Most commented posts
- Day 2 – Gone with the Wind — 7 comments
- Day 15 – Blenheim — 6 comments
- Day 6 – Rollright Stones — 5 comments
- Day 23 – Walking with the End in Sight — 5 comments
- The Day After — 4 comments
Author's posts
Aug 31
Day 1: Cricklade to Lechlade
A good collection of kind ZANE donors to encourage us at the outset of the walk. Warm and dry and easy walking. Thames very low. To remind readers, my blogs are my views only and do not reflect “ZANE’s” views or the views of any of the people working for ZANE in Zimbabwe or in …
Aug 30
The Day Before: Those Were the Days
You may be wondering why we’ve called this year’s walk blog Don’t Take Care, Take a Risk!? Well, to start with, people telling me to “take care” really gets my goat! It’s a wholly negative sentiment, the sort of warning teachers must spell out to pupils to comply with health and safety laws, and the …
Sep 14
The Day After
Two Weeks Later… Day of relative rest – relative because Jane is working at the food bank, and I am dealing with loads of overdue administration. Many thanks to donors for their sponsorship and kind wishes. And to the excellent ZANE team for their background support. We were fortunate in our driver, Richard, who has …
Sep 13
Day 15: Tiddington to Oxford
The Final Day The final day. Perfect weather and good company. We met the food bank contingent for lunch, and then we marched up Shotover Hill and down the other side into Oxford. For the last couple of weeks, as we have tottered from theatre to theatre in a great arch, we have been blessed …
Sep 12
Day 14: Upton to Tiddington
Match Points A happy day with friends walking with us. Only a day left to go, and we won’t be sorry when it is finished. We have been fortunate with the weather: only one gruelling period of intense heat. Last night we watched the now world-famous Emma Raducanu win the US Open Tennis tournament. Clearly, …
Sep 11
Day 13: Whitchurch to Upton
Ailing Aylesbury Six walkers today, all friends. We talked endlessly as we walked; it was fun. We trailed through poor old, down-at-heel, litter-strewn Aylesbury, a once beautiful and elegant town. Its graceful Georgian centre was gutted by 1950/60s so-called “planners” and greedy developers. When next you visit Aylesbury, recall George Eliot’s quote: “Behind every great …
Sep 10
Day 12: Westcroft to Whitchurch
The day started warm and a tad drizzly. Set off at a sharp pace, but another case of here we go round the mulberry bush as we get lost in fields yet again. Tartan Titan Nicola Sturgeon has to be the most talented politician in the western world right now. She must be because she …
Sep 10
Day 11: Hanslope to Westcroft
Gone with the Wind A better day with warm mist and easy to discern walks. We walk through the old Whaddon Chase hunting grounds: all the old bittersweet memories flood back. Too many hunting ghosts and memories soar over fences in my mind’s eye to relate here, but… it was fun being young. Our children …
Sep 09
Day 10: Northampton to Hanslope
Can’t See the Route for the Trees Hot and hot again. Lost in the woods as usual. Our maps are dire, and we waste time. I am reminded of the eight POWs who escaped in 1944 and used a map of the route to England one of them had purloined: after they arrived in Dover …
Sep 07
Day 9: Weedon Bec to Northampton
A better day. Moses’ Crossing We nearly faced a disaster. Moses faced a major road: just before I grabbed him, he darted across the road towards our excellent driver, Richard. A lorry flashed by…it missed him by an inch. Benyon’s law of pain It’s simple: unless you have a clinical issue – in which case …