Guided Group Walking Holidays with Walkabout Walking.

April 2009.

Guided group walking holidays are the ideal way to experience and enjoy what William Wordsworth describes with the words "I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er hill and dale". This expresses perfectly what it is to walk alone in the hills. For those with the confidence, experience and competence it's wonderful to walk where you will, at your own pace, alone with your thoughts - only the hills, the sky, the wind and the sound of the ravens and distant sheep for company.

For most of us however rather than being alone the experience of walking in the hills or the countryside is an activity best shared with a group of friends and with the company and guidance of an expert leader - at least until you become an expert yourself and develop a taste for solitude.

Our guided group walking holidays are an enjoyable sociable activity, bringing people together before, during and after the walk. The group shares the experience of the walk then relaxes together in pub, café or hotel, enjoying a sense of well being and reward from a walk (job!) well done. It's a bonding experience; meaningful friendships formed through sharing meaningful experiences and by sharing a common purpose and achieving a common goal.

Of course it's safer and can therefore be more relaxing to walk with a guided group. All our guided group walking holidays are led by suitably experienced and qualified leaders who have been externally trained and assessed as competent walking leaders. Walkabout Walking Holidays has its own guide/leader induction process by which it shares and agrees with leaders the necessity of the highest standards of safety and customer care in the delivery of its walking holidays. Our leaders know the walks and the hills very well and are also knowledgeable about the human and physical environment of the areas where they operate. Their job is to lead you on a walk which is ideal for your level of fitness and to be a font of information not only about the area but also about fitness and equipment and the latest in clothing.

Of course it is most important that the people sharing a group walking holiday are reasonably compatible with one another. We think it helps if people are of more or less the same generation, of similar fitness and sharing similar expectations of their holiday. People may come from different backgrounds and may have some different interests outside walking but that adds interest to the holiday.

Walkabout takes the following steps to ensure that we have compatible groups:

1. You are invited to choose a guided group walking holiday from those allocated to your age group. We have two age groups:
• 27yrs old to 49 yrs old
• 50yr old +
2. You then identify your fitness level guided by the information on our website. You will be either:

• Easy: Your idea of a reasonable walk one that takes about 3hours and is approx 7miles in distance with not much uphill walking involved. You may well be a beginner to walking in the hills and countryside as a form of active recreation
• Moderate: You've got some experience are reasonably fit and happy to walk for about 4 hours covering about 12miles with some steady climbing
• Hard: You're experienced, fit able to keep going for more than 5hours with strenuous climbing involved and are ambitious to do challenging walks.

So you join a group which is of similar age to yourself and of a similar level of fitness. We find these groups are comfortable walking together and get on well socially

In our experience people on our walking holidays have a great time and after the holiday want to keep in touch with friends they've made and also want to do more walking; indeed they often make walking holidays a regular part of their lives. The vast majority of people we work with become regular customers and come on different holidays trying out walks in different seasons and at different locations.

We intend to set up networks of people who have been on one of the guided group walking holiday and who live in the same areas. We intend to develop walkabout walking clubs on a local or district basis.

Our website sets out our ideas on "walkabout walking clubs".

We will organise groups of people who have been on our walking holidays to form local clubs by putting people who live in the same area in contact with one another and by facilitating regular meetings at a convenient venue and also a regular programme of walks in the local area. The aim is that in time these local clubs will provide a focus for walkabout people who share our philosophy and see regular walking as an important contributor to an active physical and social lifestyle.

Walking in the hills as a pastime first developed between the mid 19th and mid 20th century when any number of walking, rambling climbing clubs were formed. Such clubs always started with one enthusiastic individual with some knowledge and experience taking groups of friends out and forming a nucleus which eventually became a club. They provided the inspiration the energy to get things going, suggested the venue the route and took the responsibility of leadership on the hill.

That was the first half of the twentieth century we are now in the first half of the 21st century and life is more complicated. However there is a far wider recognition of the need for regular physical activity to ensure personal health and well being than previously. There is recognition that walking is an ideal form of physical activity so more people want to get out walking. It's less easy to walk in the urban fringes than it used to be and the spirit of the times provides less fertile ground for home made self help clubs, especially where insurance is concerned in an increasingly litigious society. Hence the growth of commercial organisations that provide organised walking holidays.

Walkabout Walking Holidays was set up by and is part of Mountain Ventures Ltd which dates back to circa 1970. Walkabout Walking Guided Group walking holidays provides the inspiration and the core, the nucleus to bring people together to form walking groups on our holidays. Walkabout Walking Holidays ambition is that these groups become locally based walking clubs active on a regular basis and contributing to an improved quality of life within the community.

Jim Lyon
Mountain Ventures Ltd t/a walkabout walking holidays
April 2009