Thinking of joining us on a walk for the first time? Please read these details

If you have not walked with us before, we’d very much like to welcome you on one of our walks – and there is no need for you to be a member of the Ramblers before trying us out.   But for safety and insurance reasons we do ask you to follow these very simple steps.

1: Choose your walk.  Our walks on Thursdays and Sundays are over different distances, and it is important that you ensure you pick a walk you feel comfortable with.  Remember if you haven’t done a four mile walk before, it is probably a good idea to practice walking in the countryside over this sort of distance before joining us.  Because there can be 20 or 30 people on a walk, we can only stop the walk in real emergencies.

We always give the postcode of the walk but please do note the other details of the starting location as the postcode in a rural region can cover quite a large area.

2: You don’t have to join the Ramblers to come on a couple of test walks with us, and there’s no charge for coming on any of our walks, but you do have to book with us to say you will be on one of our walks, although we do ask you to join The Ramblers after the first couple of walks.  Please look at our list of forthcoming walks and send a text message to the walk leader saying you would like to join (every group leader’s phone number is given with the walk details – but please text, don’t call, – and please say you are walking for the first time with us).  You’ll get a note back saying you are booked into the walk.

3: Please don’t book into the walk unless you are fairly sure you can make it.  Although we usually have spaces on most walks, the numbers are limited, and it is possible that if you book a space and then don’t turn up, you’ll be taking up someone else’s place.  If you do need to cancel please text the leader in good time.

4: Walks leave dead on time, so on Thursdays for example, 1.30pm really means 1.30pm.  Please do arrive at the very least 10 minutes before departure (15 mins is better) so you have time to find the leader, and let the leader know you are there.  There is always parking nearby but it is worth adding a few minutes for getting this arranged.

5: We do stop about halfway around for walkers to have a break and a nibble or drink – so please bring what you need if you would like to have sustenance before the end.

6: Please do wear suitable boots / shoes and clothing.  We are not traipsing up mountains (there are not many in the East Midlands), but we do walk rural areas, and footpaths across fields can be muddy and there can be the occasional stile.  Also if it rains, we keep going, so if rain is likely, some waterproofing is handy.

If you are unsure whether walking with the Ramblers is right for you, choose a walk near you and come along to the start point 20 minutes before we leave and have a chat with some of the walkers, to get a feel of what sort of people we are.  We are, it is generally agreed, mostly human.

If you would like to talk about what the Ramblers do, and what we are like, please do email our media and communications officer Tony at Tony@schools.co.uk and either set out your question in the email, or give a phone number and a time when you’d like to have a chat.

For our list of forthcoming walks please click on this link.