Best Walks in the UK (imho)

I used to be one of those whiney walkers (to the annoyance of my friends and Tamás, my partner), I found walking underwhelming and unsatisfying. But, something just clicked a couple of years ago and I got super into it. Okay, the thing that clicked was Tamás insisting that walking is good for your mind and body - and he's right. It turns out there are an abundance of reasons why walking is good for you. In this blog post, I'm going to start with highlighting some of the benefits of walking, before going into the best walks in the UK (in my humble opinion).

1. Benefits Of Walking:

Okay, so here are some of the basic benefits of walking:

• good for balancing the mind: I read somewhere once that if you're stuck on a problem you should take a walk, the movement and the changing scenery occupy the frontal cortex, giving the subconscious time to work out your problem. So, by the time you get home, the problem is solved (okay maybe depends on the problem a bit, but you get the idea);
• it's really good for the body: we all know that our bodies need exercise to thrive, but take it from someone who used to be super into heavy martial arts - some types of exercising f*ck our bodies up in the long-term. Walking is gentle and the benefits are numerous.
• it's a nice activity to do with a friend + it's also free too! Sharing a walk with a loved one is such a wholesome experience - note that that includes walking on your own - be your own best friend xx
• it reconnects the body with the mind + and the soul.. doing something that's good for your body and your mind is a surefire way to get your body making the nice chemicals that make us feel good.

There are lots of other benefits of getting into the habit of walking, but where are the best places to walk?

(i really hope y'all know I'm waving those imperialist flags in an ironic way)

2. Best Walks in the UK (In My Humble Opinion)

Best coastal walks UK

In my opinion, the best coastal walks in the UK are any of the ones you can do in Brighton and Hove, unofficially the gay capital of the UK with one of the largest LGBT communities. After a nice afternoon evening out in the sea air, I highly recommend checking out Loving Hut for tofu and chips and then grabbing a drink (or three) at Velvet Jacks :D

Don't forget the industrial wasteland of coastal Liverpool, also a bourgeoning LGBTQIA+ scene!

Short walks in the Cotswolds

Take a short walk almost anywhere in the Cotswolds and after a while you will, no doubt, stumble upon a farm. Take a look inside - if you're not allowed in, ask why. If you are allowed in, and you don't like what you see, please quit eating meat, dairy and eggs. I grew up around the Cotswolds and I hear a lot from family, friends and old teachers that they 'source their meat locally' from 'ethical farmers'. But a) this is classist. If some people can afford to eat 'fairer' meat then they are not exempt from contributing to a system that also provides for people that cannot eat 'fairer' meat. And b) there's no such thing really as 'fairer' meat. Sure, they're allowed out more often (read: they're allowed out, period), but they are still impregnated against their wishes, they still have no freedom of movement, they still have their babies stolen from them, and they still struggle for life as they are murdered.

Woodland Walks Near London

According to the UK Parliament around 500 people in England were executed for witchcraft. But, like, that's according to the UK parliament.. can you trust them with anything? Let's just say at least 500 people were murdered. Woodlands have always been an important part in witchlore, and as medieval witch-hunts still have an affect on women's rights to this day, go to the woods and pay your respects to women everywhere.

The Forest of Dean, probs one of the best ancient places in the UK to do witchy stuff (for our video, see below)

Walks in Wales

Take a walk around Builth, Powys, Wales - this is where Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd died (in 1282) which effectively ended Welsh self-rule and brought in centuries of English oppression. Here at Travelling Weasels we do not believe in splitting pieces of land up into 'countries' because it creates inequality both inside and out. However, we equally do not believe in England absorbing Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into itself, calling itself the 'United' Kingdom whilst simultaneously exploiting and bastardising these unique nations. Long story short, #workersoftheworldunite

When we jetted off to Australia from my home country of England we were extremely excited to see kangaroos and koalas. Especially in the wild. We enjoyed seeing them in the wildlife parks, but it was ten times better seeing them in the wild, we kind of felt privileged/ proud of ourselves. Anyway, back in England there have been lots of highlights - seeing my family, seeing our friends, having the same accent as most people (for me) but there has been an unexpected, and very welcome surprise highlight:

The British Wildlife

Today we went for a walk up Bredon Hill which is in Worcestershire, England. We had a great picnic and then WE SAW A WEASEL! It was very exciting, as we obviously love weasels and have never ever seen a wild one. It was skipping along the path towards us and once it saw us it skipped off into the hedge. It was so cute and small. As it was very quick and exciting, we unfortunately don't have a picture for you, but I do have a picture of a different weasel: 

We also saw a doe too. I'm not sure why all of these animals were out on a Monday during the day - don't they have jobs?! What other wildlife have we seen in Britain? Well we did see a rat in Cheshire, it was a nice brown country rat though, not like the vile, root of all evil, black, smelly, disease ridden ones we used to see in Birmingham all the time, they are literally cat sized! But much more excitingly we saw BADGERS when we were house sitting in the Forest of Dean:

The home owners put out peanuts and peanut butter sandwiches for the badgers, so we continued with this and at around 21.30 we were rewarded with seeing the badger! The owners have a conveniently located security light which goes off when there is movement around the house (badger or burglar) hence we got an amazing view. Later on, she was joined by a different badger:

They're friends. They were also joined by a fox, who ran away every time the burglar/ badger light went off. However, the next night she was used to it and stuck around to be photographed!

I love foxes, this website should be called a weasel and a fox really... So if you are in England and are keen to see foxes/ badgers it can be quite hard, as they like to be out at night when you can't see them. Badgers are less fazed by lights though. My point is that England does have some great wildlife too, which can be just as exciting to see in the wild as kangaroos/koalas are :)

3. Wrap Up: Best Walks in the UK (In My Humble Opinion)

This is the longest I've ever been out of the UK (thanks 'rona) and so it was such a pleasure for me to take a walk (pun intended) down memory lane and write up some of my favourite walks. Thank you for reading it and if you have any walks to add let me know :) Also, here is a vlog about when we were in the ancient Forest of Dean:

P.S.: If you're interested in a way of travelling and getting accommodation cheaply, you might wanna check out housesitting. Trustedhousesitters.com was kind enough to provide us and our readers with a 10% discount, feel free to click on the link to use it :)

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ABOUTME

We overland. We eat plants and fungi. We live outside as much as possible. We are all connected. A female travel blogger overlanding and writing about ecotourism, ethical and sustainable travel, socially conscious travel and housesitting. An online travel magazine since 2015.