If you're bored with the same old neighbourhood strolls or feeling constrained by car journeys, it's time to be more adventuresome and really get those feet moving.
Walking offers you and your charges fresh air, greenery, new sights and good, free exercise, as well as a bit of a challenge to your resourcefulness. It will give you memories to recall together for months, and show you new places you may want to revisit. You're lucky if you have the countryside close at hand, but green nooks can be found everywhere, and London's larger open spaces such as Hampstead Heath or Richmond Park can provide more than a day out in themselves.
Regardless of the ages of the children in your care, you must always get their parents' permission before taking them on any long jaunts, and stay contactable as you would on any outing. If it's not too far out of the way you could always check out the area you plan to walk in beforehand on your own. Ideally, do your walks with another nanny or adult friend, for safety and moral support.
In out-and-about nannying, as in boy scouting, the rule is: be prepared.
You are probably already doing this anyway. Pack in your bag some drinks and a snack or a picnic, a few plasters and first-aid creams for possible cuts and bug bites, a change of socks, rain gear if it's wet or hats if it's sunny, and nappy changing necessities if you're with a baby.
Babies and toddlers may seem more transportable in a sling or back-carrier, but today's all-terrain buggies are designed for off-roading and will take that weight off your shoulders. You just need to think about how you are going to negotiate stiles or kissing-gates if they're on your rural route.
Think also about how little arms and legs could be scratched by nettles and logs - wearing long sleeves and loose trousers is preferable to shorts.
Sturdy shoes or reliable trainers are a must for everyone - leave the sandals at home, along with the Wellington boots, which are too loose for long walking and easily get stuck in mud.
The other essential item of walking equipment is a guidebook or map.
Nothing beats the Ordnance Survey map (borrowable from public libraries) for walkers, and you don't have to be one of the boots and bobble hats brigade to be able to use one. On OS maps, public rights of way appear as red dotted lines - the short dots footpaths, the long ones bridleways. The distance apart of the wavy brown contour lines will tell you how much climbing or flat walking you'll have to do. Use the scale to measure how far you will walk - with children, two, three or four miles is plenty - and pinpoint some suitable rest stops along the way.
Older children will enjoy the symbols on OS maps, as every school, church, pub, level crossing, car park and payphone is marked. They'll learn that farms all have names and that this country has more woods than a teddy bear would know what to do with. With your help they can even pick out the street where they live.
Once you're out there on the ground you can all have fun spotting the waymarks for designated footpaths, with their distinctive coloured arrows or acorns, and for these paths you often don't need a map. Scenic walking routes are also available in leaflets you can get at public libraries and tourist information centres.
TRAIL ON TRIAL
Now, to try one handy guidebook, Jarrold's Short Walks for All the Family.
These show sections from the OS maps and tell you the distance covered in each walk, the time to allow for doing it, where to arrive by public transport or where to park a car, and what sort of landscapes and barriers to expect.
In one area that's ripe for walkers, the Chiltern hills north-west of London, the children and I tried out a route that boldly goes across the grounds of the Prime Minister's country residence, Chequers. 'Begin from a small layby parking area along Ellesborough road', says the book. Well, that's usually the hardest part: finding the beginning, and parking. You never know how many other vehicles are going to be parked there when you arrive, so be prepared to try another space nearby.
Rucksacks on back and guidebook in hand, it's time to put one foot in front of the other. I never feel confident that I really am on the right route until I've found at least two signposts, one turning, one large field, emerging on to a road and turning into a bridlepath going past houses and climbing into the edge of a woodland, as this guide says. The most reassuring sight of all, to the unconfident, is other walkers coming or going the same way. And seriously, it's best to choose a path where you're likely to see other walkers, as well as taking an adult companion along, for women and children out on their own are right to feel vulnerable.
Having found the edge of this woodland, it's easy to see that you're following it, both on the ground and on the map. It may seem a bit more daunting to know where to turn off it - but then the guidebook marks such junctions with a big red letter on the map, and in this case it's one of the south-east's main long-haul footpaths, the Ridgeway, just like the wooden post says. Following the Ridgeway, crossing a road and going through a kissing-gate are landmarks you can't miss. And then, there you are, crossing the Prime Minister's driveway, with your humble boots on the ground that so many dignified guests must have been chauffered along to their weekend at Chequers.
You keep the mansion in view up to the next woodland edge, and without looking at the map you can tell you're now backtracking in a horseshoe and can hardly get lost. Except that, as more footpaths criss-cross and interesting hills appear, the children may be distracted into exploring them, climbing fallen trees or digging up puddles. Detouring to take in a hilltop view is hard to resist, but finding the way back down to the right path with children who still haven't mastered gravity is another story.
Even on the right path near the end of this walk, we came down a very steep descent that wasn't mentioned in the book, so either we went the wrong way or the book left it out. Being prepared also means being ready to override maps with your common sense, and keep a feeling for where you're trying to get to. After all, farmers will block public paths, and signs will fall over occasionally.
Maybe that descent was at what the book calls 'a brief woodland interlude', which could mean anything. But the path across hill and field, with a church ahead as a landmark, just like in the photo, was unmissable.
With three and a half miles behind us, the children were ready for another snack, and they fell asleep in the car on the way home.
ANOTHER WAY
Interesting walk routes go through city areas as well, and might be the best bet for those who can't face trying to push a baby buggy through mud or gravel. You can always devise your own routes, and your local knowledge and judgement may serve you better than a guidebook. For example, the Jarrold's for North London says 'Parking: none' at Hampstead Heath, where I know several free stretches of roadside, while its Highgate/Archway walk says 'Parking: very limited at station' - well, they must be joking.
Likewise, written guides can lead you to expect lunch in a tea shop which turns out to be closed or costs the earth, or else make you lug around meals for three in your rucksack, when actually there's a useful little grocer's or newsagent's around the corner they don't mention. Luckily, more pubs these days accept children on the premises. And don't let it put you off if a guide indicates no toilets along your route - what better opportunity to teach the children how to answer the call of nature behind a bush?
