Happy Galantines! I am excited to share a little interview I did with Sarah Farley from @thewriterswalk. Sarah Farley is a writer and walker born in Sydney, raised in Yorkshire, matured in the Caribbean and now living in That London. Sarah joined me on Walkabout in 2022.

What inspired you to start The Writers Walk? 

It kind of happened slowly without me ever sitting down to plan it. I think the idea probably took seed somewhere many years ago, perhaps even when I was a child, walking alone to and from school and taking mini walking adventures around the area I grew up in. I think that seed then grew from my treks in the Yorkshire Dales, long strolls around Sydney, San Francisco, London and Athens, tramps along the trails in New Zealand, hillside hikes in Crete, day-long rambles in the New Forest and wanders along the Cornish, Jurassic and Yorkshire coastal paths. 

I’d also always enjoyed writing but it wasn’t until my mid thirties that I realised I wanted to make writing my career, so I went back to university and did an MA in Professional Writing in 2009. Somewhere along the way, I began to notice a connection between taking a walk and seeing a boost in my problem solving abilities, productivity and creativity. I started to explore that by going for walks in search of things to write about and the flood gates opened. 

But it wasn’t until the pandemic, and the lockdowns where we were only allowed 30 minutes outside, that I realised how vital the connection between walking and creativity was for me. I wanted to explore that connection and share it with other people to see if anyone else could experience it, too. I’d written a blog many years earlier, so I decided to go back to that format and start from there. And The Writer’s Walk was born!

What do you love about walking? 

The fact that I get so much out of it – physically, mentally and emotionally. For me, walking is the place where ideas happen and I do some of my best thinking on my feet. I live in central London and the walks to my clients’ offices help me prepare for our meetings and the walks back help me plan the writing I’ll do for them. A walk in nature, even if it’s just a local park, can calm my mind if I’m feeling worried or stressed. And if I’m feeling stuck with something I’m writing then a walk around the block, looking at the street art and billboards, usually jolts my brain into action. For me, walking feels natural. Walking alone feels natural. So natural that when I start walking I often find it hard to stop. Maybe this will sound weird, but I feel at home when I walk. 

What is your favourite type of walk to do? 

That’s hard to answer! I always say that I’ve never met a walk I didn’t like. Even the most challenging hikes, or the wettest and coldest of treks, offer something special. But if I was to narrow it down, I’d say the walks I enjoy the most are the ones that offer something unexpected. Like the time I walked in Valley of Rocks, Exmoor and a beautiful piebald baby goat came trotting towards me on the path. Or in New Zealand when I was trekking up a forested mountainside and discovered a waterfall. Moments like that, when you’re alone and silent and can pay more attention to what you can hear and see, are pretty special.

* Where has been your favourite place or places to walk? 

It’s hard to narrow it down. I loved hiking in New Zealand. I was there for a month in 2007, but I hadn’t really planned to make it a hiking trip until after I arrived and my friend Tara told me all about the trails. To be honest, I didn’t consider myself to be a walker at all at that point in my life. I just wanted to explore, and New Zealand is such a beautiful country that it made sense to be outside as much as possible. So I hired a car, Tara loaned me all the gear I needed, including ‘tramping boots’ and a mobile phone so I could let her know where I was. Then I spent 3 weeks driving around the north island, stopping when I saw a sign for a trail head, texting Tara to tell her where I was, and setting off on an unknown adventure. I barely saw anyone on those hikes. It was liberating and comforting at the same time. I remember passing a family one day, and we paused to say hello and the woman asked me if I was hiking alone. I said I was and she told me she thought I was very brave to be out there on my own. I was surprised because I’d never thought of hiking alone as being brave, it’s just something I’m naturally drawn to.

Another epic walking adventure was in Wales last year. I camped on a small site just outside Brecon and got chatting with 3 other women who were also camping. 2 were friends and the other was a solo camper, like me. The solo camper suggested we hike up Pen y Fan to see the sunset. It was such a mad and spontaneous thing to do with 3 strangers. None of them had walked up the mountain before, but I’d spent the previous day solo hiking up and down Pen y Fan, Cribyn and Fan y Big and I’d done a recce along the way. There are lots of routes up Pen y Fan and we agreed to do the ‘easy’ route which has a wide, well-made footpath, so it’s straightforward to follow – but still a challenging walk. We grabbed our gear, set off and shared all sorts of stories along the way. The sun set before we reached the top, and although it was summer and the weather was mild, it was cloudy, so we walked for the last 25 minutes or so in complete darkness with only the beams from our torches, and my OS map and recce notes, to guide us. When we reached the summit we felt elated. We took a few selfies, then as we lay on the rocks near the summit marker, looking up towards the sky, the clouds lifted and we saw a shooting star. It was one of the best hikes I’ve ever done. Again, it was the magic of something unexpected.

What did you enjoy most about Walkabout? 

Conversation, connection and community. Being part of the group was as inspiring as the challenge of the walking and the beauty of the views along the South West Coast Path. A few of us kept in touch afterwards and I’ve met up with a couple of them since, which has been super nice.