International Walking | Jims Walking Journey

Walking with giants, the coastal redwoods of northern California

Reading the news recently that there are now more redwoods in the U.K. than in California (read here) reminded me of my own encounter with these magnificent giants of the natural world on an RV tour of the seven most western states in the contiguous USA some years ago. Commitments, coughs and colds seem to be conspiring to keep me away from Lakeland at the moment so I figure now is as good a time as any to finally write up and share some of these RV experiences that have sat gathering dust in the bottom drawer…

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A walk up Carrauntoohil, Ireland’s Highest Mountain

MacGillycuddy’s Reeks may sound like a character out of a Roald Dahl book but is in fact an extensive mountain range in County Kerry, Ireland and the home to Ireland’s highest peaks including its highest, Carrauntoohil. The far south west of Ireland is a little out of the way for an Englishman but a road trip around the ‘Emerald Isle’ with some friends provides an opportunity, should the timetable and the changeable Kerry weather oblige to climb this mountain.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Twelve – Refuge la Flégère to Chamonix

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy!
Robert Burns

The best laid scheme of today was to finish our Tour du Mont Blanc on top of Le Brévent and then get the cable car down into Chamonix to celebrate. It started to go awry with the weather forecast of last night and was confirmed in the early hours when the storm rolled in, wind whistling through the gaps in the old wooden frames and rain sweeping across the panes.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Eleven – Tré Le Champ to Refuge la Flégère

Stepping onto the wooden balcony that adjoins our room at 6am all is silent in the valley. The cool, still morning air fills my nostrils with the scent of pines and wood smoke. Dew glistens on the grass in the small camping field next to the refuge and people in the tents are stirring. I stand for a while in the stillness, looking up at Mont Blanc and reflecting on our walk so far. We have seen the mountain we are walking around from different aspects, from different countries and in different weather. It has been the central hub and ever present reminder of the reason for our journey, our very own ‘Tour du Mont Blanc‘. Today is our penultimate day and it promises to be a good one.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Ten – Trient to Tre Le Champ

Today we have the third and final border crossing of our Tour du Mont Blanc when we say goodbye to the forests of Switzerland and cross back into France at Col de Balme. It’s a Grand Old Duke of York walking day, a long steep walk up followed by a long steep walk down. Hill walking pared down to its simplest form, you’re going up or you’re going down, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and don’t forget to breathe. The reward for all this effort is we’ll get our first sight of Mont Blanc from the French side and we’ll also see the Chamonix valley, the end of our journey for the first time.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Nine – Champex to Trient

When we step outside to boot up for day nine of our Tour du Mont Blanc there are ominous dark clouds drifting through the valley. A blanket of grey covers the mountain tops and mist hangs ethereally around the pines surrounding Auberge Gîte Bon Abri. Just as we are about to start walking the heavens open and a torrential downpour sends us for cover under the giant gazebo in the grounds of the Auberge. It’s going to be one of those days.

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A walk up Puig del Vilar, Mallorca

I am back for a second attempt at walking up Puig del Vilar. My first, halfhearted and unprepared effort was abandoned after having my legs scratched by thorn bushes and my hands scraped on the serrated, sandpaper like limestone that forms the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range in Mallorca. Thrust up from the seabed by the collision of Africa 170 million years ago and never ground smooth by any ice age, walking in these rough and rugged hills can be unforgiving, especially in the blazing sunshine.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Eight – La Fouly to Champex

For the last week we’ve been in the heart of the mountains. Walking along narrow rugged trails surrounded by snow topped pinnacled peaks with precipitous drops. We’ve gazed in awe at long serrated ridges with sprawling ice blue glaciers creeping down from the heights. It’s been a full on, exciting and immersive mountain experience. The contrast with today’s walk from La Fouly to Champex is stark, the mountains are replaced by meadows and the sound of cow bells replaces the roaring rivers. We will be walking next to the mountains, with glimpses of them but we will not be walking in them.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Seven – Rifugio Bonatti to La Fouly

Today we will enter the third country on our walk around Mont Blanc. This country is a land of mountains, cuckoo clocks and precision timing, holey cheese, delicious chocolate and secretive bank accounts. And of course the Swiss Army knife, one of which I have in my rucksack. We cross into Switzerland over Grand Col Ferret. At 2532m (8,307ft) the col will also be the highest point we will reach on our walk as we’re following the regular Tour du Mont Blanc route without variants.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Six – Courmayeur to Rifugio Bonatti

“The beauty of adventure is to dream of it, to give air to the imagination, then you also try to give substance to your dreams”.
Walter Bonatti

As I climb up the steep rise above Rifugio Bertone, the noonday sun is beating down, my lungs are busting and I am soaked in sweat. All this is forgotten however when I reach the grassy knoll above the Rifugio and am confronted by a sight of sublime magnificence. Across Val Ferret, so close it can almost be touched is the Mount Blanc massif. Once again, I am astounded by the majesty of this huge mountain range of jagged rock and ice. Its scale and beauty is difficult to describe. It is indescribable. And once again, a balcony path stretches ahead of me ensuring that I get to revel in its awesomeness for the rest of the day.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Five – Rifugio Elisabetta to Courmayeur

Dawn brings with it another gloriously sunny day on the Tour du Mont Blanc. We are now in the Italian Alps and the rising sun is shining directly down Val Veny casting long shadows and turning the rivulets and pools of Lac de Combal into silver ribbons and mirrors laid out on the valley floor. Our stay at the iconic Rifugio Elisabetta has been a good one and the experience is stored in the memory for future happy recall.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Four – Les Chapieux to Rifugio Elisabetta

The small village of Les Chapieux sits at the western most point of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Although it’s elevation is 1549m (5,082ft), far higher than any land in the U.K. it is surrounded on all sides by higher mountain ranges giving it a somewhat enclosed, protected feeling. It has a shop with attached pizzeria, two functional but not luxurious Auberges, a tourist information office and a large Aire de camping car.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Three – Refuge de Nant Borrant to Les Chapeiux

If day one of the Tour du Mont Blanc was an hors d’oeuvre and day two a starter, day three is the 16oz steak and chips. Today we finally enter the land of big mountains with two high cols, the Col du Bonhomme and the Col de La Croix Bonhomme to get over and one one iconic mountain hut, Refuge Col de La Croix Bonhomme to visit.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day Two – Refuge du Fioux to Refuge de Nant Borrant

The Tour du Mont Blanc and the Alps in general are perfect for hut to hut walking. In France they are generally called Refuges, in Italy Rifugios and in Switzerland Auberges. They are often located right in the heart of the mountains among the most spectacular scenery and provide you with dinner, breakfast and a bed for the night. They also have showers, of varying degrees of efficiency. Last nights was by means of a token, which gave me maybe fifty seconds of mildly warm water before stopping altogether whilst in mid soap. We shared a room with an older German couple, the lady spoke reasonable English, the man none, which matches the extent of my German.

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Tour du Mont Blanc Day One – Les Houches to Refuge du Fioux

The storm eventually passed over in the early hours leaving behind a dry but overcast morning. Steve slept right through it all, not a care in the world, that’s an Irishman for you. Although it’s dry now, more thunder and lightning are forecast for the afternoon, just as we will be at our high point on the Col de Voza, so there is some urgency to our efforts to get out of Les Houches and on the trail in order to beat the storm.

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The Tour du Mont Blanc – An Introduction

It’s been a long two days in the driving seat, it turns out the Alps are a long way from the UK but at 5pm we roll into Bellevue Campsite in Les Houches. Dark, brooding, rain filled clouds are hanging low over the Chamonix valley cloaking the mountains. The atmosphere is still and electrified, awaiting the coming storm. The driving has stopped but walking the Tour du Mont Blanc is just about to begin. I’m tired but excited in equal measure and I can’t wait for the next twelve days.

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Port de Pollença to Cala Sant Vicenç via Coll de Siller

The walk over the Coll de Síller begins in the attractive tourist resort of Port de Pollença with its bars, restaurants and sun worshipers and ends in the smaller but equally busy resort of Cala Sant Vicenç with its bars, restaurants and sun worshipers. In between there is a slice of Mallorca that would be alien to most of the bikini clad beach dwellers who tend not to venture beyond the resorts. It’s only a short walk but can be lengthened if you decide to return over the pass after spending time in Cala Sant Vicenç. It holds interest for walkers because of the views along the Cavall Bernat ridge and down to Port de Pollença and the way, in only a mile, it connects ‘holiday resort’ Mallorca with a bit of ‘walking’ Mallorca.

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A walk along the Three Mile Pack Track, Okarito, New Zealand

We are nearing the end of our month walking and travelling through the beautiful South Island of New Zealand / Aotearoa. We have walked on mountains and through rainforests, along beaches and glacial moraine. We have seen a wild Kiwi in its native environment and visited a predator free island. We were drenched under its highest waterfall and gazed up at the knife edge arêtes on the snow plastered summit of its highest mountain. It has certainly been a trip to remember and for our last walk we find ourselves on the ‘Wild’ West Coast in the tiny settlement of Okarito, where we will be walking the three mile pack track.

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A walk up Na Blanca

The Formentor peninsula is the rocky, volcanic spit of land that sticks out into the blue Mediterranean on the north east coast of the Balearic island of Mallorca. It’s precipitous serrated cliffs rise up sharply all along the peninsula and provide a dramatic landscape. My walk today climbs one of those rocky outcrops, Na Blanca. After being unable to travel for a couple of years because of Covid it’s a pleasure to be back on this beautiful Balearic island for a late autumn break and I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with walking in Mallorca.

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Ulva Island – Te Wharawhara – New Zealand. A Walk on the other side of the world.

It’s only sitting at home, a few weeks after my return from New Zealand that I have time to reflect on just how special my walk on Ulva Island/Te Wharawhara was. Sitting off the southern tip of New Zealand Ulva Island is a predator free paradise of unspoiled temperate rainforest and footprint free beaches where the waves of the Southern Pacific Ocean break rhythmically onto golden sands. Human interference has been kept to a minimum on the island and a rich variety of flora and fauna has been allowed to flourish naturally. I don’t think I’m likely to have the privilege of walking in such a pristine environment again. It also happens to be the furthest south I am ever likely to travel. When I discovered the handy website ‘antipodesmap’ and put my home town in, it took me to the ocean about 300 miles South East of Ulva Island. As you can’t walk on water I’m going to say that I have literally walked on the other side of the world.

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