500 Mile Walkies
It has always seemed like my family sets trends – quite recently I noticed in a well known supermarket readymade potted salad (a bit like coleslaw only different), an almost exact replica of a recipe for a salad we had been used for years, which was based on a recipe from an ancient cookbook but adapted to what we have in the store cupboard.
Another example is gorge walking, my childhood mates, siblings and I used to walk along streams, sometimes taking a several miles from home. This developed as an adult and a different kind of terrain, so gorge walking was born with my own family, now it is a recognised outdoor pursuit with instructors, proper tuition and costing a fortune!
At Christmas 2007 my nephew, Sam, suggested glibly that we must walk 1,000 miles a year as being outdoorsy types with a dog. So we took him on, but we made rules, we had to be together and for the walk to count it must be two miles or over. Because I don’t like going uphill very much I decided to add a height to be counted, in the first years this was 50 metres; it ended up as 70 because 50 was too easy even for me.
We started in January 2008 and reached our total of 500 miles on 1st December, we aimed at 500 miles not 1,000 as this seemed a total we could do together, not separately when walking the dog or for any other reason. We had climbed 12,840 metres, Everest is 8,848 metres.
All of this was calculated using an Ordnance Survey map and painstakingly measuring out walks and height. Later I tried a pedometer but never got it right, and then I was bought a wonderful GPS gizmo for my birthday in 2013. The measuring was done for us and when downloaded on the computer gave us maps of our route.
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I made notes of every walk, on our fourth walk of 2008 we walked the Berwyn and Moel Sych and took photos of hoar frost on the stiles and fences, some of the “sculptures” were over two feet long.
Other notable walks have been Arrenig Fach and Y Foel when we spotted hen harriers. The ridge of Cader Idris in beautiful sunshine and fantastic views. Cross Fell in the mist, which was disappointing as we had walked most of the tops around Cross Fell that week in glorious sunshine. But I stood on the plateau and pointed north, south, east and west saying what I knew to be there. Chris said I looked and sounded like an air hostess’ emergency procedure before takeoff. But he was impressed!
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At lower levels we have explored the Migneint, Hirathog, the Treweryn and Prysor valleys, old railway lines, many named routes and even devised our own walk linking the Seven Wonders of Wales.
Our next adventure was to walk from where we live on the border of England and Wales to the West Wales coast where our daughter lives. Unfortunately, Chris was able to start this with me, but I’m getting there slowly with several small adventures and delays along the way. Part of this walk has taken me across the hills from Castle Caereinion to Llanfair Caereinion, on a clear sunny day – there was a panorama of countless hills and ridges from the Wales coast, to the Rhingos and Arrenigs, the Wrekin and down to the Kerry Ridgeway with possibly a hint of a mountain which I think may have been Plymlymon completing the near perfect circle of high ground.
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I think what we accomplished over those six years proves Sam was right, even when our walking record was not brilliant, one or the other of us will have had to walk the dog – usually for about two miles every day.
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2013 was Chris’ last year of walking and during 2011 and 2012 he had spent part of each winter unable to walk far – usually down to injuries but sometimes down to sickness. On the bad years we did include Christmas shopping in Wrexham, Shrewsbury and Buxton! Cheating, no – we were still walking.
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From my notes I see that we walked the Montgomery Canal from Frankton to Newtown twice; Glastonbury Tor; Mawddach Trail; walked on Bodmin, Dartmoor and Exmoor; started to explore all rights of way within a three mile radius of our home; sources of the Severn and Wye twice; Low and High Force in Teesdale; the Kerry Ridgeway; The Rivals on the Llyn Peninsular to include the coastal walk of the Llyn; Wats Dyke; Nine Riggs Standard; Beacon Ring and Caer Digoll several times, and the list goes on - these are some of the more memorable walks of those six years.