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 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.
My first visit to Chamonix was in 1993 when I walked there from the shores of Lake Geneva doing a ...
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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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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Walks in the United States including the Coastal Redwoods and the Grand Canyon. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to see the route.
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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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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My first visit to Chamonix was in 1993 when I walked there from the shores of Lake Geneva doing a section of the GR5. Thirty years later I walked there again taking the long way round from Les Houches when hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc. Last summer I actually got to drive into town when Mish and I headed off on our summer road trip to the French Alps.
Continue reading “A walk along the Grand Balcon Sud, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc”
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The car park for the Falls of Kirkaig is empty when we arrive with two steak pie and mashed potato dinners purchased twenty minutes earlier from Lochinver Larder but still hot. “How many other vans do you think will turn up, three, four?” I muse over our meal. Mish looks out of the window at the April showers and lowering temperature and confidently predicts “none”. Surely not, we’re in beautiful Assynt, surrounded by ancient woodland with the Kirkaig river not twenty feet from us. When I look out the window in the early hours the rain has stopped and we are alone, with just the owls, the roaring river and a billion stars twinkling in the ink black night sky to keep us company. Wives, why are they always right.
Continue reading “A walk to The Falls of Kirkaig”
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My walk up Lingmoor Fell starts conveniently at the National Trust campsite at the head of Great Langdale. I don’t even have to move the van and take full advantage by having a lazy breakfast. This may be my first walk of book four but it certainly won’t be my last from this location as Great Langdale is the launch pad for some of the big ones and a place I will get to know well over the coming months.
Continue reading “Lingmoor Fell from Great Langdale”
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My Walks in beautiful New Zealand including two of the world’s ‘Great Walks’ The Milford Track and The Routeburn Track. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to see the route.
The Milford Track is remote, so remote in fact that you have to get a boat to the start and ...
Sometime during the night the rain had stopped and when we left the bunk room the sun was breaking through ...
As forecast we awake to a completely different scene from the Sunshine and clear blue skies of yesterday. Cloud and ...
It’s our final day on the Milford Track and there is a sense of anticipation in the air. Today, the ...
Driving to the start of the Routeburn track I was wondering if the walk we were about to do could ...
Day two on the Routeburn Track dawns bright and clear. All twenty or so bunks in our room were full ...
All was quiet and still in the valley as I paid a visit to the outside toilet during the early ...
After completing two of the ten ‘Great Walks’ in New Zealand we’re working our way slowly up through South Island, ...
It’s only sitting at home, a few weeks after my return from New Zealand that I have time to reflect ...
We are nearing the end of our month walking and travelling through the beautiful South Island of New Zealand / ...
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My hike along one of Europe’s classic long distance trails. Click on the walk to read the post or use the interactive map to see the route.
It’s been a long two days in the driving seat, it turns out the Alps are a long way from ...
The storm eventually passed over in the early hours leaving behind a dry but overcast morning. Steve slept right through ...
The Tour du Mont Blanc and the Alps in general are perfect for hut to hut walking. In France they ...
If day one of the Tour du Mont Blanc was an hors d’oeuvre and day two a starter, day three ...
The small village of Les Chapieux sits at the western most point of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Although it’s ...
Dawn brings with it another gloriously sunny day on the Tour du Mont Blanc. We are now in the Italian ...
“The beauty of adventure is to dream of it, to give air to the imagination, then you also try to ...
Today we will enter the third country on our walk around Mont Blanc. This country is a land of mountains, ...
For the last week we’ve been in the heart of the mountains. Walking along narrow rugged trails surrounded by snow ...
When we step outside to boot up for day nine of our Tour du Mont Blanc there are ominous dark ...
Today we have the third and final border crossing of our Tour du Mont Blanc when we say goodbye to ...
Stepping onto the wooden balcony that adjoins our room at 6am all is silent in the valley. The cool, still ...
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For ...
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