Walking Pace

Working on walking for all

Living in Ashdown Forest beautiful walks are part of the territory. But many people I talk to either don’t feel that the Forest space is for them (which is another blog) or don’t know where to start.

So I have developed a series of free short walks and guides to help people venture out.

The first is here:

Winnie the Pooh Walk

I am a walker. My wife is a bimbler with osteoarthritis. My children are variously runners, long distance walkers and ‘please carry me because it is too far out of the car park’.

Over the last year I have been the architect of the YHA Walks programme creating over 170 easy read walks across England and Wales.

And as part of this I really have had to consider what does it mean for walks to be accessible. Not just in terms of terrain and distance but also for those who are not confidence to map read or to even get outside at all. And this was birth of Walking Pace - valuing the first step on a 500m bimble as much as the last step on the Coast to Coast.

The Ashdown Forest and High Weald walks are being developed for walkers of all abilities and interests. With a particular focus on benches and on convincing children that they really don’t need to be carried because daddy might fall over.

Let me know if you use them and would love to share your walks.