Ramblings

A sunny hike, with added party tricks, in the pretty countryside around East Worldham. Led ably by members of Walk Alton, Clare discovers the beauty of this part of east Hampshire.Every episode in this series has been suggested by a Ramblings listener. Helen Dudley and Ian Fleming from Walk Alton wrote to the programme and invited Clare to discover more about this very active organisation and the national scheme to which it belongs, Walkers Are Welcome. For its small size, a population of around twenty thousand, Alton has a disproportionately large number of walking groups and two walking festivals, all run by committed volunteers. Today’s route is around 7 miles long and starts in the village of East Worldham, two miles east of Alton. They follow the map south, along part of the Hangers Way (hangers are very steep, wooded slopes) to Binswood, an ancient area of woodland managed by the Woodland Trust. Next they head to Shortheath Common, an important area of heathland, before looping back via another part of Binswood and returning to East Worldham via King John’s Hill. Joining them en route is Elinor Newman of the South Downs National Park who discusses a rare habitat known as 'quaking bog', and surprises everyone with her uncanny impressions of both nightjars and beetles. Scroll down on the Radio 4 Ramblings webpage to the 'related links' section for more info.Presenter: Clare Balding Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Karen Gregor

Clare walks with a listener known as Caravan, who spent six years living homeless in the Peak District, an area he knows well thanks to his love of outdoor pursuits.This series of Ramblings is being led by its listeners, people who have written to the programme with a story and a walk that they want to share. Caravan (not his real name) emailed to tell us about his experience of prolonged homelessness over thirty years ago. Central to his survival was the Peak District where he found both physical shelter, by way of railway stations, and also a feeling of sanctuary and anonymity during the most difficult years of his life. They recorded this walk just after the intense July heatwave which meant their planned Kinder Scout hike was inaccessible, closed due to the risk of wildfires. Instead they met in the village of Hartington and followed a route through Dovedale. Presenter: Clare Balding Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Karen Gregor

Our listeners are taking over Ramblings and guiding Clare on every walk of this new series. Today’s adventure is led by three women who all qualified as mountain leaders in their 50s. Linda Moran, Angie Jaleel and Bev England explain why they wanted to take their love of the outdoors to a professional level by gaining qualifications later in life. Linda wrote to Ramblings and asked Clare to join them on one of their adventures, so - on a July afternoon, not long after the intense heatwave - they set off on a challenging six-mile hike around Malham in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Starting at Malham Car Park, they walked towards the dramatic, natural amphitheatre that is Malham Cove before ascending the steps that rise alongside it. After a steep climb they arrived at the top and - as they were making their way across the gappy, wobbly limestone pavement - watched a natural drama unfold as crows failed to guard their nest against a persistent and hungry peregrine falcon.From there they rambled east along part of the Dales High Way, taking in Gordale Scar (full of climbers scaling the almost sheer cliffs) before completing the loop via Janet’s Foss waterfall. Grid Ref for Malham Car Park: SD 899 627Presenter: Clare Balding Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Karen Gregor

Mike Nelhams has recently retired as Head Gardener of the beautiful gardens on Tresco but remains very active and involved in island life. He meets Clare off the boat from St Marys and takes her on a tour of the island explaining the appeal of life on one of the most beautiful islands in Britain. They walk through the gardens observing the red squirrels which were introduced ten years ago on the request of Prince Charles who owns the island leasing it to the Dorrien-Smith family. They are responsible for the upkeep of the gardens as well as managing life on the island where there's a thriving tourist industry that sees visitors returning year after year. Tresco has its own micro-climate and is on the Gulf Stream that makes ideal growing conditions for exotic plants from South Africa and New Zealand.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Starting her walk overlooking the harbour outside the Star Castle Hotel once a Civil War fortress Clare hikes around the largest of the Isles of Scilly in the company of Will Wagstaff and Lucy McRobert. Will came to the island in 1985 and began giving walking tours which he has done ever since pointing out the variety of flora and fauna encouraged by the mild climate. Lucy McRobert came to St Marys three years ago with her keen birdwatching husband and infant daughter. Lucy is now just as keen a birder and like every islander has different roles including taking care of stranded seal pups each winter. As they take in the diverse landscapes of this small island they discuss the appeal of life there.Producer: Maggie Ayre

Today’s walk starts at Happy Valley in the Mourne Mountains about thirty minutes inland from the coast of County Down. Clare is walking with Kelly Hargie who, for very personal reasons, launched Wild Women Events as a way of encouraging female walkers to explore the countryside of Northern Ireland. Kelly has long understood that escaping into the wild helped her greatly with postnatal depression and recovery from injury and she wanted to share this discovery with like-minded women. From Happy Valley they head steeply up towards the 7th highest peak in the Mournes, Slieve Meelmore, partly alongside the Shimna River. This is the second of two back-to-back hikes in the Mournes, recorded on the same day. The first walk was broadcast last week and began – in great contrast to today’s route – at Bloody Bridge.Grid Ref for their starting point: SB 379 857Presenter: Clare Balding Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Karen Gregor

In the first of two back-to-back hikes in the Mourne Mountains Clare walks from Bloody Bridge near Newcastle, on the coast of County Down, up into the hills. Led by Alex Rose of the Northern Ireland Young Walkers, they begin at a stone sculpture which – from a certain angle – look like a human face in profile. This is the Smuggler’s Head which helps to tell the story of the ‘Brandy Pad’ a local smuggler’s route. It’s a history-rich Ramblings which continues by following the Bloody Bridge River, so called because bodies thrown into the water, following a massacre during the 1641 rebellion, turned it blood red. Soon they’re climbing steeply up to one of the Mourne summits, Chimney Rock, partly following an old quarry-rail track used to bring granite down to sea-level. The Northern Ireland Young Walkers were formed in 2005 as a way of getting more youthful hikers out and about. It’s such a successful club that people don’t like to leave, so the age range has widened as the members have aged.The second Mournes ramble – recorded on the same day - will be broadcast next in the series. It starts at a place whose name couldn’t be more of a contrast: Happy Valley. Grid Ref for Bloody Bridge Car Park: SB472822Presenter: Clare Balding Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Karen Gregor

Having grown up in Cornwall Jane Johnson has a deep love of the landscape of the south west. She and her husband Abdel take Clare on a coastal walk along steep rocky footpaths that offer breathtaking views of the Cornish coastline around the Lizard to Lands End. It's a favourite walk for the couple who often see dolphins, whales and basking sharks along the way. They tell Clare the story of their extraordinary meeting in the foothills of the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco and how a near death experience for Jane while climbing led to a love affair with a Berber restaurant owner who tried to rescue her. Seventeen years on the couple live mainly in Cornwall but try to divide their time between there and Morocco. Jane is a writer and publisher while Abdel is now developing his artwork.Producer: Maggie Ayre

In the first of a new series, Clare is in Derry-Londonderry to meet the celebrated children’s author and artist, Oliver Jeffers. As part of a free nationwide arts project called Unboxed, he’s created a 10 kilometre sculpture trail, designed as a scale model of the solar system. It starts at Bay Road Park and runs alongside the River Foyle. The trail, ‘Our Place in Space’, is there until 22 May 2022 before moving to Belfast, Cambridge, and the North Down Coastal Path.Oliver says he’s a ‘pretty serious rambler’: he walked everywhere when he lived in New York City, and once led three-day hikes in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.Explaining his inspiration for the project, he says: “If we could look back at Earth from the vastness of the solar system, what would we feel? Wouldn’t squabbles look stupid from Saturn? Wouldn’t violence seem senseless from Venus? Forget about ‘Us’ and ‘Them’, from the perspective of Pluto, it’s just US!”Oliver Jeffers collaborated with the Nerve Centre and Professor Stephen Smartt of Queen’s University Belfast to design the trail which has its own free interactive App to download.Grid Ref for their starting point: NV 611 818Presenter: Clare Balding Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Karen Gregor

Colleen Thirkell and her husband Richard have been walking stretches of the Saxon Shore Way with their friends Bev and John. In autumn 2020 Colleen fell seriously ill with a rare reaction to a flu jab. She was unable to walk and spent months in hospital. But she has slowly recovered and part of her rehabilitation has been to get out walking with her friends again. They invited Clare to walk one of the final stages of the 168 mile route they have been walking together when time has allowed. The ramble takes them from the village of Hamstreet to Appledore on the edge or Romney Marsh. Along the way they talk about their love of walking together as a group and how Colleen's recovery was aided by the thought of being outdoors with friends and family again.Producer: Maggie Ayre