I love the British countryside. I think it’s the most beautiful in the world, and it’s right on our doorstep.
A walk in nature is one of the most powerful things we can do for ourselves, and it costs next to nothing. Nothing beats a Sunday afternoon with the family: ancient woodland, a river to follow, maybe a lake, and a proper pub lunch at the end.
But I’ve never been one for the busy routes. I like to explore, and to find the corners of the country most people never see. There’s no shortage of them. England and Wales alone have more than 140,000 miles of public rights of way. Walk ten miles a day and you’d still be going nearly forty years later.
Close to home, finding those quieter paths was easy. Somewhere new, it was a different story. Even the best walking apps are mostly built on routes other people have already walked and posted. That’s fine, until you want something specific.
Say three to four hours, through woodland, along a river if there’s one nearby, with a pub halfway or at the end. To find that, I was on my own: searching for pubs, poring over maps, tracing footpaths, working out where to park. After all that, I still wasn’t sure I’d picked the right spot.
So I built the thing I kept wishing existed.
Tell Your Next Walk the kind of walk you want, and it builds one from real paths, pubs and parking, even in places nobody has ever posted a route.
It isn’t perfect, and by its nature it can’t be. It’s charting paths few people walk, and the countryside changes: a stile goes, a path gets overgrown, a pub closes. When that happens, let us know, and we will put it right.
It’s built for people like me, with a bit of adventure in them, a love of the outdoors and a soft spot for a pub lunch.
I’d say see you out there, but honestly, I hope I don’t. I like my quiet paths quiet. Maybe you’ll find a few secrets of your own.
Josh
Creator of Your Next Walk