Ramblings
BBC Radio 4
Clare Balding and guests share inspiring conversations while walking in the great outdoors.Fresh air and nature, wonderful views and uplifting chat, each week Clare hikes in a different part of our glorious countryside. Walking side by side is the perfect way to cover a huge range of subjects: literature, art, wildlife, nature, taking on personal or physical challenges, dealing with grief, confronting preconceptions about the kind of people who love to ramble. The conversations are as varied as the landscapes we find ourselves in. If there's a recurring theme, it's the accepted truth that 'solvitur ambulando' - 'it is solved through walking': The sense of wellness, the benefits to mental health, easy companionship, or sometimes just the sense of solitude that being alone in nature brings.Few things are better than going for a good walk. That's what we aim to share each week on Ramblings with Clare Balding.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 16, 2014 • 24min
The Dales Way, Part Five
Clare Balding is now really into her stride as she comes close to the end of her journey along The Dales Way, walking from Dent to Sedbergh. The route is one of the most popular in England and enjoyed by thousands every year, mainly thanks to the enthusiastic group of volunteers who run The Dales Way Association. Today she walks with two of their members, Chris Grogan and Kath Doyle who explain why this route means so much to them.
Producer: Lucy Lunt.
Oct 9, 2014 • 24min
The Dales Way, Part Four
Clare Balding reaches one of the most beautiful stretches of the Dales Way, setting out from Buckden to Beckermonds, in the company of the Chairman of the Long Distance Walking Association, John Sparshatt and his Californian born friend, Randal Metzger. Despite being very familiar with this part of the route, both men infect Clare with their passion for this landscape and their commitment to ensuring as many people as possible can enjoy walking the path.Producer: Lucy Lunt.
Oct 2, 2014 • 24min
The Dales Way, Part Three
Clare Balding continues her journey along The Dales Way, hiking from Grassington to Kettlewell in the company of two experienced long distance walkers, Aileen Strangham and Brenda Dodd. Clare enjoys their company so much and their tales of taking part in every Great North Run, that they wander off track and have to use all their combined map reading skills to get themselves back onto the right route.
Sep 25, 2014 • 24min
The Dales Way, Part Two
Clare Balding embarks on the second leg of her journey along The Dales Way, one of England's most loved long distance walking paths. This week she walks from Cavendish Pavilion to Burnsall Bridge in the company of Phil Richards, Access Ranger for the Yorkshire Dales National Park and photographer and blogger, Charles Hawes.
Producer Karen Gregor.
Sep 18, 2014 • 25min
The Dales Way, Part One
Clare Balding embarks on her first leg of The Dales Way, in the company of Sarah Howcroft. Sarah, an enthusiastic walker and climber for many years, along with her husband founded one of the foremost outdoor clothing companies. The Dales Way is an 82 mile route, starting at Ilkey in Yorkshire. Sarah and Clare walk along the River Wharfe to Bolton Abbey.Producer Lucy Lunt.
Jun 26, 2014 • 25min
The Diamond Ramblers, Otterton
Clare Balding has a sparkling day out joining The Diamond Ramblers for a circular walk from the South Devon village of Otterton. The group came together after meeting up at a local slimming club and deciding to accelerate their weight lose by starting walking. Having now been together for just over two years, the eleven have lost more than thirty-six stone between them and despite most of the members being over sixty they now walk for miles together, cementing their friendship and their resolve to remain fit and healthy. With Clare, they share some of their thoughts on dieting, being overweight and the tremendous value they've found in walking out together.
Producer: Lucy Lunt.
Jun 19, 2014 • 25min
Arundel, West Sussex
Tristan Gooley is the self-styled 'Natural Navigator' who makes his living teaching people how to orient themselves by using clues and signs within the landscape.On today's Ramblings he takes Clare on one of his favourite walks, near Arundel in West Sussex. En route they take their bearings from the most fascinating and unlikely natural sources, and Clare hears where Tristan's passion for the outdoors began at the age of 10, on a sailing course on the Isle of Wight, and how that eventually led to his current career.Tristan is an adventurer and explorer who has led expeditions across five continents. He's the only living person to have both flown solo and sailed singlehanded across the Atlantic.
Jun 12, 2014 • 25min
Fingle Bridge to Castle Drogo
Clare Balding completes one of her very favourite walks in South Devon, Fingle Bridge to Castle Drogo. Today she's in the company of a U3A local walking group, Stride Out.
Jun 5, 2014 • 25min
The Doward
This series of Ramblings is themed 'waterways' and in the second of two programmes based on the banks of the River Wye, Clare Balding walks with Nadia Smith on the Doward, near Ross-on-Wye.Nadia has a grown-up son with cerebral palsy; when he was younger she needed to lift him a great deal, something she thinks contributed to osteoarthritis, which eventually led to two partial hip-replacements.She fought having these metal-hips for a long time, fearful that she would lose fitness and mobility.
However, following the first operation, she followed a programme of gentle exercise and learned to adapt her walking posture. Nadia now feels as fit and active as before. Join Clare and Nadia as they walk along a stretch of the Wye close to Nadia's home.Producer: Karen Gregor.
May 29, 2014 • 24min
Hay-on-Wye
Today on Ramblings, Clare Balding walks with a group of women who met while on a horse-trekking trip in Outer Mongolia. Firm friendships were formed on that adventure, and since then the group has met many times. For the past five years they've been walking Offa's Dyke bit-by-bit, and they've now reached the section that runs close to Hay on Wye, which is where Ramblings is based this week.The theme for this series of Ramblings is 'water ways'. This week and next, we explore two different sections of the River Wye.Producer: Karen Gregor.
