2025 felt like a long year and we’ve definitely been busy, with some walking, lots of work done setting up the new house and garden and some nice trips away as well. As with previous years I’ll start with the review and look later at what’s in store for 2026 with some exciting stuff planned. This year we managed 52 walks, which was a few less than the previous year, but we tailed off a bit in November and December with only 5 walks in those 2 months. We started out however with plenty of Dartmoor visits, completing 27 in total across the year. We walked a lot by the coast, with a section in the middle of the year of 9 coastal walks in a row and 12 in total. Another visit to the Lakes had us out 6 times, plus a trip to Liverpool on the way back home. We had 2 walks in South Hams which has given us a new area to walk in, plus a few visits to National Trust properties, we also again visited South Wales with 4 outings and another brilliant walk with Andy from Surfnslide around Sugar Loaf and Crug Mawr. Altogether a decent mix of walks and its certainly the variety that keeps things interesting.

This site also passed its 10th birthday (review of all of those 10 years can be found here) and not to be outdone I had a birthday with a 0 in it as well. We were in the Lakes at that point enjoying some fantastic September weather.

Best walks

Polzeath to Rock – A brilliant coastal walk starting at the Rock brewery, down to Polzeath, round passing St Enodoc church and back into Rock. Fantastic weather for this one and we ate our lunch at the church wanting to stay there all afternoon.

Sugar Loaf and Crug Mawr – Another walk in South Wales with Andy from Surfnslide, the miles flew by as we walked and a couple of good rest spots out of the wind gave us a chance to refuel. Seem to remember the walk was full of odd moments, champagne being drunk at 10am at the top of Sugar Loaf by two people, descending past a girl walking barefoot in March and a weird shrine on the return.

Holwell bluebells – Another fantastic walk through these stunning blooms

Durdle Door – Had to be on the 2025 best walks for us. Well worth the effort and pushing through the hot weather to get to this place. The walk back along the top path was lovely as well

Lelant to St Ives – Fantastic coastal walk with Linda and the boys, walking the beaches, dunes and coastal path to St Ives and then a train back

The two horseshoe walks have to feature on the best walks of the year, Coledale and Newlands. It is difficult to pick one over the other. Causey Pike was fantastic and we had a fantastic sit on that summit and it was great to get a view off Crag Fell and Grisedale Pike. But the Newlands just pips it, Robinson was brilliant and I could have stayed on the path up from High Snab Bank for days, Dale Head as well where I finally got to see the view down the front.

Warren Point walk – A final coastal walk of the year, near to home on a glorious sunny December day

2026 plans

We have a few things booked in for 2026, a trip to South Wales again in late March and a family trip to the Lakes at the start of August. But our big holiday will be Italy in June (Bologna) including 4 nights in the Dolomites. We can’t wait for that, food, things to see, places to visit, scenery! Regarding the Lakes we will no doubt be climbing some mountains, probably around Langdale/Grasmere area. I’m not doing another Wainwright round but I have done 40 of them twice. Linda has bagged 62 Wainwrights so far, so we will try to add to that, she also has 66 Dartmoor 365 squares to do and 46 tors left to complete those lists.

We will also try to do more coastal walking as well, especially around the remaining sections of the South West Coastal Path that I haven’t done. A quick calculation has me completing 435 miles of it, leaving me around 195 miles to do. These sections are from Minehead to Saunton Sands, South Haven Point to Weymouth and a section from Holywell Bay to Hayle, plus a few bits here and there, so its likely that we will be heading to those areas for the odd night stay over. We’ll be on Dartmoor again for sure plus some more walks in South Hams as these have gone well so far. Happy 2026 to you all, and more importantly, happy walking and stay safe.