Category Archives: walking

Before Covid 19

Before all this madness with the Corona Virus or COVID 19, as it is now known, and before we were all locked down and isolating from each other, I dusted off my walking boots and went on a group walk.

I joined the Norfolk Legstretchers, a group I used to walk with many many years ago, on a 17-mile Circular walk from Stalham going via Happisburgh lighthouse, somewhere I had been wanting to visit for a long time. As Stalham is a good distance from Kings Lynn my friend Gina, who was also going on the walk offered to put me up for the night.

On the morning of the walk, it was lovely to wake to see sunshine and not rain, it was amazing to also see so many other walkers turn up for this walk,27 if I remember right, including my friend Jayne, definitely the biggest group walk I have ever been on.

It was a fabulous walk, lots of interesting people to talk to and I loved that no one knew me so I had no upsetting questions to answer! The walk was at a brisk pace with 2 stops, nothing quite like coffee from a flask by the sea and the lighthouse was not disappointing looking quite splendid in the sunshine.

The Norfolk Legstretchers seem the perfect group for me, they walk a decent distance and meet the first Sunday of every month so today I had hoped to be meeting them at Aldborough for the April walk but instead, I shall be working and looking forward to life getting back to normal…. for everyone!

A walking and riding weekend.

Another active weekend was had on 17th/18th June.

Untitled Since I fell in love with Biking I don’t do as much walking but I do still enjoy walking and would walk more if I could get to the mountains !!!   As for local walks, I try to do the LDWA challenge walks

 This weekend started with the LDWA  Poppyline walk, which we almost missed out on as it filled up quicker than expected, but lucky for us I know the right people !!!

This time Jayne was able to join Gina Jo and myself, so on the hottest day of the year so far we found ourselves walking 18 miles from Sheringham.

As usual, the route did not disappoint with sea views and parkland.

We have now done all 3 LDWA challenge walks.

Poppyline took 6 hours 34

Daffodil dawdle 6 hours 09

Flower of Suffolk 6 hours 50

Many people run walk these events and it’s something I would like to try sometime in the future.

Then on the Sunday Geoff and I did the Cycle together Sandringham ride, I like to support this ride as it’s local and all money goes to Parkhouse at Sandringham

Once again it was another very hot day and for once I was happy that we had decided to do the shorter route of 50 miles although riding from home made it 65 miles.Untitled

There was a huge gathering of SWNC riders at the start, then we all split down into our little groups.

Although we ride these roads regular on our Sunday social rides I never tire of them

After the very hot but enjoyable ride, we gathered with other riders in Parkhouse garden enjoying ice cream, hot dogs and shandy before a gentle ride home.

A taste of Portugal

As Geoff was going to be home for around 10 days between his 2 big cycling trips to Sri Lanka and South Korea/Japan, I thought it would be a good Idea to do some multi day hiking again.

The plan was to go to Portugal and walk the Fisherman’s Trail BUT before we even left cambridge we realised that to do this we should be flying to Lisbon not Faro, so we changed our plans.

The new plan was to start our walking in Sagres and make our way along the coast using the GR13 and GR11 trails,another mistake we made was expecting it to be warm,at times the strong winds made it feel very cold.

Anyway we managed 6 days of walking and covered around 80 miles, we even had a days walking along the fisherman’s trail which as expected was amazing , so although it may not have been as warm as we expected  the sun did shine , the scenery was awesome and the wild flowers were beautiful, I also loved spending a week with Geoff.

The beach’s in Portugal are also very beautiful, I think we saw them at there best, out of season and empty ! The beach at Carrapateira was especially amazing with its boarded walks, its a must visit place if you ever find yourself in Portugal as well as the beach at Praia De Monte Clerigo.

The other thing not to miss is the traditional Portuguese tart or Pastel De Nata, they are delicious and we consumed many.

Within days of being back Geoff was off on his next trip but I have things to look forward too, some multi day biking together, maybe on the North sea cycle route and a 200km Audax ,both good training for my Lap of Anglia ….. but first its the LDWA Daffodil dawdle

The Fisherman’s Trail

In March Geoff will be home from Sri Lanka for 23 days and we are going to Portugal for a week of walking.

He then goes off to South Korea for another 6 weeks of biking,after that I hope he will be home long enough to do some biking with me !

We have decided to walk some of the Rota Vicentina which is a network of walking trails, 400km in total, comprising the Historical and Fisherman’s trail along the SW coast.

After doing some research I discovered that we was actually planning to walk it in the wrong direction and would miss the best 4 days of walking.

So now we shall start In Porto Covo and head to Odeceixe along the Fisherman’s trail

Day one… Porto Cova to Milfontes 20km

Day two…. Milfontes to Almograve 15km

Day three…. Almograve to Zambujeira 22km

Day four…. Zambujeira to Odeceixe 18km

and to finish off  a beach circuit at Odeceixe

You can then join the Historical way and carry on walking to Cabo de San Vicente but we wont have time for this as its just a short trip, but it will be lovely to spend time with Geoff and see some sun.

A weekend of walking

There was a time when I spent every weekend walking with Cambridge Rambling Club, a time before Geoff started all this travelling and I fell in love with my bike, now I still like the walking but to get a decent walk usually involves a lot of driving which I don’t like.

I keep in touch with Cambridge Rambling club and when I saw they had a weekend booked at the Activity Centre in Brancaster Staithe I jumped at the chance to go and invited my friend Gina along too.

Luckily for me I was just starting to feel better so this weekend was just the tonic i needed, a gentle start back to exercise with lots of chatting and catching up with people i had not seen for over a year.

The activity centre was  clean comfortable and well equipped with an excellent kitchen,spacious lounges and a pub near by.

We made our own breakfast and had our evening meals in the Jolly Sailors where the food was good and the service excellent, best of all it meant no cooking or washing up.

We enjoyed an excellent 19 mile walk on the Saturday heading in land through Holkham hall grounds, where many Deer were seen,then back along the coast path, which was just wonderful, we often forget about the great places we have right on our doorstep.

No need to worry about navigation on these walks or getting lost as Jill who organises them is an expert, so we could just relax, enjoy, chat and walk.

Sunday after packing everything away we headed to Hunstanton along the coast path and the many boarded walks, a favourite of mine with lovely memories of the many walks when I first met Geoff. The coastal bus was caught to get back to our cars but Gina and I stayed a while longer as the weather was so nice and we fancied tea and cake to end a fab weekend.

A total of 32 miles walked in lovely winter sunshine.

So a big thank you to Cambridge Rambling club for a fab weekend of walking and when Geoff finally decides to stay in England long enough I shall get him out on a Sunday Ramble…….

The Flower Of Suffolk

Its been a while since I did some real walking, I am usually put off due to the amount of travelling and cost, but yesterday I dusted off my walking boots, made the effort and was not disappointed.img_4002

The day started with a 2 hour drive to walberswick ,in pouring rain with Jo,where we met up with Gina and Jayne to walk The LDWA challenge walk ,the Flower of Suffolk, in the past Gina and I have walked the Daffodil Dawdle 26 miles and Jayne well she has now done 13 of the 100 mile events, while this was going to be the first taste of a challenge walk for Jo.

Luckily by the time we had met up,picked up our route sheet had a quick chat and coffee the rain had stopped and the sky was brightening up.

Although I can follow these walking routes, as we are chatting a lot !! it’s easy to lose your place so I decided to put the route on my garmin 1000 as a back up. Happy to say it worked very well fullsizerender-15especially as when we set off  Jayne just presumed we were doing the 26 miles…..

Once back on the 18 mile route the sun had decided to come out and greet us,and much fun was had as we found our way from check point to check point.

Walking through the heath at this time of year with the heathers, grasses and boardwalks is really beautiful, the route ended with a stretch along the beach too, shame my battery died on my camera.

The Marshalls at the checkpoints were all friendly and it was nice to see people I knew, the other fab thing about these LDWA challenge walks is the food, great food at every check point, then a bean and veg stew followed by crumble and custard when you finish.

A really great day out with great company lots of chat and giggles…….. and I must make more of an effort to do more walking, next year we will try to do all 3 challenge walks, The Daffodil Dawdle, The Poppy line and The Flower of Suffolk.

Once a walker always a walker!!

Last weekend I swapped my running shoes and my bike for my walking boots and headed off to Wells Youth Hostel with Cambridge Rambling Club.

I was looking forward to catching up with my friend Jayne and a weekend of walking along the coast.

Cold windy weather was predicted so a chance to test out some Gore windproof trousers too.

The walking started off well along the coast path to Morston,here we misheard the route directions and Jayne and I plus one other headed off towards the church while the rest queued for the toilets.

On the way to the church we passed the very lovely looking Anchor Inn and was drawn in by the roaring fire and promise of excellent coffee ( which it was ) Only to discover 30 mins later that the group had left without us in the opposite direction!! We had enjoyed our coffee and warmed by the fire set off in a trot and soon caught them up, only to get a stern telling off ….

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking over muddy fields which is not very enjoyable although Binham Priory was a lovely discovery.

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After 18 miles we returned to the hostel and I redeemed myself a little by providing a nice home made Avocado and Chocolate cake.

After a very enjoyable evening meal at the Bowling Green Inn where we joked about how everyone missed out on the best coffee and posh toilets, we seemed to have been forgiven 🙂

It was decided to cut Sundays walk short due to predicted bad weather (which never happened) our  walk took us inland to Holkham hall then through the grounds to the coastal path which took us back to Wells, for me this was the best bit of the weekend’s walking.

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As we finished earlier than expected Jayne and I went to the lovely Wells beach cafe and sat by the fire enjoying lovely coffee and cake while we planned other adventures for later in the year.

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I was very impressed with the Gore trousers which kept me warm and dry in the showers so although not mine they have somehow found their way into my wardrobe 🙂 and although i do more running and biking these days I also realised once a walker always a walker and look forward to my next walking holiday with Geoff.

Walking in Tenerife (part two )

When we arrived back in Los Cristianos the plan had been to get a bus to Santiago del Teide but in a moment of panic Geoff ended up renting a car !! Which actually made moving around far easier for the rest of our holiday.

Our next walk was down the Masca Gorge Valley, we decided to stay at Santiago del Teide so we could extend the walk by walking over to Masca village. When we set off it was dull and over the top it became very misty but by the time we arrived in the village it was beautiful sunshine.

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The actual walk was amazing and quite tough with lots of boulders to climb over, no path is marked so you just make your own way down, luckily for us there was not many groups about that day as they would hold you up quite a bit !!

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The walk ends in Gigantos bay and the only way out is by boat so we paid our money and off we went, we thought we had made a mistake as the boat was going out to sea…… but then the reason why became apparent, they had taken us out to see the most amazing sight Dolphins !!

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Next it was off to Mount Teide, and I was very lucky to be able to stay at the Teide Parador, in the Teide National park.

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I totally fell in love with this place and the walking was amazing , the volcanic landscape made me feel like I was on the moon 🙂

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First after walking to the cable car from the parador we took the cable car up Teide to explore round all the little paths and decide what other walks we wanted to do.

Unfortunately we were unable to get a permit to allow us to walk right to the Teide peak 🙁

So we made do with Walking all the way back up Teide a route that took us by the Teide eggs also known as volcanic boulders and the Teide refuge which was fully booked for weeks as its the only way to walk to Teide peak with out a permit. A tough walk where the altitude affected me for the first time ever !!

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Other walks included some amazing rock formations known as The Rogues de Garcia and Montana De Guajara the third highest mountain in Tenerife, which was a fantastic climb and a great way to end our stay on Teide, on this walk we had to rescue a german couple who was struggling with fear

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Then by chance we stumbled on another amazing place, I dont usually like beaches they can be flat uninteresting and much the same BUT El Medano had a lovely feel to it and is right next to Montana Roja.

I could of happily have stayed here for a few days, a great place to walk, run and swim , close by the airport too.

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A fabulous holiday but I feel we have unfinished business here and must return sometime !!