大象传媒

The Lake District is a popular tourist destination for millions of people each year looking to enjoy all that the great outdoors has to offer. Few if any however will realise that they are following in the footsteps of a pioneering Victorian adventurer who spent his summers living in a cave in the Borrowdale Valley. Adam Henson meets Millican Dalton鈥檚 biographer, Matthew Entwistle, and learns more about this eccentric character and how he swapped his life in the city for one running adventure trips for likeminded lovers in the countryside.

Fida Hussain is an award-winning mountain leader who helps people from all walks of life to access the outdoors and acquire the skills they need to share this experience with others. Adam joins Fida and his latest group of trainees in the Lake District, where he learns some important skills for a successful days walking in the countryside. On route he discovers why opportunities like this are so important for many young people who wouldn鈥檛 otherwise have the confidence to explore the great outdoors for themselves.

All across the country there are miles of footpaths and areas of countryside that people have the right to access for free. This access to the great outdoors comes with added responsibilities for both the people who own the land and those that pass through it. Adam meets Borrowdale farmer Anne Cornthwaite who runs a busy 750 acre sheep and cattle farm in this popular part of the Lake District. With footpaths cutting through nearly every field, he hears how following simple advice from the Countryside Code can make the lives of those who work the land that bit easier.

One group that has done endless work to safeguard and promote access to the countryside is the Ramblers 鈥� formerly known as the Ramblers Association. This year they are celebrating their 80th anniversary and to mark the event Adam is joining the Brett-Schneider family, to learn more about the Ramblers latest campaign - the Big Pathwatch. Its aim is collecting information on the state of the path network across England and Wales. Adam discovers how it鈥檚 not only a perfect activity for families to do on days out but also how it鈥檚 a celebration of what the countryside has to offer.

On the weekend of Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October we are holding the first ever Countryfle Ramble for 大象传媒 Children in Need.聽We have now had so many applications that from Sunday 20th Sept we are no longer accepting requests to join our presenter rambles. But you can still make a difference by organising a ramble of your own to raise money for 大象传媒 Children in Need. On this week's programme we meet 13 year old Cameron who was聽diagnosed with brittle bones disease when he was just six week's old. During his life he has to cope with frequent fractures and spends much of his life in hospital. But he does get support from the Brittle Bone Society, which has been funded by 大象传媒 Children in Need for nearly 20 years. So聽remember, just a few simple steps can help change the lives of thousands of disadvantaged children like Cameron.

Adventure Racing is a relatively new to the UK. It鈥檚 a competitive activity combining a variety of sports with a navigational element. Ellie Harrison teams up with former world champion racer Nick Gracie to run, cycle and navigate her way around the New Forest. She discovers that this unusual habitat provides a beautiful and challenging venue for sports. But will her enthusiasm be enough to stop her slowing the team down?

Matt visits the Calvert Trust Outdoor Adventure Centre on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake near Keswick. Set up in 1976, the Calvert Trust鈥檚 mission is to make adventure activities accessible to people with a range of disabilities. At their centre, Matt finds out how a piece of specialist mountain rescue equipment, adapted by the trust鈥檚 climbing instructors, is helping wheelchair users to abseil in the great outdoors.

The Stanza Stones Project is a collaboration, between Yorkshire poet Simon Armitage and the Ilkley Literature Festival, devised to get people into the landscape and inspired to write. Six poems were carved into the rock on a 47 mile trail that takes in the best scenery West Yorkshire has to offer. Ellie Harrison meets Simon at the Snow stone in Marsden, the trail starting point and finds out how water in its different forms has inspired his poetry. Then by the Puddle stone, Ellie meets stone carver Pip Hall who spent a year carving the stanza stone poems.

In a sleepy Gloucestershire village, John Craven and naturalist Richard Mabey, try to re-create a ground-breaking television 鈥渆xperiment鈥� 鈥� they turn up in the village of Sapperton and film just what they see. Four decades earlier, as a response to the increasing technical complexity of natural history film-making, Richard and a team of experts had done just that. Our contemporary team discover how much has changed and what鈥檚 stayed the same in this Countryfile tribute to wildlife films and their makers.

As the seasons change so do the 250 lakes of Snowdonia and for 30 days each year artist and wild swimmer, Vivienne Rickman-Poole, sets herself a challenge. Every day in April she is out, regardless of the weather, swimming in the stunning lakes of Snowdonia. That鈥檚 thirty swims in thirty days! So what drives Vivienne鈥檚 Snowdonian swimathon?