Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 2: I'm Ray Lee and this is the Gillingham Podcast for
Speaker 2: anyone living in the Gillingham and Spa area. I'm talking
Speaker 2: to Martin Sharp, who's the festival coordinator of the Giving
Speaker 2: A Walking Festival. Tell us a bit about the festival.
Speaker 1: Martin.
Speaker 3: The Gillingham Walking Festival, which has been running for over
Speaker 3: twenty years now runs this year from the twenty ninth
Speaker 3: of August through to the fifth of September, and it's
Speaker 3: a series of walks every day and it provides an
Speaker 3: opportunity for people from Gillingham and the wider area and
Speaker 3: in need further afield to enjoy a relaxed and comfortable
Speaker 3: walk of varying distances throughout the week.
Speaker 1: So how many members do you have in total? Roughly?
Speaker 3: Well, it's not a membership organization as such. We are
Speaker 3: connected with Walkers are Welcome. It's under the umbrella of
Speaker 3: Walkers are Welcome, which people just attend. We have no subscription,
Speaker 3: there's no fees and we have a small committee of
Speaker 3: five or six people that organize the Walking Festival. But
Speaker 3: it's not a membership organization so it's open to all.
Speaker 3: What sort of level of fitness is required do you
Speaker 3: think for these sort of walks, we have for each
Speaker 3: day two walks. In general terms. The walk that starts
Speaker 3: in the morning is of a longer length, up to
Speaker 3: ten miles.
Speaker 1: Ten miles is the outside and.
Speaker 3: Those will normally involve crossing fields, climbing over stiles, and
Speaker 3: a little bit more mobility needed for those walks, but
Speaker 3: nothing that a person of average fitness could manage. It's
Speaker 3: not rushed, it's not a high pace event, so relatively straightforward,
Speaker 3: but obviously that requires decent nobility. And then most afternoons
Speaker 3: we have a shorter walk, which is three up to
Speaker 3: three miles or so, sometimes a little bit shorter, only
Speaker 3: a mile or so, and that's pretty much in the
Speaker 3: getting immediate environs. And they tend to be level walks
Speaker 3: at a very easy pace, so people that would find
Speaker 3: those longer walks of struggle. I think most people would
Speaker 3: find it's like a walk to the shops in terms
Speaker 3: of the level of fitness required. But it's in company
Speaker 3: with people and you can and I think one of
Speaker 3: the great things about going walking in a group is
Speaker 3: it's a very non threatening, very easy environment. Because you're
Speaker 3: standing side by side with somebody, you're in nature you're
Speaker 3: in the environment, you just go at your pace. If
Speaker 3: you don't want to talk or engage with anybody, you
Speaker 3: want to walk in isolation. That's perfectly okay and people
Speaker 3: pretty soon get their message. But most people enjoy a
Speaker 3: very friendly, relaxed conversation as they're walking along, talking about
Speaker 3: anything they see.
Speaker 1: Also, I would imagine it's pretty good for mental health.
Speaker 3: Well, it is because it's the opportunity to get out
Speaker 3: in the fresh air, enjoy our beautiful countryside that we
Speaker 3: have surrounding this here in Gillingham, and yes, to spend
Speaker 3: some time with other people who are generally speaking in
Speaker 3: a very mellow, relaxed mood as they're walking along.
Speaker 1: So it's a very easy thing to do. And I'm
Speaker 1: not just looking at your pamphlet for this year's festival.
Speaker 1: The walk's all graded.
Speaker 3: Yes, we have a grading system for the walks on
Speaker 3: the difficulty that tends to reflect combination of both length
Speaker 3: of walk and the obstacles that we might encounter. So
Speaker 3: we have a boot system. One, two or three boots
Speaker 3: is how we grade them. The one boot being the
Speaker 3: mostly level walks it's a very relaxed pace over a
Speaker 3: short distance, and then three being the longer walks that
Speaker 3: iniably will almost always involve styles uneven terrain, often some hills,
Speaker 3: and the two is in between the two in between
Speaker 3: those two.
Speaker 2: So if people want to join in this this year,
Speaker 2: could they bring their dogs along?
Speaker 3: There are we've identified in the program. People need to
Speaker 3: find the program to see which walks they wish to join,
Speaker 3: and it states in there whether dogs are welcome. It's
Speaker 3: to be honest, it's a minority of walks where dogs
Speaker 3: are welcome because obviously having a dog can be a
Speaker 3: bit of an encumbrance for some, and there are there
Speaker 3: are other walkers who don't like the presence of dogs.
Speaker 3: So so we've we've got I think three or maybe
Speaker 3: four of the walks dogs are welcome.
Speaker 2: Imagine at the moment, with the heat as it is,
Speaker 2: it's not advisable to bring a.
Speaker 3: Dog out, well, it wouldn't be with it now. I
Speaker 3: think most dog owners would know, we would know not
Speaker 3: to take their dogs out in the in the thirties.
Speaker 3: Of course, we're talking about early the end of August,
Speaker 3: early September, and the weather. Over the years we've been
Speaker 3: doing it's highly changeable. We've had one three years ago,
Speaker 3: I think it was now where we got temperatures well
Speaker 3: into the thirties. That was an exceptional September, so weather
Speaker 3: much as we've been having of late, and that's that's challenging.
Speaker 1: Two years ago.
Speaker 3: It was absolutely pouring with rain almost every day. So
Speaker 3: you still go out in the rain. We have done.
Speaker 3: Obviously those people can not come along, and that was
Speaker 3: the case. We had lower attendance, but the walk leaders
Speaker 3: were still let's say, happy to go. That might be
Speaker 3: overstating it. Contempt to go along, fulfill their commitment to
Speaker 3: those people who wanted to Like children, can they come along? Yes,
Speaker 3: children are welcome. We tend not to get.
Speaker 1: That many children.
Speaker 3: The week we've got is the start of school typically,
Speaker 3: but weekends children are welcome to come along. And those
Speaker 3: perhaps their school starts a little later, it deny for
Speaker 3: them to join us, and of course good for their
Speaker 3: well being and health too.
Speaker 1: What about vulnerable adults people would.
Speaker 3: Left, Yes, and we have had a number of vulnerable adults,
Speaker 3: whether it's obviously where those that have a care or
Speaker 3: benefit from having a care, then the care is more
Speaker 3: than welcome to come along, and it would be super
Speaker 3: for vulnerable adults to join us. For all the good
Speaker 3: reasons that you've already discussed about being in outdoors talking
Speaker 3: in a very relaxed way to other people.
Speaker 1: It's not challenging.
Speaker 3: Nobody's sort of accountable for how they present themselves. What
Speaker 3: I'm struck by on these walks that we do is
Speaker 3: what a friendly environment it is.
Speaker 1: And most people share that absolutely. That's nice.
Speaker 2: So if people are interested in joining or coming along
Speaker 2: on any of the walks, where can they get this
Speaker 2: lovely pamphlet from and information about it?
Speaker 3: Outlets across gettingham So, coffee shops, the library, the railway station,
Speaker 3: all the places that you might expect to pick up
Speaker 3: local information. Where we distributed our leaflet I think we
Speaker 3: had over a thousand of them produced. I noticed yesterday
Speaker 3: that the library had run out, so we've restarted, re
Speaker 3: stopped the library. That's encouraging, and that sets out the
Speaker 3: program and which walks require booking, which again is a minority.
Speaker 3: We do ask, but that's because there's a limit on numbers.
Speaker 3: So the walk leaders on those particular walks are concerned
Speaker 3: that if I had a group but size of say
Speaker 3: larger than twenty, it might become difficult to manage road
Speaker 3: crossings and things like that.
Speaker 2: So if people got any specific questions, how can they
Speaker 2: contact There's a telephone number.
Speaker 3: There are two telephone numbers in the leaflet and they're
Speaker 3: welcome to call. They can call me, or they can
Speaker 3: call our Penny, who takes the bookings, who runs the
Speaker 3: walk coordinates to the walkers are welcome page, so the
Speaker 3: phone numbers are in there. Please feel free to call
Speaker 3: me or Penny any.
Speaker 1: Reasonable time the day before evening.
Speaker 2: That's great, and I almost assuming that you're you look
Speaker 2: for looking for volunteers time to help walk leaders.
Speaker 3: We would love to have a few more walk leaders
Speaker 3: come along. If some of us have been doing it
Speaker 3: for quite a number of years now and we're relying
Speaker 3: on the star Wars. But some of the walk leaders
Speaker 3: have been doing this for twenty years and they started
Speaker 3: when they retired, so as you can imagine a few
Speaker 3: of them are getting on a bit and might be
Speaker 3: ready to hand over the pattern two younger volunteers who
Speaker 3: have just entered the retirement or just thinking about retiring
Speaker 3: and thinking, yes, this is the kind of thing I
Speaker 3: could do. It's not very onerous. We will try to
Speaker 3: we can try to arrange, will arrange training just on
Speaker 3: some of the things to be aware of risk assessments
Speaker 3: about taking care of people, that sort of thing. It's
Speaker 3: not anous training thing. Much of it is what we
Speaker 3: would call good old fashion common sense, but it's useful
Speaker 3: to go through a few points any and so if
Speaker 3: people are interested in becoming a leader or getting involved,
Speaker 3: can they phone you or Penny and Peny and me
Speaker 3: other contacts that they can use and we'll be very
Speaker 3: happy to to add them to the number of things.
Speaker 3: Probably the best way of going about that would be
Speaker 3: to join our Saturday walks, which happened throughout the year
Speaker 3: the first Saturday of each month. We vary it sometimes
Speaker 3: in December, the last Saturday in November occasionally, so the
Speaker 3: first Saturday of each month we gather for a two
Speaker 3: hour walk. Starts in the mornings during the winter time
Speaker 3: and in the afternoon in the summer, and that's a
Speaker 3: great experience to see what it walks are all about.
Speaker 1: And usually we have.
Speaker 3: Fifteen to twenty, sometimes up to thirty people going on
Speaker 3: those walks and they're in the Gillingham local area. Another
Speaker 3: interesting aspect of that and the Walking Festival is how
Speaker 3: many local people suddenly goffer parts of their local air I've.
Speaker 4: Never seen, they're not previously seen, so it's an interesting
Speaker 4: thing to do and it introduces people to new walks
Speaker 4: that they might not otherwise have discovered.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. Thanks having so much for your time
Speaker 1: and good luck on.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for it's been a pleasure to
Speaker 3: speak to you and thanks for the opportunity to talk
Speaker 3: more about the Gillingham Walking Festival.
Speaker 2: For more information on the Gillingham Walking Festival, telephone O
Speaker 2: double seven three one four six eight four two eight. Alternatively,
Speaker 2: you can contact Penny Pete on one seven four seven
Speaker 2: eight two three double seven four. There is also a
Speaker 2: website www dot gil Walkers are Welcome dot chess c K.
Speaker 2: That's c H. E. Doubles ck dot co dot UK
Speaker 2: forward slash Gillingham Walkers. If you're a member of a
Speaker 2: group or organization would like to be featured on a
Speaker 2: future Gillingham podcast, you can email me on Gillingham Podcast
Speaker 2: at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening.