Some middle-aged blokes wander around bits of Northumberland. And for some unknown reason decide to record it for posterity.
Notes on the Blog Contents
Source
Where did we find the route for this walk? Typically this is either from books about the locality , or from our own suggestions taken from maps of the area.
Today’s Walkers
The squad is made up of the following friends. In alphabetical order; Ed, Jim, Neil, Paul and Pete. The actual team varies on the day, depending on match form, injuries and availability. Occasionally we have guests with us.
Start Grid Reference and Walk Direction
We give this information so that others, who wish to undertake the same walk, can follow the route. Frequently we choose the direction to allow for any steeper sections to be undertaken early on it the walk. It’s our preference to try and finish with a downhill, or flat section, to aid our tired legs. You will not be surprised to find that the walks often end near a public house. We prefer circular walks over linear, there-and-back, walks so that we can look at different areas of interest.
Map of Route
This one’s quiet obvious really. We take the data from publicly available maps. The graph that accompanies the route shows the gradient of the terrain we walked over. We are grateful to the Ordnance Survey for the use of their cartography for our walks.
Type of Walk
Here we are trying to show the generic features of the scenery that we walked through. We do try and undertake walks with some historical, including industrial, interest.
Distance and Time
This is the actual distance walked on the day and the time taken to do it. Remember that we allow for the ‘slowest’ of the walkers and also time for breaks and photographs. Fitter individuals may complete the walk in a quicker time.
Weather Conditions
Following feedback from a blog comment, we now state what the weather conditions were on the day. This can impact on the originally planned route if the weather causes us to undertake alternative routes. However, the route described in the blog will be the one we actually walked. So far we’ve walked in glorious hot sunshine, rain and strong winds. Only fog to go!
Difficulty
The difficulty level is a measure of the difficulty for us, and is based on several criteria; those are length, amount of climb, roughness of terrain and difficulty in finding the route. As the blog title indicates, the ramblers involved in this are no longer youngsters, and some of us may be of slightly larger than optimal waist size. If you are reading this and are lucky enough to be young and fit, you should adjust the difficulty level down. This also may help explain the generous timescales given in ‘Distance and Time’.
Our Rating (up to 5*)
How much did we enjoy this walk? Initially we gave a general rating for the whole experience. However, feedback suggested that we were being a little harsh on scenic walks where the weather was poor on the day. On a better day these would have been more enjoyable. For this reason we now record the following categories:
- Scenery: This is our rating on how beautiful we found the scenery to be on the day. It can be affected by the weather, for example if we cannot see certain features due to low cloud, snow, etc. However, we try to disregard the weather and base our rating on the landscape alone.
- Historical interest: We like to see areas of civilization from former years, generally from prehistoric right through to modern times. Some of us like the Roman period, some Medieval and Industrial. Generally we all like something to look at! The rating is based on how much we saw on the day. For example, there could be a well known historical building on the route, but if it is in poor condition and difficult to see, we may give it a lower rating.
- Weather factor: The description of the weather conditions should be referenced here. You will generally find that on rainy, damp or windy days the rating is lower.
- Overall enjoyment: We still include this rating. It takes all of the above into account.
Remember, the ratings are determined on the day and after consultation with all of those who undertook the walk. Armchair walkers can form their own opinion.
Description
This is a general description of the walk as we did it. It’s designed to give the reader a flavour of the walk without recording everything. We now frequently supplement this with photographs, although these cannot accurately reflect any climbs or weather conditions on the day.
This may help explain some of the abbreviations and references.
- ‘PROW’ and the numbers for rights of way use the Northumberland County Council Public Right of Way references, e.g. 509/013. These are shown on the PROW website.
- BOAT is ‘Byway Open to All Traffic’, see the Wikipedia entry.
Maps, Electronic Gizmos and the Random Processes Used by Us!
Some of us like traditional maps and compasses; others like fancy electronic toys. It may help to explain how we use digital mapping in our planning and blogging; a typical process is as follows…
- Find a walk; this may be from a book or leaflet, it may be invented simply by looking at maps, or it may be one that one of us has done before.
- Check it on a paper map (for us, probably Ordnance Survey (OS) OL43) and/or their online map. We use online mapping as follows…
- If you register on the OS site you can view maps online and plot routes. As you plot points it measures the distance and creates an elevation chart. We use a clipping tool on this to create the map and elevation chart used in the blog.
- If you buy a paper copy of an OS map you also get a code with which you can download the map to the OS app on your mobile device. The nice bit is that any route saved on the website is then available on your mobile device. So on the walk you can open the app, see the map and see your planned route, with your current GPS position shown.
- The Northumberland County Council PROW map (link above) is also useful for checking the route.
- Do the walk. We tend to mostly use the paper map for this as it is convenient, saves peering at a small screen, doesn’t mind getting a bit muddy or damp and the battery doesn’t run flat. If we are unsure of our location, direction or where the route goes, then out comes the mobile phone. A magnetic compass is occasionally used as it gives a better compass bearing than the phone does. Fitbit watches provide us with a rough check on distance walked.
- Do the blog. If we ended up following a significantly different route from the one planned we update the route on the OS site and re-clip the map and elevation chart. We refer to the PROW map for the rights-of-way reference numbers.
Middle Aged Ramblings 
Having compared the Dipton Mill walk and the Blanchland walk I feel that the 1.5* rating for Blanchland was a little harsh! The photos suggested that despite the weather it would have been an interesting walk.
(This is a polite notice.)
Yours optimistically from Hexham
Dear Susan. Many thanks for your comments. Blanchland is a lovely area but on the day our enjoyment was lessened by the unseasonably cold, wet weather. The rating takes several factors into account and is determined, during the walk, by consultations between the ramblers. On a warm, sunny day this walk would no doubt have been rated higher. If you read other blog entries you will see that we have consistently agreed on lower scores for poor weather walks. Perhaps in the future you will join us on one of the walks and can, indeed, partake in the overall rating of the walk yourself. Cake is essential.
Additional note: We met with Susan and discussed the walking with her. As a result we have tweaked how we record our ratings for the walk to take into account her feedback. We hope this helps both her and anyone else who likes rambling. The new style of recording commenced on 8th June. For those who are interested, she did provide cake!
Steep climbs and descents can be difficult for some walkers. Do you have some standard way of describing these? Perhaps use the percentage system used describe hills on roadsigns. Example: 25% uphill slog for 300m. Just a thought! – Pete (gasping for breath) Webweaver.
Well Pete, perhaps you can take your inclinometer with you on the walk and let us know the answer!