Algarve
Where to go warm winter walking in Europe
This is the time of year when there are regular travel articles about warm winter walking. Generally they’ll feature the same handful of locations. […]
Walkabout
Hiking
Choosing hiking destinations and inexperienced hikers
My source for much travel related pondering, Tripadvisor, highlighted the potential minefield new walkers especially have to negotiate when deciding on walking destinations. […]
Hiking
The ups and downs of seven days of walking
Will we be up to the challenge? Have our muscles atrophied to the point of no return? A trio of leg muscle-loosening exercises before we set off is akin to slapping a slumbering drunk – “come on, wake up you lazy gits”. […]
Equipment & Accessories
These boots were made for walking, but so were those others…
In the last decade and a half I’ve learnt a lot about hiking boots and shoes. Which is why we have a shoe rack inside our front door filled with them. We own five pairs each; different ones for varying conditions. Wherever we’re travelling to and whatever type of walking is required determines which comes with us. […]
As we walked out
A series of short walks in Scotland
A short route recommended by the folk at our hotel, the 15th century Knipoch, took us along a grassy path lined by bushy confers and moss-covered drystane dykes to an open hillock surrounded by crispy bracken and a tartan coloured vista which took in slender Loch Feochan, Mull, Islay, and a rolling landscape which had me wishing I was wearing my kilt. […]
Hiking
Slow travel, overtourism and rural locations
“Bom dia,” the woman smiles at us. She leans on the granite window frame of a traditional farm labourer’s cottage, watching inquisitively as we stroll through the tiny hamlet. “Little does she know we might be harbingers of a mini invasion,” Andy ponders. […]
As we walked out
Walking in Europe with a spring in the step
“Em Abril, águas mil.” There’s a reason for these old proverbs. This is from Portugal, Spain has one almost identical. Incidentally, so has Chile. Even Disney alludes to a feature that April can be known for – “Drip, drip, drop little April shower… ” […]
Hiking
Not all walkers are slow travellers
“I don’t want to read flowery descriptions,” the man smiled, but not really in a friendly way. More in a Wormtongue manner. “I just want walking directions that will tell me how to get from […]
Europe
Four activity filled days and no skiing in Zermatt
Just outside Furi we rested at another rocking mountain restaurant, huddled outside in freezing temperatures nursing authentically icy beers in gloved hands, our increasingly numb lips wishing we’d ordered glühwein. […]
Andros
Adjusting to rural transport around Europe
As we specialise in hiking we regularly find ourselves in areas where figuring out how we’re going to travel to, or return from, a linear walking route using whatever local transport is available can prove somewhat of a ‘suck it and see’ exercise. […]
Europe
Poets and palate-pleasers in Sanquhar
Visiting a lead mining museum (entrance £12.50) would not have made it on to our ‘things to do’ list. What a treat we would have missed. For a start, Wanlockhead near the head of the Mennock Pass is Scotland’s highest village… […]
Hiking
Stranger things found on walking routes
The Arrabida boots had a rather bizarre aspect to them; they were accompanied by bras. There were also some women’s knickers strewn around the dry grass beneath the tree. […]
Equipment & Accessories
The art of map reading, an essential skill for walkers
It’s funny that something I learnt at an early age – how to direct artillery fire onto an enemy position with pinpoint accuracy – could become an essential part of my working life decades later. […]
Europe
Walking in the past in Dumfries and Galloway
We followed country lanes and cautiously crossed fields populated by curious cows and pudgy-faced Texel sheep to reach an exquisitely beautiful and evocative little spot which was the location of a covenanters’ (Scottish Presbyterians) graveyard. […]
Europe
Wet and wonderful walking on the West Highland Way
We ponder whether to stay or walk the section of the West Highland Way which will lead us to Inverarnan. But we’ve got all the right gear so there’s no real reason to hide away from a wee bit rain and wind. […]