Just beyond the muted ochres and calm sophistication of Stockholm is a wilder world. Summer is the green season and it is greener the deeper into the woods you wander. You can catch a train to the last metro stop on the line going south or north and find yourself on a long-distance walking trail. Here is our story of walking the first section of three of these trails.
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Late one warm Saturday afternoon finds us on the sundeck of the Rīga ferry as it navigates its way through the beautiful labyrinth that is the Stockholm archipelago.
We pass so close to some islands that we can exchange greetings with the summer house dwellers sunning themselves on the rocks. Islands upon islands, pine forests, red and yellow-painted summer houses, sailing boats, skerries. Then out into the Baltic Sea, calm enough on the night of our crossing to sleep without memory.
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An owl, then rain. Soft green grass swaying in the breeze and an abundance of flowers; wild roses, buttercups, foxgloves and daisies. Young boys running through the greenness, trailing plastic union jack kites.
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The South Downs Way follows ancient tracks along the escarpment and ridges of the South Downs, a line of chalk hills stretching across Hampshire and Sussex to the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters. Green, smooth-swelling, unending, the Downs provided inspiration for the Bloomsbury group and continue to exhilarate artists, writers, travellers and walkers today.
The concourse of London Victoria station a frenzy of movement. Financiers striding anxiously to work as the Pound Sterling plummets in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Dazed festival-goers returning from Glastonbury leaving a trail of mud and ennui in their wake. And those like us, keen to be away from the city, jostling against the incoming human tide to board the train. On the southbound journey, we sit opposite a sardonic, linen-suited Guardian reader, eruditely discussing the Brexit referendum with his travelling companion. Read More
The Three Capes Track promises to be ‘no ordinary walk’. A boat trip, three capes and four days exploring the wild coastal landscapes of the Tasman Peninsula. Meandering through fragrant heathlands, woodlands and lush green rainforests, climbing peaks, edging our way along some of the highest sea cliffs in Australia and being drawn to the swirling cobalt blue sea below. Read More
On a warm hazy afternoon, we met our French friends, Jean and Marie-José, on the steps of the Lisbon Cathedral, procured our pilgrim credentials and set out to walk the Camino Portugues.
This is our third Camino. In 2005 we walked the 750 km Camino Françes from St Jean Pied du Port on the French side of the Pyrenees, across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Three years later we walked the Via de la Plata, a 1,000 km journey from Seville in the south of Spain to Santiago de Compostela. It was on this walk that we met and fell in with Jean and Marie-José, our affection for each other and ‘the way’ triumphing over our very limited grasp of French. We last saw them in 2010 when we spent a few idyllic days in their village of Saint-Thomè in the wild and beautiful Ardèche. Now we are together again, to walk the 650 km Camino Portugues from Lisbon, through Portugal and into northern Spain, hugging the coastline where we can and avoiding the more travelled inland route.
Late one night in the winter of 2014 we left work, forever.
Two days later we flew to France to cycle the Loire à Vélo, our liberation ride. A 1,000 kilomètre journey from Saint Nazaire on Brittany’s Atlantic coast to Nevers in Burgundy, following the Loire, one of the last untamed rivers of Europe
A 65-kilometre warm-up ride along the coast. Past lighthouses, fishing huts built on stilts high above the water and a procession of French families carrying fishing nets, brightly coloured beach balls and striped towels. We stopped at Saint Marc sur Mer to pay homage to Monsieur Hulot and then cycled on through the salt marshes to the medieval walled village of Guerande.
Riding back in the warm twilight, our spirits soared as we cut through fields and forest trails. Our more-experienced cycling companions, Patricia and Paul, declared us Loire à Vélo ready and early the next morning we set off towards infinity and into a beautiful green valley listed as a world heritage living cultural landscape.
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