Sunday 15^th February 2015  (Day 7, week 6)

Hello,

I hope you’ve all had some glorious sunshine today too!

This is walking day 26.  There have been 25 other walking days before this one – I may eventually get them all on-line.  Thanks for reading.

Julie

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Target – 1000 miles in one year.  Weekly goal – 20 miles

Total achieved so far – 127.9 miles (target 120)

Achieved this week – 20.3 miles

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Long Rock to Marazion via Marazion Marshes and return (4.2 miles)

What a glorious day, my oh my, plenty of sunshine and spring is in the air – I’m convinced.

Today we had a stroll from the car park at Long Rock, along the cycle path beside the railway track to the outskirts of Marazion and crossed the road to enter Marazion Marshes, where we had a wander about before heading on in to Marazion for a cup of tea.

The bright sun reflecting off the calm waters of Mounts Bay was in our eyes as we set off along the busy track. The neglected and derelict land, with half built or abandoned buildings on our left was a sharp contrast to the stunning views of the beach ahead and the bay on our right. We approached the Marshes stopping for a squint at the reed beds to see what was around and spying several rabbits, a couple of swans and an egret immediately.

Marazion Marshes is an RSPB maintained sight, contains Cornwall’s largest reedbed and hosts hundreds of species of plant, animals, insects and birds. Next to the protected marsh we can climb a low stile and enter the site, tramping over wet ground towards the lake and following grassy tracks between the reed beds. Along the way we catch sight of a small brown bird flitting through the trees, a reed warbler we think, although a look at the internet later reveals that Cetti’s warblers have been seen here only yesterday.

(Photos courtesy of Mr RR – you will come to know that I am always forgetting my camera!)

Leaving the marshland we walked on along the road into Marazion traversing the length of the village before finding an open café where we had tea and excellent cinnamon toast.

We return along the same route, the sun still shining. While we’ve been away a small flock of oyster catchers have come to pick over the grass for worms and two large geese have landed at the edge of the water – difficult to identify, we first of all think they are Barnacle Geese, but another search of the internet reveals that these are probably hybrid geese.

Well hello!

This blog is the story of my walking.  Let me tell you about it and why I’m rambling on here.

At the end of last year I had surgery on my shoulder, following which I was pretty inactive for 6 weeks or so.  Then one day early in the new year, my physio said that the best thing I could do now was to walk.  Walking gets your arms moving (it also distracts you from the nagging pain!).  The very next day my Country Walking magazine plopped through the letter box announcing the 2015 ‘walk 1000 miles in a year’ challenge.  For some reason, I instantly announced to Mr RicketyRambler that I was going to do this – walk 1000 miles in the next year.  ‘Ha!’ he replied. ‘That’s about 20 miles a week, every week’.  ‘Ha ha’ said I.  ‘I will!’  And so it began.

After the first walk, I decided I had to keep some sort of record otherwise a) I would be tempted to overguestimate the miles walked (a bit like calories but the other way round) and b) no-one would ever believe I’d done it!  So I wrote a diary of the walk and sent it to Mr RR and our offspring, Ms RR and the Messrs RR and also to my lovely friend Ms B.  All were enthusiastic and have been very encouraging, so – to make it easier to access, I’ve decided to make the diaries into a blog – and here it is!

Why ricketyrambler?  Well, first, it’s really difficult to find a blog title that someone hasn’t already got and second, when I looked up ‘rickety’ the meaning was so right: ‘aged’ ‘imperfect’ and ‘dilapidated’ is exactly me!

Anyway…..feel free to read (or not) and comment.  Also – please remember that these posts are just my ramblings, they are what I remember of each walk, what stuck in my mind, what interested me.  In no way should they be used to plan your own walking – if you want to walk one of these walks – do it safely – get a map, wear the right gear, watch the weather and then have fun!

Thanks for reading.

Julie