Walking and wanting

I haven't been out walking a huge amount lately as I've really been quite busy, but there have been a few things that have caught my eye:

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Free London walks are back this weekend, thanks to Walk London.  Some long, some short, but all interesting.  I like the sound of 'London's hidden alleyways and courtyards', 'Subterranean London' and 'Seafaring London'.

Go and have a look at what else is on offer!

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Back when I was training, I heard about the FitBit - a small clip-on  pedometer and sleep tracker with a really useful online logging and analysis tool.  At that time it was not availble in the UK, but guess what...

It's now here!

Even though I'm not doing crazy activity anymore, I'm massively interested in this.  I can't quite put my finger on the attraction since I've tried pedometers and didn't like them and would probably forget to put this on at bedtime after the first week, but still there's something about that sleek black case, and clever auto-syncing, and the data.  Oh, the data.

It's £80 though...and I guess I don't really need any more stuff.  Especially if it's £80 stuff. Ho hum.

Here we go again.

New year, new walks!  Something a little less stressful than the training regime at the start of last year, and without the same purpose, but still out and about exploring London.  This is the year that we start walking the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP).

The first route is a nice easy 8.5 miles from Erith to Old Bexley Village.  No steep bits, no particularly rough paths, and with interesting views of two very different flavours: rivers (Thames, Darent, Cray) on one side; heavy industry on the other.  I rather enjoyed that. 

I took a few photos from the walk (and a video of some enthusiastic seagulls) which you can see in this Flickr set. 

I plan to resurrect this blog, not to raise money as before but to continue posting about my London walking adventures.   And also any other bits that catch my eye.  Which leads me nicely to direct you back to Matt Green's blog.

I first posted about Matt in July 2010, when I was right at the start of my training and finding inspiration from all over the place (you can read my original post here).  Matt's journey was certainly inspirational as he aimed to walk from one side of America to the other.  Just because he fancied doing it.  The result was not only some really beautiful and strange photos of the parts of the States that you don't usually see, but also an amazing insight into the country and the people who live there.  His last post looking at the walk one year after finishing was a touching reflection on the kindness that he met during his journey.

The great news that came at the start of the year, is that Matt is now back out and walking full time again.  This time he's aiming to walk every public road in New York City.  Once again he's taking stunning photographs of usually unseen NYC and the people who inhabit the city.  Please do go and take a look at the details of his challenge and enjoy the scattering of photos that he posts at the end of his daily walk.

Go!  Go now!  And I'll see you back here once I've hauled myself off the sofa for another stroll.