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<title>The Latest News and Articles from Car Free Walks</title>
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<description><![CDATA[The latest news & articles from Car Free Walks. We provide free walks - free of cars and free of charge. All our walks can be reached using public transport - bus and train, coach and ferry. You can search for a walk or add your own to the website.]]></description>
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<pubDate>Thu, 17 May 2012 06:00:02 +0100</pubDate>
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<title>Car Free in the Cairngorms</title>
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<pubDate>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Our trip to Scotland had by necessity been fluid in the planning. As always, we'd purchased our train tickets as far in advance as possible to benefit from the cheapest available fares. But with various distractions of the 'day job' and a house move to prepare, we left the finer details to just a few nights before. Ideas for a couple of nights out in a bothy were soon put aside with sight of the weather forecast, whilst talk of heading over to the Torridon area were scuppered by an absence of available accommodation and the winter closure of the always enjoyable Torridon Inn. Short of public transport options northwards from Inverness, and reluctant to spend too much time or money on travelling...]]></description>
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<title>Unguided walking</title>
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<pubDate>Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ It’s odd setting off for a walk without knowing where you are going. We had maps, and the risk of getting lost in Somerset is small (and not particularly worrying), but it was still a new experience to get off the train and think: “Which way?”
This was partly our own indecisive fault. Gary and I had been asked to write a leaflet of walks for South Somerset Council. Our mandate was simple; start and finish from stations along the Heart of Wessex line. Sounds easy, but the challenge was to make them interesting; could we find the hidden corners, the great pubs, and enough points of local interest to encourage others to follow our footsteps? OK, not exactly a burden to rival solving the Euro...]]></description>
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<title>A night on the fells</title>
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<pubDate>Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There’s a simple trick to enjoying the Lake District’s busier routes – start at lunchtime. The hordes not only all head for the same few hills, but all set off at the same time. At 9am, the start of many popular routes resembles rush hour on the London Underground as people jostle for space to pull on boots, stuff rucksacks and browse maps.

Skeggles Water
The Kentmere Horseshoe is one such walk. Kentmere village, the usual starting point of the Horseshoe, is only accessible by public transport on Sundays and bank holidays, when the Kentmere Ramblers winds up the valley. Being a weekday, we decided instead to start at Staveley and extend the trip to a two-day effort, with a wild camp high...]]></description>
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<title>Window gazing</title>
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<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jun 2011 06:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Two foxes; a brace of pheasants; one green woodpecker and one grey heron; 300 seagulls; two jays; a family of rabbits. What reads like a recipe for some gluttonous medieval feast is actually the wildlife I glimpsed on a recent train journey from Brighton to Bristol.
Window gazing is a simple pleasure for the regular train traveller. It’s a reward for taking the (sometimes) slower option; not something that appeals to most car drivers, who consider speed the only relevant aspect of a journey, and the wildlife spotted is generally of the pancaked variety. But for train lovers* like me it’s the perfect embodiment of that travel writer cliché: the journey is part of the fun.
The train trundled...]]></description>
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<title>London's waterways</title>
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<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Think ‘canals’ and Amsterdam or Venice come to mind. But London’s vibrant waterways are just as impressive; overlooked only because there is so much else crammed into the capital. A day wandering the banks gives you a glimpse into their industrial past and a chance to share in the recreational present.
The Grand Union Canal, one of the city's key waterways, weaves through the east of the city. A friend suggested this walk to me many years ago, so on a sunny spring day I took the train to St Pancras, sitting halfway along its course. It’s a fine start to any car-free walk; now fully restored to impress those arriving on the Eurostar, there is no finer station in the capital. It is a magnificent...]]></description>
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<title>The night train</title>
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<pubDate>Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Some people might think it unwise to plan a trip to the hills more than two days in advance, let alone two months. But being southern in address, frugal by nature and a non-driver by choice, there is little I can do but throw caution to the wind and commit to the uncertainties of the Scottish weather and plan my adventures early. So on the last day of the stag stalking season, two friends and I from the deepest corners of England’s home counties converged at London Euston to catch the evening sleeper train heading north.
For anyone not familiar with the sleeper, it is nothing if not enjoyable. We lounged in leather sofas while being served cold beer and poring over maps of far-flung lands (in...]]></description>
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<title>Looping around London</title>
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<pubDate>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Walking boots, check. Scarf and woolly hat, check. Oyster card, check. Swipe card for work ... I'll leave that one behind today. It feels odd donning waterproofs on a weekday morning, but the occasional midweek day off is one advantage of working shifts. I decided to take advantage of the (admittedly weak) autumn sunshine to try out a car-free walk in London, ideal with its extensive public transport network.
A friend recommended the Pymmes Brook Trail but it was just a little too urban for me (and goes right past my house) so we decided to brave the world beyond zone three and devise my own walk, taking in part of the London Loop. As a nearby urban walk, it was also a good opportunity to test...]]></description>
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<title>What's on the rocks?</title>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Four miles of road walking. Doesn't sound a great day out, but I'm not the only one trudging the tarmac along the Arisaig coast road. At each small bay and cove, people with cameras and binoculars peer expectantly out to sea. And with good reason … this is one of the UK's otter hotspots.
The sun is shining – particularly fiercely for a Scottish May – and the sea lochs are shimmering, bright against the peaty brown headlands and islands. It's a particularly fine stretch of coast, even set within the fierce competition of the west coast. And the tourists are flocking to this corner of the country – business in Mallaig has apparently boomed since the West Highland Railway started promoting...]]></description>
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<title>Getting away from them all</title>
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<pubDate>Sat, 01 May 2010 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ I go walking to get away from other people. Not completely – a cheery ‘hello’ is always welcome, as is a good walking partner (i.e. one who doesn’t talk too much) – but, like many walkers, I want to avoid the crowds. I want to ‘get away from it all’, ‘head off the beaten track’ and other such clichés.
The problem is that walking is too damn popular these days. Everyone’s at it – old, young, fat, thin, Duke of Edinburgh groups, Ramblers, people trying to get fit, groups raising money for some charity or another – and the great outdoors is taking on the characteristics of our busy day-to-day lives; noise, hustle, and even more bustle. I have seen walkers searching for a...]]></description>
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<title>A Scottish winter wonderland</title>
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<pubDate>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ During the winter months in Scotland, the weather can change hourly and only a fool would pre-empt the forecast more than a day in advance. However, on this occasion, good luck was the reward for some advanced planning and the three of us were provided with some of the best mountain days ever experienced. Our adventure took place over three days, journeying where our curiosity, heavy packs and the avalanche warnings would allow.
Starting from Corrour Station, we passed the shores of Loch Treig to the valley of Allt na Lairige and an overnight stay in the bothy at the foot of Stob Coire ne Ceannaine. A sharp frost left us languishing in our bunks a little later than planned, but we did at least...]]></description>
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