Podcast Edition 007 - Show Notes

listen to ‘Edition 007 - Tanya Oliver's Ashdown Walk, National Park Week, Flying over the Peaks and Christopher Somerville’ on Audioboo

Edition 7 of the Walks Around Britain podcast features a walk around Ashdown Forest in Sussex with Tanya Oliver and a look at National Parks Week. Andrew takes a flight over the Dark Peak reservoirs with Central Helicopters and walking writer Christopher Somerville tell us about his latest walks and his new book.

Ashdown Forest

Ashdown Forest - photo (c) Ashdown Forest

The walk through Ashdown Forest gives us a great taste of the rich walking available in the county of Sussex.

The Forest was originally a deer hunting forest in Norman times, Ashdown Forest is now the largest free public access space in the South East. It is a great place for walking and enjoying spectacular views over the Sussex countryside and is known the world over as the 'home' of Winnie-the-Pooh.

To find out more, visit the Ashdown Forest website here, and Visit Sussex has more information about walking in the county.  You can find Tanya Oliver's blog here and also follow her on Twitter.


National Park Week

This year's National Parks Week is a celebration of our beautiful winning landscapes which have inspired mountaineers, sailors, cyclists, runners and Olympic athletes to aim higher and train harder - sometimes to record-breaking effect.  And there's many events to interest both children and adults across the 15 National Parks in Britain.

To find out more information, visit the National Parks portal here.

Central Helicopters

Andrew took a flight with the team from Central Helicopters from Owler Bar just outside Sheffield, over the moors of the Dark Peaks to the 3 reservoirs of Ladybower, Derwent and Howden.


The footage Andrew shot will be including in several walking videos we're making about walks around the Dark Peak area of the Peak District.

The shot on the left is from our forthcoming walking video around part of the Ladybower Reservoir with Andrew's dog Merlin - which will be exclusively available on the Bob Martin website and Facebook page.

To find out more about Central Helicopters' range of pleasure flights, visit their website.


Christopher Somerville

Christopher is one of Britain's most prolific walking writers, with a weekly column in The Times newspaper and a collection of over 40 walking and travel books to his name.

August sees another book added to that tally - "Walks in the Country Near London" features 25 walks within 1 hours train ride from the centre of London.

It is available from Amazon here.

Podcast Edition 006 - Show Notes

listen to ‘Edition 006 - Tanya Oliver's Sussex, Stuart Jessup's England Walk, Merino and Kate Humble’ on Audioboo

Edition 6 of the Walks Around Britain podcast features an introduction to the county of Sussex from writer & blogger Tanya Oliver and an interesting insight into the background and aims of Stuart Jessup's epic 2,600 mile walk around the edge of England.  Merino experts Chocolate Fish Merino join us to explain the benefits of non-synthetic clothing and presenter Kate Humble tells us about her passion for walking and the great outdoors.

Tayna Oliver's Sussex

Writer and blogger Tanya is a big advocate of going walking in Sussex, and in her introduction on the podcast to hiking in the county she certainly makes a great case.  In the August edition of the podcast, she'll take us on a walk in Ashdown Forest.

Tanya's blog is here and she's on Twitter too if you'd like to follow her.  Don't forget there's the Visit Sussex website with more information about the county.


Walking on the Edge

Stuart Jessup's epic 2,600 mile walk around the edge of England started at Tower Bridge in London on the 9th October 2011 and finished back there on the 10th June 2012.

As of 30th June 2012, he has raised a mammoth £11,723 for the charities SANE and Anxiety UK to support their work with mental health sufferers.

Stuart tells us a great insight into the background and aims of the walk in his audio blog on this months podcast - and if you want to find out more about this challenge, you can visit his website at http://www.walkingontheedge.org.uk/ and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/englandwalk


Chocolate Fish Merino

You can find out about the benefits of Chocolate Fish's Super Fine Merino at their website http://www.chocolatefishmerino.co.uk/

If you want to check out our Beginners' Guide to Walking, it's on our website here.


Kate Humble

Kate Humble - photo (c) BBC

Following her success in series in Springwatch and Lambing Live, Kate's new series, Volcano Live, starts on the 9th July on BBC Two and is broadcast over four days from the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island.

The programme will connect viewers with this active terrain as it transforms the life and landscape around it.  As Kate embarks on a journey of discovery, geologist Professor Iain Stewart provides context and insight and together they guide viewers through the science of volcanology.  Below is a taster from episode one...

You can find out more about Kate's farm and the course she mentioned on the podcast at the Humble by Nature website - and there's more about Kate herself at her own website here.


Well, that's another podcast completed - it was so full up this month we didn't get space to say "bye"!  Hope you've enjoyed it.  If you've got any comments and suggestions, please let us know - either leave a comment here on the blog, or post on our Facebook page.