Every walker I know also enjoys the pleasures of our pub heritage with pub walks naturally combining two of Britain's best-loved traditions.

In each edition of "The Pub Walker", we will look at a variety of topics that illustrate why pub walks have become such an enduring and enjoyable hobby. We will bring you the latest on all of the following:

• New pub walks and members' favourites
• Award-winning pubs, pub news and promotions
• Walking news and events
• News and campaigns affecting our countryside and our heritage
• Other special events including beer, food and walking festivals

To help you quickly find the articles that interest you most, we will always include an "In this issue" section at the top from where you can jump straight to any topic simply by clicking on its title.

But please remember we are new to this and very open to ideas. We want this newsletter to reflect what you, the pub walkers, want to read about and if we don't hit the spot first time around then please tell us by sending an email to leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.

If you have any stories you would like to share then feel free to send us those too - maybe of happenings on pub walks that made people laugh, or perhaps a publican's tale from the other side of the bar, or even a review of one of the events in our Dates for your Diary section?

To pub walkers everywhere, this newsletter is dedicated to you...

Award-winning Pubs and where to find them

Awards are aimed at rewarding excellence so here we will include a range of pubs who have demonstrated excellence in an area that is of interest to pub walkers - families, food, real ale or simply customer service for example.

We hope that by us highlighting them it help us all to track them down and give them additional custom. Even better, why not use this list as a source for ideas on where to create your next pub walk? Either way, please email us with your experiences at leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com.

This section will become a regular feature of The Pub Walker which we will then add to a special page on MyFavouritePubWalks.com for future reference. Our first selection of winners come from The Publican Awards, The Abbot Ale Perfect Pub Award, The PubChef Food Excellence Award and The National Steak Pie Competition:

The Publican Awards 2007

ESTABLISHMENT	LOCATION	CATEGORY
The Fox	North Waltham, Hampshire	Pub Food Pub of the Year
The Rose & Crown	Snettisham, King's Lynn	Family Pub of the Year
The Fence Gate Inn	Fence, Lancashire	Freehouse of the Year
The Station Hotel	Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire	Customer Service Pub of the Year
The William IV	Hoxton, London	Pub Design of the Year
The Thorverton Arms	Thorverton, Devon	Promotional Pub of the Year

The Abbot Ale Perfect Pub 2007 (voted for by the public)

ESTABLISHMENT	LOCATION	CATEGORY
The Turf Tavern	Oxford	Perfect Pub
The Turf Tavern	"	Best Cask Beer

PubChef Food Excellence Awards 2007

ESTABLISHMENT	LOCATION	CATEGORY
The Russell	Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire	Pub Chef of the Year
The Rose & Crown	Snettisham, Norfolk	Young Pub Chef of the Year
The Russell	Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire	Game Pub Chef of the Year
The Dog Inn	Woodbridge, Suffolk	Beer with Food Pub Chef of the Year
The Lickfold Inn	Petworth, West Sussex	Seafood Pub Chef of the Year
The Three Fishes	Mitton, Lancashire	Pub Classics Pub Chef of the Year
The Linnet	Trowbridge, Wiltshire	Desserts Pub Chef of the Year

National Steak Pie Competition 2007 - Finalists

ESTABLISHMENT	LOCATION	STEAK PIE
The Five Bells Inn	Clyst Hydon, Cullompton, Devon, EX15 2NT	Citrus Beef, Leek, Thyme and Pickled Kumquat Pie in a Potato Pastry Basket
The Talbot Arms	Benville Lane, Benville Near Evershot, Dorset, DT2 0NN	Steak & Ale Pie
Wills O’ Nats Inn	Blackmoorfoot Road, Meltham, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, HD9 5PS	The Geordie Pie
The Guinea Grill	30 Bruton Place, Mayfair, London W1J 6NL	Steak & Mushroom Pie
Ring O’ Bells	212 Hilltop Road, Thornton, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD13 3QL	Diced Steak & Country Vegetable in ‘Abbots’ Ale & Thyme Sauce Encased in a Caramelised Shallot & Sage Shortcrust Pastry

Please send any comments to leigh@myfavouritepubwalks.com if you try any of these award-winning pubs and would like to give feedback.

Where is The Nation's Favourite Pub Walk?

When we launched MyFavouritePubWalks.com earlier this year, we wanted to mark the event with something memorable, something unique, something that would catch people's imagination, be talked about, be written about, and reflect what we wanted to achieve with our website.

And so the first ever Quest for The Nation's Favourite Pub Walk was born.

Launched as a competition with prizes not only for those entering pub walks but also for publicans and voters, it immediately generated publicity in the form of a number of BBC Radio interviews, local newspaper articles and a double page spread in The Publican. We were also very grateful to The Ramblers Association, Ebury Press (The Good Pub Guide) and Blacks for generously donating additional prizes.

As the Summer weather (hopefully) approaches, we now enter the peak time for people to be enjoying pub walks as part of their holiday. This is therefore also when we anticipate the majority of pub walks will be entered into the competition. So far entries are clustered in the following counties:

• Avon
• Bedfordshire
• Buckinghamshire
• Cambridgeshire
• Devon
• Dorset
• Flintshire
• Hampshire
• Herefordshire
• Hertfordshire
• London
• Shropshire
• Somerset
• Suffolk
• Wiltshire

If you live in any of these counties, why not take a look and see if you fancy trying any of the pub walks and then vote ... or maybe you know others that you feel are far superior that you could enter into the competition yourself. If your county is not yet represented, well, the field is wide open!

The purpose of this competition is to spread the word and encourage participation in an extremely enjoyable activity whilst also supporting our community pubs at a time when they need it like never before. Please do therefore join in, tell your friends and you never know you may win one of those prizes!

Remember, the deadline for entries is 9 September 2007 just after the school holidays finish ... that's only 6 weeks to go.

Voting will take place online using MyFavouritePubWalks.com's 5-star rating system which also allows comments to be added if desired. The last day for casting votes is 30 September 2007.

For further information please visit MyFavouritePubWalks.com/competition where you will find full details of the prizes as well as how to enter a pub walk, how to vote and how to become a participating pub.