Category: Cultural

A view over the multicoloured houses of Manarola

Cinque Terre: a postcard from the lost world

Our Wanderlust 8 Comments

It’s our first spring in 18 months and we can’t get enough of the Cinque Terre; its vividly coloured villages, sparkling beaches, warm Italian sun and hillsides splashed with red poppies, purple orchids and white narcissus.

Centuries ago, the steep hills of the Cinque Terre were terraced with dry-stone walls and planted with vines. The inhabitants of its five villages farmed the land, fished the seas and made wine. But poverty, war and the lure of the city led to the abandonment of many of the hillside plots. The stabilising stone walls fell into disrepair and devastating landslides became more common. In response, the Cinque Terre National Park was created to restore and protect the natural and cultural heritage of this achingly beautiful coastal area. 

We plan to walk for four days; two days on the Cinque Terre’s high route (the Sentiero Rosso), one day on the coastal route, and one day further north, in the wilder Portofino Natural Park. 

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Evening, looking out across a softly lit Mehrangarh Fort to Jodhpur

Jodhpur: a postcard from the lost world

Our Wanderlust 6 Comments

On our way to the blue city of Jodhpur, we share the road with buffalo-drawn wooden ploughs, red-turbaned shepherds, men riding rickety bicycles piled high with building materials and flag-carrying pilgrims on their way to a holy site in the western desert. The dusty air is heady with incense on a day shot through with the silky colours of Rajasthan; reds, pinks, orange and saffron. 

We stop at a Jain temple high up in the mountains and wander its intricately carved marble interior, mesmerised by its icons and calm courtyards. We look out over a wild green landscape where leopards and Indian tigers still roam. 

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Achill Island: a postcard from the lost world

Our Wanderlust 7 Comments

A walking festival draws us to Achill Island on Ireland’s wild and beautiful west coast.

On the first night of the festival, we meet walkers from all over Ireland. Among them are Maree & Seamus O’Brien, Brid & Paula (named after the last Pope), the O’Reilly brothers and their nephew Jean-Paul (also named after a Pope) and Michelle, a fellow Camino aficionado. There’s also Anne & Ivan, an American couple keen like us to walk the land of their ancestors and know more of its stories.

Our leader is Tomás, an Irish-speaking archaeologist and mountaineer. Before we start climbing, he advises us to move gracefully up the slope, stop and let the wind pass and be mindful of our fellow walkers.

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Gotland: a postcard from the lost world

Our Wanderlust 1 Comment
From the railing of a ferry, a man watches the sea below

Strong winds and heavy seas are forecast for our 90-kilometre ferry journey from mainland Sweden to the island of Gotland. In the middle of the Baltic Sea, bells ring out, the ferry slows and passengers gather on the foredeck. In fading light, the bishop of Gotland recites a poem in memory of the eighty Gotlanders lost when a Russian submarine torpedoed the civilian ferry, Hassa, 70 years ago. Ancestors of the dead cast a wreath into the grey and gravid sea. 

Visby, Gotland’s capital, is an intact medieval walled city. Its streets are gracious with muted yellow and pink gabled merchant houses. Once-magnificent churches, ransacked during the Reformation, lie in ruins.

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Josef and the Silver Way

Our Wanderlust 2 Comments

Josef and the Silver Way was Anna’s entry in a competition run by the Chilean Friends of the Camino: 100 Caminos 100 Stories

In the middle of a pandemic, when no one could travel, these short stories of 100 words reminded us of shared adventures as well as the range of emotions and feelings experienced walking the Camino.

Over 700 entries were received from 43 countries and from these Josef and the Silver Way was selected for publication and awarded an Honorable Mention by the judges.  

Josef and the Silver Way

We walk by torchlight with Josef until dawn breaks and the earth’s shadow fades to blue. He’s 76 years old and the most inspirational of the pilgrims we meet on the Via de la Plata. Over dinner, he tells us that when his beloved wife died he sought solace in walking. He found his rhythm in the forests of Germany and one day set out from his home to walk the ancient pilgrimage path to Santiago. Serene, gracious, wise, he shows us the person we want to be at his age. Still walking, still open to beauty at every turn.

You can read all the entries, in Spanish and English, in the online version 100 Caminos 100 Relatos.

A huge thanks to the Chilean Circle of Friends of Way of Santiago de Compostela for this inspiring competition: 100 Caminos 100 Relatos: Historias breves a Santiago. Check their website for updates and news of new competitions.

Our first Camino was, like most people, the Camino Frances. This is our account of walking 700 km to Santiago and how it changed our lives.

The first light of day lights up the sandstone cliffs of the Wonderland Range

Grampians Peaks Loop, Australia

Our Wanderlust 2 Comments

The Grampians Peaks Loop beckons. After a year of confinement, the allure of wandering through wild landscapes for days on end is irrestible.

Starting at Mt Zero and extending southwards to Mt Abrupt, the yet-to-open Grampians Peaks Trail is a 160-kilometre-long walking path. As a precursor to its launch, a 35-kilometre loop walk showcases a section of the new Trail. It features some of the most spectacular scenery in the Grampians, including the Wonderland Range, the Pinnacle and Mt Rosea.

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A panoramic view from above Addiscot Beach on the Surf Coast Walk

Surf Coast Walk, Australia

Our Wanderlust 8 Comments

Back in March, when our knowledge of pandemics was, at best, naive, we picked up a map for the Surf Coast Walk, thinking to do it before winter closed in. But even as we cycled towards home, a tempest was whirling around us and uprooting normality. Borders were closing and Melbourne was going into lockdown. In July, a ‘ring of steel’ was imposed, prohibiting travel out of the city.

Melburnians, steadfast in adhering to the lockdown restrictions, were rewarded for their forbearance. In November 2020, with no COVID-19 cases for weeks, the ‘ring of steel’ that held us to within a few kilometres of home came down. Soon afterwards, we caught a train and bus to the coast, southwest of Melbourne, and breathed in deep draughts of wildness.

The Surf Coast Walk traverses the clifftops, beaches and Moonah woodlands that hug the coast between Fairhaven and Point Impossible. For almost 50 kilometres, over two days, we wandered along the edge of the continent, absorbing the intense blue of the sea and sky, the dusky green of the trees and the red and yellow ochres of the crumbling cliffs.

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Silhouette of person with an umbrella & streetscape just before sunset

Walking into the Light

Our Wanderlust 24 Comments

Melbourne is in lockdown. We can only walk for an hour a day, within a five-kilometre radius of home. Once out in the world, we cannot come close to another person or stop to enjoy a coffee or a glass of wine. And we must wear a mask. The seductive aromas of coffee roasters and spice shops, the fragrance of starry clematis, sweet floral wattle and heady jasmine are lost to us. 

Touch, taste and smell, all compromised by what it takes to keep COVID-19 at bay. Light, however, is not denied to us. The blue hour, the golden hour, solar noon, the twilights. If we walk at different times of the day, perhaps we will see things in a different light and deepen our sensory experience of these strange times.  Read More

Anna & Michael beside a hilltop St Cuthbert's Way way marker

St Cuthbert’s Way, UK

Our Wanderlust 4 Comments

Symbol of Roman soldier's helmet and St Cuthbert's Way logo on a signpostSt Cuthbert’s Way is a beautiful and intriguing walk across borders and through centuries of history that have left an indelible imprint on the landscape. 

From the ruins of a 12th-century Cistercian Abbey in Scotland, up into the atmospherically foggy Eildon Hills, alongside the green verged, swift-flowing River Tweed and on to an ancient Roman Road, St Cuthbert’s Way climbs up through beechwoods and silver birch forests to the wild, sweeping Cheviots. After crossing the border it continues on through Weetwood Moor, past St Cuthbert’s Cave, across rolling fields to the coast and, on the low tide, to the mystery-shrouded Holy Island of Lindisfarne. From Lindisfarne, you can continue on up the Northumberland Coast to Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost town in England. Read More

Close up of lighted candles in church

The Way of St James, Chemin de St Jacques, Part 3

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The final in a three-part series on walking the Way of St James. Starting in Le Puy-en-Velay, this ancient Way travels 750 km to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port where it merges with other pilgrimage routes, crosses the Pyrenees and continues a further 780 km through Spain to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela.

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