Walks in 2024

Walking in 2024 has been stymied by various things, most notably the wet weather. This was compounded in the first part of the year the fact that we both went down with a lurgy very early in the New Year and were just recovering from that when we caught a more ordinary cold. Later in the year, the problem was too much work, and I lost several weekends completely, which is crazy given that I am now only supposed to work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Then I developed  a problem with my right foot, meaning that walking too far can be painful. I'm not sure what the cause of the problem is, but towards the end off the year I found a podiatrist and am hoping she'll help. 

Despite the difficulties, we have had three lovely holidays, in each case staying in a single location in a cottage, but managing an appreciable section of a long-distance footpath.  While staying in a lovely bungalow next to the owner's thatched house in the Dorset village of Cheselbourne in April, we advanced along the Jubilee Trail from Winterbourne Stickland to the Hardy Monument, as well as spending some time with our grandson and his parents.   In May, we had an enjoyable week in  Shropshire in a glorious log cabin with stunning views, on the lower slopes of Brown Clee Hill, which is one of the hills we crossed as we walked a section of the Shropshire Way from Ludlow to Benthall Hall. We returned to Ludlow as part of my birthday celebrations in late August, and completed the leg of the Shropshire Way from Craven Arms to Ludlow. 

In July, while staying in a lovely cottage on a farm near Bootle in Cumbria, we walked from Drigg to Millom on the King Charles III England Coast Path - and I did lots of family history research!  Rather more unexpectedly, we've walked three reasonable length chunks of England Coast Path in Norfolk and Lincolnshire, including newly opened sections of ECP from King's Lynn to Hunstanton and from Sutton Bridge to Freiston Shore, and a slightly older section 16-mile  from Skegness to Mablethorpe. We also revisted a family tradition with a couple of trips to the North Norfolk Coast around Christmas-time, with a walk from Hunstanton to Holme next the Sea on Christmas Day and a glorious visit to the beach at RSPB Titchwell Marsh (where the coast path currently goes substantially inland) with our daughter and grandson.

In addition, we have walked from the Thames at Kew Bridge along the Grand Union Canal to Bulls Bridge, thus completing that route at the London end. And we've done a couple of "Cranborne Circles" (though one of them was actually a linear walk not a circuit, with a picnic with our daughter and grandson at the end, then a lift back to our car).