Greetings on a superbly sunny Sunday afternoon here in south Wales. After a seeming hiatus I am happy to report that I have actually been keeping things going with this list even though it has seemed quiet for a while.
Task No.7 - 50k/miles walking (in total or a one-off challenge to be decided) has been seriously testing my imagination. 50 miles over the period of a year really isn't anything, is it? I probably walk 50 miles to and from various pubs over a year so I had to come up with some way of making this more meaningful. So I have! Derek Brockway - or 'Derek the Weather' to those who know him is a national treasure - in Wales. As well as being a weatherman he also did a serious of programmes 'Weatherman Walking' where he hiked all over Wales. He also wrote some books about these walks to go with the TV series. So, to make things interesting I'll be doing as many 'Weatherman Walking' hikes over the next 12 months as I can. Some of the distances may seem short, but, because this is Wales, they mostly involve bloody inclines (don't mind distance but I HATE hills). So, I'll be sharing loads of glorious Welsh countryside with you over the next year.
Today's hike: Weatherman Walking Number One, was the Newport 14 Locks walk.
An absolutely glorious walk along a hidden canal in Newport which used to have 14 working locks. It was part of the Monmouthshire Canal, built to transport coal and iron from the valleys down to Newport. So an industrial place, but not that you'd have noticed this today. The walk actually takes you close to, and under the M4!.
Total mileage: 3.7 miles, 2 hours to complete and as well as me and Stewart and Timber, Mam came along too.
The dodgy thing taking a dog near a canal and water is that, of course, he's going in at some point!
We walked along the towpath for a fair bit, went up a few hills to an area known as 'little Switzerland' and the views over the Sirhowy valley were lush. All in all, apart from having to chuck Timber over a couple of stiles which weren't dog friendly, and inadvertently having to hack our way down a path of overgrown bramble plants, it was a cool and gentle introduction to the Weatherman Walking hikes.
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