Clarty Welly Walks

I didn't go out today - if I had I would have been alone in me wellies. Once again, LTD took one look out of the back door prior to his normal morning quest to chase next door's cat, and decided that his bed would be much more comfortable. I've ordered him a fabby-whiz toasty new jacket which I'm hoping will ameliorate his despising of anything cold and wet, specially when cold is accompanied by wet.

So, I stayed in till LTD's bladder became distended to bursting, at which point we went out into the slashing rain and, indeed, the clart or slutch for a brief exploration

And I decided, at some point, probably late last year now I think about it properly, to see if in 2016 I could encourage or even inspire just one person; just the one, to take up walking as a hobby or pastime and, in doing so, maybe save their mind, or even their life, or maybe just make their death more interesting than croaking away in a pool of bodily fluids, and expensively too, in a nursing home or hospice.

So, I came up with "Clarty Walks" suitable for wellies and bring your dog if you have one. This is a series of four easy walks starting at St Catherine's Community Centre in Crook in which explorations of Crooks Most Muddy and Partially Flooded Footpaths will be made. The idea is that the walks will expose some Crook peeps to the local footpath network so that they'll start doing their own long walks, and, who knows, maybe go on to longer and better stuff up the Dale, or even, dare I hope, in Cumbria or Northumberland....  eventually...

The walks are 2-hour, easy 3 mile jaunts or rambles, the main challenge of which will be to avoid falling over in the mud. We've put up posters in antici......pation

I'm not expecting a rush of enthusiastic and unfit  would-be hikers. In fact, it seems unlikely that anybody will turn up at all, in which case me and LTD will just have a nice plodge through the Co Durham clarts.

Its worth a shot, though, and the first one is on 15 January starting at 10:30 am.  There'll be one per fortnight after that for at least the next three walks. What happens after that depends if there's any enthusiasm for the project.

Apart from that, Me and Dawn have plots hatching and I have a List of Things To Do in 2016, so, unless something disastrous happens, the hillwalking and blogging will continue in much the same vein as before.

They're all free and I am qualified to do this kind of thing, y'know.