For the past 90 days I have been taking part in the Virgin Pulse Global Challenge. It is a corporate challenge that takes you on a virtual world tour over 100 days based on how many steps you and your team of seven accumulate by walking, running, cycling, swimming and your regular daily activities as recorded by your Virgin Pulse or other activity tracker (Fitbit, Garmin etc).
It has been such a lot of fun (although the downside has been that, while you get credit for cycling and swimming , activities which obviously record few or no steps but can be measured in distance, you do not get any credit for strength training exercises which also record few steps but cannot be measured by distance).
During the course of the challenge my team and I have been out on some group walks, yesterday was one of those days although only two of us could make it. As the two of us are by far the most active in the group, not being burdened with small humans or other responsibilities that holds us back from taking full day hikes, we planned a longer than usual walk and headed up to Goit Stock Falls in Cullingworth. One of the few waterfalls in the West Yorkshire area and a place I have never been.
The weather forecast was not great due to a storm over the Atlantic that had been due to hit us that afternoon, but we awoke to a really pleasant looking day. We had arranged to meet at 9am and I was going to walk to our meeting place (anything to rack up a few more thousand steps – I am behind on my target!), so I set off at 7:30 am to a lovely looking morning.
After the winds of the last few days, it was such a still, peaceful beautiful morning , I even took out my headphones and just walked along enjoying the sounds of nature – uninterrupted by the sounds of people due to the early hour!
My walk to meet Liz took me along the canal, which was looking lovely in morning sunlight, with the leaves reflecting in the usually murky waters. I love when everything is so green and lush, and still not a hint of them turning colour.
I met Liz and we carried on along the canal for a while and then along the River Aire, also looking mighty pretty.
We left the river and then headed through some absolutely gorgeous woods where we happened on an old Folly. I do love a good Folly and this one is was the perfect match of well preserved whilst also crumbling.
We carried on through the woods a while until we came to Wislden, where we had a short rest for drinks, nuts and a much needed toilet break!!
Carrying on we walked towards Cullingworth through some more woods until we reached the falls, where we stopped to admire the view and take some selfies, because we are down with the kids and stuff.
Then we headed home, a little tired and sore from all the hill climbing, through some more woods, which sported some amazing wood carvings, via Myrtle Park, where we saw them setting up for Bingley Music Live in a couple of weeks, and then back along the canal to home.
The walk had taken us longer than expected despite setting off so early, so I cheated and got my husband to pick me up once I left Liz instead of walking the extra few miles, but I still racked up an impressive 45,000 steps for the team!
