I Will Wait

Saturday 5 July 2025

It is approaching two months now since I returned from my Camino trek to Santiago, and high time, I think, for me to check in with you all. Thank you once again for following my Blog through springtime Spain, and I hope that you are all keeping well and enjoying the fine weather – a ‘real summer’ this year, with the sun out and the mercury on the rise. For us walkers the heat is perhaps a bigger deterrent than rain and cold, so perhaps it is now time for some rest and recuperation, whilst watching the tennis and the cricket, and imbibing the occasional Pimm’s and some strawberries!

Notwithstanding this seasonal hiatus, last Saturday morning I ventured out to Hatfield, in central Hertfordshire, to join a team of volunteers supporting Parkinson’s UK on one of the ‘Walk for Parkinson’s’ days that the charity organises across the country. My role, as for previous walks, is to serve as ‘back-marker’, trying to ensure that no walkers are lost en route; this is not a bad gig, as I get to ‘walk the course’ and to meet many participants, as well as the Parkinson’s UK staff and volunteer marshals at the various checkpoints along the way. In total around 250 sponsored walkers, all adorned in the cyan colours of the charity, took on a circuit around the Hatfield House Estate. Much of the route traversed private grounds through which the public are not usually admitted, and so we got to see some unfamiliar stretches of the Lee Valley and some rolling farmland that is usually ‘off limits’. The weather was compliant and right on cue some early drizzle cleared, just ahead of the starter’s orders, so that we all could enjoy a fine day’s ramble in the verdant beauty of the Hertfordshire countryside.

As you can see, a lot of organisation goes into coordinating such an event: huge credit is due to Michelle and the team at Parkinson’s UK, to the volunteers who assist, and in particular to all the walkers and fundraisers who partake in this day of smiles. Here are a few pictures of our exertions.

A fine day concluded with laughter, medals, photos and a cuppa, and my thanks to all involved. As for other recent walking activity, Rachel and I have been out for many shorter rambles over the last few weeks, including some walks on holiday in Ireland at the end of last month – I will share some photos of these here in the next few days. Meanwhile, let us all rest up and enjoy the hot weather!

My Blog heading today ‘I Will Wait’ is the title of a 2012 hit by indie folk-rock group Mumford & Sons, that appeared as the lead single off their second studio album ‘Babel’. The song was written by the band’s lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Mumford, who was born to English parents in the US but grew up in south-west London. The group got together in 2007, after Mumford (on drums) and the other founders had toured as Laura Marling’s backing band before deciding to break out on their own. The rest, as they say, is history.