Walking Groups In Manchester.

A lot of men come to Mandem Meetup through the walking before anything else. It asks very little of you. You do not have to sit in a circle, you do not have to say anything, and if you want to spend the whole thing talking about football then that is a perfectly good use of a Saturday.

What tends to happen is that somewhere around the second hour, walking alongside someone rather than opposite them, people start saying things they had not planned to say. Shoulder to shoulder is easier than face to face. That is most of the reason we do it.

What the walks are actually like

Groups are usually somewhere between eight and twenty men. Pace is set by whoever is slowest, and that is not a courtesy, it is the rule. We have had men in their twenties and men in their seventies on the same walk.

Most routes are between four and eight miles and stay within Greater Manchester or just over the border into the Peak District. Some are flat towpath and meadow, some are proper hills. The listing for each walk says which, so you can pick something that suits you rather than turning up to a surprise.

Bring boots or trainers you do not mind getting muddy, a coat, and some water. That is genuinely the whole kit list.

You do not need to be struggling to come

Most men on our walks are not in crisis. They are just short of people to do things with, which is a much more common problem than anyone admits. Adult friendship is hard to build from a standing start, and a scheduled walk with a fixed start time solves a surprising amount of that.

If you are having a rough time, you are welcome too, and you will not be the only one. Nobody will make you talk about it.