It was a great honour to be asked for a second time to walk with Claire Balding and record another programme for ‘Ramblings’ on Radio 4.

The fact that Radio 4 had chosen St Oswald’s Way as the long distance path that they were going to record a full series on was not only good for me personally, as the provider of the most walking holidays on this trail, but also superb for Northumberland as a whole. As someone who sits on the steering group for St Oswald’s Trail a real sense of euphoria was felt when they chose this walk and after working long and hard with Radio 4 to get the right people on each of the six programmes the fortnight came for recording.

The first week came along and Clare was going to walk from Holy Island down the coast, following both St Oswald’s Way and The North Sea Trail. Then the second week she would head inland and complete the superb route.

The day of recording came around, I was walking from Weldon Bridge to my home town of Rothbury, following the River Coquet. Lucy (the producer) set the recording machine and off we went. Walking and talking with the sun on our backs - what a great day. I had brought along some of my regular walkers who walked large sections of the trail when we walked it as a series of day walks last year and hopefully with the knowledge I had gained from running walking holidays on St Oswald’s Way it will make for an interesting radio programme.

The whole day was relaxed and both Lucy and Claire were pleased with how the day panned out. After lunch the group relaxed even more but as we reached the old railway line before heading into Rothbury the heavens opened. It was not long before the sun came out again and we were greeted with warm sunshine as we reached Rothbury and dropped back down to the river.

After a short break we were all in Rothbury Golf Club for the launch of ‘phase 2’ of St Oswald’s Way, which involves circular walks incorporating the long distance trail. After photo shoots and a short presentation Claire said a few words.

It was a great day out on St Oswald’s Way.

The following day she was walking with another Shepherds Walks guide, Russell Tait, as she climbed up over Simonside making her way to Harwood.