This photo was taken on the Dorset coast on Friday evening (July 29th), approaching Lulworth Cove on the South West Coast Path fom Weymouth. Thanks to Jan and Katja for helping with the research on this new route for ECW.

No time to do this elegantly as this is my first time working in Linux. Here’s a screenshot of the new White Cliffs walk profile as it stands now, still in development. The big change will be the addition of online ordering.

Sample screenshot of new White Cliffs walk profile

I’ve uploaded the new calendar of walks for this year. You can now book a walk anytime up to February 2011. There are a few new routes added, and more to come, which I will be highlighting in posts over the next few days.

One notable addition is the Alice in Wonderland walk, which I’m putting together to commemorate the release of the upcoming Walt Disney Studios film, due out this Friday. The walk is scheduled for Sat/Sun March 6th and 7th. Read about it here.

About a month ago, The Times newspapers approached me for help with running a special series of guided country walks for their readers.

So far we’ve been out four times, to four very different destinations all over the country: the Chiltern Hills, Hampstead Heath, Loch Ordie in Scotland, and most recently the Mendip Hills near Bristol.

Here’s some coverage of last weekend’s walk. Clicking the screenshot below will take you to the Times article.

You can see photos from this day out on my Flickr stream here.

At the moment, there are still two more Times Walks open to sign up for:

a) Sunday July 12th: an expedition to Pistyll Rhaeadr, the highest waterfall in Wales, with myself and Paul Sanders, the Times Picture Editor, and
b) Saturday July 25th: a walk near Aylesford Priory in Kent, with myself and Times correspondent Ruth Gledhill

If you’re interested, visit the sign-up page for Times Walks.

More updates to follow soon. Please keep in touch -

David

I’m replacing the hand-made static route maps on the walk profiles with Google Maps. It’s taking me a while to encode each route but they should all be done soon. See the profile pages for

The White Cliffs of the Seven Sisters
King Beorthwulf’s Gardens (Benington Lordship)
Bodiam Castle
Fortress of the Black Swans (Leeds Castle)

as examples.

Benefits of this approach:

a) you can zoom out to see where the route is relative to London and the rest of the country
b) you can zoom in to see details of the route
c) you can switch from “Terrain” view to “Satellite” view and get a highly detailed aerial image of the route

Once I start getting the hang of the Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface), I ought to be able to add nifty new features like pop-out photos showing on-the-ground views from selected points along the route of a walk.

– DW

Just back from the first walk of the year, a test run of a new route for me. Ben, Felipe, and I walked from Canterbury to Whitstable in Kent, along the course of the Crab & Winkle Line, one of the world’s first passenger railways.

Too whipped to do much more than post a couple of snaps from the day. I’ll get around to posting the full photo stream later.

Felipe and Ben in blizzard conditions, standing on the path of the old railway line in Clowes Wood.

More snow squalls ahead. Here we are on the track into Whitstable.

It snowed here in London tonight. Enough for it to pile up on the tops of cars. We even had a snowball fight outside The Abbey Tavern in Kentish Town.

Weather like this is unheard of here at this time of year. I will check the records tomorrow to see when London last saw snowfall in October.

Except we’re not.

Yes the clocks went back yesterday, and yes according to my favorite online UK weather source Metcheck (thanks Dale) it’s about to feel very cold …

but I’ll still be doing walks through the rest of the autumn and winter. It’s a great time to get outdoors.

This week’s tentative schedule: Leeds Castle on Thursday, the New Forest on Friday, and a trial of a new walk from Canterbury to Whitstable on Sunday. Call or email if you’re interested in the Sunday walk – I can send you details.

Given the lack of posts on ECW over the spring and summer months, you may be forgiven for thinking that there’s nothing going on here. In fact, a LOT has happened. I’ve got photos from over 20 walks to post, so look out for these in the days to come.

– DW

WALK REPORT These are some photos from a trip we took back in February – a visit to Benington Lordship gardens in Hertfordshire. This was at the tail end of winter, with spring imminent. 31 shots. With friends Aleks, Anneli, and Tobi.

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WALK REPORT This was the second trial of my Tiptree cream tea walk. Still needs work to improve the route. Parts of Kelvedon are pretty, but the section from there to Tiptree lacks interest. Also, it’s a real shame that the old church at Inworth is kept locked – most of the country churches I pass on my other walks are open to the public, but not this one. Thanks to Anne and Cristina for help with trailblazing.

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