Ramblings

Clare Balding is in Durham for today's edition of Radio4's walking series, when she joins Maggie and Keith Bell. They take her on one of their favourite routes from their home, Crook Hall, through the outskirts of the city and along the river. The couple now use walking as a time to catch up, hold business meetings and relive memories of their courtship, when they both arrived in the city over thi...

Clare Balding is in Northumberland to join the walking group from the local women's choir, Wercas Folk. It was formed over eighteen years ago by the well- known folk singer and composer, Sandra Kerr. They set off from the village she lives in and loves very much, Warkworth. Wercas Folk, an unauditioned group, specialise in singing new and traditional folk songs about the area, its people and its h...

Clare Balding walks in Somerset as the guest of The Tuesday Walkers of North Devon. Meeting at the village of Exford on Exmoor, they set out on a six mile circular route, which, like all of the group's walks, begins and ends at a pub. All the members are retired and take their Tuesday hike as an important weekly date in their diaries. While enjoying the scenery, the company and the exercise all ha...

Clare Balding walks on Cannock Chase with Tara Bariana who recalls his extraordinary walk home to India. Tara Bariana was born in Punjab, and at the age of 13 came to the UK with his mother. His father and older brother had arrived four years earlier, in 1958. In 1995 Tara decided he needed an adventure and made the decision to walk from the Midlands - where he'd grown up, married and settled - ba...

Clare Balding walks a section of the West Highland Way, north from Balmaha, with twin sisters Pauline Walker and Fiona Rennie. Pauline and Fiona are both 'ultra runners' and they haven't, before, walked the West Highland Way. However they have run the entire route, non-stop, several times. It's one of their favourite challenges on the ultra-runner calendar; running through the night, dealing with...

Clare Balding walks with the celebrated author and academic, Robert Macfarlane who takes her from his home in Cambridge out onto the Icknield Way. For a man known to love mountains, Robert explains how he's slowly come to love the tame lowlands of Cambridgeshire and how he now relies on climbing trees to give him height and views. While Clare is not tempted to join him at the top of an accommodati...

Clare Balding goes rambling, near Machynlleth, with the writer and environmentalist, George Monbiot. The theme of this series of Ramblings is 'In Search Of.' and, together, George and Clare are walking in search of wildness. George's new book, 'Feral', is partly a personal story about his attempt to stave off the monochrome nature of modern-day life: "I could not continue just sitting and writing,...

Clare Balding meets those who have found love and companionship through walking when she joins a group to walk a section of the Greensand Way in Surrey. She speaks to Liz and James who explain how walking side-by-side took the awkwardness out of their first meeting. Liz said she knew James liked her when he started flirting like a teenager over lunch, even though she was wearing her Mum's over-siz...

In this new series of Ramblings, Clare Balding will be walking in search of new places, new people and new experiences. In this first programme she joins the Chilterns American Women's Club hiking group, who walk in search of learning more about their new home and meeting other ex-pat spouses. The club offers a range of activities for ex-American and International women who find themselves living...

Michael Weltike tries to persuade Clare Balding of the benefits of barefoot walking on a wintry wander in the West Country. They meet at the church of St Andrew in Compton Bishop, near Weston-super-Mare, and walk from there to Crook Peak. Accompanied by Michael's permanently barefoot companion, Woody, Clare and Michael strip off from the ankles down and revel in the unusual pleasure of walking bar...

David Sedaris, the American author and comedian, takes Clare Balding on a litter-picking walk in West Sussex. When David Sedaris was a child he would clear up around the house, and keep his own bedroom perfectly tidy. This obsession has, in recent years, been transferred to the outdoors and Sedaris is now a devoted daily litter-picker, cleaning the roadside verges of Pulborough and the surrounding...

Actress and singer, Toyah Willcox, takes Clare Balding for a walk in rural Worcestershire. The theme for this series of Ramblings is 'self-improvement' and for Toyah - who has always had problems with her joints, including a recent hip replacement - walking is the perfect exercise. She says it helps her keep her weight down and remain active. Clare met Toyah at Croome Landscape Park, a National Tr...

Clare Balding explores the beautiful Longdendale Trail in Derbyshire, joining long -term friends, Tracey Standring and Christine Valentine. They explain the vital role walking has played in their lives, cementing their friendship and keeping them sane and healthy. They've been walking together for over a year now and they explore new places each week. Neither are keen or particularly competent map...

Clare Balding is walking for self improvement in this series of Ramblings and today she hopes to find a new inner calm with the help of Dr Kate Kirkwood. Kate attempts to lead Clare on a path of spiritual renewal by teaching her to walk silently. Silence is not a state that comes naturally to Clare but as she and Kate walk where the mood takes them, in the Herefordshire countryside just outside Ha...

Clare Balding is walking for self improvement in this new series of Ramblings; in six weeks time she hopes to be smarter, fitter, calmer and cleverer. In this first programme she joins a walking book group in North London, who find wandering on Hampstead Heath much more conducive to discussing literature than sitting round a coffee table. The walking book group is the brainchild of Emily Rhodes fr...

Clare Balding walks with naturalist, author & TV presenter, Steve Backshall. Together they stroll along his favourite stretch of the Thames from Bourne End to Boulter's Lock in Buckinghamshire. Steve is best known for presenting CBBC's 'Deadly 60', and has recently started writing children's fiction - his first book is 'Tiger Wars', about a group of renegade children who become involved with t...

Clare Balding walks with Simon Evans and his family along a tributary of the Usk, in the shadow of the Sugar Loaf. Simon is a passionate fisherman and river conservationist who works for the Wye and Usk Foundation. Simon's wife Hazel and their two children - Freya and Arlo - also joined in... Freya contributing musical accompaniment (Peter Rabbit had a fly upon his nose...) and Arlo narrowly avoid...

Clare Balding walks with the actor, and passionate bird-watcher, Samuel West around one of his favourite birding spots, the RSPB reserve at Rainham Marshes in Essex. Currently in rehearsals for a West End production of Uncle Vanya, Samuel West takes a day off to share with Clare Balding his deep love of birding. He's drawn to birdlife because, he says, it reflects human-nature so well, "birds inte...

Clare Balding continues her series of wildlife walks with a visit to the Irish Coast. Today it's "Ramblings reunited", as she is joined again by Irish naturalist and broadcaster Eanna Ni Lamhna and her husband John Harding. Clare Balding last walked with her on a 'holiday hike' in the Wicklow mountains in September 2002. Today expert naturalist and broadcaster Eanna, takes her on a beautiful tour...

Environmentalist and well-known broadcaster Eanna Ni Lamhna takes Clare into the fabulous walking country of the Wicklow Mountains. She's a mine of information on many subjects and keeps Clare entertained as they climb - to be rewarded by a view of the lakes of Glendalough.

In this series Clare Balding is going on wildlife walks around the UK. Today Clare meets taxidermists and life long friends Dave Astley, Mike Gadd and James Dickinson. They follow Mike's daily route along the river Wharfe in West Yorkshire to observe the rich variety of local animals, insects and birds. Taxidermists might not be the first people who spring to mind when you think about wildlife-lov...

In this series of Ramblings Clare Balding is going on wildlife walks around the UK. Today she is in Richmond Park in London with internationally renowned sculptor and artist Nicola Hicks M.B.E. Nicola's work focuses on animals sculpted in straw and clay and drawn on huge sheets of paper. Dynamic and distinctive, it has gained wide critical and public acclaim. Her statues of a dog in Battersea Park...

Clare Balding is walking with dogs (and their owners) throughout this series of Ramblings. Prog 6 - Whitley Bay with Barry Stone In this week's programme Clare Balding meets author Barry Stone, his partner Paul and their dog, Bonzo the black Lab. Barry's childhood was coloured by the secret of his father's homosexuality and alcoholism; both parents had been traumatised by their experiences during...

Clare Balding is walking with dogs (and their owners) throughout this series of Ramblings. Prog 5: Pen Farthing on Dartmoor Pen Farthing is a former Royal Marine; while serving in Afghanistan he rescued an Afghan fighting dog which he named NowZad after the village where his unit was based. He brought NowZad back to the UK (which in itself required military-style planning) and when he left the Mar...

Clare Balding is walking with dogs (and their owners) throughout this series of Ramblings. Prog 4: Larkhall, South Lanarkshire. This week Clare Balding travels to Larkhall in South Lanarkshire to meet Scott Cunningham. A veteran of some of Britain's long-distance walks (including the West Highland Way, the Pennine Way and the Southern Upland Way) as well as the bagger of multiple Munroes, he never...