It’s October already!

Effectively, there are only three full months left of walking for me to complete my #walk1000miles challenge…

It should be easy, right?

03/09 – 10.75 miles – Brean Down Way, Somerset
10/09 – 14.5 miles – Cheddar & the West Mendip Way
(led by Brunel Walking Group)
13/09 – 3.25 miles – Wrington, North Somerset
17/09 – 11 miles – Uffington White Horse, Oxfordshire
(led by Brunel Walking Group)
23/09 – 5.75 miles – Goblin Combe, North Somerset
24/09 – 13.5 miles – Blackdown Hills, Somerset/Devon
(led by Brunel Walking Group)
30/09 – 11.75 miles – Shipham and Sandford, Somerset

Total for September 2017 = 70.5 miles

So, seven walks in an entire month… Has winter arrived extra early?!

Joking aside, we have quite recently been subjected to abnormally low temperatures and especially overnight. While, overall, September has probably seen almost as much rainfall as we saw back in August.

My evening walks have depleted even further and, there are a couple of reason for this…

We’re naturally experiencing a continued reduction in available daylight hours. A few more weeks and we’ll have daylight “savings” to contend with… But, even after a day at work, when the weather is or has been bad, I’ve not felt compelled to go and climb a hill.

There’s one other distraction – a very, very good thing – but, I’m not prepared to talk about that here.

But I don’t think it’s fair to blame the weather. Good or bad, it doesn’t “make me” feel anything. What I feel in response to the view or temperature outside is only that. This is a time of year when my own mental health typically begins to decline and I’m trying to be mindful of that.

Some of the past month’s walking has been in areas I’d never visited before, while I was also able to finally explore a newly opened cycle route connecting (and I use the term quite loosely) Brean with Weston-super-Mare… I still hold on to hope that the England Coast Path project will see a more convenient route in place to reach Brean Down and the northern end of the beach.

I’m also glad to be walking quite regularly with the group, after an August in which I only attended the one walk in the beginning.

Current total for 2017 = 852.25 miles

All going well, I should be able to complete this challenge by the end of November!

Thanks for reading.