This year I’ve got back into walking. As a younger man I walked everywhere but family life, middle age ennui etc have meant just lately, not so much.
First, I went for short strolls of a mile or two which I then stretched to 3 and 4 miles. Next was a walk to the local crematorium where Dad’s ashes reside. That’s a six mile round trip.
I got a bit of a buzz out of reaching my step goal before breakfast that day.
Today was a biggy.
Four miles away from our house is a local landmark. The Peel Tower stands proud above the little village of Holcombe Brook. It was created via a job creation scheme a few hundred years ago. Today it houses an occasional tea room with extortionate prices both to sip and to walk up a flight of stairs for a view of the local countryside.
Easter sees hoards of Christians with makeshift crosses hoofing it up there for services and egg rolling on Easter Sunday.
Today I packed a rucksack with butties and a thermos of coffee and set off at a good pace for the mound.
All went well until the steep last half mile where my lack of cardio really started to show. Eventually, after several wheezing stops I collapsed on the grass at the base of the tower for lunch.
It was surprising how many people were up there considering the lack of clarity due to low cloud cover.. Several seemed to be related to the Clampett family as mothers called out idiotic made up names to try to control their feral brood while giving minute by minute commentaries on their dull lives and facebook entries.
The biggest surprise of the day was …. a piper complete with bagpipes and kilt who turned up. Not my cup of tea and, truth be told, not very good, but it added a bit of spice to the day.
I really wanted to load a vid of him playing but WordPress and onecloud have defeated me – that along with noisy teenagers and Ashley wanting a cuddle.
The walk back was a lot easier being mostly downhill.
This exercise means my weekend total of steps is now up in the 36,000’s.
No wonder my feet are sore.
This post was in response to the WordPress weekly photo challenge Landscape.
