Geography lesson

12th August 2025

Hiking is one of my great pleasures in life. I haven’t yet nailed any appealing routes in Barbados, and the tropical climate means that early morning or late afternoon starts are essential – but I’m working on it. Our stint in temperate Blighty over recent months has encouraged me to fill my boots (groan 🥾🥾) when I’ve had the chance, and the weather has been amazing, so that’s inspired me further. The day after our history lesson I decided to yomp from our front door back up to Dyrham and then home via a circular route – a bit of a stretch (it turned out to be 15 miles) but a grand day out.

The day’s walk mostly followed two of Britain’s long distance routes: the Monarchs Way heading out, and the Cotswolds Way heading home. I have a soft spot for the former because it runs right down our lane and I am a volunteer warden of a three mile stretch nearby. It traces the route taken by Charles ll after defeat at the Battle of Worcester in the English Civil War, eventually taking him to the Channel and a decade’s exile in France – but not before famously hiding in an ancient oak tree to evade the pursuing Parliamentary forces. Well, that’s the legend. What’s beyond doubt is that Charles was the first of the five monarchs served by William Blathwayt of Dyrham, so that’s a neat overlap between local history and local geography.

I’m straying a bit off the Barbados track here (whilst still on the Monarchs Way!) but stay with me, as I simply have to tell you about an extraordinary guy I met early on my day out. I could tell he was a serious hiker as I saw him approach:

We fell easily into conversation. His name is Chris Stanbury. He decided to mark his 70th birthday by raising funds for his chosen charity through walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats…AND BACK. He’s been on the road since April, wild camping all the way, carrying all his gear – though he confided that he might stay in a hotel that night as he hadn’t had a shower for a week! He reckoned he was only two weeks away from the end, by when he will have walked nearly 2,500 miles. Well, I was amazed. I’m ten years his junior but can’t imagine I’d be brave enough to do it. Pollards Mill is pushing my boundaries quite far enough! Google him (‘Pink Hat Man’) and you will unearth an unconventional approach to life, selling his home and possessions a few years ago to embrace life on an electrically powered narrowboat and cruise Great Britain’s canal network – presumably when he’s not walking the length of the entire island twice. I was reminded of a phrase Nicola came across at the beginning of our own adventure, which we have embraced:

’To live a life that most people don’t, you have to do the things that most people won’t’. Bravo, Chris – you are an inspiration. 👏👏👏

Coda: it’s fitting that on the Monarchs Way I spotted a Royal Mail letterbox featuring our current king’s cypher, leaning at a jaunty angle:

HM is the first Charles to sit on the English throne since his 17th century predecessor who inspired the route’s creation – and whom Blathwayt served. What a tangled web we weave…