MY 1ST POST

If, like me, you get a huge kick out of covering long distances on foot and it makes you happy in the simplest of ways, then this blog may be of remote interest to you.


I love long walks, especially ones which follow a route, a journey you can trace on a map and think I walked all that!

I have walked over the Apennines from Bologna to Florence (4 days) and I have followed the pilgrim Camino route from Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees west across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela (30 days). Both made me (and still make me!) very happy indeed. One winter about 3 years ago, I was feeling pretty blue and I started thinking that the one thing that would bring me true happiness would be to walk around the whole world. I’m sure it would and I did research it, reading other people’s accounts (Dave Kunst - The Earthwalker who did it in the 1970s with his brothers was particularly inspiring) but I think you have to be absolutely fearless and a little nuts. I can be bonkers when required but sadly I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to circumnavigate the globe in one hit (it would take 4 years).

That established, I reconciled myself with the vague plan to start small and try to do shorter long walks, annually please!

I started very close to home with the Capital Ring, a 78-mile circular footpath which eeks out a hidden green trail around inner London. I did this over 7 days in December 2010/January 2011 and found it very fun to be a geeky walker in a mac and carrying a guide book in my own city! Smiling and saying hello to other passers-by (in that nice way that all walkers do) and feeling like a tourist in London was most peculiar. But then I walked through a lot of lovely places I had never been to before (Penge anyone?) so I guess I was a bit of a tourist. And the juxtaposition of the countryside-esque pursuit in an urban setting felt fun too. It merely involved getting on public transport from home in north-west London to wherever I was picking up the route again from, mainly train stations in Zone 4. I started at Woolwich on the Thames and ended there, having got the ferry across from north of the river. Fellow long walk enthusiasts, you can imagine my sadness that the foot tunnel was closed, depriving me of the satisfaction of truly completing the circle!!

Anyway, enough of the back-story already. It is now May 2012 and here I am doing it again but bigger. The London Loop is a 140 mile walk and will mainly involve travelling to Zone 6 stations. And this time, keeping a record of it on this blog, blogging for the first time ever! Can I say the word blog again, it is so new and exciting! (I catch new trends fast…)

So here goes…Anne starts walking blog proper: