I would love to be providing daily updates on The Western Front Expedition here, but the fact is I haven’t the time to do so at the moment, so I’ve made all images accessible on this public Facebook album.

Well, this blog has been quiet for a few years, hasn’t it?

In preparation for the next big English Country Walks trip — The Western Front Expedition — I went out to grab a new pair of boots.

I’ve had luck with this brand before, so I decided to try the Meindl Bhutan MFS this time:

Thanks to Marco and the staff at Cotswold Covent Garden for your help!

Links:
Cotswold Outdoor
Meindl

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

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

There’s still space available on our next two walks, Fortress of the Black Swans (Leeds Castle) on Sunday, and the White Cliffs Walk, on Monday. The weather is looking good for a change, so come outside and enjoy the sun while it lasts!

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SUNDAY, JULY 8TH
FORTRESS OF THE BLACK SWANS (LEEDS CASTLE)

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MONDAY, JULY 9TH
WHITE CLIFFS WALK

If you want to come on either of these walks, call me at 07932 953 174.

Regards

DW