The Conclusions of 2015

The Festive season passes and so does 2015, slipping into history, and with a New Year underway, it's a good moment to look back to the last walking season, already further away in the past than the next one is in the future, and the best news to report is that everyone made to 2016. There had been significant doubt that My Dad had many more days left in him during the darkest days of October but now, six weeks on from his discharge, He's giving every impression of being able to be around for quite a while yet, and thus we are still a complete family as I look forwards to the coming year, but before we go on, the question has to be asked; What did we learn in 2015?

2,000 miles and a C2C in 2016,
 this has been a good year!

The main point learned in the year is the most obvious one, Application will get You Everywhere. As my enthusiasm for walking hadn't taken a hit on the completion of my 1,000 miles odyssey, it was really easy to apply myself to the targets that I set for 2015, dividing the year neatly into two halves and making tracks around Wakefield district and the North-East Leeds hinterland. The trails to both North and Irish Sea coasts fell together surprisingly easily, and the Wakefield Way proved to be neither over-long or under-interesting, whilst the railway walks and canal trails found their way into the schedule comfortably, and tracks were made across Leeds, admittedly not many but enough to count it as a success. Most triumphantly though, has to be the attainment and surpassing (and then some) of 500 miles total on the year, something that should have been managed at least once in my first three years, but easily passed once you determine that you are going to keep going for as long as your will and body endure, or until the weather finally gives up on you. So 612.2 miles achieved in 2015, a total I'd never have expected to get close to until the miles just kept falling away and my legs regularly carried me on treks of over 15 miles at a time, but even so, that's a total I would not expect to make again, as the effort required is not something I will be willing to invest again. This was done with nearly every available day used for walking, and the kindness of the weather and the resilience of my body are unlikely to be so good to me in coming seasons, so until I retire that will remain my personal best for a while, but it is a good one isn't it, all done whilst holding down a full time job, and covering a distance that is two-thirds the length of Great Britain, one to look to beat when I retire, eh? Mix in 2,014.4 miles walked before my 41st birthday, a mere waymarker on the longer road to 5,000, and the walking career starts to take on a stranger aspect as I have equivalently walked myself out of Europe, that's further than any route from Morley towards Gibraltar or the Toe of Italy, and even surpasses the 1,989 miles to would take to get to Istanbul; only a trail into Russia would leave me with 300+ more miles before I made my way into Asia.



Kellingley Colliery,
Not Long for This World.

Tadcaster Bridge,
Not Long for This World, either!

Second point is slightly more nebulous, but walking is helped me see that the World keeps on Changing, whether we like it or not. We all like to believe that our environments are permanent, or at least change subtly with the shifting tides of geography and history, but this year has demonstrated just how much they can move in a short time. This year I took in the former coal fields of Wakefield district and made a close pass of Kellingley colliery, mere months before its closure, thus ending Deep Mining in Britain after an endurance of over 300 years, an industry that once operated 1,334 pits and produced over 200 million tonnes of coal per annum, employing over 700,000 men for almost 70 years, has now passed completely into history. I have also walked by rivers, seeing the force of the Wharfe at Wetherby and Boston Spa, and passed over the ancient bridge at Tadcaster, whilst I have also taken in the rural serenity of the flatlands around Selby, only to see the end of Year storms bring massive flooding on the Aire, Wharfe and Calder, with the Tadcsater bridge collapsing in the swell, a sobering reminder that we are not really masters of the natural realm, and our grip on it, even in the most placid of locales can be tenuous at best. I have also returned to my hometown, to see how development has continued to change the shape of the eastern side of the city, growing a massive estate at Hamilton (which I still can't actually comprehend exists at all), and sweeping away the college campus at Scraptoft to replace it with upscale dwellings, and I start to feel like an old man who remembers when it was all fields around here. Factor in familiar buildings disappearing from your horizon, and unfamiliar ones arriving upon it, whilst also trying to navigate your ways around with maps that you purchased in 2003, and are thus the better part of 15 years out of date, where new roads have dropped into the countryside, and new industries have replaced old ones and the impermanence of this world becomes ever more apparent, and thus we must embrace change as it comes, because the tides of history and nature will move on without us otherwise.

With My Parents for Christmas 2015,
Being Able to share this picture with you means the World to Me.

Finally, the last lesson learned for 2015 has to be Make the Most of Your Time here, because it is Brief and Finite, brought into very close relief in the closing months of the year, and now thankfully receding into the background once again. The real achievement on the year has to be still having My Dad with us as we enter 2016, and that has nothing to do with me, as his resolve and fortitude have aided his recovery, with Providence doing its share along the way. The late weeks of October were a dark time for him and all our family, fearful that his brain injury might end his life or render him physically incapable, but his period in rehab, and the apparent lack of need for surgery made us feel a lot more hopeful as November came around. Since he discharged home, he has come on in leaps and bounds, he's physically able to get around the house without the aid of his walker, his clarity and focus have improved and he's physically able to do most of the everyday tasks that we all take for granted. His Physio and Rehab Nurse have been thrilled with his progress, a marked success among all the Stroke patients they have treated. Of course his troubles aren't all passed of course, he fatigues rapidly even when he has slept well, and his eyesight is still bad, afflicted by double vision, and he's not yet that mobile out of the house, but he can travel in the car without difficulty, and has about an hour of social stamina in him, so he's going to be fine for the moment. Hopefully this is going to continue, he's now been formally discharged from home care and his life is looking to settle back to some kind of normal once again, My Parents are still hopeful that they can make their trip to Malta in February, and my holiday plans for 2016 look like they will go forwards as planned last year. So the lesson for me, is Just Keep Going, you never know when your time might be up, so there's every reason to keep walking whilst the legs and lungs are still strong, or to stop when the social itch needs scratching, the possibilities of life are still available to seize them now, there's still two more years worth of paths in West Yorkshire that haven't been walked and there's no reason why another 1,000 miles shouldn't go down in the next pair of walking seasons. On to 2016!

Next Up: So, Where to Next?