A new addition to the Northern Walker crew

Joe Cool – smiling, or is it wind? Or worse?

Radio silence again I’m afraid, but this time with better reason. We have a new member of the Northern Walker clan: Joseph was born on 6th of March and weighed in at a hefty 9lb 2oz (he gets it from his dad, evidently… along with his winning smile).

I’m delighted to say mum and baby are doing well, and dad is becoming accustomed to his new role of botty cleaner and burpee initiator (no, not the leg- crunching exercises favoured by fellow-Joe, Mr Wicks).

I’ll admit I’ve been soul searching as to whether baby Joe was going to appear on these pages. However, Joe’s mum Sophie and I are very keen to keep on adventuring and include the wee man whether on foot or two wheels so we thought it might be helpful, and no doubt amusing, to share how we get on.

On that note, Joe has already been on a couple of gentle bimbles in the Derbyshire hills and he seems to enjoy it (well, he slept most of the time so that’s a win!). It’s a good start. In a couple of weeks I plan to leave him in the middle of Kinder Scout with a bag of beef jerky and a compass to see how he gets on (Attention sanctimonious, Daily Mail-devouring web trolls… This is, of course, a joke).

We do want to get responsibly adventurous, though. Mum and dad are planning some overseas tours so watch this space. Let’s just hope he likes the bike trailer when he gets a little older… and the kid’s seat on the back of the Surly ECR for some (very tame) singletrack!