The Rules of Bimbling

Some people will bang on endlessly about the right way to go walking, the right boots, the right maps and so on. These are not for them.

Herewith are the rules, refined over many miles of bimbling, quite a few of the with Keith, who also wrote most of them. Even if he doesn’t remember it. The Rules mainly refer to multi-day bimbles where you can loose track of time, forget the day-job and the “real world”, forget politicians and sundry nincompoops.

The Rules:-

1) You will set off at 10. It doesn’t matter how hard you try for an early start, it’ll be 10 before you set off. Don’t sweat it.

2) All members of the party are responsible for navigation, and are encouraged, nay obliged to raise without prejudice, any doubts about said navigation. It’s a lot easier to spend five minutes checking the map, than many hours trying to reclocate, having misplaced ones selves.

3) Lunch shall never be taken at less than 50% of the day’s distance, and preferably a lot more, say 70%. Lunch is pretty miserable if you are sitting there with you sarnie thinking “I’ve got all that to do again this afternoon”. Taking your boots off at lunch is allowed. It is good. It works. (Tested thoroughly on the Pennine Way)

4) After an ascent, don’t slow down on on the flat bits. It’s tempting to take a breather, but it is time you’ll never make up. You can’t make time up on ascents, it can be downright dangerous to try and make up time on descents, so time lost on the flat is triple time lost. You’ll get your breath back even while bimbling quickly along the flat. Trust me.

5) Beer is an essential aid to recovery in the evening.

6) Don’t forget to enjoy the bimble.

Now go and do it.