Day walks

One of the great things about living where I do is that I can get away from it all. If I want to, I can be in the city within twenty minutes, or catch a train to more or less anywhere in the country, or the world. If that’s not what I want, in five minutes I can be in the beautiful countryside of Northumberland. Open moorland, majestic mountain peaks, idyllic beaches, romantic rivers  and moody forests are all within easy reach. There are also plenty of ancient ruins to visit. 

I have been walking up the rivers of the county and, as is often the way, once you start doing something, people start buying you related presents. It is hard buying gifts for someone my age. To be honest, I have everything that I need and, if I don’t, I can simply go out and buy it.

Along these lines, my wife bought me ‘Day Walks in Northumberland’ by David Wislon, while my eldest daughter gave me ‘Northumberland – 40 Coast and Country Walks’ by Jon Tait, as a gift. The first book does what it says on the cover, containing twenty walks that would take four hours or more. The second book contains shorter walks of around two hours.

Both gifts were and are highly appreciated and I looked forward to making a start on them. Therein lies the rub, however, in that I now have sixty walks that I need to tick off. The challenge has been set, the gauntlet thrown down and now it is just a matter of working through them.

Where to start though and how am I going to fit them in? I decided that, during the summer at least, I would increase my walking days from one every three weeks to two. I would still do the river walks on one of the days and address some of the other walks on the other. To get me started I asked my friend Robert if he would like to join me. I chose a walk that was close to both of our homes and picked him up before heading to Bolam Lake Country Park.

I enjoy walking by myself yet, having someone to walk with has its pleasures. Walking along we can share the views, spot things that the other hasn’t and draw upon each other’s experience and knowledge. The day was sunny and very hot. The fourteen kilometre walk took us around three and a quarter hours, though we hadn’t stopped much. This was a useful guide to indicate how long the other walks would take and we are already looking forward to our next one.

Northumberland is such a beautiful county and is a great place to walk. Only fifty nine more to go!