Walking for exercise/ mental and physical health/ as a hobby

[UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme]

Is there a thread or sub section for walking does anyone know? I can't find one and would like to start one here if there isn't.

I've been consciously walking for health and weight loss (walking helps me mentally more than by burning calories, though of course that and slowly building muscle has been a fantastic side benefit) for a year or so.

I have been trying to do around 5km most but not every day and a longer walk (anything from 10km to - rarely - 24 km once per week, mostly a favourite route of 12km).

I work shifts including nights, evenings and weekends and have older school aged children so often have the privilege of free blocks of time during the school day for walking. During the holidays the long walks have taken a hit as I've been doing things with the children, but I'd love to step it up a notch once they're back and do at least two 16km walks per week - that's about ten miles. I have a route in mind to replace my old standby 12km round with, which I'll try on Wednesday.

Does anyone feel like joining me on a thread where we commit to walking for health, whatever that means to us (can be longer or shorter walks obviously)?

I'd love to talk about what we do, how we work it into our day, long term goals, equipment especially boots, and just general chat.

I'd love to start doing multi day walks and very long trails some day - maybe next summer, maybe further in the future! I'd love to talk about that too if anyone has done/ does / hopes to do that!

That sounds really lovely @RhinestoneCowgirl. I know a few Somerset ancient stone circles well. I’ve mainly spotted cows and cats when I’ve walked near my local one. You were lucky to see that cute little guy. I’ve clocked up a huge number of steps around the city. My Fitbit tells me I’ve done 22k steps today and walked 15km. Hoping for more scenery tomorrow.

Forgot, your quantocks walk sounds gorgeous and I’m loving the alpaca and robin!

That was for errol. I need to go to bed…

I tried to take a photo of a stork in flight today (got my walk in early as I'm off to work for a long late shift in a few minutes) but you can't even see it unless you really zoom in! You're all much better at nature photography than me! At least the cows are big enough to see and stay still for photos It really is a beautiful early autumn day today.

RhinestoneCowgirl that walk sounds lovely - good luck with university - the cycle ride sounds like a good way to build some fresh (or at least outdoor) air and exercise into your day.

Talk of old trailers and drover's roads reminds me that I live walking distance from a "feeder" route to the Camino de Santiago - I sometimes walk fragments of it but its not especially well signposted in terms of telling you which way to head, there are just occasionally these enigmatic little markers.

One day I'd like to head out from my door and walk the whole way to Santiago, but its just over 2000 km so I think it would take me about 3 months Maybe when the kids are all finished with school I'll take a sabbatical

*trails not trailers

My photo of the Camino de Santiago waymarkers didn't post before - here it is again

I bought the guidebook for the South West Coast Path in March last year @UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme and I have similar fantasies of walking it all in one go (I blame reading The Salt Path).

There seems to be a proliferation of long distance paths - we've sampled the Two Moors way, the Coleridge Way, the England Coast path and the South West Coast path this week.
Another fab walk today in the Dunster area. I forgot to take a photo of the exmoor ponies but did take one of the castle.

We went to Dunster this summer. I have a very similar picture and also no photos of the ponies! It’s a lovely little place.

Today I’ve ended up doing a mash of of my favourite local walks totalling 11km. It was a surprisingly nice late afternoon/early evening and dh was with me for about half of it. Tim Harford in the form of the More or less podcast was with me for the rest. Both great company!

Today’s pic is a distant summer born foal who I’ve been spotting for the last few months. There are a few of them in the field and they’re very friendly/crazy.

We did a good walk yesterday, nearly the full length of Hawkcombe but then out to Hurlstone point for the views rather than to where the stream (augmented by those from the Horner woods) ends at the shingle bar where it presumably just filters through to the sea. We'd never thought about where those streams ended up before!

Today I managed to get caught in not one but two thunderstorms. I had the option to turn back five minutes into today’s local work but my “come rain or shine” policy kicked in and I ended up doing 6k around the local lanes. It turned out to be a LOT of rain. At least there was a rainbow in between.

We had a day off from serious walking, partly because the weather forecast was poor. So we went to Hestercombe which has lovely 'rediscovered' gardens - partly Lutyens&Gertrude Jekyll formal and partly 18th C landscape. I didn't do proper distance measurement but I clocked up 12 km according to the step counter. And the weather was mostly perfect though we got caught in one cloudburst. That gave us an excuse to dash to the cafe and have a 'savoury cream tea' (cheese scone, cream cheese and tomato chutney) in addition to having had a very nice lunch there earlier.

Most of my steps today (about 8k) were from wandering about uni campus looking baffled 😁

I took the bus today due to the weather forecast but plan to woman up tomorrow and cycle, because it's a much more flexible way to travel. I'll pack waterproof trews in my panniers...

PurpleDaisies I actually like walking in the rain as long as I'm dressed for it - waterproof walking trousers as well as jacket. Its no fun if you're cold and soaking obviously, and I don't think I'd deliberately walk if there was lightning! Glad you survived

ErrolTheDragon that savoury cream tea sounds surprisingly nice, if a slight misnomer without cream!

RhinestoneCowgirl what are you studying? I'm sure you'll get the hang of campus quickly! Hope the cycling goes well today.

I did an amble about walk yesterday - it was cold, wet and foggy in the morning and I set off very purposefully, but the dun came out and burned off the fog and things dried out, and I slowed down and started ambling and randomly trying out new paths, one of which was a long trail ending in a dead end, so I had to turn back, and another of which I thought almost certainly would be but actually turned out to connect two walks I've done before, and I'll use it again now! A path marked on the online map, along a stream, just didn't exist, which was disappointing as I wanted to follow it to the bigger river. I saw some quite peculiar stuff, including a large blackboard standing prominently at the side of a quiet country road with "greetings misery" chalked on it. Felt a bit surreal until I walked another 200 meters and passed a farm with a bridal couple made out of hay bales (a farming family wedding tradition locally) so I assume it was someone's idea of wedding humour! All in all a lovely if slightly meandering/ wandering walk yesterday. About 11km I think.

My new walking boots just arrived - same brand and essentially the boot version of the almost completely worn out walking shoes I have, so I'm as confident as it's possible to be that they'll suit my feet. I absolutely love the colour too!

Wow! I think if I had those I'd be forever trying to pick daintily round mud.

The forecast rain arrived today, but we've had a good potter round Dunster castle gardens and the village - >8km according to the step counter.

Errol I don't really do dainty - here are my old / current shoes, and a comparison of the tread on the bottom showing the old ones next to the new ones (old ones used to have identical tread but are now smooth in places). Current ones also used to be a bright colour 😂 DH worked out that Ive walked about 1800 kilometres in my current shoes

Rain arrived here too, and I did cycle to uni - I'm studying for a degree in Early Childhood.

Got completely soaked on the way home, and one of the paths was flooded to had to take an alternate route which was a bit flooded but still passable. Hate cycling on main roads in this weather. Luckily DH met me at the front door and made me a nice cup of tea

We had a fantastic >20km walk today from simonsbath to Withypool, partly near the river but some up and over the moor - much better path than we were expecting. We're definitely that bit fitter than at the start of the holiday.

My trainers were still soaked after yesterday’s swim/walk. It was much nicer today than yesterday. I’ve had work on so I’ve managed a couple of shorter ones today totalling about 8.5km. I dug out an old pair of nearly worn out trail running shoes which had the advantage of being dry. I’d forgotten how light they are which was really nice, so I think I’m going to try and find a new pair similar. Why are the best things always discontinued?!

Just short walks going on here atm for time reasons between shifts/ taxiing kids/ appointments/ things that need doing etc. Still always good to get out though!

We arrived here on holiday in summer but leaving in autumn - the weather has changed. So we went to an NT place (Fyne Court - an old estate they're starting to rejuvenate) and then back to Hestercombe, which was lovely even in mizzle. We left before the serious rain set in. Despite not being 'proper' walks we racked up a good 11km or so.