Walks throughout Europe that can be completed in a day. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to locate the route.
I forget that it’s market day and we’re stuck in traffic crawling through the ancient walled town of Alcudia on ...
My first visit to Chamonix was in 1993 when I walked there from the shores of Lake Geneva doing a section ...
The ‘Bisses’ of the Valais region of Switzerland are long irrigation channels, many of them hundreds of years old, built ...
MacGillycuddy's Reeks may sound like a character out of a Roald Dahl book but is in fact an extensive mountain ...
I am back for a second attempt at walking up Puig del Vilar. My first, halfhearted and unprepared effort was ...
The walk over the Coll de Síller begins in the attractive tourist resort of Port de Pollença with its bars, ...
The Formentor peninsula is the rocky, volcanic spit of land that sticks out into the blue Mediterranean on the north ...
Of all the walks around Pollenca, the walk up Puig de Santuiri is perhaps not the most exciting one to ...
La Mola looks down onto the pretty seaside town of Cala sant Vicenc in the far north east of the ...
If you are a walker staying in the Pollenca area of Mallorca, the pretty walk along the valley de Boquer ...
We’ve been visiting Mallorca for decades. In the early days it was Santa Ponca in the South West but over ...
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My walks in the United States including Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to see the route.
Is a walk of less than a mile really a walk? That's maybe one for the philosophers but I'll go ...
“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its wall seems to glow with life.” ...
Our campsite, just outside Moab, Utah is in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. The plateau varies between three to ...
The Arches National Park is like no place I have ever walked in before. Set high on the desert plateau ...
‘Don’t worry Mom, I know all about cannibalism, I saw it on TV’. Like Danny in The Shining, it’s all ...
Reading the news recently that there are now more redwoods in the U.K. than in California (read here) reminded me ...
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My walks in Canada including the rain forests of Vancouver Island and the Canadian Rockies. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to see the route.
The Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park is one of the newer national parks in British Columbia, being established in ...
Events elsewhere mean many Canadians are vacationing at home this year and it seems half of them have chosen to ...
When ‘Oyster’ Martin moved to Vancouver Island in the 1980’s he fell in love with the rugged landscape and rocky ...
The alarm goes at 6am and by ten past we are on the road, half awake and unwashed with the ...
It’s a six hour drive from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia on Vancouver Island to our campsite in Tofino ...
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It’s my second day parked up in a nice little spot on the Wrynose Pass. Last night it got down to -1°c in the van and it’s freezing as I walk up the road to the three shire stone, grateful for the steepness to warm me up. Yesterday I turned left and headed to Great Carrs, today I turn right towards Pike O’Blisco and Cold Pike. It’s another crisp and clear day in Lakeland with not a cloud to be seen in the cornflower blue sky.
Continue reading “Pike O’Blisco and Cold Pike from Wrynose Pass”
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The Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park is one of the newer national parks in British Columbia, being established in 2016. It’s a relatively small park with only a short hike around it and the walking is almost all along boardwalks that have been put in place to protect the delicate ecosystems from human feet. Some of the western red cedars in the forest are a thousand years old or more and the park is a rare example of inland temperate rainforest, an environment unique to North America. And who can resist a walk in a rainforest.
Continue reading “A walk in Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Whudujut Provincial Park”
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I’ve had a summer away from Lakeland doing other things but as I drink my morning coffee a thousand feet up the Wrynose Pass watching the sun rise over Wetherlam it’s like meeting up with an old friend again. Shared experiences and years of familiarity mean the relationship is comfortably secure and time and distance apart is quickly forgotten. Every corner tells a story, and my particular memory here is of pushing an old mark three Cortina up an icy Wrynose Pass just after Christmas sometime in the mid eighties on our way to Eskdale YHA.
Continue reading “Great Carrs, Swirl How and Grey Friar from Wrynose Pass”
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Events elsewhere mean many Canadians are vacationing at home this year and it seems half of them have chosen to visit Banff and Lake Louise at the same time as us. Consequently, I made sure to call at Lake Louise Ski Resort yesterday and secure our tickets for the 8.15am bus stopping at Moraine Lake first before going on to Lake Louise. This way we still get to see both of these extremely popular and beautiful lakes but can take our time at Lake Louise and walk the Lake Agnes Tea House Trail, a walk I’ve had my eye on for some time.
Continue reading “Moraine Lake and Lake Agnes Tea House Trail”
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When ‘Oyster’ Martin moved to Vancouver Island in the 1980’s he fell in love with the rugged landscape and rocky headlands of the west coast that he saw from his fishing boat each day and had a dream to create a trail along the coastline that could be accessed and enjoyed by all. Forty years later that vision has grown into the Wild Pacific Trail and today I’m walking the Lighthouse Loop section, which happens to be the first section that was completed back in 1999.
Continue reading “The Lighthouse Loop Trail – Vancouver Island”
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The alarm goes at 6am and by ten past we are on the road, half awake and unwashed with the bed still warm in the back of the van. All is quiet as we drive out of Lake Louise Campground through the sleepy town and out onto the Trans Canada One heading west. The sun is breaking through but clouds still cover the higher peaks and mist floats over the Bow river as we head up Kicking Horse Pass and back into British Columbia and Yoho National Park. The only other vehicles on the road are gigantic trucks, engines labouring up the incline.
Continue reading “A walk around Emerald Lake, Yoho National Park”
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It’s a six hour drive from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia on Vancouver Island to our campsite in Tofino and my nerves are tested on the narrow bendy bit of the Pacific Rim Highway beyond Port Alberni. I am after all, driving on the wrong side of the road and sitting on the wrong side of the vehicle. The journey passes without incident though and as we park up at Tsawaak RV campground a gossamer thin sea mist is drifting in from the ocean obscuring sight and muffling sound. The cold dampness on our skin is refreshing though after the heat of Vancouver and Victoria where temperatures were in the mid 30’c.
Continue reading “Walking the Tonquin Trail on Vancouver Island”
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In March 1988 Andy and I were enjoying a few days walking in a cold and frosty Lakeland. Having walked up Grains Gill from Seathwaite we were taking a break when we noticed two red clad walkers who were motoring up the path at some pace behind us. “They’re not hanging around,” remarked Andy and as the two speedy walkers drew level we recognised one of them to be non other than Sir Chris Bonington, one of Britain’s best known and celebrated mountaineers. We chatted for a few minutes before Sir Chris went off with his companion to climb Central Gully on Great End which was nicely compacted with frozen snow and Andy and I went off to climb England’s highest mountain for the first time. I’ve walked past that spot in Grains Gill many times since and will do so again today, in the heat of an English summer as I walk up Allen Crags and Seathwaite Fell. Each time I pass by I remember with fondness the day I met a mountaineering legend.
Continue reading “Allen Crags and Seathwaite Fell from Seathwaite”
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It’s always nice to start a walk straight from the campsite and Chapel House Farm has the added benefit that I can have breakfast looking up at my first hill of the day, Rosthwaite Fell. Wainwright dedicates his book on the Southern Fells, the book I’m currently walking through to “The Sheep of Lakeland, the hardiest of all fellwalkers”. In what has been a sustained spell of dry weather these hardy Herdwicks are suffering a little. Richard, the farmer and campsite owner tells me the dry weather has not been good for his flock of a thousand Herdwicks who are suffering from the lack of water and parasitic infestations growing in their wool. For his livelihood and the sheep’s well-being I hope Lakeland has some rain soon, maybe just not today.
Continue reading “Rosthwaite Fell and Glaramara from Rosthwaite”
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Before starting my book by book journey through Wainwright’s iconic 214 I had climbed many of them before, one hundred and one of them to be precise. Coniston Old Man was one of those and my walking journal tells me I climbed it on Friday 14th August 1987 with a couple of other guys and the weather was clear. To be honest I don’t remember much about that walk but the 80’s and early 90’s were years when long social evenings in the pub were as much a part of any visit to the Lakes as the walking itself so that may account for my somewhat hazy memory.
Continue reading “Three Wainwrights from Coniston Village”
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Tilberthwaite car park is almost full when I arrive, late in the afternoon on what has been a lovely warm and sunny Lakeland day. There are a dozen or so cars and three or four vans that I figure will be keeping me company overnight. By 8pm however everyone has departed and I have the place to myself. Dusk turns slowly into the ink black night of the countryside, far away from neon, where stars can shine bright. I enjoy a quiet evening followed by the sleep of the saved and the thankful with only the owls and the comforting sound of the newly born Yewdale Beck to disturb the silence.
Continue reading “A walk up Wetherlam from Tilberthwaite”
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The day is turning into a very fine one for walking as I park in the very same spot I occupied two months ago. The sky is cloudless and eggshell blue, the sun is beaming but it’s April and the temperature is still pleasant and there is not so much as a breath of wind to rustle the leafs. Busyness has been ruling out any visits north but the diary and the weather have both become clear and my season opener is to be a not too taxing leg stretch up Holme Fell.
Continue reading “A walk up Holme Fell”
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“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its wall seems to glow with life.” John Muir
When John Muir, the Scottish born naturalist got off a boat in San Francisco on March 28 1868 the story goes that he asked a carpenter what was the quickest way out of the bustling, chaotic city. “Where do you want to go” said the carpenter, “anywhere that is wild” was the reply. And so it was that later that year Muir saw Yosemite for the first time. Its sheer rock walls and natural beauty cast a spell on him which changed his life and led to him playing a pivotal role in Yosemite’s establishment as America’s third National park and secured his title as the ‘Father of National Parks’.
Continue reading “A walk to Upper Yosemite Falls”
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The unpredictable weather of January and trying to sync available time with rare windows of opportunity proved fruitless so it was the beginning of February before I headed up the M6. Knowing that commitments would be ruling out the rest of the month into March I was hoping, despite the mixed forecast, for a couple of cloud free days to keep some forward momentum on Book Four.
Continue reading “A walk around Tarn Hows taking in Black Fell”
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A visit to the far north west of Scotland is an invitation to slow yourself down and reset to a quieter, simpler way of living. It’s a place where the demands on your time and the notifications on your phone can be turned off for a while and you can instead, absorb the silence or watch fishing boats bringing in a catch of prawns in the golden hour whilst listening to the tide gently lapping on rocks that are among the oldest on earth. In the highlands you can find the time and space to think about things, to breathe out, or just do nothing at all, when was the last time you did that? These are rare treasures indeed in our ever busy, scrolling world. “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom” to quote E O Wilson.
Continue reading “A walk around the Shieldaig Peninsula”
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Walks throughout the UK that can be completed in a day. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to locate route.
A visit to the far north west of Scotland is an invitation to slow yourself down and reset to a ...
The car park for the Falls of Kirkaig is empty when we arrive with two steak pie and mashed potato ...
What they undertook to do they brought to pass; All things hang like a drop of dew Upon a blade ...
The Isle of Arran is often referred to as ‘Scotland in Miniature’ because the north of the island is mountainous ...
‘Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a marvelous freedom from the tumult of the world.’ Saint Aelred Rievaulx Abbey sits on ...
I first read about Sandwood Bay in 1982 in that wonderful series of hardback ‘Classic Walks’ books written by Ken ...
“This oak tree and me, we're made of the same stuff.” Carl Sagan There has been a great outpouring of ...
Ogwen is a familiar and famous place to hillwalkers in Snowdonia. Surrounded on all sides by the high peaks of ...
It’s early but the summer sun has already lifted above the hills as I pull into a little lay by ...
It's a clear fresh Autumn morning as I pull into the top car park at the end of the Aber ...
Autumn in the Lake District can often be one of the most sublime times of the year, truly a "Season ...
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Our campsite, just outside Moab, Utah is in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. The plateau varies between three to twelve thousand feet above sea level and stretches over four states. Consisting of high, sparsely populated and arid desert land it’s home to no less than nine National Parks, including the Grand Canyon. Even if you’ve never visited you will have seen the plains, canyons, red rock towers and buttes of the Colorado Plateau in countless movies about the ‘Wild West’ from The Searchers to Forrest Gump. In fact, the opening scene from Mission Impossible II was filmed on the trail we will be walking today.
Continue reading “A walk to Grand View Point Overlook, Canyonlands National Park”
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