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To plan, or not to plan

To plan, or not to plan

Is it better to prepare meticulously for an adventure, or just set off and enjoy whatever unfolds?

A grey bike with red and black panniers leans on a white beach hut surrounded by grass.

Ride to the sea

Why, at the end of a long day in half term, did we find ourselves cycling into a brutal headwind on the south coast?

The free parking square on a Monopoly board with the racing car playing piece sitting on it.

Free car parking is a joke

Our bizarre obsession with parking for free makes great comedy. What’s not so funny is the way it benefits the wealthy at the expense of poorer people and the environment.

The curved, wave-like metal roof of the Riverside Museum in Glasgow

Water, power and pedals

A stopover in Glasgow and a bike ride beyond the city reveal how climate change and slavery flow through our family history.

Two walkers and a Golden Retriever dog head away from the camera on the stony Cam Fell track

Over Cam Fell

Walking through a parched yellow springtime, we left the River Wharfe's dry bed and crossed the high point of the Dales Way.

A roadside sign nailed to a telegraph pole with the words 'FRUIT.VEG' points to the left.

Rethinking food

Reading the horror story of ultra-processed food has changed how I eat on walks and bike rides.

A black and grey gravel bike propped against a dirty white-rendered wall.

Sciatica, cycling and me

An injury taught me some tough lessons about myself and what it means to be well.

A grey and grubby concrete cycling and walking bridge spirals over a motorway and enters a green woodland.

Small acts of change

As an introvert, I'm not inclined to activism but I've come to find satisfaction in taking practical steps towards a better future for walking and cycling.

An adult, child and dog walk down a misty canal towpath in the gathering gloom of midwinter.

Out of darkness cometh light

As winter’s grip loosens, I've come to recognise it as a time of renewal and exploration.

A child in a blue and white top rides a bike along a cycle path next to a traffic jam.

Stop driving to the gym

Going about our daily lives actively is far better for us than the lifestyle the leisure industry is pushing.

Three figures walk down a hilltop ridgeline with low cloud stretching to the horizon.

Above Silurian clouds

A week of high atmospheric pressure saw us happily marooned on hilltops, cut adrift in splendid Paleozoic isolation.

Three bikes – one grey, one red and black, and one bright yellow, lean against the porch of a white house with a red door.

Our year without a car

Freed from owning an expensive lump of metal that spends most of its time doing nothing, we’ve saved ourselves money and hassle.

A Golden Retriever dog sits on a huge sandy beach under a cloudy blue sky, with industrial chimneys beyond.

Walking the sands of Sker

Leaving busy Rest Bay behind, I walked on sand that stretched towards a dragon breathing its last.

A grey bike leans against a concrete wall covered in multi-coloured graffiti, beyond which lies a narrow stone trail.

The last ride of summer

Late summer bike rides are tinged with urgent sadness; each one might be the last before wet weather sets in.

Camping wild and free on Dartmoor

Camping wild and free on Dartmoor

Exercising our fragile, threatened right to sleep under the stars, we hike high on to the moor before pitching our tent in the fading light.

A child in an orange coat walks along a path by a waterfall, tall trees on either side.

Walking the Simmenfälle

The whitewater channel carrying the river Simme from the mountains is not what it seems.

A narrow stone path weaves along a cloudy mountain ridge with green grass and trees on either side.

Patience and the panorama

We awoke to see low cloud shrouding the mountain. There was nothing to do but sit and wait, refreshing the summit webcam and the weather app.

Viewed from a cable car, a white and black train snakes up a steep track in a lush green Swiss valley.

The slow way to Switzerland

An unhurried journey by train and on foot stretched time and filled our summer with stories.

A large stuck of golden straw bales stands in a recently harvested field against a pale blue sky.

The impossibility of seasons

This wet summer has me remembering dry days gone by, the sort of days when the sun evaporates the very idea of winter.

A notice in yellow chalk on a square brown stone reads "The Dales Way is this way (left) not that way (right)".

Into the Dales

Walking upstream along the River Wharfe in the footsteps of Iron Age settlers and an 18th century murderer.

Revelation by Angela Connor, a mechanical sculpture reminiscent of a seed pod made in silver and gold metal

Walking the sculptor’s landscape

A stroll around Canwood Gallery reveals the power of art and nature.

A child in a green coat rides a red sledge down a snowy hill, watched by a Golden Retriever dog.

The first and last of the winter snow

With the late snowfall came a morning of childhood joy, and a chance to use our crazy coracle sledge.

Silhouetted against the sunset, an adult and a child on a bench and a dog sitting next to them.

Hot chocolate on the hill

Following in Celtic footsteps, we welcome spring with our own family ritual.

In grey light, distant figures walk on a large swathe of sandy beach covered in water, industrial chimneys in the distance.

Cynffig: life in the sand

A walk through towering dunes takes us into a story of nature, people and a sand-drowned town.

A black and white view of a flooded landscape dotted with trees, a range of hills in the background.

Riding through a drowned world

As the flood waters peaked again, I set off to ride through a landscape turned largely to liquid – everything seemed to be covered in either water or mud. The monsoon months between July and December had been the wettest on record for the UK as Storms Babet, Ciarán, Debi, Elin,