The Long and short. Part 2: The Long

We spent a very pleasant couple of days last week with friends staying at an excellent B & B (Deer's Leap Retreat) near Dulverton on Exmoor. The weather was good and we managed two walks. The first followed an eight mile circular route, starting in Withypool and walking along both sides of the River Barle. The well-known spot, Tarr Steps, was the mid point and a very convenient place for a pub-stop. Tarr Steps is a typical clapper bridge and is reputed to date from 1000 BC. The second one was much shorter: a post-breakfast, pre-early lunch three miler on a lower part of the Barle Valley. Highly recommended. As I've said before we love walking.

But there are walks and there are WALKS. By happenstance, I'm following the blogs of two people undertaking proper WALKS at the moment with a mixture of envy and admiration. They deserve a mention and, in the case of the first, your money!

A friend and colleague, John Wilmut, is currently on his way from Lands End to John O'Groats. He started on May 2nd and, assuming he maintains his present excellent progress, he should be reaching John O'Groats on 20th July, having travelled 1084 miles - or thereabouts! The keen eyed reader will notice that the sign says the distance is 878 miles: John is doing it the hard way by foresaking roads as much as possible and following footpaths and lanes. Why is John doing it? In his own words "I was thinking about doing this walk for some years before I made the commitment to do it, late last year. It started out as a walk to fulfil my own ambitions and then became a walk to support the education of children in the developing world." To realise his objective of supporting the education of children, John is raising funds for the work of Christian Aid in Sierra Leone. You can read all about this on John's website here You can also find information here on how you can make a donation to this excellent cause. John is hoping to raise £10000 and, at the time of writing, he has just over £4000 pledged. If you can, please consider supporting him. He's already walked 460 miles and has just (as per June 4th) crossed over the Derbyshire border into Yorkshire

The second walker is Keith Selbo. I do not know Keith personally (I hope he will forgive my familiarity in using his Christian name) and he is the brother of a very good friend of ours from North Carolina. His walk is taking him along the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine, a distance (as the sign at the southern trailhead shows) of some 2108.5 miles! Keith set out at the beginning of March and has done just over half the distance. He is currently in the mountains of Pennsylvania. His motivation for the walk is the realisation of a life time ambition and you can follow his adventure through his blog which you can access here.

Both John and Keith are keeping blogs and are making regular, almost daily, postings. They mention what they see, how they feel and the countryside they are passing through. Two different countries, two different writing styles but two extremely readable diaries. I commend them to you. And, as both walkers are of a 'certain age', gentlemen, I raise my walking poles to you! May you reach your destinations without any mishaps and too many blisters.