A forest walk in good company – first published 14 October 2012

Mostly I walk alone, hence the name of this blog, but it’s always nice to have a little company on a walk. For some strange reason not a lot of people like going for long, rambling walks so it isn’t often anyone wants to walk with me. Occasionally Commando can be persuaded but I always know he’d rather be running. My boys, on the other hand, are all quite fond of walking. Maybe it’s because I dragged them all on walks from an early age.  When Commando decided a second training run in the New Forest was in order, my son Bard jumped at the chance to come along and join me for a walk.

14 October 2012

Today didn’t start off too well to be honest. I was woken by Commando grumping around for his clothes in the dark bedroom complaining that we were out of milk. So, while he stomped up the hill, I got on with cleaning the kitchen and getting the weekend pain au chocolat in the oven. I can’t wait until I get my new oven, it’s such a hit and miss affair at the moment, what with it turning itself off randomly and the temperature changing its mind half way through cooking. There was actually a little bit of milk left, just not enough for Commando’s cereal (as a naturally svelte person he can have cereal and pain au chocolat), so I made myself a cocoa while I was at it. I’m just glad it wasn’t me who made the last drink last night so I can’t be blamed for the milk crisis.

Today the plan was another walk in the New Forest while Commando did his half marathon training. He’s been working so hard on it and I’m unbelievably proud of him. After going through the Moonwalk training I know how difficult it is to stay motivated to train for something that big over such a long period. It’s a very time consuming pastime and, in our busy lives, it’s sometimes hard to find that time. I know when I did the Moonwalk training I found it incredibly difficult to get up early on my rest day and go out of the house, sometimes in bad weather, to walk for hours and hours. The final weeks of training were more or less marathon walks, the last two were actually longer than a marathon, and I was walking for longer that a normal working day. With running training each session isn’t quite as time consuming of course, but then running is a lot harder than walking especially when you’re doing it for hours at a time, plus he does four sessions a week whereas I did one. He deserves the medal he’ll get when he crosses that finishing line.

The other thing we wanted to do today was see Bard so we could celebrate his job news. After a quick telephone consultation it was decided we would all go out to the forest where Commando could do his ten mile run and Bard and I could go for a walk. As Bard was also coming back for dinner and I categorically refused to even contemplate take away on the grounds that it was a slippery slope I didn’t want to be standing at the top of, instead I spent the morning re thinking my meal plan for the week. As I’d doubled up on the Thai Green Curry recipe I decided we would have that tonight and quickly knocked up a Chilli  for the week.

After lunch we set off for the forest, picking up Bard on the way. Commando Junior stayed at home nursing a horrible cold and feeling a little sorry for himself. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and, Commando had pre planned his route, so we started at Deer Leap again. Commando ran off in one direction, Bard and I strolled off in the other. Inexplicably there were no ponies about today, last time they were everywhere I looked, but there seemed to be a host of cyclists for some unknown reason. We took the odd little woodland path beyond the gate that I briefly explored last time and, dodging cyclists, trotted off to see where it led.

As I was using the Walkmeter there was no danger of getting lost so we just wandered. Each time the path divided we just randomly chose a trail and wound our way through the trees aimlessly, chatting all the while about this and that. Bard seems to be enjoying the new job, he’s been taken on as someone trustworthy to work the late shift and close up at night which can only be a good sign. The path wound through the trees, branching occasionally but not changing, just tall fir trees as far as the eye could see, lots of boggy bits and big puddles because of all the recent rain and a cyclists round every bend. It felt like there was a cyclist convention. They were the only wildlife we saw, apart from one solitary beetle sitting on the path.

Suddenly, there was a little crooked house in the distance, the first thing we’d seen that wasn’t a tree, puddle or on two wheels. As we got closer we saw the path seemed to end at a big wooden gate in front of the house. Closer still and dogs began barking. It was almost as if we’d been walking down a very long driveway all this time. At the last minute we noticed that the path branched to the right and became a small, slightly overgrown, track. We were about to head along it when I checked the Walkmeter and noticed we’d been walking for almost fifty minutes anyway which meant it was time to turn back. We turned, and at that moment a gaggle of people emerged from the house with a pack of dogs (thankfully on leads) and, wishing us a good afternoon, started off along the track we’d just been about to take.

I’m glad we had the Walkmeter because we’d taken so many different twists and turns I’m sure we’d still be walking now trying to find our way back to the original gate without it. Even with it we took a couple of wrong turns and had to retrace our steps, staring at the little blue line on the map until we found our original track. It’s funny how much quicker the time passes when you walk in company compared to when you walk alone. It seemed as if we’d barely set off and we were back at the car park with Commando running round the corner at the end of his ten miles. I’m not sure how he runs such a distance and still looks so fresh, I’d be bright red and gasping for breath if it was me.

We had a lovely evening chatting about art and music, eating curry and enjoying each others company. It’s good to see Bard looking more confident in his future and able to make long term plans at last. It’s been a long time coming.