Ramblings

Clare Balding is in Durham for today's edition of Radio4's walking series, when she joins Maggie and Keith Bell. They take her on one of their favourite routes from their home, Crook Hall, through the outskirts of the city and along the river. The couple now use walking as a time to catch up, hold business meetings and relive memories of their courtship, when they both arrived in the city over thirty years ago as students.Producer: Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding is in Northumberland to join the walking group from the local women's choir, Wercas Folk. It was formed over eighteen years ago by the well- known folk singer and composer, Sandra Kerr. They set off from the village she lives in and loves very much, Warkworth. Wercas Folk, an unauditioned group, specialise in singing new and traditional folk songs about the area, its people and its history.Many of the original founder members are still in the choir and they explain it's not just the singing that keeps them turning up week after week. The group have developed a collaborative and mutually supportive ethos that has forged strong friendships, resulting in them enjoying social time together even away from the rehearsal room and concert hall. They regularly escape from home and family for weekends away to walk, talk and indulge in the odd glass of wine.As they set off on a circular route around the village they talk to Clare about the role the choir plays in their lives and the joy of singing and walking together.Producer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding walks in Somerset as the guest of The Tuesday Walkers of North Devon. Meeting at the village of Exford on Exmoor, they set out on a six mile circular route, which, like all of the group's walks, begins and ends at a pub. All the members are retired and take their Tuesday hike as an important weekly date in their diaries. While enjoying the scenery, the company and the exercise all have good advice to offer Clare, on how to ensure a fit, healthy, active and happy retirement. Producer: Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding walks on Cannock Chase with Tara Bariana who recalls his extraordinary walk home to India.Tara Bariana was born in Punjab, and at the age of 13 came to the UK with his mother. His father and older brother had arrived four years earlier, in 1958.In 1995 Tara decided he needed an adventure and made the decision to walk from the Midlands - where he'd grown up, married and settled - back to his home village in India.He walked to Southampton where he caught the ferry to Cherbourg. There he realised he didn't speak any French, he couldn't even say 'bonjour'... but, despite being hit by the reality of what he'd decided to do, he couldn't turn back.Nineteen months later, of almost non-stop walking, he arrived in his home village but instead of returning home, remembers thinking 'is that it?', and stayed in India for a further 18 months.On this walk, around Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, Tara is accompanied by his son, Clive, Clive's wife, Jodie, and their two children. Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding walks a section of the West Highland Way, north from Balmaha, with twin sisters Pauline Walker and Fiona Rennie.Pauline and Fiona are both 'ultra runners' and they haven't, before, walked the West Highland Way. However they have run the entire route, non-stop, several times. It's one of their favourite challenges on the ultra-runner calendar; running through the night, dealing with hallucinations, and pushing themselves to the limit is all part of the experience.Clare hears about their adventures, their close and supportive relationship, and Fiona's recent battle with mouth cancer as they slow to an unfamiliar pace to enjoy the beautiful scenery north of Balmaha.Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding walks with the celebrated author and academic, Robert Macfarlane who takes her from his home in Cambridge out onto the Icknield Way. For a man known to love mountains, Robert explains how he's slowly come to love the tame lowlands of Cambridgeshire and how he now relies on climbing trees to give him height and views. While Clare is not tempted to join him at the top of an accommodating beech tree, she's happy to admire the graffiti left on the bark. Walking out in the summer sunshine Robert shares his fascination for the ancient tracks, drove-roads and sea paths that criss-cross the British Countryside. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding goes rambling, near Machynlleth, with the writer and environmentalist, George Monbiot. The theme of this series of Ramblings is 'In Search Of.' and, together, George and Clare are walking in search of wildness.George's new book, 'Feral', is partly a personal story about his attempt to stave off the monochrome nature of modern-day life: "I could not continue just sitting and writing, looking after my daughter and my house, running merely to stay fit, watching the seasons cycling past without ever quite belonging to them. I was, I believed, ecologically bored".In this walk, George explains how he has attempted to 'rewild' his own life and describes what he believes needs to be done in order to reintroduce true wildness to our countryside through the large-scale restoration of ecosystems. He says "researching it felt like stepping through the back of the wardrobe".Using OS Explorer OL23 - Cadair Idris and Llyn Tegid - George takes Clare to his favourite place in mid-Wales, a rare stand of ancient native woodland, which stirs him to his very soul.Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding meets those who have found love and companionship through walking when she joins a group to walk a section of the Greensand Way in Surrey.She speaks to Liz and James who explain how walking side-by-side took the awkwardness out of their first meeting. Liz said she knew James liked her when he started flirting like a teenager over lunch, even though she was wearing her Mum's over-sized waterproof at the time.Margaret explains how walking transformed her retirement and led to a wider range of social activities. She adds, "London can be very lonely when you live on your own".Clare hears how walk-leader Roger met his wife Sue thirty years ago on a walk, and that this history can provide a map of a relationship both literally and metaphorically. Although they walk at a different pace, Sue's keen to point out that Roger never forgets she's on the walk.Producer: Toby Field.

In this new series of Ramblings, Clare Balding will be walking in search of new places, new people and new experiences. In this first programme she joins the Chilterns American Women's Club hiking group, who walk in search of learning more about their new home and meeting other ex-pat spouses. The club offers a range of activities for ex-American and International women who find themselves living in Britain but the walking group is one of the most popular allowing them to discover and explore their adopted home. Later in the series Clare talks to people who walk in search of a new partner, to discover more about the environment and she walks with the celebrated author Robert MacFarlane who walks to discover the old routes. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Michael Weltike tries to persuade Clare Balding of the benefits of barefoot walking on a wintry wander in the West Country.They meet at the church of St Andrew in Compton Bishop, near Weston-super-Mare, and walk from there to Crook Peak. Accompanied by Michael's permanently barefoot companion, Woody, Clare and Michael strip off from the ankles down and revel in the unusual pleasure of walking barefoot.Michael is certain that by 'earthing' himself regularly he maintains a high level of health and well-being.Producer: Karen Gregor.