This is why I am walking The Durham Round. To see how my home county looks from every angle. Busy, urban, quiet or desolate.
I was always a self-sufficient child. I didn’t need lots of friends around me all of the time. In fact I spent a lot of my childhood on my own exploring the footpaths around Darlington, my home town, in the North East of England. It was at these times I fantasized about being able to wander where I like and just escaping. This theme has followed throughout my life, I drew inspiration from Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit for what an adventure should be like. I’ve been searching for The Shire ever since. I’ve always wanted to go off, find excitement, and just live.
Fast forward to my mid 20‘s. I found i was spending time commuting between jobs and on train journeys, looking out of the window at the beautiful British countryside flashing by and feeling a yearning to just walk off into it. No worries, no cares, just freedom.
In my mid 30‘s I got involved with the Duke of Edinburgh Award at a school I was working in and completed my Lowland Leader Training from Mountain Training. This gave me the confidence to get out more and trust my navigation skills.
In my late 30‘s I had a personal family tragedy with the death of my father-in-law. I was looking for some way to commemorate and keep his memory and I stumbled across The Durham Round. I don’t quite remember how I found it. I think it was The Walking Englishman or the LDWA website. I know I was searching for long distance walking routes in or around County Durham.
I then found the book by Sue Delany on e-Bay. On Amazon it was going for over £100 (I think it still is) on e-Bay it was £2.98. This was 2019, before COVID, before complications.
I spent months researching the route contacted OPA about doing the walk for charity. I became obsessed with the idea.
Then I stopped.
Its been at the back of my mind. It’s been bothering me that I haven’t really got anywhere with the project.
All I’ve done is buy equipment. More and more gear. Boots, bivvy bags, tools, cook kits, gaiters, and walking poles. Some of this stuff has come in really useful on D of E Expeditions, some when I have been out on the odd night wild camping.
I had one learnable long distance hike from Durham to Consett then on towards Roker along the disused railway lines, but this ended in a soggy mess due to not spotting blister hot spots early enough and also getting absolutely soaked by torrential rain. The bivvy camp was fine, I camped next to a grave yard on a spot of waste land. I pitched a tarp shelter with a support pole and used the British Army bivvy bag. Day 2 the rain came and I didn’t have adequate water proofs to deal with it. Since then I have upgraded boots, waterproofs and hiking poles.
Another long hike I did was to complete the 1st part of the Durham Round from Durham Cathedral to High Haswell. The issue on this was battery power on my phone, it was cold and that definitely sapped my power. Since then I have added 2 Anker 10000mh power banks to the kit.
I feel ready, I’ve got the gear. I need to build up my training and get some experience in. The main thing is just to get more nights in the bivvy between now and Summer 2026. Also refreshing my navigation skills on paper map as well as being tactical with my battery usage for GPS back-ups (but having the power-banks could mitigate that).
Overall I feel I need to get back to that exploratory mind set I had as a child. The thrill of being out there, experiencing, moving, and exploring.
For me.
Photo by Brent Jenkins on Unsplash