mycountryside.org.uk - exploring and enjoying the British countryside

Often described as a classic ridge walk, The Nantlle Ridge has a fairly strenous climb, some great views (especially across to Snowdon), some exciting scrabling (Grade 1 apparantly), and a ridge with some dramatic sheer drops. The Nantlle Ridge, well at least the part including the peaks of Y Garn, Drws-y-Coed and Trum y Ddysgl, has been my nemisis. The walk isn't too difficult (I think it is classed as "Moderate"), but the last two attempts I have made I have been forced back by the weather.…

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Due to individual availability, the planned time of year when we plan to embark on our charity Offa's Dyke challenge is early to mid April. As this is during the lambing season, it has been bothering me what impact we, and especially my dog, will have during this important time of year for sheep farmers. In this post I will cover a few of the issues relating to sheep worrying (although it also applies to other livestock), what the problem is, what damage can be done, where the law stands, the consequences to farmers, and what can be done by dog walkers to reduce the impact on sheep during lambing season.…

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Having just received all the Viewranger OS (Ordnance Survey) maps for the Offa's Dyke National Trail on my N95 mobile phone, I decided to make a start creating the GPS routes in Viewranger to get a better feel for the trail. I have broken down the trail into the same legs used in The National Trail Guides (in reverse from North to South) - these will probably not be how we walk the route - but is a good starting point. You can download the GPS data for each leg from the table below. I have also given the length, height gain / loss and maximum height for each leg. If you find the GPS files useful, it would be brilliant if you could donate to our OffasDyke4MS challenge - http://www.justgiving.com/offasdyke4ms

As it was such a beautiful day on Sunday, I decided to walk the Woodpecker Trail in Salcey Forest - a 6 (ish) mile walk that circles the whole forest. Salcey Forest is a remnant of a medieval royal hunting forest situated near the village of Hartwell in Northamptonshire, between Northampton and Milton Keynes. The walk was less of a training walk for the Offa's Dyke 4 MS challenge and more a chance to give the dog a nice long walk. That said I tried to keep up a good pace to build up some stamina on what is a fairly unchallenging walk. I also wanted to play around more with Viewranger - especially with the integration with my phone's camera (most of these photos were taken on my N95 phone via Viewranger).…

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What a great start. It has been two days since I "officially" launched my challenge to walk Offa's Dyke next year for Multiple Sclerosis and the response has been brilliant.…

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Next year my dog and I are going to walk Offa's Dyke to raise money for The Multiple Sclerosis Society (MS) - all 177 miles..... phew, there I said it. This will be a massive physical challenge for me - 12 days walking carrying full kit and camping every night! I committed to this plan about week ago on twitter (view the tweet), but it has been an idea building for quite a few years.…

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During today's BBC Countryfile programme, there was an interesting feature on Edgar Brown - a man who enjoys walking in the countryside with no shoes and socks on. Now this captured my imagination - as a child I loved nothing better than walking through the fields around our house barefoot, taking in all the sensations and feelings. Even to this day, I enjoy walking barefoot through dry grass and across sandy beaches.…

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This was a filler walk, so I won't go into too much detail. The walk goes from Hartwell, via Salcey Forest and the tip of Long Street Hanslope to Grafton Regis - with a slight detour to make sure we didn't get to the pub before opening! After a lovely lunch at The White Hart, we followed the canal, up the locks, to Stoke Bruerne. After another pint, we visited the entrance to Blisworth tunnel (since when did it become a tourist attraction?) and then made our way, across the fields, back to Hartwell via Roade - ending in the Rose and Crown in Hartwell for a final pint!…

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After my 19 mile walk yesterday, I can now follow up on my original post on my new Sorbothane double strike replacement insoles. The terrain on the walk was varied - uneven footpaths, small rolling hills (for Northamptonshire they were hills!) and tarmac.…

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A business meeting in Cannock gave me the opportunity to fit in the walk around Cannock Chase I have been wanting to do. The meeting was on Monday, so the plan was to come up on Saturday, stay at the Camping and Caravanning Cannock Chase camp site Saturday and Sunday nights, and do a full day walk on the Sunday. The walk has the following highlights: Castle Ring, RAF Hednesford, Katyn Memorial, Glacial Boulder, Sherbrook Valley, Shugborough Park, Essex Bridge, and Wolseley Arms.…

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