In the first of a brand-new series tracking my progress through the years, I’m going to be casting an eye over my walks and mileage from the first month of 2020.
This is essentially the same as what I would do previously under the ‘#walk1000miles’ headline. This time, I’m really not setting myself a goal or challenge.
01/01 – Sand Point – 4 miles
05/01 – Exmoor and Dunkery Beacon – 15 miles
12/01 – Axbridge to Crook Peak (Weston-s-Walkers) – 9.5 miles
19/01 – Mendip Hills (Brunel Walking Group) – 13 miles
26/01 – Brent Knoll and Berrow (Brunel Walking Group) – 11 miles
Total for January 2020 = 52.5 miles
Technically, I should really include a mile or two of the descent from Sugar Loaf in the opening minutes of New Year’s Day… But that was already accounted for in my summary of December 2019.
It began with a circuit around my most local walk. A place I would travel to on foot through the dryer months. On this occasion, I chose to drive the short distance, briefly bumped in to a familiar face several times and generally suffered within the confines of my own mental health.
Days later and I returned to a favourite Exmoor walk in an effort to grieve and release some of the trapped emotion. To free myself. That didn’t quite happen, although I didn’t benefit from the experience and learnt some lessons along the way.
Then it was time for my first walk of 2020 with my Meetup group, Weston-super-Walkers (more on this, soon). A beautiful day and well attended by familiar faces who are fast becoming regulars of the club, which continues to slowly grow.
Before February fell, I was able to attend two local-ish walks hosted by Brunel Walking Group; my old faithful Ramblers setup from Bristol. A lot of my spare time not spent writing here is dedicated to spreading myself sensibly between the two groups.
With more than half a Century of miles already beneath my belt, this has been a very good start to the year. My mental health has certainly improved over the past four weeks and, with so much group activity, I feel as though I’ve been quite social. I intend to keep this up.
Current total for 2020 = 52.5 miles
Thanks for reading.
Walks With Olly 