The Ramblers are encouraging us all, through its big path watch, to adopt a local grid square, walk all the rights of way within it, and report back to them on any problems found, and more generally, on how it was as an experience.
I walked one of 'my squares' the other day, and discovered a few obstructions, a missing sign or two, and some complete blockages. I managed to report these through the Ramblers rather awkward website. A positive outcome, I thought.
But I think the Ramblers have lost their way here as there is, for my money, far too much emphasis on listing the walk's attractions, and saying whether you'd enjoyed yourself, and not enough opportunity to provide necessary detail of problems. For example, I wanted to report a well-constructed but awkward stile – not possible. I also wanted to report an overgrown stile where the path was ok because you could by-pass the stile through a huge gap in the hedge where a gate no longer was – not possible.
My feeling is that with a bit more thought (and trialling on the ground) – this could have been a whole lot better.
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