Walking Forum
Main Boards => General Walking Discussion => Topic started by: gunwharfman on 10:22:43, 29/05/20
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I've hiked three routes that have offered me a purpose and/or a particular interest, the first was to walk from Calais on the GR128 to Ypres in Belgium to visit a relatives WW1 grave near Poperringe and the and then camped near to the Menin Gate to be there on November 11th.
My second was to read the book 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes' by Robert Louis Stevenson and then do the walk. Part of the GR70 route.
My third was to walk 9 days along the French Camino route from Le Puy en Velay to Figeac in France. I'm not religious in any way but it was still very interesting to do.
If I get the chance to do it I'd like to hike the Resistance Trail' in the Pyrenees (I think its called that?) sometime.
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Most of my walks have no purpose other than emotional/mental relaxation and recreation. The incentives and inspiration to do them come from a wide variety of sources and, where possible, I try to work out a route incorporating "key" features I like to see.
So I guess the answer's yes to both those questions!
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Hello, returning to the forum after a period of absence, if that's okay. An absence with absolutely no prejudice I should say. Just distracted by other interests and a loss of focus - but the walking continued and the lock down has made me yearn for it so I found myself drifting back to this best of sites.
In answer to GWMs question. Yes. When young I walked around notable Chartist and radical political sites in South Wales. Also, the interest and the walk sometimes grow together. I walked the Thames Path and realised, as I left London, that reading Wind in the Willows might be interesting which it was. After that I turned to Rob Roy as my read on the West Highland Way. I have been thinking for a while now of plotting a coast to coast walk north of the Great Glen, starting Lochinver; possibly taking in Conival and Ben More Assynt, Ben Klibreck and then Morven, the Maiden Pap and Scaraben before finishing in Dunbeath (with bad weather re-routes of course). Anything by Neil M. Gunn (say Highland River) would be interesting.
It's nice to be back.
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Welcome from Portsmouth
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Some of the walks I've done have taken in features I was keen to see - eg old mines on the SWCP in Cornwall, Hadrian's Wall, churches, hillforts. But the main purpose of my walks is the enjoyment I get from walking and from seeing landscapes.
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Looking for odd features marked on maps such as a memorial in the middle of nowhere, aircraft crash sites, chunks of industrial archaeology, mines, adits - that sort of thing. Also filling in gaps left by previous walks if the map or aerial image indicates a route exists.
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It's nice to be back.
Welcome back, astaman O0
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Looking for odd features marked on maps such as a memorial in the middle of nowhere, aircraft crash sites, chunks of industrial archaeology, mines, adits - that sort of thing. Also filling in gaps left by previous walks if the map or aerial image indicates a route exists.
^this - an old mine or quarry is like a magnet to me.
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Thank you Richard and GWM. I think that Stephen Pern's walk in 2012 putting a hook in every bothy in Britain has to count as one of the greatest walks with a purpose. And the purpose was eccentric enough to be engaging and to turn the walk into an end in itself. For those who might not be aware of this walk he made an excellent video of the trip which is on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yesqy-8gIYY (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yesqy-8gIYY)
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Yes I walked the Anglesey Coastal Path .
For a purpose .
For Macmillan Cancer .
No Incentive required .
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I'm like a tightly wound spring, walking helps me relax a bit.
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I'm like a tightly wound spring, walking helps me relax a bit.
I have had the odd boss who, while they weren't like that themselves, they were carriers.
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I forgot one of my walks, in late May/June 2015, just over two months after having my Prostate removed I thought I was ready to hike again so I decided that I would walk Offas Dyke. My purpose was to prove to myself (and my wife, she warned me!) that I had come through it OK and was ready to resume my normal life again. A really bad move, I lasted just 6 days, my bladder was just not strong enough, I leaked so badly especially when walking downhill, so I had to come home. I did the hike again well over a year later.
The nurse told me that daily pelvic exercises were the key to a full recovery so from early June until mid-July I walked in my local area, practicing my exercises day after day after day, I freely admit I became a bit obsessed about it. By mid-July, I felt fine and then hiked the GR10 in France, no problems with my bladder at all, but I did get a hernia on day 17! I failed to appreciate how vulnerable the strength of my groin muscle area was after my operation. I then had to walk for three days (hand in pocket) now KNOWING that I had a hernia but when I reached the campsite in Lascau I was able to buy myself a truss. I finished the walk wearing it and two weeks after I returned home my hernia was repaired and I've never had a problem since and no problems with bladder control either. Thanks, NHS.
Odd that I remembered my other walks but not the ones I'd hiked that year, in many ways 2015 was the most stressful period of my life.
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If I thought about why I walk, I would stop and get a life.
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Part of the beauty of walking is terrain. It provides the views, it also governs the level of difficulty and so many others factors. I suppose my main interest is terrain and purpose is to explore terrain.
My lifestyle and family setup has not suited long distance walks, though my first X Wales walk was to draw a straight line between the monument at the top of Pride Hill in Shrewsbury and the end of the Pier in Aberystwyth. The route I walked taught me a lot about walking as a pastime and the parts of the countryside we are allowed to walk in.
Even doing day walks can be intellectually part of LD walking, because ideas of destinations can develop, especially when infrastructure starts to throw an influence onto developing a route. So finding an idea and being curious on how it might fit with another often gives me a purpose to go and explore.
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We/I just do half or full day walks. Usually somewhere between 5-10 miles on average I guess.
I base a lot of my walks around photography so that means I'll pick days with favourable weather, spare time & link that in with locations. On a slight tangent, I do like to plan a walk to take a photo of a certain place, scene, etc though. Sort of gives an aim & a purpose to it. I once parked several miles away from the below ex-Masonic Hall with the sole purpose of the 5-6 mile walk being to photograph it en route :)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/4872/46909029511_24254dd272_h.jpg) (http://)
*** (https://flic.kr/p/2etc3bT) by Lee (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ratters445/), on Flickr
At the moment clear skies isn't much good for photos so I've been setting 3:30-4:00am alarms to be out walking before sunrise. Overcast day I'll plan a woodland/forest type walk. Blue skies & fluffy white clouds, a countryside walk.....
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Much of the time I just walk because I enjoy it and it keeps me reasonably fit, ready for those trips to tougher ground.
I have been tor bagging the past 5 years too. Of course the list of named lumps of rock is different on different maps, so that can make for some fun interesting detective work, which all adds to the planning and enjoyment of a walk. I have pretty much done all bar those on private land. The question now is..... Ask or trespass?
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I walk alone to put my life into some sort of perspective & to stay in touch with nature . I also walk with family , so we can engage with each other away from some of the mundane episodes of home and to have fun . :)
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I walk to escape the noise, rushing around, crowds and pollution of modern life. I really enjoy seeing nature, even though in the UK very little is truly wild. Mountains, coasts, fields, forests, moorland, riverside all have their own attractions. I particularly like to see wildlife, both here and abroad, and try to capture this on camera. I have been fortunate to walk in many wonderful places and walking plus photography give me a reason to visit new places, preferably those with few people and even fewer British holidaymakers.
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On my own and in a group. I lead a U3A Rambling Group in NE Hants, so routes are planned in OS Maps then printed out and I walk on my own or with one friend to do a thorough recce. Wonderful peaceful countryside. Then I lead a group of about 20 lovely people on the route and some of us lunch in a pub afterwards.
It doesn’t get much better.
:)
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You must miss the pub, I know I do.
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Not 'arf I do :(
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I walk as I love the outdoors and nature. I love all the menhirs and stone circles and usually base walks round some historical significance rather than just a walk. I usually do 10 to 15 miles as I also walk my dog you can never tire a sled dog out.
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I walk as I love the outdoors and nature. I love all the menhirs and stone circles and usually base walks round some historical significance rather than just a walk. I usually do 10 to 15 miles as I also walk my dog you can never tire a sled dog out.
Are you perhaps a descendant of the great Obélix?
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Are you perhaps a descendant of the great Obélix?
Possibly I find all the old cup and ring markings and bronze age burial mounds on the moors facinating. There are a lot of old marked stones and I love stone circles. There are many on the moors in remote places.
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Possibly I find all the old cup and ring markings and bronze age burial mounds on the moors facinating. There are a lot of old marked stones and I love stone circles. There are many on the moors in remote places.
Barningham Moor SW of Barningham is a great area for cup and ring markings.
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Barningham Moor SW of Barningham is a great area for cup and ring markings.
Thankyou for that one I will take a look. O0
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Thankyou for that one I will take a look. O0
If you turn on the Google Earth Community layer in the Gallery layer in GoogleEarth, someone has marked them (blue "i" symbol)
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If you turn on the Google Earth Community layer in the Gallery layer in GoogleEarth, someone has marked them (blue "i" symbol)
I will take a look at it thanks
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There are lots of stone circles and Pictish stones in Aberdeenshire
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There are lots of stone circles and Pictish stones in Aberdeenshire
Scotland is on my list once it's safe to travel and stay there. I had planned the 12 Apostles stone circle up ilkley moor this week but been to warm to do a long walk with my dog.
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Then there is Dartmoor with stone circles, kists, avenues, standing stones and whole bronze age villages.
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I walk as I love the outdoors and nature. I love all the menhirs and stone circles and usually base walks round some historical significance rather than just a walk. I usually do 10 to 15 miles as I also walk my dog you can never tire a sled dog out.
Have you tried this site.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/map-search?clearresults=true (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/map-search?clearresults=true)
I use it, often after a walk, to research things I come across whist out. I seldom plan to go and look at some thing though, I am sometimes just curious to know what I was looking at and over time you naturally get to know more about the structure you see.
For years I thought that many many Tin workings were natural features. It was only after I member of our ramblers group presented several quite detailed talks whist out on the moor, that I gained a fuller appreciation of what was in front of me much of the time, on my own walks.
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For years I thought that many many Tin workings were natural features.
Old Clay/Brick works are the same, they can look like natural bowls. The road names can give the name away sometimes.
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Thinking on the whole idea of finding things of interest, maybe we should suggest something to look out for each week, then see how many people can spot it.
Would have to be pretty generic as geography/topology can make somethings almost impossible in some areas.
I shall kick off with, in the best geography lesson manner with 'Ox Bow Lake'.
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Thinking on the whole idea of finding things of interest, maybe we should suggest something to look out for each week, then see how many people can spot it.
Would have to be pretty generic as geography/topology can make somethings almost impossible in some areas.
I shall kick off with, in the best geography lesson manner with 'Ox Bow Lake'.
That's easy. One of my regular wildlife watching walks takes me around the most "classic" Ox Bow Lake you could possibly imagine.
(https://i.ibb.co/V2skqKt/oxbow.jpg)
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That's easy. One of my regular wildlife watching walks takes me around the most "classic" Ox Bow Lake you could possibly imagine.
(https://i.ibb.co/V2skqKt/oxbow.jpg)
Your turn to nominate something now.
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Sorry. Done in a rush.
Something which always fascinates me is the chalk land streams which normally flow underground but just occasionally appear on the surface when conditions are right. Gyps Race is the local term but I do not know the official name for one.
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Sorry. Done in a rush.
Something which always fascinates me is the chalk land streams which normally flow underground but just occasionally appear on the surface when conditions are right. Gyps Race is the local term but I do not know the official name for one.
A lot of the ground in Kent is chalk and therefore there are a good many 'intermittent streams'. An example near Canterbury is the Nailbourne, which rarely has any water above ground. These streams are also known locally as 'chalk bournes'.
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Sorry. Done in a rush.
Something which always fascinates me is the chalk land streams which normally flow underground but just occasionally appear on the surface when conditions are right. Gyps Race is the local term but I do not know the official name for one.
Waterfalls vanishing before your eyes into scree is another I get transfixed by. It just seems like magic even though you know what is going on.
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A lot of the ground in Kent is chalk and therefore there are a good many 'intermittent streams'. An example near Canterbury is the Nailbourne, which rarely has any water above ground. These streams are also known locally as 'chalk bournes'.
Some in Herts and Bucks too. Don't think there are any down here.
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Waterfalls vanishing before your eyes into scree is another I get transfixed by. It just seems like magic even though you know what is going on.
The waterfall off the Cirque de Gavarnie does that. - 422m and disappears on impact.
https://www.wondermondo.com/grande-cascade-de-gavarnie/ (https://www.wondermondo.com/grande-cascade-de-gavarnie/)
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A lot of the ground in Kent is chalk and therefore there are a good many 'intermittent streams'. An example near Canterbury is the Nailbourne, which rarely has any water above ground. These streams are also known locally as 'chalk bournes'.
That makes sense as I am familiar with. winterbourne/burn to describe a seasonal stream.
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God's Bridge on the Pennine Way near Bowes crosses the River Greta which normally runs underground for a fair part of its length on either side of the bridge. I am sure many walkers on the PW take it for a dry river bed with the odd pool but in reality it flows most of the year and resurfaces a few hundred yards downstream.
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I remember being shown a stream at the foot of Penyghent in the Yorkshire Dales where you could see another stream crossing under it. And then spending ages trying to find it again to show my son.
I believe the same thing happens at Malham cove where the stream coming out at the bottom isn't the stream that sinks down near the top, but they had to put dye in the water to prove that one, as the crossover is underground.
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Limestone features provide good additional motivation for a walk - or for venturing underground.
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I have done a few walks like this.
in 2017 I finished walking the Shetland coast line on all the islands that have a ferry service.
I have nearly completed all the hills in Shetland above 150 Metres, as listed by Walter Scott in www.shetlandbynumbers.com.
I have added a further 7 to his list of 115 and need two to complete, 1 in Foula and 1 in Fair Isle.
This also means I have covered most Trig pillars, and will probably complete the last 6, of 77 when the shutdown finishes.
More recently my interest has been visiting chambered Cairns, and photographing Boat Noosts, to assist a project logging them.
I have also made a point of walking all the main hill ridges, as there are plans to destroy them with a massive Windfarm and I wanted to say goodbye to them before that happens.
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This is starting to read like a 'completists forum'.
Good to have a hobby.
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This is starting to read like a 'completists forum'.
Good to have a hobby.
How ironic
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The real purpose for me is always to immerse myself in nature.
But I do use excuses. One is climbing munros in Scotland, climbing hills that I haven't bagged yet. It gives great satisfaction to add a new hill to my list (bagged 182/282 so far). But it is really just an excuse to visit areas that in many cases I would otherwise not have visited and then discover how beautiful these places really are. Even munros that don't appeal to me and that I only climb because I must 'bag' them almost always turn out to be fantastic walks!
Another excuse is birding. I enjoy keeping lists of the birds that I see and also maintain a world-life-list of all the species that I have seen (currently 2373 and counting). The ideal walks for me are long wilderness walks, camping and birding all the way. And some places I visit with the official aim of seeing specific species of bird and adding to my list. But it is really just an excuse for a holistic nature experience.
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This is starting to read like a 'completists forum'.Good to have a hobby.
It's easy to frown upon lists, but the simple truth is they steer us to places we might otherwise never visit and just occasionally those places are magical spots. O0
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It's easy to frown upon lists, but the simple truth is they steer us to places we might otherwise never visit and just occasionally those places are magical spots. O0
Wholeheartedly agree, though I would swap "often" for "just occasionally". O0
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I quite often choose a walk in the hope of finding a flower I haven't seen. Or even one I have, but want to revisit. I've missed a few of my regular pilgrimages this year!
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Fitness, achieving something and for charity are things which probably cover 90% of my walks.
I'd love to get better at walks which are all about luxuriating in nature, setting up a leisurely camp and ambling around figuring out what the various types of flowers, mosses and stone types are - just existing rather than putting a series of goals in front of myself to keep me racking up those miles.
That said lockdown has given me a lot of time to read about these things, expand my knowledge and interest - so perhaps it's something I can get to do sooner rather than later.
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I mainly do it for exercise, solitude, and a bit of head clearing away from the the noise of everyday life. It's very therapeutic.
I occasionally do a mad 24 hour challenge walk... the reason for those are slightly different. They're basically a test to see if the ageing process has caught up with me yet. So far so good!
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The aging process, I often think of that as well. I personally find it difficult to pinpoint it but if there is a time for me, its first thing in the morning when I get up, my limbs always feel so stiff and sluggish but by the time I walk downstairs to the kitchen they have loosened up to my normal. I'm lucky in that at the moment I have no known illnesses but I have been ill, not 'ill' as such, I just needed surgery, the last time when I was 70, I'm now 75. What I keep looking for is, is my memory a problem, is my body physically deteriorating in any way, am I still standing upright or am I starting to stoop, do I have painful joints, do I get giddy, can I carry a cup of tea from one end of the house to the other with my hands shaking and so on? At the moment my answer to all of these pointers is no problem, and my wife confirms it as well. It's inevitable that we will all age, so all I can do is to cross my fingers and hope that when it does happen it will not dominate my wife's life too much? Or vice versa if it happens to her first?
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My walking has evolved a lot ove rthe 63 years since I was introduced to 'hiking'. As many on here know during the last 30 years, I changed to going further and faster and found that I enjoy the challenge of finding out if I can do a certain route in a minumum amount of time, whilst still enjoying and taking in the scenery etc. The fact is that many wouldn't enjoy walking in the same way, but I do enjoy it and have even tried to enjoy it as much, by reverting back to when to when I when I used to the average daily mileage, but struggled with that so speeded up again.People would criticise by claiming it was rushing through and how could that be enjoyable. The fact is they don't know, so don't get it.
I used to enjoy going as fast as I possibly could doing road, x crountry and fell races, some people have never experienced that rush of endorphins and the overwhelming feeling of exhileration it brings, it's a drug and highly addictive.So yes most of what the walks I do are for myself and what I get out of them, even the miserable moments, when you are wet and tired, make up into the whole experience, and the harder ones are the most memorable.As said, I do my walks for myself but have on numerous occasions used them to raise money for causes when people have been genorous enough to contribute, I have never claimed to be doing a walk 'for' a cause as I would be doing it anyway.
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My walks will usually take in something of interest, I have a few hobbies that I can occasionally do alongside walks, such as finding a trigpoint or staying in a bothy I haven't visited before (and ocasionally walking to one to help with maintenance).
If that makes me a "list ticker" then so be it! ;D
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i tend to go for the challenge of getting so far in as speedy a time as i can without resorting to [censored] my knees up jogging or running. i enjoy the physical side of walking at a decent speed, i find it more tiring to dawdle along sometimes which is a little odd. I also quite like the solitude for a bit of 'me' thinking time out there in the fresh air.