River Itchen - Hampshire

Ramblings

BBC

Science, Nature, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

Clare explores the banks of the River Itchen in Hampshire with Andrew Simkins who has just completed walking around the coast and borders of England. It’s taken him eight years, and it’s been an extraordinary journey in more ways than one. His beloved daughter, Alice, died age 28 in 2016 and he discovered that devoting himself to the process of walking helped him deal with the grief; it gave him a feeling of solace and a sense of connection with her. When people asked him if he was walking alone, he would reply 'I’m often in the best of company’.

This isn’t a sad episode of Ramblings, though, it’s very much about the positive impact of walking even in the most awful circumstances, and Andrew is a cheery companion.

The route Andrew is sharing with Clare isn’t part of the coast OR borders, but he explains that he chose to divert away from the coast at this point as the Itchen Way appealed to him so much.

Presenter: Clare Balding Producer: Karen Gregor

Transcript

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0:00.0	Eleven climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2.
0:06.0	It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history.
0:10.0	Rock falls, avalanches.
0:11.0	Huge pieces of ice. All are big enough to kill you.
0:14.0	He just flew out into Devoid and he was gone.
0:17.0	How did it all go so wrong?
0:19.0	And is it really worth risking death to feel alive? Why would
0:23.2	somebody pay to go to a place called the death cell on a vacation? Extreme, peak danger. With me,
0:29.9	Natalia Melman Petrazella. Listen to the full series now. First on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:41.2	I've been looking up facts on autumn leaves.
0:45.3	Obviously, the leaves start to get less sunlight,
0:47.7	and so the chlorophyll goes down, it breaks down and goes down to the roots,
0:51.9	and then the green disappears, and the other colours are revealed.
0:56.3	So they're kind of always there.
0:57.9	It's just you don't see them for the rest of the year until now,
1:01.5	which is, I feel very ignorant that I didn't actually know that before.
1:05.5	Andrew, you probably knew that.
1:06.7	Did you know that?
1:09.0	Shall I say yes?
1:13.1	Andrew Simpkins is my walking guide today.
1:16.7	And this route that we're going on is a particular favourite of yours?
1:20.2	Yes, because it's connected, as hopefully we'll explore later,
	...

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