This Week’s Walks
October 13th-19th 2024
Yes, yes, this is being posted a bit late, but I was away doing lots of interesting walks for the week after this, which meant I only just now got the chance t catch up with everything.
Looming over all of this week was the Langdale Half marathon, of course — but it also means I’ll have to stop mentioning it in these posts after this week! So my main exercise for the week was stretching and yoga at home, which is all rather useful and good for keeping me safe from injuries but doesn’t generate much in the way of good photography or things to write about. I do this pose, I do that pose, I stretch this muscle, I work that joint. I have an Ambient Meditation playlist as soundtrack and I try to relax and not think in too much depth about things. There, now repeat that post daily.
But all stretching and no walks makes Nick a very stir-crazy boy, so I did take a couple of walks around where I live just to keep myself moving and thinking. Both were about five miles long, Monday’s took me out to the east, over the river and along the Wivenhoe Trail, then over the railway line and back through the University of Essex before turning for home. Quite a few students about, unsurprisingly, and a nice walk along the river, but I forgot to take my phone out of my pocket, so no photos from that one.
Wednesday, I did the opposite, both heading out to the west, down through Lexden and then back via Hilly Fields and the woods there, and also in taking pictures. I’ve decided to experiment with making some videos of walks, trips, runs and whatever else, so I picked up a cheap not-GoPro to experiment and learn with. So, I took it out with me and tried filming some sections of the walk with a view to editing it all together…
…and discovered I was not very good at keeping the camera stable, or knowing enough about the settings to select Image Stabilisation: On until afterwards. So, I got a decent amount of footage in far too high definition, but all of it is not much more than an invitation to motion sickness in any viewers without much of a sense of the scenery.
We learn from our mistakes, and I’m getting a fantastic education. But the trees were still rich and green, there were leaves crunching underfoot and I took a quick detour down the old sunken way at Bluebottle Grove, so it was all nice enough even if I can’t share it with you.
And then it was time to head up to Cumbria, which meant packing and tidying up the house on Thursday, then driving for most of Friday with more stretching to get myself ready for the main event, which I’ve written all about here:
And so another week of walking and running was done, and I was in Keswick surrounded by a bunch of mountains and great walking routes. But which ones did I choose? You’ll have to wait and see…
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