Category: Walking

Landscape of patchwork green fields on the Burren Way

Walking the Burren Way, Ireland

Our Wanderlust 10 Comments

The Burren Way in Ireland is a 125-kilometre walking route from Lahinch on the wild west coast of County Clare. It follows ancient droving tracks, greenways and county byways through the heartland of the Burren to Corofin village. A five-day walk across the largest karst limestone landscape in Europe. It’s an immersion in Irish history and culture and an exploration of natural and archaeological riches including neolithic tombs, ring forts, early medieval castles and ancient centres of learning.

Burren comes from the Irish word, Boireann, a ‘rocky place’, a landscape of bare hills and lowlands. A tilted, folded, glaciated land of limestone pavements, hazel scrub, deciduous woodland, rare wildflowers, lakes, turloughs, springs, fens and grasslands. Its cliffs, escarpments and twisted hills are pale grey. On days when the sea and the sky have a shifting soft paleness, the landscape is more ethereal than existent. A subtle and abiding beauty.
Read More

Thames Path

Thames Path, England

Our Wanderlust 4 Comments

The Thames Path is a 185-mile meander along the banks of the River Thames. From its source in the rolling Cotswold hills, the path winds through lush green meadows, past quaint villages and ancient sites and on through the heart of London to the futuristic Thames Barrier in Greenwich. If you’re resolute, it’s possible to walk another 30 miles, navigating a way around housing estates, docks and marshlands to where the Thames flows into the sea.  

Our plan is to walk the first 55 miles of the Path, from the source to Oxford, to celebrate our friend Geoff ’s birthday and to introduce his 11-year-old son Finn to the art of wandering. An airshow and subsequent scarcity of accommodation determine that we will walk upriver from Newbridge to the source for three days and then return to Newbridge and walk downriver for a day, to Oxford. Read More

Lycian Way, Turkey

Lycian Way, Turkey. Part 3: Karaöz to Geyikbayiri

Our Wanderlust 12 Comments

On our 15th day on the Lycian Way, we wake to the sound of waves lapping on the beach in Karaöz. The Lycian Way is a mythic and ancient route; a 500-kilometre walk around the Teke Peninsula in southwestern Turkey following old ways, past traces of Lycian, Greek and Roman civilisations, alongside turquoise fringed beaches, through coastal villages and high up into the rugged Taurus Mountains.
Read More

Close up of Myra theatre decorations Way, Turkey

Lycian Way, Turkey. Part 2: Kalkan to Karaöz

Our Wanderlust 9 Comments

A week’s walking on the Lycian Way finds us in the old fishing village and now resort town of Kalkan. The Lycian Way is a mythic and ancient route; a 500-kilometre walk around the Teke Peninsula in southwestern Turkey following old ways, past traces of Lycian, Greek and Roman civilisations, alongside turquoise fringed beaches, through coastal villages and high up into the rugged Taurus Mountains.
Read More

Looking out over the Mediterranean, Way, Turkey

Lycian Way, Turkey. Part 1: Ovacik to Kalkan

Our Wanderlust 9 Comments

The Lycian Way is a mythic and ancient route; a 500-kilometre walk around the Teke Peninsula in southwestern Turkey following old ways, past traces of Lycian, Greek and Roman civilisations, alongside turquoise fringed beaches, through coastal villages and high up into the rugged Taurus Mountains.

Read More

A pilgrim walks towards a village and a castle on a hill

Walking the Camino Mozárabe: 5 things you need to know

Our Wanderlust 6 Comments

1. Why should I consider walking the Camino Mozárabe?

You might consider walking the Camino Mozárabe because when you walked the Camino Francés, you wished you’d walked it years ago when it was less crowded. Or, maybe the Camino has got under your skin and you’re ready for another, more adventurous, pilgrimage.

The Camino Mozárabe is well-marked and you’ll be mainly walking on old tracks and quiet minor roads. You’ll visit the history-laden cities of Granada, Córdoba and Mérida, walk past Roman ruins and visit fortified hilltop villages. 

Could it be in your Goldilock’s zone of a quieter, less travelled Camino with a rich cultural history, dazzling architecture and good infrastructure for pilgrims?

Read More
A pilgrim approaching the hill town of Magacela on the Camino Mozarabe

Camino Mozarábe, Spain. Part 3: Córdoba to Mérida

Our Wanderlust 4 Comments

Three hundred and seventy plus kilometres from Almería to Córdoba on the fabled Camino Mozarábe. An injury. A rest day in Córdoba. Uncertainty in the air as we set out on the final stage of the journey to Mérida, the old Roman capital.

Córdoba to Mérida (246 km)

A singular woman in a bright red flamenco dress walks home from a late-night gig through the quiet, early morning streets of Córdoba. We catch a suburban bus bustling with Sunday hikers a few kilometres up through the forested hills to Cerro Muriano to lessen the impact of today’s long-distance on Michael’s injured tendon.  Read More

Close up of red/white striped arches of the Mezquita in Córdoba

Camino Mozarábe, Spain. Part 2: Granada to Córdoba

Our Wanderlust 1 Comment

Two hundred plus kilometres from Almería to Granada on the fabled Camino Mozarábe. An afternoon in Granada; a visit to the Alhambra, the sultan’s heavenly palace and the gardens of the Generalife. Built on the ruins of a Roman fortress in the 13th century by the Nazari dynasty (the last Arab Caliphate in Iberia) its architecture, its blue, red and golden interiors, its courtyards of roses and orange trees, its fountains and its history of political and romantic intrigue are beguiling.
Read More

Floodlit Alhambra at night with moon.

Camino Mozárabe, Spain. Part 1: Almería to Granada

Our Wanderlust 9 Comments

Travelling south to Almería (the start of our Camino Mozárabe) through provinces ruled by the Moors for 800 years. The landscape a dream. Windmills for tilting at, iconic black bulls silhouetted against the bright sky, stunted vines growing in the parched earth, trees white with blossom. The rugged, snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada. A shimmer of yellow wildflowers in the valley below. Tall slender poplars, bare of leaves. Islamic forts, cave dwellings, forsaken adobe villages and stations where the train no longer stops. Afternoon winds laden with red dust from the Sahara, making the skies hazy and the horizon blurred.

Read More

Red rock escarpment and water hole on the Jatbula Trail

Jatbula Trail: Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) to Leliyn (Edith Falls), Northern Territory

Our Wanderlust 12 Comments

The Jatbula Trail is named after Peter Jatbula, a traditional Jawoyn elder pivotal in securing land rights for his people. The trail weaves its way across the western edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment, following ancient songlines walked by the Jawoyn for thousands of years. 

It is a five-day walk; not a long walk, just 60 kilometres from Nitmiluk Gorge to Leliyn, but a remote and entrancing walk through natural and cultural landscapes full of spiritual significance for the Jawoyn Traditional Owners. Dreaming beings in the form of humans, animals and plants brought this landscape to life by ‘putting themselves’ in the country. Their actions can be seen in features of the landscape and are kept alive in language, sacred songs, stories and dance. 

September is regarded as the ‘most heavenly month of the dry season’. This year though, it’s the hottest and driest on record and the midday heat is searing. We’ll need to set out each day at first light, walk slowly and cherish water.

Read More