GET WALKING DAY is the annual event run by the Ramblers Association right across the country, when we ask people to join us for short walk and find out if walking is for them.

There is no charge and you do not have to join us to just come along and try it out.

If after meeting us on GWD you think it may be for you, then you are welcome to come along for a few more walks before making your mind up about joining us.

If you do decide to join the RA then there are some useful offers available to new members - see below.

The Walsall Group of the Ramblers

Here in Walsall our Group has been in existence since 1992, but that doesn’t mean everybody has been walking with us since then by any means. New members are joining us all the time, so we have a wide range of walking abilities and experience.

If you join us following a GWD walk and take the direct debit option, you can save £10 on the usual annual membership fees,

(That’s £21 instead of £31 for an individual or £31 instead of £41 for a couple),

Your membership fee will entitle you to receive not only our 6-monthly Walk Programmes and Newsletters, but also the Ramblers own magazine, Walk, which is full of information about what the organisation does and interesting places to walk both in the UK and elsewhere. You’ll also be able to take advantage of the discounts your Ramblers membership card will bring at place like Cotswold Outdoor, (20% off initially with coupon in the membership pack, then 10% thereafter), Ramblers World Wide Holidays and others.

We hope we in the Walsall Group can cater for most people’s abilities and tastes, but if after you’ve tried us for a walk or two, you don’t want to keep coming with us, your membership needn’t be wasted as you can freely join any Ramblers Group around the country if they seem to be doing what you feel you want. There are even 15 Groups in the Staffordshire area to choose from including our own, so you shouldn’t go lacking on the walking front.

The Wider Ramblers Organisation.

Finally don’t forget what the Ramblers do besides providing led-walks all over the country. There are thousands of Ramblers volunteers working nationally to repair and reinstate footpaths, challenge footpath closures and help to keep both local and national Rights of Way in good order. There is also a large body of people campaigning hard to ensure that the round-Britain Coastal Path becomes a reality and more recently to convince the government to rethink the proposed sales of our national forests.

Ramblers play a big part in encouraging people to walk the great networks of Public Rights of Way we have in this country, whilst striving continually to keep those paths open so that this can happen.

So even if you don’t see this side of our work as something you particularly want to be involved in, or even if you don’t like the idea of walking in a Group, you can still benefit from the membership offers above, whilst knowing that your contributions are going towards the wider aims of the organisation.

What’s Happening in the Walsall Group Shortly.

For our Spring/Summer Programme of Walks the Walsall Group has two offerings to its members and would-be members.

Firstly we’ll have an extensive list of what we call Main and Leisure walks, (Main walks range between 10-12 miles generally, whilst Leisure walks are shorter – up to 7.5 miles, but taken at a slightly slower pace), which we undertake on alternate Sundays. During the Spring/Summer Programme we try to travel a bit further away from Walsall if we can to give our walkers as wide an experience of the countryside as possible. We don’t use a coach, but we try to minimise our carbon footprint by sharing our cars and petrol costs with one another.

Being in a central location like Walsall means we can travel to many parts of the wider Midlands area in an hour or so, and typically you’ll find us in the Peak District, The Cotswolds, and the Shropshire peaks and on occasions in and around Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire too.

Secondly we have a Supplementary Programme of Walks for those who are just about to begin their walking days, and these are a collection of both Introductory walks, (starting at around 4 miles and rising to 6 miles), which take place on some Saturday mornings between May and September, and also some Evening walks that take place between a similar period, (averaging 4 miles), but usually mid-week. These walks are either within the Walsall boundary or maybe just a few miles ‘up the road’.