Day one on the BBW trail...

And while the headline will probably have got a whole bunch of people here expecting something completely different, It's nothing so exotic...

BBW in this case is Big B'stards Walking, something that I suspect will be done a great deal more in the months to follow, because I (and at least one like minded soul) are looking to keep moving and improve things in general whilst avoiding the perils that come with having to sit down as much as we do.  With this in mind, a bunch of walking was suggested, and we thought that to make things a little better, it should be done with the idea of doing it more often, and herein lies the problem for a number of Big B'stards, because...

1:  Walking isn't very interesting, the scenery goes by too slowly and it often rains...
2:  If you're walking and you're built like me, it's more like a merry amble, and while that's fine for me, any lycra clad fitness nutjobs are likely to be complaining that I'm going too slow...
3:  It's a problem for most Big B'stards to explain that, yes, you are breathing more heavily, and yes, you may look a little pink, but you're not falling over, and you're still going.  The reason you're breathing more heavily is because you're pulling more of you around, and the reason you've gone a little pink is because you're built this way and that keeps you insulated... It doesn't mean that we're having a bad time, but it's an irritation when everyone keeps asking you if a cardiac is on the way...if you're walking with another Big B'stard, they know the score and you don't get stupid questions :)
4:  Did I mention it often rains...

So with this in mind, we decided to take a walk around Newmillardam in West Yorkshire, the low road for the first day, with the idea of building up as time goes by, set off around at a good clip, him wearing sensible walking gear, me having turned up in a bomber jacket (in summer, on a hot day, error...), got halfway around and found that they'd changed a few things, specifically the addition of a wooden walkway into the boggy areas...

Clearly this was a sign...

So we wandered down to investigate and found that it went deep into the forest and ended up in a platform that looked like the point to defend, against...wild ducks perhaps....

and then back out, whereupon we agreed that truly righteous nerf wars could be held here, you'd just have to worry about footing the bill for overloading the water with blue darts.  Given that both I and my fellow walker are both writers, we spent a good hour taking a stroll around the lake and beyond into the fields and then back, and all the way talked of writing things and projects and ideas, which is always helped when you encounter things that fire the imagination...

Yes, that is a house built on the side of the lake with the lower levels submerged...

Cue the pair of us trying to find a way in...

In all, we didn't get round in record time, I'm sure it's possible to run in ten minutes what we took an hour to walk around, but that wasn't the point of the walk, enjoyed it greatly and we've agreed to do it again in the near future, at which point there'll be another post from the BBW club...