We’ve got an Ordnance Survey map centred on your house and I’ve always wanted to try creating a series of circular walks, so that if I drew them on the map they’d look like a bunch of balloons with our home base in the centre.
We’re lucky in being able to set off in any direction and find walks, alongside the river or canal, through woods and across farmland.
As part of my go-down-one-waist-size challenge I’ve been setting out on 7-mile circular walks on Thursday mornings when Barbara goes to a sewing group. I even managed ten miles on one morning but that was on exceptionally good paths alongside the canal and following a cycle path along a former railway.
When I’m walking with Barbara we manage a little over 2½ miles an hour, when I’m on my own, on decent paths, I can get to a little over 3 miles per hour, if I’m making the effort to get to a brisk walking pace (still able to talk in short sentences but not sing, no not even a short burst of I go to the Hills, from The Sound of Music).
But on some overgrown paths this summer I had to slow down as I negotiated brambles and nettles.