wainwright memorial lecture
Date of Event
9 Oct 2010Time of Event
6pm
John Merrill, noted long-distance walker and the first person to walk around the entire coastline of Britain, will deliver the 2010 Wainwright Memorial Lecture.
Tickets are available direct from Rheged (01768 868000) and cost £12.
A two-course hot meal is available to be served at 5 p.m. and costs £14.95 per person.
Over the last 45 years John Merrill has walked over 200,000 miles - more than ten times around the world, wearing out 108 pairs of boots in the process. He has completed a remarkable and unequalled number of marathon walks – walking more than 28 miles per day on average - including being the first person to walk around Britain - 7,000 miles - in ten months. He has walked across Europe, Africa, India, Nepal, Asia, America, and along the great trails of America and Canada. He has completed many Pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela, Canterbury, Walsingham and Trondheim in Norway.
He has written more than 330 guidebooks to his walks, most of which he prints and publishes himself. He is not a loner, quite the reverse, but to get the material and accomplish his walks – ‘he who travels alone, travels fastest’. And, by going alone you never forget. He does no research beforehand, preferring to walk around the corner and come to a church, historic house or sacred site and discover for himself their secrets. To be aware of what's next is to dampen the impact.
The parallels with Alfred Wainwright are there for all to see; a man who walks alone by preference, who writes about his walks and someone who has raised thousands of pounds for charity during his lifetime of walking exploits.
