Ramblings

John McCarthy is this week's guest presenter, while Clare is away.The theme of this series of Ramblings is listeners' walks .Today's guests are volunteer rangers on the South Downs Way, Anni Townend and Ian Lock. Anni wrote to the programme to suggest we walk with her on a six mile stretch of the Way from Housedean Farm to Southease. This is her 'patch', which - as a ranger - she walks every month carrying out conservation work including scrub clearance and hedge laying, as well as improving public access and surveying wildlife and plantlife.OS Explorer 122 South Downs Way, Steyning to Newhaven 1:25,000Producer: Karen Gregor.

This week's walk is a little unusual. The guest, Cathy Dreyer, wrote to the programme to suggest we join her on a short, local route which she has chosen to walk 365 times.Cathy began her project after reading the first few pages of Robert Macfarlane's book, 'The Old Ways'. She was filled with envy at his freedom to walk in exciting, far flung places. But rather than moan about her domestic responsibilities, Cathy thought she'd respond by doing a very short walk, 365 times over.Cathy says she is using the walk to examine "what's really there" in both the natural world and in her domestic life as a parent which is repetitive and intimate, going over and over the same worn but wonderful ground. Motherhood and work means it's taking longer than a year to complete the project, something Cathy is chronicling in a blog www.walkinginacircle.wordpress.comThe theme of this series of Ramblings is listeners' walks, and this week's presenter is a previous Ramblings' guest: the broadcaster, actor and musician, Toyah Willcox.Producer: Karen Gregor.

This week's Ramblings is presented by the broadcaster and musician, Dougie Vipond, who took over the map and microphone on a beautiful July day when Clare Balding was away.Dougie joined an amazing young girl, ten year old Annabelle Asher, on a stretch of the Coast to Coast walk from Newbiggin on Lune to Kirkby Stephen.With her parents' support, Annabelle spent the first couple of weeks of her summer holidays walking the entire 190 mile route in order to raise money for the Welsh Guards Afghanistan Appeal.Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, was the highest ranking officer to die in Afghanistan. He was a pupil at the boarding school where Annabelle's parents teach, and where Annabelle lives. When Annabelle found out what had happened to Lieutenant Colonel Thorneloe, she was determined to raise money in his memory.Always a keen walker - once turning down a trip to Disney, for the chance to climb Snowdon - Annabelle completed the Cotswold Way last year (for the same charity), and has her sights set on the Pennine Way.Dougie Vipond was a founding member of Deacon Blue. For BBC Scotland he presents the rural affairs TV programme, Landward, The Adventure Show, and Sportscene.Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding is in Durham for today's edition of Radio4's walking series, when she joins Maggie and Keith Bell. They take her on one of their favourite routes from their home, Crook Hall, through the outskirts of the city and along the river. The couple now use walking as a time to catch up, hold business meetings and relive memories of their courtship, when they both arrived in the city over thirty years ago as students.Producer: Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding is in Northumberland to join the walking group from the local women's choir, Wercas Folk. It was formed over eighteen years ago by the well- known folk singer and composer, Sandra Kerr. They set off from the village she lives in and loves very much, Warkworth. Wercas Folk, an unauditioned group, specialise in singing new and traditional folk songs about the area, its people and its history.Many of the original founder members are still in the choir and they explain it's not just the singing that keeps them turning up week after week. The group have developed a collaborative and mutually supportive ethos that has forged strong friendships, resulting in them enjoying social time together even away from the rehearsal room and concert hall. They regularly escape from home and family for weekends away to walk, talk and indulge in the odd glass of wine.As they set off on a circular route around the village they talk to Clare about the role the choir plays in their lives and the joy of singing and walking together.Producer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding walks in Somerset as the guest of The Tuesday Walkers of North Devon. Meeting at the village of Exford on Exmoor, they set out on a six mile circular route, which, like all of the group's walks, begins and ends at a pub. All the members are retired and take their Tuesday hike as an important weekly date in their diaries. While enjoying the scenery, the company and the exercise all have good advice to offer Clare, on how to ensure a fit, healthy, active and happy retirement. Producer: Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding walks on Cannock Chase with Tara Bariana who recalls his extraordinary walk home to India.Tara Bariana was born in Punjab, and at the age of 13 came to the UK with his mother. His father and older brother had arrived four years earlier, in 1958.In 1995 Tara decided he needed an adventure and made the decision to walk from the Midlands - where he'd grown up, married and settled - back to his home village in India.He walked to Southampton where he caught the ferry to Cherbourg. There he realised he didn't speak any French, he couldn't even say 'bonjour'... but, despite being hit by the reality of what he'd decided to do, he couldn't turn back.Nineteen months later, of almost non-stop walking, he arrived in his home village but instead of returning home, remembers thinking 'is that it?', and stayed in India for a further 18 months.On this walk, around Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, Tara is accompanied by his son, Clive, Clive's wife, Jodie, and their two children. Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding walks a section of the West Highland Way, north from Balmaha, with twin sisters Pauline Walker and Fiona Rennie.Pauline and Fiona are both 'ultra runners' and they haven't, before, walked the West Highland Way. However they have run the entire route, non-stop, several times. It's one of their favourite challenges on the ultra-runner calendar; running through the night, dealing with hallucinations, and pushing themselves to the limit is all part of the experience.Clare hears about their adventures, their close and supportive relationship, and Fiona's recent battle with mouth cancer as they slow to an unfamiliar pace to enjoy the beautiful scenery north of Balmaha.Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding walks with the celebrated author and academic, Robert Macfarlane who takes her from his home in Cambridge out onto the Icknield Way. For a man known to love mountains, Robert explains how he's slowly come to love the tame lowlands of Cambridgeshire and how he now relies on climbing trees to give him height and views. While Clare is not tempted to join him at the top of an accommodating beech tree, she's happy to admire the graffiti left on the bark. Walking out in the summer sunshine Robert shares his fascination for the ancient tracks, drove-roads and sea paths that criss-cross the British Countryside. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding goes rambling, near Machynlleth, with the writer and environmentalist, George Monbiot. The theme of this series of Ramblings is 'In Search Of.' and, together, George and Clare are walking in search of wildness.George's new book, 'Feral', is partly a personal story about his attempt to stave off the monochrome nature of modern-day life: "I could not continue just sitting and writing, looking after my daughter and my house, running merely to stay fit, watching the seasons cycling past without ever quite belonging to them. I was, I believed, ecologically bored".In this walk, George explains how he has attempted to 'rewild' his own life and describes what he believes needs to be done in order to reintroduce true wildness to our countryside through the large-scale restoration of ecosystems. He says "researching it felt like stepping through the back of the wardrobe".Using OS Explorer OL23 - Cadair Idris and Llyn Tegid - George takes Clare to his favourite place in mid-Wales, a rare stand of ancient native woodland, which stirs him to his very soul.Producer: Karen Gregor.