Best Walk Award and Annual Review 2012

So okay not a vintage year by any means. Certainly the time available for walking has suffered this year due to my weekly commute between Osterley and Chesterfield. The upshot of which being (apart from one walk last January) I had to give up walking with IVC (which I really miss). Also what I thought would be a ready made replacement (The Ramblers in Sheffield) turned out to be anything but, given the entire membership seemed to be made up of retired people. Yes there are younger ramblers groups in the locality, but one has to be a car driver to really make use of them....................................................................................................................................................................................... Walking on my own has also mainly fell by the wayside, due to me prioritising my Kettlebell's workouts during the working week, and then not having enough commute free time to myself left. I have done some good Peak District walking with Helen this year (as well as our North Yorkshire holiday), however we have been restricted to an extent due to Luther no longer being fit enough to come with us, and too frail to be left alone for too long. For my part I am becoming more and more phobic about walking through cattle, which has started to become a source of tension between us................................................................................................................................................................................................. Finally I have wrestled with the idea of calling a halt to this blog. One cannot always come up with interesting things to write (did you before then I hear you say), and it is also a bit of a bind. However there is no doubt it allows me to remember walks/holidays that I would have long forgotten otherwise (which i enjoy) and as such the only outlet I have for both writing and photography these days. So until such times as I buy a video camera and change the whole format, it continues for now. However it is not helped by Blogger itself, which cannot seem to make paragraphs using its own CHROME browser (this explains all the dots)............................................................................................................................................................................................ So as I say not a vintage year, although for various reasons I am confident that 2013 will have a lot more walking in store...............................................................................................................................................................................................So for 2012 I am cutting down my awards (cost of all the gold plate you see) to just one WALK OF THE YEAR which for 2012 is Beacons Horseshoe – (Powys) – South Wales -13/06/12 – 14.5 Miles - National Trust Working Holiday which for me is as good as walking gets in terms of scenery, physical challenge, and that great to be alive feeling only a walk like this can give you.

Monsal Head (Circular) – (Derbyshire) – 06/12/12 – 5.25 Miles – Helen (+ Molly)

Given that this walk has been covered on this blog on several occasions, I won't make a point of repeating myself too often. Suffice to say it was a cold and icy one. This was illustrated by Helen who immediately slipped over backwards, as she descended down from the steps at Monsal Head. As this was midweek, there were very few cyclists along the Monsal Trail, which allowed Molly to roam free for most of it. However it was far too flooded down by Water Cum Jolly to walk along the waters edge when we reached it, so we walked along the side of the hills looking down into the valley and the water below. Having linked up with the trail again we began the steep climb via Brushfield which eventually took us back along the viaduct, and up the steps again to Monsal Head. There Helen took some pictures of some geese we had met earlier who were noisily looking forward to Christmas. Walks since last blog entry: Chatsworth Circular: 4.75 Miles