Walk the walk: the app mapping 140,000 miles of public right of way

The Slow Ways founder, Daniel Raven-Ellison (right) walks with the Guardian’s Patrick Barkham as they verify a route between Congleton and Macclesfield. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

I meet up with Daniel Raven-Ellison, the brains behind the Slow Ways walking network, in the darkness of a drizzly dawn at Kidsgrove railway station in Staffordshire. Our mission? To walk and verify the final 17-mile (27km) link in the route between Birmingham and Manchester.

Steady drizzle falls as we head north beside another slow way – the Trent and Mersey canal. “You can walk from Godalming [Surrey] to Kendal [Cumbria] on canals,” says Raven-Ellison. “We’ve got this ready-made national trail and there’s no signage to invite you to do that … Kingfisher!”