Anne-Marie Wilson
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Anne-Marie’s Jersey Coastal Path Adventure
Those of you who have read my blogs for the last couple of years will know that I am a big fan of staying dry and being warm. Having completed the West Highland Way in 2023 (where it is safe to say I got a bit wet) and the Cotswold Way in 2024, I was absolutely delighted to be invited to go even further south in 2025 to walk the Jersey Coastal Path. In late 2024 we introduced the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey to our walking holiday portfolio so I jumped at the chance to go to the bigger of the two islands to experience what our customers experience and to meet some of our wonderful accommodation hosts and transport providers along the way. Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands, it sits in the Bay of St Malo, located off the North-Western coast of France. It is 14 miles (23 km) from France and 85 miles (137km) from mainland Britain. The population of Jersey is approximately 105,000 people. My Mother in Law, Joan was joining me again this year so we drove from Keswick to Manchester Airport in the pouring rain, content in the knowledge that…
Anne-Marie’s Cotswold Way Adventure
Any of you that are regular readers of our Mickledore blogs will know that last year on my familiarisation trip, my friend Sarah and I got rather wet on the West Highland Way. So, this year, I requested to head south in the hope of getting some warmer, dryer weather on the Cotswold Way. Incredibly, when I asked Sarah if she would join me again, she said yes and she headed back to the UK from her home in Uganda, Africa. I started my adventure by driving to Bath, leaving my car there so I could pick it up at the end of the walk and catching a train back North to Chipping Campden. As usual it was raining at home but once I passed Lancaster on the M6 the sunglasses came out of the glovebox and I felt my shoulders relax and my walking legs begin to warm up with anticipation. Sarah started her journey at the other end of the country in Guildford, Surrey and we had a fairly ambitious plan to meet on the same train in Oxford. Unfortunately, these plans were slightly more ambitious than we originally thought and we arrived in Chipping Campden 2 hours…
Anne-Marie’s West Highland Way Adventure
As the new kid on the block at Mickledore, I was both surprised and delighted to be asked to go and walk the West Highland Way for my familiarisation trip. As a soft Southerner, who will normally only go on holiday if there is at least a small chance of warm sunshine, the thought of going North for a holiday was something that had never really crossed my mind and quite frankly terrified me, but everyone said I would have an amazing time so I was willing to give it a try and have my opinions of holidays in Scotland changed. So, I gratefully accepted and set about finding someone to come with me. I couldn’t take my husband as he would need to stay at home looking after my kids and all my friends had to stay at home to look after their husbands and their kids. After asking 10 friends who couldn’t take a week away, I sat down and thought, who do I know who has no husband and no kids … Now, I have one friend with no husband or kids. A wonderful (and very sensible) friend who I went travelling with 30 years ago, Sarah….