Somewhere to walk during the Bank Holiday?

[Omega]

Hello, guys,

I would like to go for a walk during the Bank Holiday at the end of August. Preferably something in this style: get out from camping site where I can leave my car, walk 10-12 km, sleep in B&B and come back by another route back to camping site. Sleep in a tent and next day go for a 8-10 km walk nearby. Any suggestions of routes where I could do it close to Wiltshire?

I do not have GPS or topo maps, so well indicated routes are preferable.

Regards,

 

[Tantalus]

where are you Omega and what area would you be interested in ?

Tant

 

[ecoman]

the walks around Ingleton Falls in Yorkshire / Cumbria are beautiful and make for some great day walks, have a look!

big debate now... its near Kendal, wether its in Cumbria or Yorskhire... make it part of your adventure!

 

[Omega]

I am in Swindon, Wiltshire.

 

[jdlenton]

Sounds like the Cotswolds, South Wales, Salisbury plain or the Forest of Dean would be good areas to have a look at and your not too far from the Ridgeway either.

But my two pence worth is where ever you decide to go spend your £8 and get your self a good 1:250000 OS map worth their weight in gold if you ask me, but then I’m a bit of a cartophile never go out and about without one my wife thinks I'm mad but we never get lost .

 

[Ranger Bob]

Thats sound advice on getting an OS explorer map........ didn't know you were a map lunatic as well James!

 

[jdlenton]

oh yeh can't live with out em

 

[outdoorgirl]

Hi Omega,

I'm also near Swindon - I'll dig out my maps and see where could be good for you. As has been said, the Ridgeway and the Cirencester/Cheltenham areas are great, and have plenty of campsites/B&B's to stay at.

My fella and I are also considering what to do for the Bank Holiday weekend, as we don't want to have to drive in holiday traffic! We have a small pooch now though, so wouldn't be looking at the kind of distances you're talking about...

ODG

 

[Omega]

But my two pence worth is where ever you decide to go spend your £8 and get your self a good 1:250000 OS map worth their weight in gold if you ask me, but then I’m a bit of a cartophile never go out and about without one my wife thinks I'm mad but we never get lost .

I agree, good maps are useful. However, they cost money and after you use them once for a walk, they collect dust on shelves Can I get them from somewhere on the web? This winter, I walked several 1-day walks near Swindon using sketches I found on internet, but got lost a few time, even though still managed to find my way using compass (I could easily find north-south in my country looking how moss is growing on trees and number of branches on each side, but in the UK it doesn't work for me. The sky is cloudy here too, so sun orientation is rare). Though I do agree, map would be useful.

Or you might know some well marked walks? Hadrian's Wall is quite well marked, so something similarly well marked would be nice.

Regards,

 

[jdlenton]

You can go to get a map and paste a few of their slides together. You can get 1:25000 and 1:50000 maps from them but it may take you a while to get enough to cover the sort of area your talking about. I've not done it for some time but when I was a student and spent all my money on beer not out door stuff I used to go to the local reference library have a look through their maps and the photocopy the bits I wanted using the excuse that they were for a collage project.

 

[fungy]

Another good site is multimap.com it lets you have a look at the area before you want to buy the relevant map. Here's a product for all you map fiends as well Anquet maps, you can get it from most outdoor shops or booksellers, it's a CD rom, you can either buy the south of england or the north and scotland, bit of an outlay of cash but works out cheaper than the equivelant OS maps. The other cool thing is that you can take a vertual walk along the route you plan to take.