Category: UK Walking
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If last year was lively on Eponymous (aka timdracup.com), 2025 has been positively manic. In 2024, I published 26 posts and thought that was good going. But this is my 41st post of 2025. That includes 15 book reviews, 12 musical posts in my Ouroboros series, five posts devoted to our progress along various English…
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We returned to complete the Coast Path in September 2025, basing ourselves in Swanage. This nineteenth and final visit marked the end of a project begun in Minehead in October 2017, almost eight years earlier. Pre-Covid, we would travel down for up to five days at a time but, since our ninth visit (Port Isaac…
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We returned to the South Downs Way in June 2025, having completed Cocking to Washington at the end of January. Once again we were anxiously monitoring weather forecasts, though this time we were keen to avoid heatwave conditions rather than persistent wind and rain. As it turned out, conditions on our first day were warm…
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We returned to the Thames Path in mid-May 2025, having completed the section from Pangbourne to Henley in August 2024. We travelled by train and tube to Paddington, from where we caught the 10:08 departure to Twyford, changing there on to a Henley service full of sulky teenagers. Day 1: Henley to Marlow Reaching Henley…
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We returned to the Coast Path at the end of March 2025, some nine months after completing the section from Exmouth to Charmouth. We based ourselves in Weymouth for a week, from Saturday to Saturday, reserving 5 Park Mews via cottages.com. This first floor, one-bedroomed holiday let cost £345 plus a £75 refundable security deposit.…
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After a seven month hiatus, we returned to the South Downs Way at the end of January 2025, our trip timed to coincide with Tracy’s Birthday. We’d been scanning local weather forecasts for several days, fearing more high winds and driving rain, given the series of winter storms that had been battering Britain. All my…
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It’s been a lively year here on Eponymous (aka timdracup.com) This is my 26th post: I’ve been writing the equivalent of a new post each fortnight. Exactly half have been book reviews. There were also ten travelogues, one Dracup family history blockbuster and one bereavement-related post in memory of my late wife, Kate. Starting with…
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In September 2024 we returned to Kent to complete the North Downs Way, having reached Etchinghill the preceding April. This final leg is relatively demanding and feature-packed, some 12 miles in length. We decided to split it into two roughly equal sections, to reflect Jacqui’s fitness level and increase our collective enjoyment of this final…
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During the dog days of August 2024, we decided spontaneously to walk another stretch of the Thames Path, having completed Wallingford to Pangbourne in June. This time we made a two-day trip with an overnight stop at Sonning. The total distance should have been some 15.6 miles, but an extensive 2.7 mile off-river diversion between…
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Our latest adventures on the South West Coast Path, in June 2024, walking from Exmouth to Charmouth.
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In which we finally resume the Thames Path, walking from Wallingford to Pangbourne in June 2024.
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Our adventures on the South West Coast Path in Devon, between Torcross and Starcross, in April 2024, illustrated by the best photographs we took along the way.
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Some five months after completing Charing to Wye, we returned for our next leg of the NDW, from Wye to Etchinghill. With a total distance of 11.2 miles, including two or three steep ascents, this was too demanding for Jacqui to complete in a single day. So we stayed overnight in Braborne, at roughly half…
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We made a rapid return to the South Downs Way, undertaking this second stage early in March 2024. We are walking in an Eastbourne direction, having started from Winchester. For the first leg, we experimented with walking over two days, on either side of an overnight stop. This obviously involves carrying fuller, heavier rucksacks than…
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We began the 100-mile South Downs Way at the end of January 2024, so adding a fourth national trail to the three already under way! The SDW stretches from Winchester to Eastbourne. Both the National Trails website and the South Downs Way website envisage it taken in this direction, from west to east. But, for…
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Almost five months had elapsed since we completed Hollingbourne to Charing in June 2023. We had canceled once, the preceding week, in the immediate aftermath of Storm Ciaran, so were hopeful of better weather. In the event, we were rained on more than the forecasts had led us to expect, but there were some dry…
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In June 2023 we resumed our progress along the Coast Path, this time basing ourselves in Salcombe for the week. We were starting from the ferry crossing at Plymouth’s Mount Batten Point, having completed the stretch from Par in March, and were aiming to reach Torcross. This we achieved, with the following schedule: According to…
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Six weeks on from our Sandling to Hollingbourne experience, we returned to Hollingbourne in June 2023. We’d opted to walk on Friday for a second trip in succession, departing from our normal Saturday excursions to benefit from better rail services. We travelled to London Victoria, connecting there with the 09:55 Southeastern service to Ashford International,…
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Our progress along the North Downs Way continues, albeit slowly. We resumed towards the end of April 2023, some six months after completing the previous stretch, from Cuxton to Sandling. Sandling is some miles before the official end of the Cuxton to Detling leg, and we had needed a 101 Sapphire bus to connect us…
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The final week of March saw our first visit to the Coast Path in 2023. We were returning to Par, our endpoint last time, hoping to see its better side. This was a wet week in a very wet month. While dodging the rain as much as possible, our minimum target was to reach the…
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