'Land' Cruising
Posted by on 3 January 2022
What do you do if you can’t go sailing? Most of us dream about going sailing or spend our time planning the ideal sailing trip.
But there is another alternative. I accept that there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats (as the Water Rat said to Mole). If life takes a nasty and unexpected turn, as it did in Spring 2020, which meant that we couldn’t go sailing, then, once the restrictions relaxed a little, we could at least go walking.
It has often been said that for offshore sailors, we live in the most inconvenient area of the UK, about as far from the sea as one can get in this island of ours. The other side of the coin, however, is that we are in a lovely part of the country, close to an excellent road network, which enables us to walk in some interesting, beautiful and varied countryside. So that’s what some of us did – and continue to do.
A group of stalwarts have been 'Land' Cruising since July 2020 and have now clocked up 14 walks, typically of 7 to 8 miles each. We have walked as far north as Ticknall, south to Chipping Campden, west to the Clent Hills (I got mutterings about the ups and downs on that walk) and east to Coleshill. We have also been joined by a number of canine friends – most regularly, Sir Lancelot Spratt, more commonly known as “Lance”, owner of Will Russell.
Our walks are now always on the last Wednesday of each month, excluding December, when we give ourselves a month off. As a way to make and develop friendships, walking in a small group is very akin to sailing – without the sometimes-unwanted close acquaintance to other’s personal habits that sailing together can engender!
We plan to continue walking as long as there is a demand for it and Covid variants allow. If you would like to join a walk in 2022, look out for notifications in the monthly newsletters.
And many thanks to all those who led a walk in 2020 and 2021 – you know who you are - they wouldn’t have happened without you.
