Overview

Introduction

I have been going on walks for as long as I can remember. although it was not until the 1970's that I started organising my own trips. Around this time someone mentioned to me that I really ought to keep a diary - a suggestion that I glibly ignored at my chagrin. It was not until I begin to realise that my memory was not as infallible as I had presumed that I started to go back and fill in history.

The early trip reports are reliant on piecing together faint memories and using the few photos of the time to piece the stories together. Bear in mind that in those days there were no digital photos created by mobile phones, and so relied on film that needed to be developed many days after the photographs were taken. Each film only contained 36 "exposures" so you had to carry many rolls on a trip, then fork out to see what you had actually captured - in this respect there are only a few pictures to detail events.

The days of digital photography have allowed the stories to be greatly enhanced with multiple pictures, and as well, the more I write, the more comfortable I get describing routes, so the longer the entries become.

The early years started with trips to the wilder parts of the UK, then I graduated to summer trips to the alps, as well as rock climbing in the UK. This mutated into ski touring/ mountaineering trips . These were all limited by work and family commitments. Retirement allowed me to make much more of the local environment and provide some encouragement to get out into the fresh air.

To this extent I have been making more use of my free time to go on walks close to home, and as such since lock-down the number of walks has exponentially increased.

Bertie on his last walk

Sadly my walking companion of recent years has taken his final steps.
Unfortunately he had succumbed to a canine version of Colitis, which had caused a gradual decline over a couple of months where he lost 7kg.
He did not respond to any drugs and no physical issue was discovered by numerous tests.
Eventually this was too much, and he left to see Cerberus crossing the Styx

Welcome to my world of days out.

This diary of stories is recorded for my own record - recollections that I cannot guarantee are complete or even if things have been remembered incorrectly. I have added some graphs to show the increase in distances attained as I got fitter and more ambitious now regular weekly walking is more feasible. Note this only makes sense to document after I spent more time walking! I will add a page to each year showing the monthly attainments as well.

Distances shown = achieved, target, stretch

Latest trip - click here

Full Index - click here

Trip Summaries of last 4 years



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