I’m a few days late in writing this month and mainly because I’ve been quite busy over the weekend and busy before that, in keeping up with other blog posts.

01/07 – 12 miles – Churchill, North Somerset
03/07 – 3.5 miles – Mendip Hills
05/07 – 6.25 miles – Congresbury Yeo, North Somerset
07/07 – 5 miles – Wrington, North Somerset
08/07 – 17 miles – Three Peaks Walk, North East Somerset (walk leading)
14/07 – 10.75 miles – Cadair Berwyn, North Wales
15/07 – 6 miles – Tryfan and the Glyders, Snowdonia
16/07 – 1 mile – Llangollen, North Wales
17/07 – 7 miles – Snowdon Horseshoe, Snowdonia
21/07 – 21 miles – The Ridgeway: Day 2
22/07 – 15.5 miles – The Ridgeway: Day 3
30/07 – 11 miles – Mendip Hills

Total for July 2018 = 116.75 miles

For the many of you who probably don’t know, I left my job at the end of June. Sadly, I’m not able to support myself from the money I (don’t) make through this blog or on YouTube. For the time being, I have much free time to spend as I wish; filled with opportunities for walking.

I’m pleased to have walked over one-hundred miles in the previous month. With so much free time, I could probably have covered twice that distance, had I wanted to. Looking back, I’m a little bit surprised that I haven’t done any more than one sole short walk around my village.

Perhaps my greatest achievement of July was in the five-days spent hiking and scrambling around North Wales and Snowdonia. Finally and, at the third time of passing, I’ve been able to reach and tick-off the summit of Snowdon! Two days before that, we conquered the  mighty Tryfan.

Another highlight from that trip was in discovering the highest points of the Berywn mountains – a range I’d not even heard of before purchasing an OS map that covered the area of our accommodation.

As you’ve hopefully already noticed recently, I have returned to The Ridgeway trail and walked a further two-days; now leaving just thirty-miles and another weekend’s-worth of trekking before I reach the eastern end point.

Here in the UK, the heatwave continues to dominate. I don’t remember experiencing more than a couple of days under heavy rain.

By this time last year, I’d walked ‘only’ 105 miles in July 2017 and had survived a complete wash-out over several days at the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall. I’m heading further south to St. Ives later this month, for a weekend of camping and coastal walking with others.

Having just spent a day in the mountains yesterday, I’m heading back in another fortnight for my next walk-leading experience.

Current total for 2018 = 578.5 miles

At this stage last year, I was up to 641.5 miles – perhaps not significantly far ahead of where I stand today. Remember, I’m not trying to walk the thousand this year… I am very close to prematurely achieving my ‘anticipated annual average’ of six-hundred miles.

Thanks for reading.