The awkward introduction

So here goes... My name is Stefan, I am a 24 year old aspiring teacher and history graduate from the West Midlands in the UK. I have decided to challenge myself to complete as many, if not all of the 100 greatest walks in Britain as listed in Country Walking's list of top walks from all over the country (except for Northern Island but we will quickly skip over that minor detail).
So why do this? Well, I am currently working crazy shifts in a factory after spending 1 year travelling around Australia and New Zealand in 2014. If I'm totally honest after the initial excitement of being back home and catching up with all your friends, getting back into daily routine in the cold, dark, wonders of the West Midlands really makes you want to get back out there and do something! After spending the majority of my savings enjoying life on the other side of the planet walking is easily the cheapest thing I could do to feed my travel bug.

If you are a pro mountaineer you may find what this idiot writes about rather pointless, as I would not class myself as a seasoned rambler/hiker/wander rounder at all. Who knows, I may even get lost on the first walk, or end up being the star of the sequal to 127 hours. I have however enjoyed a handful of what I would class as challenging walks along with the odd stroll in the park over the last couple of years. In 2012 me and a group of friends jumped on the 3 peaks challenge (Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike & Snowdon) bandwagon in what was my first real taste of 'proper' walking, talk about being thrown in
at the deep end. My first top tip learnt by a very cocky rookie would be not to have 6,7 or maybe even 8 pints the night before you start Ben Nevis!

The only other big walk I have done in the UK was Cadair Idris in mid Wales, the biggest achievement of this walk was not climbing Cadair but convincing my wonderful girlfriend to not end the relationship there and then because she did the walk with me after I may or may not have told her it would be 'easy'. Oops.

Since then I have had the joy of exploring some of Australia and New Zealand's most iconic locations on foot, the most challenging walk being the Tongariro Alpine Crossing on the North island of New Zealand, simply staggering. Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Cradle Mountain and Franz Josef were up there with the best of the other walks completed on the trip. Feel free to scroll straight past my pictures bragging about what I did last year, they're only really on here to make me look a bit more like Bear Grylls and less like Fozzie Bear.

So now down to what this whole thing is all about, walking in Britain! I am hoping that Blighty will do itself proud and help me realise I made the right decision coming home instead of wandering around middle earth for a bit longer. Now I couldn't just do this on my own, well I kind of am, but I am taking with me 2 guides. The first is Country Walking Magazine's '100 Greatest Walks in Britain', each walk has a brief description, map and advice to help you on your way. No idea if it is any good, Amazon reviews were decent sooooo yes, we shall see! My second guide is my conscience, my mascot, Jiminy Cricket. After every walk I complete I will do my best to provide some entertaining reading as well as useful information, reviews and photographs.

Thanks for reading,

LETS DO THIS! 

Stef.