Walks
I'm not a really fit walker but I rediscovered the delight of exploring the countryside with walks up to 16 miles along the South West Coast Path or on Dartmoor and Exmoor.
Walks
I have loved to pore over maps and plan circular walks across the moors, often involving crossing empty tracts to link from one path to another. Only once did I need to navigate by compass when fog descended and I was so thrilled that the chimneys of a pub appeared below my feet.
It's not how you start: it's how you finish
Created in 2019
In 1973 I was one of a team of publishing designers working in London on a large book of country walks. The book included a section on long distance footpaths, or trails as they are now called. The Pennine Way had been fully opened in 1965 but I only found out about it through working on the book. My imagination was captured and I planned to take three weeks holiday that September to walk the 270 miles from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yeholm just in Scotland. I was 25 but not particularly fit... © Copyright Peter Wrigley 2019
Walk from Lundy Cove
Created in 2016
South West Coast Path walk in Cornwall: Lundy Bay NT Car Park to Kellan Head and return. I had walked this section of the coast path before as part of a longer walk from Polzeath to Port Isaac. On that occasion I had been thwarted from exploring the beach at Lundy Cove by the high tide. Low cloud had drifted in from the south west, bringing rain and veiling the landscape. This time I had planned my walk around an exploration of the beach and it depended on the state of the tide. Clear weather would be a bonus. © Copyright Peter Wrigley 2016
Bodigga Cliff to Portwrinkle, Cornwall
Created in 2015
Bodigga Cliff, east of Millandreath, to Portwrinkle, Cornwall. This walk was defined by the eastern limit of a previous walk from Polperro and the western end of a walk from Cremyll to the top of the hill above Portwrinkle. The coast walk itself was broken up by a detour around a cliff fall and by a bus ride. The cliff fall near the Monkey Sanctuary above Keverall Beach has resulted in the closure of 1¼ miles of the South West Coast Path, most of the detour being along a road. Boring! ... © Copyright Peter Wrigley 2015
Clovelly Cross to Abbotsham
Created in 2015
If this section of the South West Coast Path were a person, I would apologise for misjudging them.... I clambered down the shifting stones onto one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen... © Copyright Peter Wrigley 2015
Pennine Way 1973
Created in 2015
...The voice had made me jump. Having survived terrible diarrhoea, I was nursing a queasy stomach and wobbly knees on the bank of the River Tees... © Copyright Peter Wrigley 2015
Ayrmer Cove, South Devon
Created in 2014
The sunshine and blue sky that I had left behind at home turned to blankets of cloud and then fine drizzle. In the lea of Dartmoor heavy rain fell and cast doubt over my plans to walk a new stretch of the South Devon coast from Ayrmer Cove. I considered abandoning the idea and driving all the way up to the north coast to escape the rain, but I carried on anyway. At Ugborough the rain stopped and the sky gradually paled to a soft grey... © Copyright Peter Wrigley 2014