across the bay were stunning, and yielding … Continue reading The Far End of Cornwall – Part 2: The Corner
Day 0 Familiar stations flashed by as the train made its way through Devon - Tiverton Parkway, my old city of Exeter, then the highlight of the whole route with the coastal section through Dawlish and Teignmouth. Soon we were passing Dartmoor, and I craned my neck to get a glimpse of a favourite place. … Continue reading The Far End of Cornwall – Part 1: The Plodders of Penzance