Intro to RR, the walker

I have always walked a lot, but with the exception of cliff top walks east of Weymouth and others on the South Downs west of Eastbourne much of my perambualtion has been perfunctory - a means of getting from A to B, or as an excuse for thinking time with surroundings immaterial. Consequently much has been on pavement or road, not always minor. I've also done my share of sponsored walks, plus the Lyke Wake Walk three times and the Spider Walk - 50 miles around the outskirts of Sheffield. This last has the distinction of being the only organised long distance walk that I've been on that subsequent map study has convinced me as being at least as long as claimed. Overall I guess it was a case of "Sometimes I walks and thinks, and sometimes I just walk" rather than walking as an interest in its own right.

Over time however aesthetics of the walk have become more important. Yes, I like butterflies and pretty flowers and gentle canalside strolls, but even more so I have a liking for views that is not satisfied by flat landscapes. Hence hills are increasingly the order of the day. Hillwalks also involve more exercise in a given distance than flat ones, so that is good too, but it is typical that my taste for hills should increase as my ability to climb them decreases.

One of the many good things about walking is that there is no shortage of opportunities virtually wherever one visits. Clifftop, canalside, railway, river bank, country lanes, cross-country, park and forest. And especially hills. I'm not going to attempt to report back every time I go walking for pleasure; instead I am content to present a selection of the Rambling Rook's real rambles.

These walks were undertaken in late 2008 or later, and in I'm relying purely on far from flawless memory for my descriptions. However if I don't write them up now, then I guess I never will. Route distances (in miles) estimated by use of a piece of cotton and an appropriate OS map, spot heights in metres directly from maps, total climbs given in feet from map contours and converting from metres to feet using 30m as 100 ft. Note that the climb refers to the total of all significant uphill sections rather than simply the height difference between the start/endpoint of the walk and the highest point on the route. I like using feet for the ascents as not only am I of a generation that is more familiar with them than metres, but the numbers needed make the measurements sound more impressive. Perhaps I should resort to millimetres. Given that not every change in direction or elevation of the paths trodden is apparent on the maps, I guess that the distances and climbs reported are probably slight under-estimates of the true values.