Walks in 2025

We started 2025 with rather a lot of unfinished walking business. In addition to the Jubilee Trail and the southern loop of the Shropshire Way, both of which we have deliberately been walking in Dorset-based and Shropshire-based holidays over a number of years, we still hadn't finished the Grand Union Canal Walk (completion requires a 2-day walk from Kingswood Junction to Birmingham) or the Avon Valley Path (probably again requiring 2 days of walking to get us from Ringwood to Christchurch). We also wanted to complete as much as possible of the gloriously isolated section of the King Charles III England Coast Path between Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire; there is a missing river crossing near Gibralter Point, so it isn't possible to walk all of it yet.

We also started 2025 with a certain optimism and determination to advance the Jubilee Trail and to try complete the other paths listed above.  I'd decided to retire at the end of July and was looking forward to having more time, and I had found a wonderful podiatrist and had some hope that the problems with my right foot were easing. We want to continue walking long distance paths for as long as is sensible, but we want to enjoy the walks. We've accepted that the distance we can walk in a day is less than it was, leaving more time for other sightseeing, and some of our holidays now combine  walking with time spent with family and friends - and family history research. For these reasons, beyond completing the paths described above, our ambitions for 2025 are relatively modest. We want to walk the Jurassic Way from Stamford to Banbury and to walk some additional sections of the England Coast Path, including a section in Kent, where we have a holiday cottage booked for a week in July. 

That's the plan, but what about reality? Despite having to alter our plans for the first weekend of the year because of various weather warnings, we had a most enjoyable short walk on the Lincolnshire Coast. We're off!