It is 6 a.m. on a random April morning. The sky is terracotta orange, the sun getting ready to make an appearance over the silhouetted hilltop to the East. I wait patiently, hopping left to right and gripping my thermos for warmth. It wasn’t a long walk this morning. Just a short 100m climb up from the car park below. I am only 25 mins from my van, but it has taken me 46 years to get here. My happy place. Half awake, red-nosed and watery eyed but so excited.
‘Here she comes’ I whisper, as the first finger of sun lights the bracken opposite, and another day outside has begun.
How I discovered I quite liked a walk
I haven’t always been such an early bird. Once upon another life, I would happily snooze my alarm, grumbling my way through the first shower and coffee of the day. As a child growing up in East London, the local recreation ground was my green space, and the highest point I would climb would be to the top of the rusty spiral slide.
My first attempt at navigation with an OS map on holiday on the Isle of Wight led us in a two-hour circle back to the ‘Welcome to Shanklin’ sign, less than half a mile from where we started. As time went on, I enjoyed a walk with my husband and the dog, but I enjoyed a pint in the pub, or a Sunday lie-in far much more. I was certainly not a rambler, hiker or even an avid walker.
Then in 2016 life happened.
Breast cancer to be exact. After a year of treatment, I was left weak and battle scarred but oh so grateful to have made it through.
Where does that path go?
On a post-treatment celebration tapas trip to the coast of Northern Spain we spotted a footpath sign up in the hills overlooking San Sebastian. The faded wooden plaque showed a yellow arrow and a scallop shell pointing the way down a sandy path through the trees. Ever the inquisitive one, I googled where it might lead, which is how we found ourselves one year later walking the Camino Santiago pilgrimage path from Porto. Our backpacks were so new they squeaked as we walked and don’t even get me started on the blisters, but with each day of the hike, I felt strong in a way I hadn’t for years. Better even.
Just keep going
The walk wasn’t easy. One 30km day in the torrential sideways rain, gusts pushing us backwards was particularly awful. But we just put one foot in front of the other and kept going. Step by step, in time to the tapping of my wooden walking stick, I knew we would make it. When the spires of the cathedral in Santiago rose up to meet us 14 days later, I didn’t want to stop walking. So, I haven’t.
There is a rhythm to walking that I just find so calming. One foot in front of the other, just keep going. With our phones blowing up daily with the latest Black Mirror instalment that we now call life, getting outside and finding that space just to breathe has never been more important.
It was the Greek physician Hippocrates (c.460 – c.370 BC), who first recognised the health benefits of taking a stroll, declaring that “walking is man’s best medicine”. Fortunately, it is just as effective for women too! Helping to not only boost your mood but also your creativity, heart health, bone density… Hippocrates was really onto something back then!
Why walking is so good for you
In July 2020, the UK government finally caught up with this, when a £4 million pilot scheme for green prescribing was announced, intended to tackle the increasing mental health crisis, obviously made so much worse by the pandemic. This pilot project involved more than 8000 people across seven sites in England being prescribed nature-based activities such as walking, tree planting and wild swimming to help with mental ill health. The results from these schemes showed that after taking part, people’s feelings of happiness and fulfilment jumped upwards, while levels of anxiety fell significantly.
After my dad passed away in 2023, all I could think about was strapping on my now scuffed and worn backpack and getting outside. While a wet and wild walk along the Northumberland coast path wasn’t a cure all for grief, it helped for those few days just to taste salt on my lips that wasn’t from tears. If nothing else, the wide empty beaches were a great place to just yell obscenities into the wind. One foot in front of the other. Just keep going.
Where to next?
Now I live on the edge of the beautiful Lake District, where planning my weekend walks make me giddier than a child with a full stocking on Christmas morning. This Saturday we are off to tackle the Ullswater way, a 20-mile route which circumnavigates the lake through some spectacular landscape. We’ll break it up across two days, lifting new packs onto our back for their first Lakeland trek and hoping that the forecasted sunshine keeps away the rain. It has been a busy few weeks with work and I can’t wait to be outdoors all day, my mind as free as the kestrels soaring above.
I am so lucky to live with a national park on my doorstep but wherever you are, I strongly recommend you now stop reading this, pop your coat or hopefully your sunnies on, and just get outside.
Move. Breathe. Live.
Walking truly is the best medicine.
Bio
Based in the Lake District, Jo can either be found eating a packet of Quavers on top of a fell, lacing up her battered leather boots at the bottom of a fell or boring her Art Centre co-workers with fell-based stories. It is fair to say she likes to hike.
You can find Jo on Instagram at theamplerambler.