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Unusual destinations: Asuncion, Paraguay.
Asuncion is the laid-back capital of Paraguay. It is friendly and easy to navigate and a great place to see ornate but crumbling early 20th century architecture that hints at a prosperous past. I’ll do another post to showcase the street art on display on the decaying facades (one person’s graffiti is another’s art..). Here…
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Explore 7: Middlesbrough Town Hall
I’m back up north next weekend to walk more of the Cleveland Way and I’ll be staying in Middlesbrough. This reminded me that I did a mini-explore of Middlesbrough last September and I took some photographs. It was really hot. It’s always really hot when I walk the Cleveland Way. Here’s hoping for nice weather…
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Explore 6: Bluebells and Beacons
Out in the Chilterns this time and looking for bluebells in the woods. This explore starts at Tring where I walk beyond Tring Station towards picture-box perfect Aldbury. It’s the type of place you expect an Agatha Christie to be set. On the way I spotted these fellas across the field. We watched each other…
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Explore 5: Mill Race
From your Northern Correspondent: a dispatch from Co. Durham The Lanchester Valley Railway Walk runs from Consett to Broompark in Co. Durham and follows the route of a former railway that used to carry iron ore to Consett Steelworks and coal from Langley Park and other collieries. Opened to passenger traffic in 1862 it was…
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Explore 4: Confluence
It took me a while to notice that Bicester lacks a major river. Of course it didn’t help that for the first few years I lived here, the mighty River Bure was culverted and canalised in a concrete ditch for much of its journey through Bicester town centre. It is not an imposing water course…
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Explore 3: Cattle Trough
London is a lot hillier than you might think and a good place to get some up- and down-hill miles in. I plotted a circular walk from Marylebone to Hampstead Heath, taking in some sites along the way. Sometimes I am led by unusual places of interest highlighted by Google Maps (the Chinnor Limekiln for…
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Explore 2: Chinnor Limekiln
I’d already decided I was going to walk from Princes Risborough to Chinnor but spotting the Chinnor Limekiln on Google Maps turned a mere walk into an explore. The weird thing was that the limekiln seemed to be in the middle of a housing estate and that I really did need to check out. I…
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Explore 1: The Bicester Triangle
I wanted to walk the same route as a person could 110 years ago, but to stand where it was impossible for them to stand. Which is how I found myself in the Bicester Triangle. Let me explain. If I were 1914 me, following the OS map (on paper not an app), I would find…
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Is Bicester boring?
Is Bicester boring? There was an article in the Guardian some years back that described Bicester as ‘a humdrum town on the less-lovely side of Oxfordshire’. In some ways I think this is unfair…. but it’s also not exactly incorrect.