Tag: walking

Is there a history of walking?

November 1, 2024 1 Comment
Is there a history of walking?

It’s a question that wouldn’t have been asked, let alone answered, before Rebecca Solnit’s pioneering book Wanderlust, published in 2000.  Solnit is a writer probably best known for her books on women – she was the first to formulate the idea of ‘mansplaining’ – but her range of reference is startlingly wide, and her work […]

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Walking across Afghanistan

October 4, 2024 0 Comments
Walking across Afghanistan

There can’t be many more walks more extreme than the one described by Rory Stewart in his book The places in between.  He takes us with him on a journey he made, entirely on foot, across the central regions of Afghanistan in 2002, from Herat to Kabul, soon after the US-led invasion of the country […]

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Beacons Way, day 2: Llanthony to Crickhowell

September 20, 2024 2 Comments
Beacons Way, day 2: Llanthony to Crickhowell

It’s before seven o’clock in the morning, but it has the look of a dark day to come.  I glance out of my bedroom window overlooking the ruins of Llanthony Priory.  I can’t see the top of the Hatterrall Ridge I’d descended yesterday afternoon, or the top of the hill I’ll be climbing this morning.  […]

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Beacons Way, day 1: Abergavenny to Llanthony

September 13, 2024 7 Comments
Beacons Way, day 1: Abergavenny to Llanthony

I’ve had Ffordd y Bannau, the Beacons Way, in my sights for years.  I bought the guide written by John Sansom, the deviser of the Way, and Arwel Michael, but it lay on the shelf unused for a decade or more till now.  The reason I hesitated is that, as a 100-mile path across almost […]

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Glyndŵr’s Way, day 11: Meifod to Welshpool

June 14, 2024 2 Comments
Glyndŵr’s Way, day 11: Meifod to Welshpool

The negatives: rain has fallen overnight; the morning’s cloudy and windy, and it feels colder than ever; our boots are still damp inside.  The positives: Eleri has fed us well over two days, to counter the hunger caused by long walking; we’re back in the fine village of Meifod; there are not too many miles […]

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Glyndŵr’s Way, day 10: Pont Llogel to Meifod

June 12, 2024 0 Comments
Glyndŵr’s Way, day 10: Pont Llogel to Meifod

Eleri delivers us by car back from Meifod to Pont Llogel, for us to make the journey in the other direction, much more slowly, and by a different route.  There’s a change in the weather today: it’s cooler, rain’s spotting in the strong breeze, and we spend a lot of time through the day pulling […]

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Glyndŵr’s Way, day 9: Llangadfan to Pont Llogel

June 11, 2024 0 Comments
Glyndŵr’s Way, day 9: Llangadfan to Pont Llogel

We’ve had a comfortable time in the Cann Office Hotel, but it’s time to set off again, without the sun this morning, and move north from Llangadfan.  We turn down a lane next to Pontgadfan, the chapel converted by Eleri Mills that I saw yesterday.  By chance Eleri passes us in her car on the […]

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Glyndŵr’s Way, day 8: Llanbrynmair to Llangadfan

June 9, 2024 0 Comments
Glyndŵr’s Way, day 8: Llanbrynmair to Llangadfan

Since Wales is hilly, and since its villages are very seldom sited on hilltops, it follows that walks away from them tend to begin with a long climb.  This morning is no exception. After breakfast in the village shop – our host Mr M. runs a shop and café as well as a B&B – […]

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St Illtud’s Walk: day 6: Y Creunant to Resolfen

May 24, 2024 3 Comments
St Illtud’s Walk: day 6: Y Creunant to Resolfen

We’ve now erased the dark memory of Day 5, back in November, and today the daylight hours are reassuringly long.  So C and I feel up to tackling another inter-valley stage of the Walk, from Y Creunant to Resolfen.  We should have done this as the coda to the last stage, but exhaustion and fading […]

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St Illtud’s Walk, day 5: Pontardawe to Creunant

November 10, 2023 2 Comments
St Illtud’s Walk, day 5: Pontardawe to Creunant

Forestry isn’t my favourite walking environment, and today has done nothing to shift that prejudice.  It all began so well.  Well, fairly well.  Today C. and I start out by bus.  But since our last encounter with St Illtud, First Cymru has done its best to destroy our local bus timetable.  It now takes nearly […]

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