I’ve made it, finally. When I retired I set myself a few small challenges to fill my time. I’ve been reading books from authors from every country in the world (now on 151 of 196) and have been learning to draw. These are still ongoing.
The challenge I have finished, however, is my walk along the river Wansbeck, which passes through my home town. For some reason I decided to walk from the mouth to the source, uphill as it was, though the gradients were not that great. Now I have done it.
Not that it is a very long river at just over forty kilometres, (it has a catchment area of 10372 hectares) though to be honest I have had to walk it twice as I parked my car somewhere along the route and walked up and down. Paths along the bank weren’t always available and, at times, I had to stray some way away from the river, adding more distance to the walk. In total I must have walked over one hundred kilometres. It took me nine days in total, walking very few weeks and not at all during the winter.
That doesn’t seem much yet I am sure it felt like more. I would walk for at least four hours each day and, at four kilometres an hour, that would mean about sixteen kilometres a day or over 140 kilometres in total. That sounds more like how it felt.
I’ve also managed to write over thirty thousand words about my adventures and I am hoping to turn them into a book of some sort but that is another challenge. Anyway, I have learnt a lot about the river, the surrounding countryside and myself. All of this has been entertaining and interesting. Hopefully this will make for some interesting stories.
I’ve made it. I have walked along the river that starts with a dam and ends with a weir.
What next? Perhaps I will start on the River Blyth.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 