Country Walking

welcome

This month I’ve been... 1 Walking every path within a three-mile radius of my house. Why? To force random discoveries, and it works! It’s one of our mini-challenges – see more on page 20. 2 Dog-walking. They need it regular and often. Do I need it any less? 3 Visiting Hunstanton, where the carrstone-and-chalk cliffs soak up the late afternoon sun like a Hollywood filmstar from the golden age giving you their best side. One of the best things about being human – taking nothing away from opposable thumbs, chocolate mini-eggs and socks fresh off the radiator – is our ability to see things from points of view other than our own. Through reading, listening, looking and learning we’re able to make imaginative…

in this issue...

Jenny WaltersOur ever-fecund features editor has inhabited the lives of two of the most fascinating walkers ever in this illuminating issue.Pages 34 & 44 Tom BaileyTom’s feature on John Clare was a year in the making. Our photographer has found an electrifying affinity for the way the poet saw his world.Page 52 Stephen MossThe natural historian, author, and Springwatch producer shares his tips for coaxing more fascination from the world around you on walks.Page 70 ■…

find a great walk near you!

SOUTH WEST Westbury White Horse, WiltsHead up onto Bratton Downs at the edge of ancient Salisbury Plain to see the oldest of Wiltshire’s White Horses. TURN TO WALK 3 SOUTH EAST Watership Down, HampshireWalk up onto the chalk downs that inspired Richard Adams’ haunting novel about an imperilled group of rabbits. TURN TO WALK 4 MIDLANDS Tarrington, HerefordshireHead to Ledbury along the Hereford and Gloucester Canal, which is being restored to its former glory. TURN TO WALK 8 EAST Saltfleet,LincolnshireFollow paths around the wild mudflats, dunes and marshes of the Lincolnshire coast – delightful in every season. TURN TO WALK 13 NORTH WEST Sizergh,CumbriaLook out upon faraway fells on this family hike from a stately home into woods on the edge of the Lake District.…

it’s about to get loud!

THE KEITH MOON OF THE WOODS A great spotted woodpecker clearing snow from a branch in order to get the drumming started. (PHOTO: GREEN PLANET PHOTOGRAPHY/ALAMY*) ‘The louder the drumming, the more effective it will be, so they experiment to find the most resonant branches to drum on.’ FROM FEBRUARY THROUGH to April, your favourite woodland walk is likely to get several decibels louder than it usually is. The culprits? Woodpeckers.At this time of year, our great spotted and lesser spotted woodpeckers are not just pecking, they’re drumming. The purpose is twofold: marking territory, and attracting a mate. And the louder the drumming, the more effective it will be, so they experiment to find the loudest, most resonant branches they can possibly drum on.The drumming style…

mapping the path to true love

(PHOTO: © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD) WISH THERE WAS a perfect romantic walk to take on Valentine’s Day? Well, thanks to the playful cartographers of the 17th and 18th centuries, there might just be such a thing.As the mapmaking industry blossomed, wags and wits jumped on the bandwagon to create beautiful maps of less-than-physical phenomena, and love was a popular subject.Take, for example, Thomas Sayer’s A Map or Chart of the Road to Love, produced in 1748. Starting from the west in the Sea of Common Life, it brings the traveller into the Road of Love (passing the twin capes of Fairpromise and Fools), and on through the Coast of Ambition, the Cape of Extasy [sic], the Land of Desire and Content Bay. But watch out for the Rocks of…

we read, we learned

WE READ: TREKKING BEYOND: Walk the World’s Epic Trails By Damian Hall, Dave Costello & Billi Bierling; photos by Alex Treadway WE LEARNED: ‘Edging towards the top of the Nyingma Gyansen Pass gives you the feeling that there is no further you can go on this Earth. A similar sensation is triggered by the Tashi Laptsa Pass, its dizzying heights giving you the opportunity to peer down at the many layers of mountains that circle beneath – a vista that seems to have infinity as its subject.’ (Discussing the 1000-mile Great Himalayan Trail in Nepal) ■…