hike | camp | paint
After I abandoned the westbound walk at Detling in August, a few other bits of walking got in the way of picking it up again - a trip to Snowdonia in September, the West Highland Way in October, and not least the Kent Pilgrims' Festival in September. The latter involving walking all the way east … Continue reading The North Downs Way AGAIN – Part 6: Detling to Halling
Now that the pressure of leading my own walk was over, I could relax a bit and simply follow. Sometimes it's nice to just be pulled along by someone else: no decisions to make, just put one foot in front of the other and enjoy the walk. First, though, I had to get to the … Continue reading The North Downs Way Again – Part 5: Kent Pilgrims’ Festival Days 3-5 (Wye To Dover)
In the first post of this series, I mentioned that I was co-leading two days of walks as part of the Kent Pilgrims' Festival. Along with that my co-leader, Mike, and I offered to assist the walk leaders of the other 3 days with their walks - help manage the group / bringing up the … Continue reading The North Downs Way Again – Part 4: Kent Pilgrims’ Festival Days 1-2 (Aylesford to Wye)
07:52 as I opened my eyes and glanced at my watch - bugger! Could have sworn it was quarter to 7 or so. I leapt out of bed in a semi-panic - I was going to start a big day already behind, and have my choices made for me. This is what comes of downing … Continue reading The North Downs Way Again – Part 3: Westwell to Detling
As I turned away from the trail last night, I noticed that there was a problem on the other side of the road - an apparent path closure. I had a brief look at the sign, promising myself I'd mull it over overnight. When it came to it though, I completely forgot, and found myself … Continue reading The North Downs Way Again – Part 2: Paddlesworth to Westwell
When I became an Ambassador for the Trail last year, I decided to do a complete re-walk, as it was 2016 when I finished the walk before, and even that had been spread thinly over 10 years. My familiarity wasn't what it could be. Of course in the time since, I've walked parts of the … Continue reading The North Downs Way Again – Part 1: Dover to Paddlesworth
Last year I managed to make myself go out for a camp in every month, and although some of those were done in the course of a multi-day walk, some were very much a matter of forcing myself out to sleep. For 2022 I wanted to do something a bit different - specifically to make … Continue reading The Elham Valley Way (plus a bit…)
A video version of this adventure... https://youtu.be/ND-m9hpw6q0 The blog post for this trip is at: The Darent Valley Path See also some reflections following the trip: The Clarity of the Trail
Although it was a bank holiday weekend, this time it wasn't practical to head for the hills, especially with choice much reduced by the current "situation". I had no desire to be in some honeypot location fighting my way through hordes of people; no desire to sit on a train in a mask for hours … Continue reading The Darent Valley Path
It's been a while since I've had to work a weekend, and the weekend before last not only did I have to work at the weekend, I had to work the whole weekend. So I found myself working 11 days straight, and I can't remember the last time I did that. The current situation only … Continue reading A “Circuit Breaker”
The sky is looking a bit grey as I set off, and I momentarily wonder if I've made the right choice of gear. The plan is do the bulk of the walk today, find somewhere to bivvy and then have an easier walk back. But a bivvy, even one with a hoop, isn't the most … Continue reading Chalk and Brambles
I've got a bit lazy recently, part of a cycle of binge exercise followed by nothing for a week or more, and bored with the really local walks, thought it was time for a walk on the North Downs. So that's what I did. Looking back at my calendar, and my Social Hiking maps, it … Continue reading Return to the North Downs
It's been over 10 weeks since I returned, broken, from the TGO Challenge, a mystery illness having made me fight hard just to get to the end. On day 2 back at work I collapsed as the mystery illness deteriorated. Three weeks total rest from work followed by a spell of largely working from home … Continue reading Getting Back On The Horse – Part 1: Pottering About
Three years ago, I took my son for the Official Annual Birthday Camp (mine, not his), and chose a spot on the North Downs that has forever after been known in this house as Slug Meadow - you can probably imagine why. Well this weekend, my daughter, who's the same age The Boy was at the … Continue reading Return to Slug Meadow
Recently I unearthed a couple of sets of typed route instructions for sponsored walks I did at school in the late '80s. I remember these being in the region of 20 miles, which I polished off fairly easily, which was nice because I was at a sporty school and was crap at most of those … Continue reading Old Skool