Well yes, walking really is healthy thank goodness.  A brisk walk is one of the best forms of exercise you can get because it’s free for a start, anyone can do it, it tones you up and clears your head of all the everyday stuff and clutter that surrounds us and impacts our lives in one way or another.

You can walk on your own, with a partner, friends, or on a group walk and for those of us that either don’t have time or don’t want to visit a gym then it’s a perfect compromise.  The medical profession recommend walking and swimming as great exercises with very healthy benefits but out of the two walking for me is by far the best choice.

There are some precautions you do need to take to make your walking more enjoyable and worthwhile:

• Please take account of the climate and the fact that in certain regions this can change quite dramatically 2 or 3 times a day eg, the Peak District or the Lake District

• Make sure you wear plenty of sun block and a hat if you’re like me and thinning a little ( a lot ) on top.

• Bear in mind that as you walk uphill it will get windier and colder but that’s a small price to pay for the views.

• Wear stout shoes or trainers and do not wear jeans because if it does rain the cotton will just soak it up and will take ages to dry.  It is best to dress in layers that you can remove as you get hotter or the reverse as it gets later in the afternoon.

• I find that a drink and a snack always come in useful even on a short walk.

Are there any particular benefits that I think are more important that any others; well yes there are.  How about these:

• Just 10 minutes walking has immediate, mood busting qualities.  Even if you think you are too tired to walk it’ll energise you and raise your self esteem.

• Pick a sunny day to head into the hills.  According to experts looking into the effect of Seasonal Effective Disorder (SAD) there’s nothing like a natural vitamin D hit from the sun’s rays to raise your mood.  An energetic walk in the sunshine for just 30 minutes will help your body convert natural vitamin D levels and so raise a smile.

• Even 20 minutes walking can reduce the levels of Cortisol your body releases and so ease your anxiety.  Cortisol is designed to regulate blood pressure when you’re stressed, but you can have too much of it, especially when you’re under a lot of pressure.  Cortisol floods can overpower good hormones, upset sleep patterns and ruin your mood.

• Researchers have compared the benefits of a 30 minute country walk with that of a trip to an indoor shopping centre and the benefits of the country walk won by an outdoor mile.  Maybe retail therapy doesn’t work after all.

• Brisk walking is especially good for ridding us of the extra tummy fat that we can collect through the years and a direct benefit is that you can then reduce the risk of heart problems and strokes.

• Don’t walk alone if you want to keep the germs at bay.  There’s plenty of evidence to show that social support and camaraderie can boost your body’s defences.

When it comes to keeping your marbles and staying sharp as you get older, walking may actually be better than running since there’s more oxygen left in the blood to reach the brain than from most vigorous exercise.  Studies of women aged 50 and over found that those who walked 17 miles or more a week were about 40% less likely to experience mental decline than those who walked a half-mile or less.  I do hope this applies to men as well!!

Source : Country Walking April 09. Have a look at their excellent web site here.

Please also have a look at my earlier Walking with Wainwright post.

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Born in Blackburn in 1907, Alfred Wainwright left school at the age of 13. A holiday at the age of 23 kindled a life-long love affair with the Lake District. Following a move to Kendal in 1941 he began to devote every spare moment he had to researching and compiling the original seven Pictorial Guides. He described these as his ‘love letters’ to the Lakeland Fells and at the end of the first, The Eastern Fells, he wrote about what the mountains had come to mean to him:

“I suppose it might be said, to add impressiveness to the whole thing, that this book has been twenty years in the making, for it is so long, and more, since I first came from a smoky mill-town (forgive me, Blackburn!) and beheld, from Orrest Head, a scene of great beauty, a fascinating paradise, Lakeland’s mountains and trees and water. That was the first time I had looked upon beauty, or imagined it, even. Afterwards I went often, whenever I could, and always my eyes were lifted to the hills. I was to find then, and it has been so ever since, a spiritual and physical satisfaction in climbing mountains — and a tranquil mind upon reaching their summits, as though I had escaped from the disappointments and unkindnesses of life and emerged above them into a new world, a better world. In due course I came to live within sight of the hills, and I was well content. If I could not be climbing, I was happy to sit idly and dream of them, serenely. Then came a restlessness and the feeling that it was not enough to take their gifts and do nothing in return. I must dedicate something of myself, the best part of me, to them. I started to write about them, and to draw pictures of them. Doing these things, I found they were still giving and I still receiving, for a great pleasure filled me when I was so engaged — I had found a new way of escape to them and from all else less worth while. Thus it comes about that I have written this book. Not for material gain, welcome though that would be (you see I have not escaped entirely!); not for the benefit of my contemporaries, though if it brings them also to the hills I shall be well pleased; certainly not for posterity, about which I can work up no enthusiasm at all. No, this book has been written, carefully and with infinite patience, for my own pleasure and because it has seemed to bring the hills to my own fireside. If it has merit, it is because the hills have merit.” (Quote courtesy of Amazon.)

Between 1952 and 1966, Alfred Wainwright combed 214 Lake District summits to devise seven unique Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells with all the instructions carefully printed in long-hand and the topography superbly hand-drawn.

I watched the BBC program called “Wainwright Walks” last  summer with Julia Bradbury doing the walking.  Usually I don’t find these programs very interesting, even though I do a lot of walking, but the views were astonishing and Julia Bradbury’s enthusiasm combined with the voice of Alfred Wainwright, provided by Nik Wood-Jones, bowled me over.

Now we can all explore some of the Lakeland’s finest fells in the company of the one and only Alfred Wainwright with a handy volume of eight walks in a spiral bound book containing original Wainwright text and maps, plus lots of practical information and including introductions to each walk by Eric Robson.  The best bit though is a free CD with a commentary narrated by Nik Wood-Jones that you can download onto your iPod.  The fells included in this volume are Catbells, Coniston Old Man, Haystacks, Helm Crag, Latrigg, Nab Scar, Orrest Head and Place Fell.

Each fell walk has a file size of about 5Meg and as an example of how it works this is how the Helm Crag walk comes across;

• The route has been broken down into 10 short instructions of no more than a paragraph in length. You listen to these and then follow them. They include reference points you will see on the actual walk although you should take the spiral bound book with you as a reference and a map if you are unfamiliar with the area. You must make all the necessary precautions given at the start of the podcast.
• After some of the formal instructions, there will follow a reading of an actual Wainwright observation as it appears in the book.
• When you hear the sound footsteps this is the cue to pause your iPod and walk to the next landmark that “Wainwright” has instructed.

The instructions contained in the podcast last about 15 mins but the actual walk is around 1.5 miles and has an ascent of 1100ft and will probably take a good 2 hours.  The podcast follows this format:

• From the beginning: Some safety advice
• Instruction 1: START OF THE WALK
• Instruction 2: AT THE SIGN FOR BUTHARLYP HOWE
• Instruction 3: AT THE BRIDGE OPPOSITE OAK LODGE B&B
• Instruction 4: AT LITTLE PARROCK HOUSE
• Instruction 5: AT THE YELLOW SIGN FOR HELM CRAG
• Instruction 6: AT THE WOODEN, FENCED PLATFORM
• Instruction 7: AT THE UNSPECIFIED VIEWPOINT
• Instruction 8: FROM THE FIRST BIG CAIRN
• Instruction 9: FROM THE VIEWPOINT
• Instruction 10: FROM THE LION

You can buy Wainwright The Podcasts from all good bookshops and I suggest that it’s something that needs to sit dormant in the Motorhome, ready for when you decide to visit the Lake District.  Better to have it sat in the cupboard for a while rather that get there and realise you’ve forgotten to buy it, or worse still that you’ve bought it but left it at home; one of my tricks that one.

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Accross the road from the site entrance are the Teversal Trails that follow the track beds of former colliery railways which together with the local footpaths provide excellent walking opportunities through countryside that is steeped in history and has an abundance of wildlife. The Teversal Trails Visitor Centre has plenty of parking and is an information centre plus cafe that has plenty of local leaflets, craft displays, reference books and friendly advice if you need it. Within easy walking distance is Old Teversal, once owned by Lord Carnarvon who was chiefly responsible for the discovery of Tutankhamun and DH Lawrence was reputed to have stayed there and got the inspiration for his famous book, Lady Chatterley’s Lover. There are a number of trails you can follow, all aptly named, and one to note is the Lady Spencer Walk that takes you to the National Trust’s Hardwick Hall. 

There is also a short walk through Silverhill Wood that takes you to the highest peak in Nottinghamshire, 205m, and on top of this is a statue of a miner in memory of all the coal mines within the area. There is a rather sad plaque on the base of this statue that has a long list of names of all the miners who died ‘ testing for gas’. Teversal and Silverhill collieries at their peak employed over 1000 men, were each working for over a hundred years and annually produced a million tonnes of coal.

There’s plenty to do and see from the site and we thoroughly recommend it for a weekends stay or longer.

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The first thing to see on the left is a sign pointing to a clump of rocks and if you look at the rocks you can see the outline of a lady in a hole in the rocks. Quite remarkable.  Carry on walking and then head left along a footpath to the sea.  From here you can walk along a coastal path to either Lynton or Lynmouth.

We headed for Lynton and in different weather conditions there would have been some excellent gardens to visit but we kept going until we came to the water powered Cliff Railway that goes between Lynton and Lynmouth.  All along the walk are spectacular views of the cliffs, the sea and Lynmouth bay.  Lynton itself is a very nice small town with a number of shops, cafes and a very good Tourist Information Centre in the Town Hall.

It’s very easy to see why the Victorians took to the area so much and why it is so popular nowadays, if only the weather was better.  We then decided to catch a bus to Caffyn’s Cross and from there it was a 5 minute walk back to the site.  The site office by the way sells a very good map for around £2 that is excellent and a bargain at the price.

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