Walks in 2023

Perhaps our major walking achievement in 2023 was the completion of a  good long stretch of the England Coast Path, linking up from Middlesbrough's Transporter Bridge (on the other side of the River Tees from where we walked on the Teesdale Way) to Warkworth (linking up with St Oswald's Way and the Northumberland Coast Path). We knew this would take two holidays,  and the first of these, in March, staying in the comfortable Hazel Cottage near Easington, enabled us to see family and friends and revisit old haunts in Durham (and discover new ones) as well as exploring County Durham's fascinating Heritage Coast as far as Seaham

We returned to July to "close the gap" between Seaham and Warkworth. We'd booked train tickets to Seaham and home from Alnmouth as well as accommodation in towns and villages on the route, and were looking forward to returning to our pre-pandemic practice of travelling by public transport and moving on from B&B to B&B each day.  A train strike on the day we were due to travel home nearly scuppered our plans, but after some rearrangement, we were able to stay in the planned locations after leaving our car at the property of the kind parents of a colleague in Sunderland, who even went the extra mile by giving us a lift to our starting point. We returned there by bus, metro and bus. The holiday was slightly marred by blisters caused by walking boots with soles that we too thin (me) and a leg injury (Richard), but the dreadful weather that was forecast did not, by and large, materialise, and we a pleasant walk through Durham, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.

Another significant achievement was the completion of the 225-mile Midshires Way, finished  in three days of walking over Easter, progressing from Buxton to Stockport. During the year, by means of day trips and short breaks, we also completed the Norfolk section of the England Coast Path as far as is practicable at the current time, and  walked (unofficial and official) sections of coast path in Dorset and Hampshire.  We've resumed our pre-Covid exploration of the Grand Union Canal Walk, edging very slowly towards London, and we're advancing similarly slowly along the Avon Valley Path.

We're developing a tradition of a week's holiday sometime in the spring in a cottage somewhere within about an hour's drive of our daughter's house in Wiltshire.  This year, in late April and early May, we stayed in The Malthouse in the Dorset Village of Shroton (also known as Iwerne Courtney) and, when we weren't out and about with Helen, Tom and Bertie, we were progressing on the Jubilee Trail as well as walking one Cranborne Circle and discovering the White Hart Link. 

I moved to part-time working from October 2023, and we had a holiday in another holiday cottage, this time in the hamlet of Adstone in Shropshire,  in the week immediately beforehand. Our progress on the Shropshire Way is slow, but that is mostly because we are walking each leg as a circuit, so we are discovering other paths and minor roads in this delightful county. We are absolutely loving it, and returned for two more short legs just before Christmas.  Over the year as a whole, we have completed the section of the Shropshire Way between Shrewsbury and Bishop's Castle, and look forward to returning next year for more.

Walks in 2024