Synesthesia

Walking around Samuel Palmer’s “Valley of Vision”, between Otford (TQ532594) and Eynsford (TQ535649) in Kent. Again, inspired by Time Out Book of Country Walks, this time a modified version of Walk 23 (left out the dip down into Shoreham for lunch)… I think I’m starting to notice the positive effect of these walks - certainly felt much stronger towards the end of this walk than in earlier weeks - and was rewarded with a fabulous sunset…

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Again, a walk taken from the Time Out Book of Country Walks, walk 39, circular based on Manningtree in Essex (TM094322)

Although fairly flat, this area on the border of Essex and Suffolk (The Dedham Vale AONB) has some delightful views. Inevitably, given the geography and the time of year, parts of the walk were very wet, with a couple of detours around flooding needed and a fair amount of mud (on which I blame the rather disproportionate ache in my legs today!)

The area is most famous for the paintings of John Constable, born in East Bergholt. The walk passes the scenes of a number of his paintings, including
The Cornfield (TM069340) and The Hay Wain (TM077332).

Although you can see the impact of modern agriculture - even a couple of field boundaries shown on a 1998 map have disappeared - you can imagine that much of the area looks unchanged - in particular the view at Flatford Mill shown in The Hay Wain looks almost identical…

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Another walk from the Time Out Book of Country Walks. Walk 4 this time - a circular walk based on Pangbourne in Berkshire (SU633767) via Cray’s Pond (SU637805).

This time I thought I’d hook up with a group from the self-organising Saturday Walking Club. According to the schedule in the book it was the vigorous section “doing” the Pangbourne walk this week. As part of the reason for getting back into walking is to get fit I thought this was a suitable challenge - not least because the ethos of the group is that everyone goes at their own pace - so if I did fall behind I wouldn’t be holding up the rest. (And yes, I know this is not how you run a walking group when you are out in more hazardous territory - there you go at the pace of the slowest to keep the group together and adjust the itinerary to suit)

As it turned out the pace was fine - albeit quite brisk (8 miles in 2.5 hours split either side of a lunch stop). Slight chagrin at being comprehensively “dropped” up one hill by a couple of people who were both older than me but it’s a useful reminder of the state of your CV system!

The weather was beautiful on Saturday - crisp, clear and sunny. An early part of the walk (SU622785 to SU615795) was along a wooded cliff above the Thames, and the low January sunlight did a superb job of picking out the landscape. (Mental note to save up for a digital camera!)

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In the period before Christmas I’d already decided that the New Year would be a great excuse to dig out my walking boots and start getting some more fresh air - seeing these three posts from Euan just spurred things on a little…

Santa was kind enough to bring me the Time Out Book of Country Walks - 53 easy to moderate walks all within about 90 minutes train journey of the capital - so this weekend it was time to try one out.

For a combination of reasons ended up picking walk 43 - a circular walk based on Otford in Kent (TQ532594) going via the Fox and Hounds at Romney Street (TQ550614).

I’ve not been walking in this area before but the landscape seems very similar to the Chilterns - mixture of farmland and woods with typical lowland chalk landscape - i.e. smallish (but steep-sided!) valleys and lots of mud. Perhaps someone should research the clever physics of mud - how can the same substance be both sticky and slippery, depending on the angle to the vertical?

The walk was hugely enjoyable - short enough to do during a short winter day with a late-ish start - but also far enough both to remind me of how sedentary I’ve been lately (ouch!) and to bring on that simple inner calmness brought about by a combination of exercise, fresh air and being out in the English countryside.

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