It feels like only last week that I was writing about August, with thoughts of the summer waving goodbye for another year. October has arrived very suddenly. I’ve had quite a busy month, as you’ll see below.
01/09 – 12 miles – Severn Way to Tewkesbury
02/09 – 4.25 miles – Wick St. Lawrence, North Somerset
08/09 – 10.25 miles – Crook Peak and Axbridge, Somerset
11/09 – 4.5 miles – Wick St. Lawrence
14/09 – 16.75 miles – SWCP: Abbotsbury, Dorset
15/09 – 12 miles – SWCP: Osmington, Dorset
16/09 – 12.5 miles – SWCP: Portland, Dorset
22/09 – 20 miles – Circuit of Bath (Julian House)
29/09 – 23 miles – Five Valleys Walk (Meningitis Now)
Total for September 2019 = 102.75 miles
Let’s start at the top, then; I have completed my personal journey along the Severn Way, from Bristol as far north as Tewkesbury. It’s taken me a couple of years, spread thinly across a series of day walks. I’m pleased to be able to look back and recognise that. Hopefully I’ll soon be able to write about it as well!
My evening walks have definitely dropped off as the days and weeks have passed. This is partly due to a steady decrease in the availability of daylight hours after work. I’m very aware of what lies ahead and the possible decline in my own motivation to get outside or get active in the evenings. I also feel as though I’ve exhausted many of the local paths, including those that lead to a dead-end or to rhynes and ditches that cannot be crossed.
Spending four days and three nights in Dorset was a major highlight of September. My first visit to its coast for over three years! I’ve already written about each of my three walks, if you’d like to take a look. Almost certainly my final camping trip of the year – although I haven’t completely ruled out a potential getaway before Christmas.
Then there were the TWO challenge walks that I completed, no more than seven-days apart from one another! I often feel a little bit guilty about not fundraising for these charities… But I did encounter other walkers who were ‘regulars’ of each event and so, I certainly wasn’t alone on that front.
Without double-checking to count; I believe it was my fifth completion of the Circuit of Bath walk, with the first falling all the way back in 2013. I got to complete the walk with someone, which was a different experience for me. Also, the weather wasn’t quite as wet as had been forecast. Not that I took too many photos.
Then, as a near-last-minute decision, I signed up for the Five Valleys Walk around Stroud (Gloucestershire) on the very morning of the event. I may still write a blog post on that one. I could’ve easily turned back along the motorway from the forecast alone. But, as on the previous Sunday; it didn’t seem to be as wet as had been predicted and I could’ve comfortably completed the whole circuit without donning my waterproofs.
It was my first attempt at this event since September 2015 and my second completion in total. I would walk it again. Quite often, if falls on the same days as the Bath walk and I’m faced with choosing one over the other.
Current total for 2019 = 851.25
Thanks for reading.
Walks With Olly 