‘In a different place’: Walking the Yorkshire Wolds Way
“Imagine somebody blindfolding you and guiding you along a muddy, undulating track. Now imagine doing it for 79 miles along the Wolds Way!”
In October 2022, during the 40th anniversary year of the Yorkshire Wolds Way National Trail, Andrew Elliker-Reeve became the first blind man to walk the entire 79 miles of the route in seven consecutive days to raise money for Guide Dogs, and shared his journey through his blog Travelling Blind. As last Saturday was World Trails Day, it seemed like a great opportunity to share Andrew’s experience of walking this East Yorkshire trail and what it meant to him.
I first read Andrew’s blog last year and was immediately drawn into to his open and honest, warm humoured account of undertaking this challenge. In late May I had the pleasure of speaking with him to learn more about what walking footpaths and trails means to him. To tell his story in his own words this piece uses excerpts (in bold italics) and images from Andrew’s blog-posts (with his kind permission).
Sign along the Yorkshire Wolds Way (Travelling Blind blog)
Starting out
Andrew was, in his own words, still learning to be blind, when he undertook the walk, having lost his sight following elective surgery to improve the circulation in his legs. As he writes in September 2022:
Two and a half years ago I went in for what should have been a fairly routine operation but unfortunately the results weren’t as expected. As a result of this operation I lost my sight, my colon and my spleen. My life and that of my lovely wife Rebecca has changed irrevocably.
Before losing his sight, he was a keen countryside walker, and runner, and wanted to find a way to continue doing this in some way. By the end of June 2020, he was walking 100 yards with a frame, and by December of the same year he says: I felt fitter and mentally strong enough to grab the bull by the horns and start learning to live my life as normally as possible with the disabilities I have.
After getting back into the swing of walking both on the treadmill and outdoors with friends and guides, in September 2022 he announced on his blog that he would be walking the Yorkshire Wolds Way the following month. The walk would of course be a personal challenge – 79 miles of trail walking is a real challenge – but Andrew also wanted to use the opportunity to raise awareness and money for a charity. Working with an East Yorkshire Rights of Way Officer (Sam McGivern) he was also invited to give feedback on the accessibility of the trail to enable improvements to be made.
There are two really good reasons for me doing this. One is my constant quest to prove that being blind is not the end of anything, just the start of a new, exciting and challenging life. The other is to raise money for Guide Dogs UK.
Andrew and Rebecca planned the logistics of the route together with Sam, and Andrew put a public call out for volunteers to join him as sighted guides along sections of the walk. On the 17th October he set out from the Hessle foreshore on the first leg of the route with two volunteer guides he had never met before, and Rebecca meeting him with encouragement and supplies wherever the trail crossed a road. On the 23rd October he arrived at Filey Brigg on the East Yorkshire coast, having completed the 79 mile trail.
Blind man needs help!
These words open Andrew’s blog entry of 23rd September 2022, inviting volunteers to support him as sighted guides along the way. I was struck by the openness of this invitation, prepared to trust people he may not have met before to help him navigate the route and terrain – I had to put my full faith in them which was totally justified.
Eleven people joined him over the course of the trail - only one of whom had guided before – all the others learned as we went along. Andrew had walked many miles with guides before undertaking the Wolds Way so was able to explain to the volunteers what was involved and how best to guide him. As he writes in his blog after the first day of the walk:
It’s a tough call to put your safety in the hands of two people you’ve never met before but as usual my judgement was excellent (proof: I proposed to Rebecca). These two superhumans worked their butts off and encouraged me over 13 miles today so thank you very much, I am immensely grateful.
Andrew and guide on the first day of the Yorkshire Wolds Way (Travelling Blind blog)
Since it was not the same people joining Andrew throughout, they formed a new team each day, learning to move together along the, sometimes challenging, terrain and weather conditions. They also formed friendships. Andrew told me of a guide who had very different political views to him, but by the end of a couple of days of walking together they had found common ground and friendship. Walking with others is a shared experience, and can be a great leveller, bringing people together through a common love for being out on paths.
I don’t know why all my guides did this. Possibly for the experience, for me or for Guide Dogs UK but the outcome was the same. I have made some great friends, learned a lot about myself and perhaps pushed myself too far.
These shared experiences and friendships, point to how paths are not just places where we undertake personal challenges, but are also communal spaces of mutual care and companionship.
It was a lot tougher than expected
The excerpts from Andrew’s blog below give a flavour of the physical nature of the walk, not just in terms of the miles covered, but also the physical aspects of working with guides, and the ever-tricky undulating terrain of the path.
Barrie and Lindi did their best to guide me over some very tricky terrain but as expected I did fall on my arse once 😆. The path from Brantingham Church towards the end is evil and at one point I wasn't convinced I was going to get there, but of course they encouraged me and made sure I did. I ache all over, am absolutely shattered. It is possibly the most mentally and physically difficult day I've ever had. But I made it! I'm proud of them and I'm proud of me.
We started at Goodmanham with a reasonably small hill then went on to slightly bigger hills, up and down. The paths were very tricky, lots of dips and cambers so keeping my footing was a real challenge. […] After about 10 miles I wasn't overjoyed to find what's one of the biggest hills on the walk to finish the day! This was where teamwork really came in, Barrie walking backwards up the hill to guide me, Richard behind me and Sophie everywhere watching for any hazards. It was really hard going but you'd think we'd been working as a team for weeks.
We went on to walk 11 miles and had a really great day with much hilarity. Guides kept walking into trees, I had a good attempt at breaking my ankle and I even climbed my first stile as a blind man.
Andrew and guides on the third day of the Yorkshire Wolds Way (Travelling Blind blog)
Sometimes I felt like the ball in a pinball machine, at other times part of a sketch in the Chuckle Brothers (to me, to you) whilst my heroes tried to keep me safe. I of course, did not make life easy, confidently striding along like a deranged, drunken Duracell bunny. How they got me there safely I really don't know 😆.
These excerpts give a sense of the continued negotiation between guide, walker and the material fabric of the path, all moving and responding to one another together. As is clear, these encounters can also be comic and memorable.
Andrew says he doesn’t have a favourite type of path, he enjoys all countryside walking, but paths with a camber, or peppered with rabbit burrow-holes, can throw him off balance and make progress difficult. There was a section on the Yorkshire Wolds Way that had both of these features! It’s also useful if paths are wide enough to accommodate he and a guide walking side by side.
Hearing more
Cues about the landscape don’t just come from seeing or feeling the terrain. Andrew explained how sounds also help in understanding the landscapes in which he walks. For example, the sound of water coming from below suggests hilly terrain with streams through lower ground. If he hears birds chattering, he knows it is likely that there are trees and bushes nearby. When we spoke, we both reflected on how walking through woods can somehow dampen or bring closer the surrounding soundscape.
Sounds also create memorable encounters with nature when out walking. On a footpath on recent trip to Islay, Andrew and Rebecca heard an unusual sound that turned out to be a colony of seals that ‘sing’ regularly. It was an amazing experience that evoked thoughts of folklore about sirens, and how those legends may have started.
Andrew suggests that having to rely on other senses removes a level of prejudice when meeting others out walking. You can’t make decisions based on what people look like or what they are wearing, you need to listen to them before you can make your mind up.
When I’m walking a countryside path, I don’t have concerns for anything else.
When I asked Andrew what walking on footpaths and trails means to him, it was clear that this is an environment he feels very much at home in and plays an important role in his mental and physical wellbeing. Alongside the physical recovery following his operation, Andrew spoke of regaining a sense of freedom through being able to go out walking again; a sense of escaping everything else and just being out enjoying himself.
Countryside. I can’t see it anymore but it plays a major role in my life. Blind or sighted, you can feel and smell everything around you. You can enjoy the peacefulness, but most of all you’re very likely to be without a phone signal. There’s no-one to bother you. That world you’re having problems with is, at least for a while, in a different place.
Although he walks with guides, he is more than capable of keeping pace with them and this does not detract from the sense of liberation.
I can’t just get up and walk on my own, I still need guides but somehow still have that sense of freedom. It can be quite magical.
In line with his reasons for walking the Yorkshire Wolds Way in the first place, he also appreciates the sense of achievement that challenging himself in this way brings.
“I lost so much a few years ago and walking in the countryside has given me so much back. Not only do I enjoy the sounds and pictures that then form in my mind, but I get a sense of achievement when I complete something that I felt was maybe a little beyond me.”
Andrew and Rebecca at the final Wolds Way marker (Travelling Blind blog)
Next steps
Andrew is already training for his next national trail – The Cleveland Way, a 109 mile route across the North Yorkshire Moors and coastline which he plans to do over nine days and with the company of 20 volunteer sighted guides, and he continues to raise funds for Guide Dogs UK. If you would like to find out more please visit his Travelling Blind blog.
Blindness is no barrier to success!
Further reading
‘Travelling Blind’ (Andrew Elliker-Reeve’s blog) at https://www.facebook.com/travellingblind/
Bell, S. (2019) ‘Experiencing nature with sight impairment: Seeking freedom from ableism’ Nature and Space, 2(2), 304-322, https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/36091
MacPherson, H. (2017) ‘Walkers with visual-impairments in the British Countryside: Picturesque legacies, collective enjoyments and well-being benefits’. Journal of Rural Studies, 51, 251-258, https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/publications/walkers-with-visual-impairments-in-the-british-countryside-pictur