Wednesday Wanders

Wednesday Wanders is a book about walking; not a guidebook with detailed route descriptions and maps, but the journal of a walker looking to broaden his horizons by seeing what could be achieved with an early start and still be home for tea (or supper more often). Weekly adventures setting out from northwest London to explore some of the long-distance footpaths of southeast England. Written in a light-hearted, humorous, but sometimes thoughtful style, it's a journal of determination and achievement sitting alongside not a little folly, with some inept navigation and unrealistic plans. More importantly, it's about what happened along the way, the fascination of places visited, the people met, the animals encountered, and perhaps most significantly, discovering the unexpected beauty and varied countryside in this corner of the country. Each chapter covers one of the seven routes attempted. Starting with the London LOOP, although this was the last walk completed. Chapter two returns to the beginning with a naïve walker setting out on the first stage of the North Downs Way from Farnham to Guildford on a wet and travel-disrupted day in early November. That chapter finishes five months later, on a bright but windy spring day, along the cliff tops into Dover. Proving that you can indeed complete a long-distance path in day trips. ?Five more routes are covered: the Ridgeway, Icknield Way Path, the Chiltern Way, Greensand Way, and the Hertfordshire Way. Some walks were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic or the onset of winter when the days were too short to complete their further reaches, but all were eventually finished. A thousand miles of walking recalled in a diary entry format. Each outing is dated, and the location and mileage given.

Mark Bowden lives in northwest London and is a retired service engineer. For 44 years his work took him around London and the southeast. Sometimes, when driving home on a summer evening from a remote location, he would be enticed by a footpath sign and would park the car to follow the trail for half an hour - vowing to return one day and explore further. For most of that time he was a keen runner, completing fifty half marathons and three full marathons, but long and often unsocial hours made a day out walking a rare pleasure, something he was determined to put right when he retired at the beginning of 2016. Wednesday quickly became the preferred day for his weekly outing. In 2018, a 45 Km charity walk on the South Downs inspired Mark to attempt some of southeast England's long-distance walking routes in day trips. To date, seven have been completed, covering a thousand miles of countryside. Their tale of success, folly, and discovery form the 'Wednesday Wanders' material.