When you first start walking, either as a leisure pursuit or as a mode of transport, you’ll likely be doing short strolls. Well it would hardly make sense to go straight off on a 30 mile hike!

However once you’ve been walking for a little while, you’ll notice that your definition of what constitutes a short or a long walk will evolve. Initially you may think 30 minutes is your limit, then it’ll be 40 and soon you’ll think nothing of walking for an hour.

This will broaden your options when walking for pleasure but it will also give you more options when planning transport as well. This will probably (hopefully) make more sense if I use an example.

I live in a suburban area, it does have its own train station but there is a bigger one in the main town centre. This means that some trains will skip my station & run fast to the town one before heading back out to mine. It’s a bit irritating but it only adds 10 minutes to the journey time.

The other day I was travelling on one of these trains. I had a seat but the carriage was busy, hot & noisy. No one was behaving badly but there was a lot of loud chattering.

This is where I finally get to the point, as I decided that instead of staying on the train and watch it zoom past my home station, I’d disembark at the earlier stop and walk the rest of the way – probably about 2 miles. For a lot of people this simply wouldn’t have been an option. They’d have been stuck on the noisy train for half an hour. Whereas I had 10 minutes of noise & then 40 minutes fresh air and sunshine.

In a long-winded way this brings me back to the title of this post. As a walker I was able to take back control of my journey and opt-out of the hustle & bustle. So often our time is dependent on others: whether it’s a train timetable, trespassers on the line or traffic jams, there are a variety of reasons why a journey can take longer than it should. When I’m walking I’m in control of how long I spend travelling.

Perhaps I’m too controlling but there is something wonderfully liberating about not being reliant on anyone else to get me from A to B.

That’s how I stroll.

• The best laid plans…
• Hiding in plain sight
• Holiday Strolls
• Something is better than nothing
• National Walking Month