Walk - Lyme Park

It might have been a rainy grey day, but we were in need of a blast of fresh air. Waterproofs on and hoods up, we strode out from Lyme Park car park at 1pm. The rain was supposed to stop at 2 o'clock so hopes for sunshine were high and I had my sunglasses at the ready.

The path climbed south from the car park following the Gritstone Trail. We gained height quickly as we trudged through gloopy mud and splashed through rain-formed rivulets streaming across the path.

'You'll see deer a bit further up', someone informed us as we climbed over a tall ladder stile. A bit further up, we stopped to look back and admire the view that had opened up below us. Despite the cloud and rain we could still see the estate spreading out beneath us and the built-up areas skirting it. On a clear day we'd have been able to see as far as Liverpool and probably North Wales as well.

No deer though. They must be much further up than we'd been led to believe. As we turned back to the path to continue onwards and upwards, something moved and caught my eye. That'd be the deer then. There must have been well over a hundred of them. They were close to the path and not at all bothered by us. Their coats blended into the yellowed grassy background camouflaging them perfectly. If we hadn't stopped to look at the view and had hurried on, heads down, hoods up we'd have walked right past them and not seen a single one.

 

The path topped out on a lane by the Bow Stones. These are thought to be the middle sections of late-Saxon crosses and may have been used as boundary markers. The only surviving cross top is in the courtyard of Lyme Park. 

We followed the lane downhill for a while. At a pond alongside the lane we stopped to chat to the very vocal white geese. Behind them, sat at the pond's edge, was a very large white goose. Presumably it's used for rides by guests staying at the hotel to which the pond belongs. We wondered what the geese made of this inanimate giant in their midst.  

Heading north now, we climbed a few stiles, plodded across fields and got dripped on by trees as we picked our way through a small wooded area. One wooded area was fenced off and a sign informed us this was an area planted with a variety of native trees for the millennium. The fences weren't to stop humans, just deer and rabbits.

Bollinhurst Bridge was closed off as it has been declared structurally unsound even for walkers. A wooden walkway has been created to the side of it, so we were still able to cross the river without having to resort to wading.

We followed Bollinhurst reservoir with views to the Cage on the far side. Originally built as a hunting tower in the 16th century, this Gothic looking building had a make-over in the 18th century, later becoming an overnight prison for poachers. This area has been a traditional hunting ground through the centuries and long ago was part of the King's hunting forest of Macclesfield. The Cage could be seen intermittently throughout our walk and was a good navigation aid. The house itself is hidden in the trees and couldn't be seen at all on our walk.

Reaching the far end of the reservoir we followed a lane back into the grounds of Lyme Park and down to the main drive. As we didn't want to walk down the tarmacked drive dodging cars, we crossed and looped through the woods on the far side instead. We walked alongside the river coming out very conveniently at the teashop. We went inside for tea and scones just as the sun was finally breaking out.

Lyme Park has been in the care of the National Trust since 1946. Prior to that it had belonged to the Legh family who had been granted the land in the Royal Forest of Macclesfield by Richard II in 1398. Over the centuries the medieval manor house was transformed into the classic stately home of today. Between Easter and October the house and formal gardens are open to the public and definitely worth a look. The house is probably best known in modern times from the BBC's 1994 adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It is here that Mr Darcy (Colin Firth) was famously filmed in the lake, semi-clad and soaking wet.

Approximately 6 miles
3 hours

Walking for Health

I've recently been getting involved in my local area's Walking for Health scheme. I've done a couple of walks with one of the groups and discovered some lovely places on my doorstep that I never knew were there. Last week I spent a day attending a training course to become a Health Walks leader. This is a voluntary role so I can feel all altruistic and magnanimous whilst getting to know new people, finding good walking places near my house and, most importantly, getting some experience leading adults. As most of my walk leading experience has so far been with teenagers, I'm keen to build up some age-group variety before I apply for my Walking Group Leaders' qualification. And it's good to experience a completely different style of walking to that which I usually do myself or with groups of Duke of Edinburgh Award youngsters.

So what is Walking for Health?

Walking for Health is England's largest network of health walk schemes, helping all kinds of people to lead a more active lifestyle. I'm quoting from my training manual there.

The scheme was originally set up in 1995 by a doctor who ran the scheme for his patients as he believed in the benefits of walking for general good health. By 2000 the scheme had been adopted nationally and was run by the British Heart Foundation and Natural England. That Natural England were one of the first sponsors probably explains why it's only ever been an English scheme and hasn't reached the rest of Britain. In 2002 Natural England pulled out and the funding was taken over by The Ramblers and Macmillan

Why these two?

The Ramblers is probably an obvious sponsor as their aim as a pressure group is to promote and facilitate walking. Macmillan might seem to be a less likely candidate but their statistics show that out of two million people with cancer, at least 1.5 million of these are not active enough. Research is showing that those who are active (albeit it in a reduced way) throughout their treatment have a higher and faster recovery rate and lower rate of the cancer recurring. The  routine promotion of (gentle) exercise isn't something oncologists are currently known for, but Macmillan are trying to change this. 

But I don't have cancer ...

There is also some evidence to show that active people and people who get into the outdoors (walking's a great way of combining the two) are less likely to develop cancer in the first place.  

Is it only for people with cancer / who have had cancer / who want to avoid cancer?

 

No, walking is also recommended for a whole range of physical ailments and mental health issues. Regular physical activity such as walking can reduce:

• coronary heart disease by 20-35%
• type 2 diabetes by 20-35%
• colon cancer by 30-50%
• breast cancer by 20%
• hip fracture by 36-68%
• depression by 20-30%
• alzheimer's by 60%

The list goes on. It can help with lowering blood pressure, increasing levels of 'good' cholesterol (HDL), managing weight, coping with stress and anxiety, recovering from heart attacks and strokes ...

In fact, a former Chief Medical Officer of England said, If a medication existed which had a similar effect to physical activity, it would be regarded as a 'wonder drug' or a 'miracle cure'.

How many people don't get enough regular activity in the UK?

 

Around two-thirds of all people are not meeting the UK Chief Medical Officers recommendation that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week.  Ideally this is split over at least five days a week with sessions lasting at least 30 minutes. For children, the recommendation is at least an hour a day.

What is moderate activity?

Moderate activity makes you breathe harder and your heart beat faster, but you should still be able to carry on a conversation. Walking is the ideal moderate activity. (As an aside, on the course we were told to use the word 'activity' rather than 'exercise' as although most people aren't against the idea of getting fitter, the concept of 'exercise' is scary and off-putting - it's too easy to imagine a gym full of bronzed and toned bodies and superfit people who you won't fit in with at all and be completely intimidated by)

So how can people be encouraged to take part in a Health Walk?

Firstly, they have to be accessible and to ensure that they are four things need to be considered:

• Location - walks are available in towns, city centres and villages throughout the country. The Walking for Health website will show the walks that are available in your local area. They all start and finish near car parking and on a public transport route.
• Timing - Walks are held at different times on different days of the week including weekends. The lengths of the walks differ too.
• Cost - Health Walks are free. As they are local it shouldn't cost much (if anything at all) to get to the start and finish point.
• Ability - some walks are only a mile long and last just half an hour. Others are 3-4 miles in length and last 2-3 hours. All are on relatively easy terrain.

Although the point of the walks is to raise everyone's heartbeat, the walks are not so strenuous that it becomes impossible to hold a conversation. So the opportunity to meet new like-minded friends, increase your social circle, even get to know people if you're new to an area is all part of the attraction.

So far, I've really enjoyed the walks I've taken part in. Although not challenging, they haven't been as short or slow as I originally expected, though I have only done the longer ones which appeal to the slightly fitter walkers. Over the next few weeks I have to shadow a current Health Walks leader and then lead a walk of my own. After that I'll be let loose to help England get fitter!

I can walk 1000 miles ...

...  But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be that (wo)man who walked 1000 miles

Just to fall down achey and sore ...

Ok, enough of the song butchery and apologies to The Proclaimers, but seriously ... could I walk 1000 miles?


I used to get out walking every weekend. Sometimes on both days. I'd spend a lot of my holidays walking too. 1000 miles over the course of a year was easily achievable. But over the last few years, life has got in the way and my walking has got less and less. Now I rarely walk at the weekend and I've been doing less of it in my holidays (apart from my long walk in the Arctic last summer, that is).


When I walked regularly I really noticed the benefits. As well as being a generally enjoyable activity, I was fitter, less stressed and felt like I had more energy. I also felt more in tune with the time of year as I noticed the subtle changes as the seasons morphed from one to the next. It didn't matter whether I walked alone or with others, each had its additional benefits. Walking alone gave me time to think; walking with a friend or two gave me time for chit-chat and enabled us to catch up with each other's lives; walking in a group was sociable with lots of light-hearted banter. I miss all of this and really want to get this important part of my life back.


Last year Country Walking magazine challenged readers to walk 1000 miles over the course of the year. To ensure this wasn't too easy a challenge it could only include proper walks and not strolls up and down the aisles of Tesco. It doesn't have  to be done in one epic hike but can be walks fitted in at lunchtimes and at weekends. I had too much going on at the beginning of last year to even think about taking on something like this, but as a strong believer in the philosophy of 'better late than never', I'm going to challenge myself to do it this year.


For it to be a proper challenge, I need a few rules. Here are the ones I've come up with so far. I may need to adapt them or add to them as I go along.


1) I will include walks of 2 miles and above so long as it's a continuous walk and not 2 miles over the course of a whole day, in which I'm stopping and starting all the time. To monitor this I will set the time limit of 2 hours for a 2 mile walk. This may seem like a long time, but it will allow for walks in which I walk a mile to get to somewhere interesting, spend some time exploring and then walk a mile back. For walks over 6 miles I won't set a time limit so long as it is completed within the same day.


2) No bonus points for hills or tricky terrain. Clocking up the miles is the only thing that counts.


3) City walks can be included as long as they are proper walks such as circumambulating the city walls, taking part in a guided walk or following a themed trail (e.g. a Dickens' trail in London).Wandering round the shops does not count.
 
4) Pounding the treadmill in the gym doesn't count.


And, well, that's it really. Simple.


1000 miles shouldn't be difficult to achieve physically. My problems are usually with time, but having a goal to aim for will hopefully make me prioritise walking and give me some extra incentive.


Here are some maths:


1000 / 52  = 19.2 miles per week
1000 / 12 = 83.3 miles per month


On an average weekend I should be able to walk on at least one day. If I do a 10 mile walk that leaves another 9.2 miles to be walked during the week. I could try to walk 2 miles each day, or try two mid-week 5 mile walks. Of course there will be weeks when I can't do this, but as long as I achieve it most weeks, then the slack can be taken up on holidays when I'm more likely to walk every day.


I'll set up a spreadsheet to note down each walk and for extra incentive I'll include a countdown column.


I'm going to make a good start by kicking off the new year with a walk on New Year's Day. Better stop messing about on my computer and get those maps out and start plotting and planning.


You can find the link to the original challenge here.

The Thames Path - Marlow to Henley

I had to drive home from Kent on Saturday and as it was such a beautiful day, despite being the first day of November, I really didn't feel like spending it sitting on the M25 and the M6. Instead I detoured to Marlow and spent the day walking along the Thames to Henley and only completed my drive in the evening. 

I parked in Marlow as this is an easy place to return to by bus from Henley and the street parking is free. I had wanted to walk from Bourne End as this was where I'd had to finish when I walked the Thames Path at New Year and flooding prevented me getting through to Marlow. Backtracking to Bourne End from Marlow proved quite difficult as the trains were only every two hours and my timing was out. I didn't want too late a start as I knew I'd have to be finished by 5pm as it's getting dark so early since the clocks went back last week. I never thought to check out the buses, so with hindsight maybe I could have got there. But not to worry, I'll try to do this 'missing section' next time.

Marlow was buzzing with Saturday morning activity. The sun was out and so were the people. Some were wandering up and down the high street, others wandering by the river. The local park was full of families with young, and not-so-young, children and the ice-cream van was doing a roaring trade.

I popped into the church, an impressive building with a chequer-board tower just by the river. All Saints was rebuilt in 1835, replacing a 12th century church. Inside I met a sprightly old lady who spotted my walking boots and informed me brightly that she was 93 years old, and not so brightly, that she'd recently had to give up walking as an activity. Her face momentarily clouded over as she remembered the day she'd taken her boots to the thrift shop. She brightened as she added that she's still driving and still attending yoga and aerobics classes regularly. Feeling inspired, and determined to make the most of my next fifty years' walking before I have to hand my boots over to the charity shop, I strode down to the river and started walking west.

A man sat on the river bank shouting commands and encourgement through a loudspeaker to rowers whizzing past making it look easy. Large boats with families and groups on board chugged past, not allowed to exceed 4 knots per hour. 

 








Bisham Church soon came into view on the opposite bank. Next to it, one of the UK's National Sports Centres can be found at Bisham Abbey, the 13th century manor house near the church which replaced the original priory. It was on this stretch of the Thames that poet Percy Shelley spent his time bobbing about in a skiff whilst writing about a boat and river in 'The Revolt of Islam'. 

Passing Temple Mill Island, I soon reached Temple Lock. A young couple were launching dinghies which they then paddled out of the lock and downriver. I sat and ate a sandwich, watching a boat pass through the lock as I enjoyed the sun on my face. 

Remembering I still had a lot of walking to do before I'm 93 I didn't linger for long and was soon off towards Hurley Lock and Islands. First I had to cross to the other bank using Temple Bridge which, with a span of just under 50 metres, is Britain's longest hardwood footbridge. Once at Hurley Lock I followed the path over a shorter bridge to reach Hurley Island, then walked the length of the island before crossing back to the towpath.

The path, which so far had led through trees and was deeply littered with autumnal leaves, now took me across open meadowland and fields. Looking back, the opposite bank rose into a high cliff with a mansion house sitting right at the top. This is Danesfield, named after the Danes who built a fortification in the field here. The present-day mansion is a hotel. 

A large caravan park lay to my left, the river was to my right. Large, expensive-looking houses soon came into view and the path joined a road labelled as private. The houses were to the left of the road and what seemed to be private gardens alongside the river were to its right. I puzzled for a moment, before realising that the path doesn't follow the road, but actually goes right by the river through the gardens. A couple of them had seats, lanterns and potted plants and looked like wonderful little spots for sitting and reading or just watching the world go by. 

Medmenham Abbey soon came into sight across the river. The Abbey had been founded in 1201, but all that remains of the original building is one derelict tower. The rest has been rebuilt over the years and now forms a luxury hotel. In the 1700s it became infamous as a meeting place for Sir Francis Dashwood's notorious Hell Fire Club. Members became known as 'Franciscans of Medmenham' after their host was said to have performed obscene parodies of religious rites there. 

Walking through more meadowland and crossing several bridged ditches led me to Culham Court. The strange looking sheep I saw from a distance turned out to be a very large herd of mostly white deer. A few were browner with spots and as far as I can make out they were fallow deer. I could be completely wrong on this. The house with its sixty-five surrounding acres is a privately owned family home, bought by financier Urs Schwarzenbach and his wife Francesca in 2006 for £38 million. 

 

After passing in front of the house the path then veers away from the river to reach the small village of Aston. The Flower Pot pub is a local landmark with chickens running around the garden. Outside was the largest pumpkin I'd ever seen. It was carved for Halloween and the inside could easily have held a small child. I touched it to check as I couldn't quite believe it to be real.


Walking from the pub along Ferry Lane to return to the river I passed several more huge pumpkins. One had an array of 'normal' sized pumpkins around it which looked tiny in comparison.

Back at the river, it was through a kissing gate and just a short way along a grassy path until Hambleden Mill came into sight. A long weir glinted in the low sun, backed by a splendid display of autumn colour. Realising I'd easily make it to Henley before dark, I sat awhile on a bench scoffing a snack and looking at my map. 

Greenlands was the next mansion to appear. White and palatial it stood proudly on the opposite bank, facing the river, and making me think of the White House in Washington DC. It had been built in 1853 for bookseller and First Lord of the Admiralty W H Smith. These days it houses Henley College. 

The sun was started to set behind the trees as I approached Temple Island. This is the start of the Henley Royal Regatta which runs to Henley Bridge. The 'temple' on the island, now a private fishing lodge, was designed in 1771 by James Wyatt who added frescoes inside. It was originally built as a folly to draw the eye to the view from Fawley Court which is situated a little further upstream. 

 








Facing Fawley Court is the hamlet of Remenham with its 19th century church. It was built to replace a Norman church and has its apse built on the line of its Norman predecessor. 

Houses and dog-walkers started to appear more frequently alongside the path and, rounding a bend, Henley itself came into view. The light was fading now and lights on the bridge and in the shops and houses along the bank produced bobbing gold reflections in the water. A raft of ducks, strung out in single-file, were out for a final swim of the day. I walked into Henley as the town was closing up for the evening. A bus was waiting at the stop when I arrived and twenty minutes later I was back in Marlow. 

 









Distance: approximately 8.5 miles.

Researching and writing

After a lot of research into travel books (good excuse to do lots of reading) I've come to the conclusion that most books have around 200 pages and 100,000 words. Give or take 10-20%. This is reassuring because this is what I'm aiming for with the book I'm trying to write at the moment. I'm not looking at bestselling travel writers as they tend to have much longer books, but more the sort of writers you only discover when researching books on a particular region or way of travelling.


At the moment I'm about a third of the way there with around 32,000 words. I've divided the writing of my first draft into three phases:


Phase one was typing up my diary notes. I kept quite a detailed diary as I was walking, but as I was hand-writing and, more importantly, not wanting to add a huge notebook to my load, it was in note form. My typing up in phase one involved writing it up into proper sentences and paragraphs rather than just copying up notes. As I'm a fairly fast typist this was completed quite quickly.


I'm now working on phase two, which is much slower going. Phase two involves the factual side of my walk and means lots of research. One of my USPs (unique selling points) is that the book will be useful for anyone planning, or thinking about, a walk along the Kungsleden. Although it's not intended as a guidebook, I do want to get quite a lot of solid information into it. One of the reasons I wanted to write this book is because so few people in the English speaking world are aware of this walk and there is very little written on it in English. The very reason I want to write the book is also the reason my research is going quite slowly - there's very little written on it in English.


I'm finding quite a lot on the internet, but it tends to be in Swedish. Although I picked up a few Swedish words, my language skills are definitely not of the proficiency needed for reading Swedish websites. I'm ploughing through, picking out the words I know and finding myself doing a complicated process of translating into English via Dutch. Yes, Dutch. When I was in Scandinavia in February I noticed how a lot of the words in both Danish and Swedish seemed to share a similar root to Dutch. I don't speak Dutch, but my Dutch vocabulary is far more extensive than my Swedish vocabulary and whilst I was travelling over the summer I found this came in very useful. I'm finding it just as useful now. When I've read through a page and got the gist of it in Dutch and English (Dutlish?), I'll put any relevant bits into Google translate to double-check. Although it comes up with a few strange translations and the word order is sometimes rather jumbled, I'm quite impressed with it. I wouldn't use it to translate anything of importance, say a legal document, but for my purpose it's fine.


Once I've done some research and made my own notes, I'm then inserting this into whichever part of my draft I think it'll best fit. This is all taking quite a long time. I'm aiming to have roughly 50,000 words by the end of the phase two. That'll be half the book dedicated to my first USP. Only 18,000 words to go then ...


Phase three will be dedicated to my second USP which is something along the lines of stressed, middle-aged woman/teacher gives up job and goes for a long walk in the Arctic wilderness. I think I'm going to enjoy writing this part. Not that I'm not enjoying what I'm doing at the moment, but I'm conscious of time and want to get as much done as possible before the need to pay bills means I have to go back to work. 


Of course, once it's all done, that's only really the start of it. My first draft will be a collection of disorganised ramblings and will be in need of some serious editing. But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Goalless Walking

I mentioned previously that my long walk in Sweden had given me a new mindset on walking. So, what would that be then?

In the past I've always seen a walk as a kind of challenge: a list of places to be ticked off; a certain time to get somewhere; a set-in-stone quota of miles to be covered. This hasn't been something I've done consciously as my main reason for walking has always been that it's something I enjoy. But because I do enjoy my walks, I've always found it easy to get distracted. I'll sit and gaze at an idyllic view for twenty minutes, then spend another ten minutes trying to take a perfect photograph of a leaf. Add in distractions like tea-rooms, old churches or obscure little museums and my walk can easily take twice as long as it's 'supposed' to. Although I finish my walk happy, I'll have a little niggle at the back of my mind telling me that I haven't done well enough. On the other hand, when I have to rush to finish the walk to make sure I'm in time for the last bus or that the gates on the car park aren't locked, then I don't feel so happy. I feel like I've missed out.

It should be obvious really shouldn't it? That I should walk with the intention of doing what I want, when I want and enjoying myself rather than trying to achieve some self-imposed target. However, it took a long walk in the Arctic with plenty of thinking time for me to figure this out. 

At first I was concerned that I wasn't putting enough miles in each day; that I was starting too late in the morning; that I was taking too many gorgeous-view breaks. I justified it by telling myself I'd never be here again. If I don't absorb the view fully, or camp at that amazing spot by the waterfall and enjoy pottering around in the sun the next morning, I'll never get another chance. In the Peak District, I can always nip back for another look. In Swedish Lapland? Not so easy. Not when I have to take a plane, then a very long train journey, then a bus ride of several hours to the end of the nearest road, and then walk for a few days to get there. It's easier to come back and walk a part of the trail I haven't touched on, than it is to go back to the sections I've already walked just to see a bit here and a bit there because I rushed it first time round.

Once these thoughts started to sink in I began to relax and enjoy myself a lot more. I was learning to stop feeling guilty about something that there was no reason to feel guilty about anyway. I met lots of Swedish people, including some quite young ones. Although some were rushing along with only a few days to complete a long section of the trail, others were enjoying moving slowly and making the most of their time spent in the wilderness. Rather than rushing from target to target, their goal was to find a nice campsite, cook some good food and chill.

Swedes seem to have a different attitude to the great outdoors. From an early age, it's quite normal to spend time walking, carrying a pack, wild camping and jumping in rivers for a wash. Have you ever tried walking with a five-year-old? If so, you'll know how long it can take to even get a few hundred metres down the road. Everything is fascinating to them. They have to turn every stone, pick up every stick and sometimes sample every worm. Give them a backpack to carry and the chance of finding bits of reindeer antler in the stream beds and you've no chance of getting very far. This is fine. The point of the trip isn't to walk a long way, but to enjoy being in the wilderness.

Once they hit their teens they're chomping at the bit to get out there with their mates. No grown-ups allowed. And you know what? The grown-ups are fine with this. They walk a bit further than when they were younger, but still seem to get far more out of 'just being there' than they do for breaking records of distance or speed walked.

As adults, the annual trip to the wilderness is a time to de-stress away from busy lives in Stockholm or other cities. It's quality time with family and friends, or time to be perfectly alone with no-one else to worry about. Yes they have targets; goals they want to achieve, but the targets are not the main reason for being there. 

So why do I always have this feeling of needing to achieve a goal? Is it a general British attitude to walking? There's no point doing it unless you're going to achieve something? I don't think I'm alone in feeling this. Is it because we don't have any 'real' wilderness to spend days alone in? Even the remotest parts of Scotland are not that far from civilisation. I could have driven to the Highlands three times in the time it took just for the train journey from Stockholm to Lapland. Does this mean we never really shed our city feelings of targets, goals and everything at a specific time? Is it because walking is an 'adult' pastime and so we never have the opportunity to learn lessons from five-year-olds about the joy of going slowly? I know some Brits will take their children on short walks, but I don't know any who wouldn't shudder at the thought of taking them into the wilderness for two weeks at a time.

My time in the wilderness has taught me that the goal of not having a goal can be the best goal to have. Of course sometimes it's good to challenge yourself; to keep yourself on your toes rather than sat on your bum taking yet another gorgeous-view break. And sometimes there is no choice in the matter. Why do so many last buses depart at 5pm even in the long, light summer evenings?

So how am I going to apply these lessons now I'm home? I'll still walk according to other people's criteria, whether that's people I meet (it only took us three hours) or what the guide-book says. Or, more importantly, what the bus timetable says. But I also want to walk without a plan or goal. To just wander wherever I think looks interesting. To stop when I want and where I want for however long I want. Will I achieve this goal? Or am I just setting myself another target that I'll feel guilty about not achieving? Is it even possible to have a target of not having a target? Watch this space ...

When your campsite looks like this, why would you be in a hurry to leave?

I've returned ... what next?

I've been home for about 10 days now and I'm slowly getting myself sorted out. As planned, I've spent the summer on a long walk in a long country. I aimed to walk the Kungsleden trail in the far north of Sweden and managed to complete just under half of it before my knees gave out. Although it's disappointing not to have finished the whole thing, I really enjoyed what I did and developed a whole new mindset towards walking. I'll write more about that in another post. I've also got an excuse to go back next year.


Before I went to Sweden, I left my job. Drastic but sometimes these things have to be done. I was getting less and less time to do the things I want to do with my life and to spend time with the people I want to spend time with. Work was, quite literally, taking over my life. I feel a lot calmer and more in control of my life since finishing work. Unfortunately, as I'm not a rich heiress or lottery winner, and I don't have a sugar-daddy to hand, I'll have to find some other means of earning a living. But this time I want it to be on my terms. In the meantime I want to spend some time focussing on things I want to achieve personally.


One of the items on my list is to write a book. I've had ideas roaming around inside my head for years, but they've never seemed quite right when I've come to put them down on paper. My time walking in the wilderness gave me lots of thinking time and I now feel I have the right ideas for a book. I had thought about writing up the walk even when I was at the planning stages. There is very little written on it in English so I'd hope it would be helpful to others wanting to do something similar. This would be one of my USPs. Yes, I've been reading up on what helps a piece of writing to sell and found out all about the need for a USP (Unique Selling Point). I have two USPs. Is that a good thing? The first, as mentioned, concerns the lack of writing about this trail that is currently available in English. The second goes something along the lines of 'stressed, middle-aged woman gives up job and goes off alone for a wander round the Arctic'.


I kept quite detailed diaries whilst I was away and I'm now in the process of writing them up and adding to them. As I read back over them and think about fleshing them out, the book is almost writing itself in my mind. I have so many ideas. I think I'm almost glad I only completed half the walk as I definitely have enough material for one book already!

A long walk in a long country

So I was lying in bed, sipping a mug of coffee, flicking through my Lonely Planet Guide to Sweden, thinking about getting up and actually doing something. I really hadn't got the use out of my LP Sweden as I only bought it to use for a few days and it turned out there were only a couple of pages dedicated to Malmo where I was planning to go. In fact, so little of the book concerned Malmo I did something I have never done before. After much deliberation I decided I really didn't want to carry the whole book around, didn't have time to copy the relevant pages and so, I'm really struggling to say this, I (deep breath) ripped the pages out. Now I was thinking I really should get some more use out of this mutilated book.


Malmo is right at the bottom of Sweden, just over the Oresund Bridge from Copenhagen. It's a very nice place in what seems to be a very nice and very long country. As I've been to one end, maybe I should go to the other end? And as the other end is in the actual real Arctic as soon as this idea popped into my head, it seemed like a very good idea indeed. I turned to the Arctic section of the book and the page fell open on the description of a very long walk in this very long country.


The walk is called the Kungsleden Trail (means the King's Trail or the Royal Trail, depending who you believe) and the whole thing is over 400km through beautiful wilderness. Ok then, that's my summer holiday planned. My very long walk in this very long country will take place during the very long days of summer (are you seeing a theme yet?)


A few weeks later sitting in brother's kitchen in Germany I had time to do a bit more research. Apart from a few blogs and the official website and one not very well-known guidebook, there's very little written on it in English. This is all part of the attraction. It's something not many Brits either know about or will have done. I'm sold.

Thames Path - Maidenhead to Bourne End

Friday 3rd January, 2014

Today I planned to walk from Maidenhead to Marlow but things didn't quite work out as I'd hoped. I drove to Marlow and found free street parking just round the corner from the train station. I caught the train to Maidenhead so I could continue my walk from where I'd left off yesterday. 

Taken from the train window

From the train window I could see an awful lot of flooding. It was worst on what would be the last section of my walk from Bourne End to Marlow. The Thames had overflowed so much that what should be green parkland running alongside the riverbank was completely under water. I could see the tops of park benches looking as though they were planted mid-river ready for any passing swimmers to take a semi-submerged rest. I couldn't see any option for getting round the flooded area as it was bordered by the fenced-off train tracks. The railway fortunately ran along the top of a higher bank, otherwise it would have been under water too. I had a feeling my walk would have to end at Bourne End, though I didn't want to make a decision until I'd actually got there and checked it out. 


Arriving in Maidenhead, I made my way down to the river. According to the official tourism website, Maidenhead is one of the most affluent areas of the UK with house prices often exceeding those of Central London. It goes on to give the reasons for this as being the ease of commuting into London from here, plus the proximity of the Thames countryside. There were some very posh houses along the riverbank and a few old buildings around the town centre, but on the whole it didn't do it for me. It was too bland. If I had money, Maidenhead would not be high on my list of desirable locations to reside in. 

Crossing the bridge to the far side of the river, I set off walking. The first part of the path on this section leads through a manicured riverside park. This soon turns into a roadside walk before reaching Boulter's Lock. The lock is the longest and deepest on the Thames. At one time it was also the busiest. 

The path was muddy with puddles, but I wasn't wading through long stretches of water as I'd had to do on my first day of walking. The Thames was very high though. I saw a lovely house on the far bank; it looked really idyllic and serene, but the serenity seemed to be finely balanced with impending doom. Another day or two of rain and the scales would be weighted on the side of doom as the bank would be breached and everywhere flooded. An elderly man was sat on the decking looking as though he was enjoying the bit of sun, but I wondered what was really going through his mind.*

Not long after this house, the grounds of Cliveden appeared on the opposite bank. Cliveden, a large mansion house, is a luxury hotel. In its former life as a private house it was the home of Nancy Astor who was known for her holding of lavish parties. Anyone who was anyone attended including Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Gandhi, Lawrence of Arabia, Rudyard Kipling, Henry James, A J Balfour ... the list goes on. It gained notoriety in 1961 when it became the background setting for the Profumo Affair. Christine Keeler met John Profumo here and they began an illicit affair. As he was the Conservative Secretary for War and she was having a simultaneous affair with a suspected Russian spy, and it was the height of the Cold War, the resulting scandal brought down the government.

Although the house is now a private hotel, the grounds are owned by the National Trust and a few years ago I spent a pleasant afternoon wandering around them. From my side of the river today, I could see very little. Knowing how lovely the grounds are made me wonder what else I might be missing out on by being on this side of the river. But of course, if I was on the other side of the river, I'd be thinking the same about this side. Ah well, grass is greener and all of that. I continued walking. 

 








Next up was Cookham. Here the path detours from the river to pass through the small town. Cookham is usually associated with painter Stanley Spencer and there is a small gallery here dedicated to his works. Although Spencer painted on an array of themes he is probably best known for his biblical paintings created with Cookham as the backdrop. I'd been into the gallery on a previous visit and so with the days being so short, and not knowing if I'd face a long detour further on, I didn't linger and followed the path through the churchyard. 

The dramatic statues of angels in the churchyard made me think of the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who, though I'm sure their sculptor meant for them to be figures of other-worldly goodness and not scary other-worldly creatures who preyed on humans and zapped them back in time. 

 

Meeting the river again the path continued along soggy grass to Bourne End. Houses, boats and small jetties lined both sides of the river. Crossing the  railway bridge the path continues on the far side of the river. This is where I came to the area I'd seen from the train window. The water was sloshing deeply along the path and I knew that this wasn't a short stretch I could easily wade through, but continued most of the way to Marlow. I wandered into the town away from the path to look for an alternative route, but with the railway line now between me and the path I would have had a pointless walk along the main road if I was to continue. Instead I made my way to Bourne End train station for the ride back to Marlow and my van.

*As it happened, a month after my walk the banks broke and the news was full of properties along the Thames being underwater. I didn't see my little blue house on the news, but it's hard to imagine it surviving unscathed.