While looking at the Cicerone website I found this in their FAQ section:

Q: Is Paddy Dillon Irish?

A: No, he’s a Lancashire lad! There must be some Irish way back when, but not in the recent generations he says. In fact the publisher is more Irish than Paddy is!

This made me smile, not least because it gives you a feel for the nice gentle humour that is often associated with the company — and with Paddy of course.

I’m glad to know that Proprietor Jonathan Williams has more Irish blood than Paddy.

Personally, I’m trying to work out whether Paddy is actually human! I heard a rumour once that he came to earth on a meteorite; but that can’t be right!

Cicerone have a clutch of interesting new guide books out, or just about to hit the book stores. There’s the first English guide to walking in Southern Catalyunya which should be interesting. And I notice they have a guidebook ready soon on the Pacific Crest Trail — which will no doubt be a weighty tome!

But it was NOT The West Highland Way that most caught my eye. This is the latest offering from resident eccentric Ronald Turnball and it is published on September 15th. If anyone can find a better alternative to the WHW it’s Ronald! It seems to be a book of day walks and 2 day stretches, but each of them is designed to be an alternative to one of the WHW stages. Sounds like a good idea to me!

Cicerone Books

Discussion about back problems crops up on these pages quite regularly, and not just because of my recent back problems. Over the years the issue of back pain has come up in discussions about walking poles, in posts and threads that look at the Alexander Technique and so on. The threads on these posts are usually quite lengthy. As TGO vetter Pete Goddard said to me recently there are few of us hikers that don’t have back problems from time to time as we get older.

In one recent thread Colin Griffiths recommended Sarah Keay’s Back Sufferers’ Bible and encouraged me to go and buy it off Amazon. After a couple of weeks reading I can see why Colin thinks so highly of this book. Look at the reviews on Amazon (and there are a lot of them) you can see that Colin is not alone in thinking a great deal of this book.

Getting your first really bad back is not just painful, it’s quite a perplexing and confusing experience. One of the problems is that most people you talk to have had back problems, or have a family member who has. You hear all kinds of different ‘expert views’ about how back pain is caused and even more views on how to combat it. We’re often into real urban myth territory here.

Finding a knowledgable source of information is quite hard, not to say pretty expensive at times. The first time this happened to me I realised that I needed to find a new GP — mine had recently died. I decided to register with a practice nearer to where I now lived. They insisted that I had a full medical before they admitted me onto the books. By the time they got around to realising I wasn’t going to be too much trouble and arranging an appointment the back was on the mend. So I never went. Subsequent bouts of back problems were milder and I kind of knew then how it worked. I know a lot of people who have had similar experiences. There is just a lot we don’t know.

Take exercise. It’s pretty obvious that exercise is important, especially after the back has seized up and you’re trying to get some movement back into it. But which exercises? Is there a problem in over-doing it? Could you create more damage this way?

Sarah Key takes a very practical approach to the whole problem. the book looks at different kinds of back problem and explains clearly and simply what is going on, where the problems may have come from and how you can combat them. Her message is that even where there is degeneration of the back sensible care and exercise can regenerate bad backs. When you read the text it is quite obvious which bit applies to you. The pain she describes, and the phases that you go through, are so obviously the ones you have experienced yourself that it gives you confidence in the text.

There is a lot of technical stuff here but it is presented clearly and without too much drama or padding. It is a book that I find myself dipping in and out of. Each time I do this I learn a lot.

The focus here is on self treatment, the book is sub-titled ‘How you CAN treat your own back!’ I’m not normally a fan of self help guides, often finding them verging on mumbo jumbo; but there’s no such problem here. If your looking for a detailed explanation of what is going on with your back you’ll probably find it here.

I’ve not spent hours (yet) reading the more medical bits. I’ve been more interested in the exercises that are provided in the book. Key features specific exercises in each section that deals with a specific complaint; she tells you which are the best techniques to use. However, at the rear of the book all of the exercises are bought together. It is quite easy to experiment with the different exercises that are laid out here.

More specifically, Key talks about the problems with exercise as well as the benefits. However, there is encouragement to be bolder than you might otherwise. Take really serious bending like touching the toes and to- swing exercises. Key recognises that many people worry about these but she makes it clear that these exercises have really great benefits if you can deal with them.

To cut a long story short I’ve settled on four or five exercises over the last couple of weeks, including some of the more drastic stretching exercises that I’d been worrying about. I find just a short time with these every morning — and I mean no more than 10 minutes — makes a really big difference. I don’t start the day stiff but with more mobility in my back than I’ve often had when I’ve been OK! Now I find myself quickly running through some of them during the day whenever I feel a little stiffer.

This book has genuinely made a difference to me and I’ve hardly begun to explore the vast part of its content. If you’re struggling with occasional or regular back problems then it’s going to worth your while shelling out the £6 for this. And despite the forward from Prince Charles this really is a no nonsense and straightforward volume.

Thanks Colin!

Four stars!

 

Last year I mussed on a walk that might carry me from the North Coast of France to the South. There’s a great ISGN map that you can buy that shows all of the GR routes in the country. Any number of options exist to do this walk and many of them would be fantastic. I seem to remember having a chat to Alan Sloman about this a few years ago when he was mussing on a follow-up walk to his Lands End to John O’Groats trek.

Anyhow, in comes a comment to the original post from David McDowell whois seriously thinking of taking this on as a project. Am quite jealous. Perhaps I should think about doing this myself, even in stages if necessary. David tells me that the various tourist websites in the Pas de Calais region don’t even mention the existence of any long distance footpaths at all. Which would be a shame.

David lives in the Midlands somewhere so maybe there’s a podcast interview in this. Meanwhile — for all of you Francophiles — I’m going to get the map out and look at some options!

I mentioned in my Friday walk piece that I as walking without poles. While South Shropshire is not the most mountainous of place it is all very up and down. Pick the right route and you can accumulate a pretty reasonable ascent during the walk.

I wanted to take this walk in the most natural way I could, preserve a rolling gait as much as possible i order to really feel how things were. This would be the first time in years that I’ve done this walk without poles. It was quite an interesting experience.

I was certainly slower over the ground, yet not really that much slower over the entire route. Without poles I wasn’t charging up the slopes or racing across the flat. Everything did seem a little more relaxed somehow and I did realise how stiffly I often walk when using poles.

True, there were no-knee crunching descents, well none that went on forever! And I wasn’t carrying a full pack. While my poles will still go with me on loner outings I think I may walk more often without them.

Any thoughts team?

This has a certain still life quality about it. I thought Al Sloman might appreciate it. It hints of greater things inside!

 

Old England!

Sheltering from the rain!

First signs of autumn?

 

 

Purple heather in the rain.

 

This very moving grave sits at the base of Ragleth Hill, not in a grave yard but alone under woodland trees. I’ve always found this to be quite moving. Craig bullock was a carpenter, “tragically killed” on 4th October 2002 at the age of 30.

The memorial stone features this poem which may have been written specially — I can’t find any reference to it on the net. If you know it, then let me know.

 

Country Blood

I am of the countryside

Carved out of the oaktree bark

And I am of the wild free wind

That bears the soaring lark.

Part of the upturned earth am I,

One with the cornfield sea,

And I exist in the quet green hill

And it exists in me.

 

Here all the dainty weeds are mine

That blows along the way,

And all the little resting things

Whose heart beat for a day.

My peace is where the velvet dew

Sleeps under hanging mists;

Where the cavernous forest deeps and dims

My secret soul exists.

 

A moving spot. Look carefully and you can see a can of Strongbow as part of the memorial!

I love the odd connections that you experience with the internet. I received an email from Marco this morning. The two young men in this photograph (taken at the St Charter Festival a month ago) are his sons Eneas and Roberto. Could I send him the photo? Of course. A pleasure.

Friday saw me out on the hills for the first time in months, the back problem now well and truly put behind me. I’ve been out walking a lot but this was the first time that I’ve done any sharp ups (and more significantly) downs.

This summer feels a write off although there is still a chance to get some more miles in before the longer nights come. No trips to Snowdonia this summer or even the Pyrenees which was a plan lurking around and waiting to happen. Ambling around the South Shropshire hills I realised what I’d been missing, and some of it I was quite surprised about.

At the bottom of Ragleth Hill is was nice to meet a group of ageing ramblers, about thirty of them, all laughter and exuberance as they looked forward to their day on the hills. I was soon climbing alone experiencing once again that sudden sharp realisation that some of these inclines are far harper than they have any right to be in this part of the world.

I was walking without poles and although setting a reasonable pace I was slower than usual. With poles I would have just powered up the hill but at this slower pace I found myself taking a path into woodland that I’d not noticed before. I’ve climbed this hill countless times before but have never walked through the woodland that surrounds it. It wasn’t the most spectacular of woodland walks but it still had that sylvan, mystical, quality about it. Some early morning sun found its way through the dense overhead foilage. Sometimes the slopes were steep enough to make me place my feet with real care. At other times other obstacles such as fox holes and allen trees had to be negotiated with care. Also, here in the woodland, sheep were grazing. You seldom see sheep in woodland in England although they always seem to be here whenever I descend back down through this woodland.

A quiet, wet, Friday is the bets time to stroll through these tiny Shropshire villages. Postmen were delivering. Retired residents tended their gardens with care. The village church and gardens looked as immaculate as ever. In a cottage (next to another called ‘The Ancient House’) a women who looked in her nineties was being chatted to be another resident, keen to check that her senior charge was feeling better illness, that she was eating well and that she had no immediate shopping needs.

The Little Stretton campsite is usually crammed full in good weather in August. The change in the weather had obviously frightened folks away although a few hardier families were setting up their tents for the weekend. A little further along the track I was delighted to find that Ashes Hollow Cottage, which has been refurbished after years of sitting empty, is now inhabited and with signs of children in the garden.

By now the rain was beginning to fall heavily. It was a Janet Street Porter day, “if you want a quiet day on the hills go out when the weather is shit!”.

I was alone as I climbed this quiet and secluded track. Use just a little imagination and you could be somewhere in Snowdonia. It was on these quiet and lonelier paths that I really realised what I had been missing; the ability to just get lost in the landscape, and I this case to be lost in the rain and the clouds. I’m not sure whether this state of mind actually helps me sort out problems, or even if it leaves me a more relaxed and better person at the end of it. But to be lost on high landscapes like this is a wonderful experience, one that I appreciated even more for my few months away.

Strolling downhill towards All Stretton I felt not so much a sense of achievement as one of relief. As an outdoor blogger I can feel legitimate again. It feels something of a fraud to be sitting at the computer and talking about the hills when I haven’t seen or smelt them in ages.

It was good to be back.

Maybe there’s always been an strong association between the TGO Challenge and meat pies but if so I’ve only discovered it this year.

When the Challenge journal is finally produced (sometime soon) you’ll be introduced to Phil Turner’s culinary pleasures — on the trail at least. Pies, sausages and all kinds of what Phil calls ‘indeterminable meat products’ feature prominently on the menu. There were times when Phil seemed driven on by the desire to get to a meat pie shop!

Phil’s route vetter (I shall keep him anonymous) seemed to have tipped Phil off about the availability of pies as he strolled across Scotland — the kind of information not shared with me when this same individual vetted my first route. But to be fair, there’s a section on the route forms for questions. I wouldn’t put it past Phil to have asked ‘where can I buy my pies’?

I met this same vetter on this year’s route. I was strolling towards Ballater and we shared a rest stop together. I’d not been to Ballater before. “Nice village” came the comment. “I prefer it to Braemar”.

“There’s a good pie shop” at Ballater he volunteered. His partner looked distressed. “Don’t tell everyone” she said (or words to that effect).” Everyone will want to go there”. When I finally made it into the campsite at Ballater I switched on my mobile to find a message from Phil confirming that the pies here were, indeed, fine. For reference, the pie shop is in the first stretch of shops encountered as you enter Ballater from the bridge end.

Fast forward to now. I’m engaged in my usual quest to determine a start point for next year’s Challenge. For me this is always the hardest part of route planning. I have a kind of check-list of things I’m considering. No early road walking please. A nice place to stay the night before. Easy access by bus or train. But perhaps the main influencing factor is the recommendation of others made at the end of the Challenge. I tend to mention to those who’ve done a fair few where I’ve started in the past and ask them to recommend a favourite start. This year I bumped Peter Molenaar at Montrose campsite. He’d started at Archaracle; he made it sound nice. That’ll do I thought.

A few days ago I put a note on the Challenge notice board asking for ideas and information about Archaracle. I’ve received a few helpful comments and emails. Each one of them mentions the pie shop in Archaracle. You can sense the build up of saliva as they type.

This year I realised I was becoming an old Challenge codger, hobbling around with a bad back and so on. When I was in France a week ago I realised I still had by TGO Challenge badge fixed to my Tilly Hat. I fear there is no way back now. I might as well settle back and plan my route by Pie Shop.