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| Wrapping the 2022 season (prematurely) at Dodworth railway station. |
The ten-plus weeks that have elapsed since a Covid infection knee-capped my walking year already feel like a bit of a miniature lifetime as we sit down to reflect on the passage of Season 11 of my on-going career of travelling on foot, feeling about as detached from regular walking activity as I ever have, while feeling hopeful that we might be able to power on again into 2023 after we've asked the variation of that question of ourselves that comes with the turn of every December, What Have We Learned in 2022? Most significantly, before Covid put me on the canvas and ended my year in a technical knockout, We could consider the 2022 season as my best yet, as we got out to a strong start and just kept on going, with the energy levels and enthusiasm remaining high as new routes stretched out to the south-east and into the lower Dearne and middle Don valleys, expanding my field of walking experience in quite the most pleasing of ways after expressing doubts about the viability of its continued expansion only 12 months prior. It had been planned out as a moderately level year after my stretches around the hills and valleys of Kirklees, Calderdale and Airedale over the last few years, but the modest undulations of South Yorkshire gave me plenty to get busy with as we racked up the miles, aided by shedding only two weekends and one holiday week across the entire year from the walkable schedule, while also maximizing use of both of the bonus bank holidays we got thanks to the Jubilee and Funeral of HMQE2, pushing my distance traveled beyond the 600 miles and 1,000km markers. Indeed, as of our last weekend, we had four trips to still plausibly drop into the 2022 schedule, which could have put another 40+ miles onto the season, giving us a final total for the year in excess of 670 miles that I honest could have regarded as absolutely the best that I could do in my nine-month window, which now looks like it might be impossible to replicate as I regard the pace that would have to maintained to get that close again, which I don't think could be done while I still work for a living, continue to age, and face the vicissitudes of the climate of West Yorkshire, which is a good reason to curse my Covid infection just that bit more.
