Ramblings
BBC Radio 4
Clare Balding and guests share inspiring conversations while walking in the great outdoors.Fresh air and nature, wonderful views and uplifting chat, each week Clare hikes in a different part of our glorious countryside. Walking side by side is the perfect way to cover a huge range of subjects: literature, art, wildlife, nature, taking on personal or physical challenges, dealing with grief, confronting preconceptions about the kind of people who love to ramble. The conversations are as varied as the landscapes we find ourselves in. If there's a recurring theme, it's the accepted truth that 'solvitur ambulando' - 'it is solved through walking': The sense of wellness, the benefits to mental health, easy companionship, or sometimes just the sense of solitude that being alone in nature brings.Few things are better than going for a good walk. That's what we aim to share each week on Ramblings with Clare Balding.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 30, 2015 • 24min
Edge Hill
Clare Balding revisits the English Civil War by walking round Edge hill in the company of a group of fathers who've been walking together for twenty years.
Jun 30, 2015 • 25min
The Red Ramblers in Dorset
Clare Balding joins The Red Ramblers, members of the local Labour party, who instead of being downhearted after the general election result, are glad to be striding out across the beautiful Dorset countryside, after months of trudging on pavements delivering leaflets.
They walk from Symondsbury, near Dorchester, regaling Clare with their campaigning exploits as well as their plans for the future. They explain that walking together creates a bond for when the political going gets tough.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
Jun 11, 2015 • 25min
The Malvern Hills
Clare Balding joins Team Zulu, a group of walkers, led by Tarquin Shaw- Young, who prepare for long distance charity walks by training on the majestic Malvern hills. Tarquin became obsessed by the 1964 epic war film, depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift, as a small child and now uses Zulu as the motif for bringing friends and family together to embark, each year, on completing the Worcestershire Way. As Clare marches across the hills with the group she talks to Tarquin's wife, Kelly about what it means to be married to a man who turned up at their wedding in a pith helmet.Producer Lucy Lunt.
Jun 4, 2015 • 24min
Lyke Wake Walk
Clare Balding undertakes a section of the Lyke Wake Walk on the North York Moors. The route was originally devised sixty years ago by a local farmer who issued a challenge in the Dalesman magazine. He thought it might be possible to cross 40 miles of the Moors from near Osmotherley to Ravenscar in 24 hours, crossing only one or two roads. A club was formed following the first successful crossing, and with a blackly humorous nod to the pain and suffering endured by walkers, a tradition grew of reciting an ancient song known as the Lyke-Wake Dirge which tells of the soul's journey from earth to purgatory. The route was named after this dirge. Clare is joined by veterans and newcomers to the walk, who are known - depending on the number of crossings they've made - as Dirgers, Witches, Doctors of Dolefulness, Masters of Misery or, the most senior of all, Past Masters or Mistresses.Producer: Karen Gregor.
May 28, 2015 • 25min
Old Birds, Pegsdon Hills
Clare Balding walks in the Pegsdon Hills, Bedfordshire, with a group of female birders who call themselves the 'Old Birds'. The group initially bonded over their mutual love of nature, but also have many members who have been widowed, so find the gatherings a source of support as well as a way of exploring the local countryside.Producer: Karen Gregor.
May 21, 2015 • 24min
Royal Greenwich Park
In the first of a new series of Ramblings, Clare Balding meets a group of parents who regularly share uplifting walks in Royal Greenwich Park. The walkers each have children with special needs and find that rambling in one of London's most beautiful parks is both joyful and supportive.Producer: Karen Gregor.
Mar 26, 2015 • 24min
Derbyshire - Family Walk
Clare Balding travels to Derbyshire this week to ramble with a group of families who gather once a month for a long walk and a pub lunch. Paul Cotton, along with his wife and children, meet with up to seventeen other families - neighbours, colleagues and friends - in any weather, all year round, to share their mutual love of the outdoors.Producer: Karen Gregor.
Mar 19, 2015 • 24min
Nordic Walking in Bramcote Park, Nottingham
Clare Balding takes a lesson in Nordic Walking as she joins national coach, Catherine Hughes, in one of her classes in Bramcote Park in Nottingham. Some of those who regularly attend, are a group of mothers with their daughters, all of whom have learning difficulties. Nordic walking has proved to be an ideal activity for them all to enjoy. The poles give confidence to those who find walking difficult, the fresh air is beneficial to all and the chance for mothers and daughters to be able to exercise together has made the group very popular.
Producer Lucy Lunt.
Mar 12, 2015 • 24min
Hertfordshire - Bell-Ringers
The theme of this series of Ramblings is 'bonding' and this week Clare walks with a group who bond, not just through walking, but through their shared passion for bell-ringing. Twice a year, Janet Betham and a fellow Janet organise what have become known as "Janets' Jaunts", where a number of bell-ringers gather together for a ramble between two churches. They ring bells at the start of the walk, stop for a pub-lunch mid-way, and ring again at their destination bell-tower. Join Clare Balding for one of her most unusual Ramblings to date.Producer: Karen Gregor.
Mar 9, 2015 • 25min
Philip Marsden, Truro, Cornwall
Clare Balding walks with the writer Philip Marsden from his home near the banks of the River Fal out to the Cornish coastal path. Clare and Philip discuss why we react so strongly to certain places and why layers of stories and meaning build up around particular features in the landscape.
Producer: Lucy Lunt.
