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| Lunch stop on a section of a Frodsham Circular walk May 2011 |
It all started earlier this year after kicking a 20 plus year smoking habit and the realisation that I could actually breathe again. It was around this time that Amanda came into the room and said "Honey I think we should take up hiking". Hiking?? surely trails to small to allow access by 4x4 should remain trails not travelled? Apparently not and so it was decided that a hiking we would go - at least when we'd bought the necessary attire and boots - oh how I prayed for Bankrupcy!!
A few weeks went by and I have to admit that I was warming to the idea of this exercise lark helped in no small part by my ever increasing lung capacity. We had gathered the necessary gear to start and I was even looking forward to our first trip out. Our first walk was around Lever park and Rivington Pike. A short way into the walk I 'got it' - I understood why people go walking. It's not something that I can tie down to one particular reason more the combination that makes the whole. The more we now walk the more I enjoy it and the more excited I am looking forward to the next trip. People who know me have asked why I walk, mostly in a tone of utter disbelief at the thought of me walking!!!, and it's something I find difficult to explain. It's time out for Amanda and I, it's the peace, the quiet, nature and the surroundings but I think most importantly it's an escape - no matter what else is going on in life everything is forgotten and none of it matters when I walk.
"How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky? Anyone knows they are. How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute? No, you cannot explain. So you walk". ~Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, "The Walk," 25 October 1967
