The Blog

Risk

RISK Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T. S. Eliot This week the outdoors community has had to come to terms with one of the darkest days in recent history with events in Nepal. Thirty nine individuals are now known to have died during

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Newspaper column on Shutlingsloe

9.5 miles 4.5 hours Whilst not quite as spectacular in altitude or appearance as it’s Swiss namesake, Shutlingsloe or the Cheshire Matterhorn is a lovely, little hill that is definitely worth a visit. Coming in at 506 metres, it is the third highest peak in Cheshire, but to my mind it is inherently more attractive

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Yorkshire 3 Peaks

4.10.14 Walking with; Mountain Monkeys The Yorkshire 3 Peaks is one of the UK’s classic “challenge walks” and is deservedly popular. It takes in three of Yorkshire’s highest peaks, Pen-Y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough and covers around 25 miles, not an undertaking to be taken lightly. Whilst the route can be started from a number of

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Latest newspaper column

10.5 miles 4.5 hours Last week I found myself in Oxfordshire and enjoyed a couple of beautiful rural walks in and around the idyllic villages surrounding Oxford and Bicester. It’s a landscape of thatched cottages and village greens dotted around huge estates and country houses, the most notable of which is Blenheim Palace, the Churchill’s

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The Coledale Horseshoe

29.9.14 Walking with; Al   The Lakeland horseshoes are some of the best walking that England has to offer. I have long loved the Fairfield and Kentmere versions, and can safely say that the Coledale has now joined this illustrious list. Al and I had spent the night camping in Braithwaite and partaking of the

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Waterlog by Roger Deakin

Whilst it’s not a book about walking, “Waterlog” is a beautifully written account of one man’s passion for wild and outdoor swimming and an essential component of any good library of British natural history and nature writing. Deakin starts the book by swimming in the moat surrounding his farmhouse in Suffolk and from there his

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D of E with Manchester High School for Girls

19/20.9.14 Walking with; Manchester High School for Girls The Duke of Edinburgh award has been inspiring, upskilling and motivating young people since 1956 but until this weekend I’d had no direct personal involvement. I’d answered a cry for help from the good folk at Mountain Monkeys who had had an instructor drop out at the

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Two Oxfordshire walks

16/17.9.14 Walking with; Nobody Oxfordshire is not known for it’s hills. White Horse Hill, the highest point in the county comes in at 261 metres, not even as high as The Shard, and yet for all that there is some very pleasant walking to be had. In a week when national identity is high on

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My newspaper column on Bleaklow

9 miles 4.5 hours Bleaklow, in the Dark Peak, the very name is redolent of menace and wildness and, indeed, it is one of the more challenging environments in the Peak District, a huge expanse of peat hags, groughs, bogs and rough moorland. When the cloud comes down, as it so often does, it’s easy

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A short walk around La Botte, Duras

3.9.14 There can be few more pleasurable experiences than wandering through the French countryside with little or no agenda, the sun on your neck and endless vistas of vines and sunflower fields. Hard as it was to drag myself away from the pool and a chilled glass of wine, one of the reasons I was

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