Walking in 2022

Now that things have finally quietened down a bit it's time to get back to something we love doing, walking.  My husband also now has a full time job again, at least for now, so we have a little bit of extra money coming in to do more with - not that walking is a particularly expensive hobby.  The only issue is that my work is Monday to Friday and his is shift work, so we don't have a large number of days where we are actually off together.  To work around this we're planning on organising the walks we're wanting to do as much as possible so that when a day comes that we do have off together we can just get up and do them.

Devon's Coast to Coast /Two Moors Way

This one didn't exactly go to plan the last time we attempted it, but we do really want to give this walk another go possibly in summer.  However, we'll probably give ourselves a little bit longer to do it this time round so that we putting less strain on our bodies and are less likely to injure ourselves.  We have a bit more time this time to prepare for it as well, so that'll probably mean that we actually need to take less stuff with us.  I'm really looking forward to this as it's been a while since I've done a long walk and these legs could do with a good stretch.  At least we have all the equipment we need, all tested as well, so we don't need to buy anything extra for it.

Walks with Wild Swimming

We brought a book a while ago which had some walks in Devon with wild swimming attached to them, but are yet to do any of them.  As wild swimming is something we want to get into more that is something we really need to remedy.  There are a few that are pretty close to us, including one at Ivybridge and one at Noss Mayo, and the walks are mostly pretty short so it shouldn't be too difficult to get these done.  We also want to get more wild swimming in in general, but that we can do much closer to home and even do it on mornings when my husband starts work at lunch time.

Dartmoor

As we're so close to this moor it seems really silly that we haven't spent more time wondering around it.  This is one where I need want to do a little bit more research as the map we have of it isn't the best at showing where the actual footpaths are around Dartmoor.  I think there are a couple of wild swimming walks that are based in Dartmoor so that'll be a good start, but it's probably time to have a nosey through a good old OS map.

South West Coast Path

One of our main plans this year is to have more of an explore of the coast we're so close to in Devon.  As we have our book on the South West Coast Path this seems like the perfect way of actually do this.  We're not able to do all of this walk in one go, but will instead do the stages separately.  As each stage is obviously designed to be linear, we need to work out ways of returning to our starting point as we don't want to walk the path back again if we can help it.  This will probably mean public transport, unless we can find some circular routes in some places.  This'll also give us an excuse to venture into Cornwall, Somerset, and Dorset a little more.

I have to admit, usually when it comes to walking like this I don't really tend to (or like to) do too much planning.  I'm more of a decide on the day and go type of person.  However, we are really looking forward to getting back into walking again and this seems like the best way of doing it.  So soon, hopefully, we'll be out there breathing fresh air, stretching our legs, and getting the most out of where we live.