A year of discovery

I’ve been reading Country Walking for over a year now and it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Like many others, Covid has pushed me to discover more of the UK than I would have done, and it has been a discovery.

In the last year we’ve climbed Blencathra, walked around Derwent Water in a Lake District weekend; explored the Roaches and Ramshaw rocks, circled the Tittesworth reservoir on a Peak District weekend; did the Hungerford to Newbury section of the Avon-Kennet canal walk in Berkshire; spent a weekend in the Cotswolds doing Coaley Peak and another day of village hopping.

Nearer to our doorstep of Leicester, I did a charity walk with friends for Stop the Traffik, a challenge of 40 miles in a single day. My toenails are yet to recover but I consider them honourable wounds.

Finally a 10-day trip to Scotland in August, touching 95km in a combination of long and short walks, my favourites being the Quiraing in the Isle of Skye [pictured left], a loop around Glen Affric, the hike to Faraid Head along Balnakeil Bay, and Badrallach to Scoraig near Ullapool. We stayed in Garvault House in Sutherland which prides itself on being the most remote B&B in mainland Britain.

I’d taken along Kerri Andrews’ Wanderers: a History of Women Walking, and it was a perfect combination, hiking out during the day and snuggling up at night with the stories of women had made walking an art, meditation and nirvana rolled in one.

Now, even with overseas travel opening up, walking the trails of our beautiful country is going to be top of my list of annual planning for sure. I'm so glad to have Country Walking in hand to help me.

Nandini Chakraborty, Leicester.