About This Blog

“I want you to see how you can enjoy the great British countryside when you think you don’t have the time for that sort of thing!”

OK, you’ve retired……or

OK, you’ve taken a day off and the workman’s cancelled….. or

OK, the parcel’s already arrived….. or

OK, you’re just having some me / us time

It’s 9.15 and the school run’s finished; the roads are relatively quiet till 3 o’clock

A country walk would be nice. An hour’s drive, a three hour walk, say 5-7 miles, an hour back

Cobwebs well and truly blown away, and you’ve still got half a day to deal with whatever life is throwing at you

If, like me, your lucky enough to  live in Stockport / South Manchester the range of places you can reach is enormous – Pennine moors, Derbyshire dales, Wirral and Formby coasts, leafy Cheshire, the Clwydian mountains, lakes, reservoirs, rivers, canals and an array of industrial heritage to see along the way

So, buy some Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps, plot your routes, or get ideas from some of mine!

Meet Graham Roberts, the Half-Day Walker

As a child I enjoyed numerous family walking holidays in the Lake District, and days out to places such as Malvern, Dovedale, and Carding Mill Valley / Long Mynd. I was hooked on the outdoors

Two memorable teenage youth hostel holidays back in the Lakes, planned with the OS maps in our front room confirmed my lifelong affinity with walking in our countryside (sealed with that 3 hour session in the Drunken Duck – not sure now how we finished that walk)

I studied at Brierley Hill Grammar School 1968-1975 where I met my life partner, Caroline in 1974 (cradle snatcher, she was 14 at the time)

Caroline and her folks moved to Stockport in 1975, and I gradually followed, moving north permanently in 1979. We have lived in Cheadle Hulme since 1984

I studied and worked for 4 years (75-79) for a degree at Aston University

Married in 1980, two sons followed and the walking bug has passed through the genes. Just like me, they love the maps, the planning, and happily getting out there in the beauty of our countryside

After 25 years working in inner city Manchester, I ended my career in social housing, at Weaver Vale Housing Trust in Northwich (almost on the Sandstone Trail), retiring in 2016. I have been half-day walking every Thursday ever since (well, weather permitting)!