Well I’ve not been gone that long, some might say that only I missed my presence in the blogsphere (is that even a word?), but I’ve now got a brand new Instagram account, I may add a Facebook page and a twitter account…do I really need to do all that?
Hmm, the best part of blogging should be building up the content by experience – yeah you should be able to deduce I’ve been watching “Where’s Mollie’s Global Travellers” on YouTube. I think she’s right though: we can sell our souls to the social network gods for coverage, to be linked-in (lol), followed on Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest (is that still going?), Instagram…there are just so many carrots to chase that we lose sight of what we are doing – blogging. For the record, the delightful Mollie’s principal concern is that we spend so much time trying to tell people what we are doing, worrying about wifi strength etc instead of simply doing it and enjoying it.
With that in mind, I haven’t really participated in two of my favourite things to do. I’m talking about gardening – well I have projects in the pipeline but the weather’s been kind of crappy; and walking…which has been largely affected by laziness on my side! That’s got to change!
Those of you whom have followed me from my previous site(s): fatgoatwalks.co.uk will be aware of my love of doing one particular full-day, long(ish) distant walk: the Anglezarke Amble. But for you newbies to my world; essentially this is a challenging slog organised by the West Lancashire branch of the Long Distance Walkers Association. It’s route takes in twenty four and a half miles and some of the West Pennines most adhesive mud, oh and the mighty summits of Rivington Pike, Winter Hill, Darwen Hill and Great Hill. Hey it’s harder than I make it sound! Oddly enough, it’s held in East Lancashire which only matters to people ‘a bit on the scale’ – such as me! I tried this again this year and packed it in after less than a mile owing to a lack of fitness, the rain was relentless and my waterproof over-trousers kept falling down, which was kind of irksome!
As with the ‘Amble’, I’ve gone off track! I want to do this again next year, on the 9th of February (I forgot to mention it’s done in Winter!) but the one thing that really puts me off is the time issue. Not only does each registrant have to complete the marathon walk in under ten hours, they have to be at the infamous ‘Paddy’s Pole’ a marker some six miles into the route, in two and a half hours or else they are transered to the shorter (16 miles) walk…which after the section leading up to Paddy’s Pole might not necessarily be a bad thing as it gets kind of soaking! But that’s not the point, I am a serial worrier and I stress about whether I’m going to reach the pole before 10:30…because I’d rather do the long walk. So, next year I am going to go about this the sensible way…
I’m not paying the admission fee, not registering for the walk, and as such I’m just going for a walk on the same day in the same location as a couple of hundred others. Granted, I’ll lose the right to the refreshment checkpoints – oh well I’ll just take a flask and something to eat. This will give me peace of mind, and hopefully I won’t get lost and need the LDWA to call mountain rescue for me if I haven’t made it back by 18:00. Sorted.
Now, as for that garden…
To be continued!