Hiking Reads
Summer has – finally! – arrived in Europe, and not a moment too soon, just in time for the peak of the holiday season.
For hikers, however, temperatures above 30° centigrade (that’s the high 80s and 90s for you) are a mixed blessing. For some trails, perhaps even for all trails, this is just too hot! So, let’s be lazy for a few days – after all, everybody needs a break.
This is the time to pull your sun lounger into the shadow or to move to the coolest spot in the house to, shall we say, quietly plan your next move. And if you are in need of inspiration from some fine travel writers: here are some hiking reads that I picked from the web over the first six months of the year.
First up is a piece that has certainly inspired me to plan a trip. Do you believe that the main characteristic of a good travel article is that you would, if you could, go there this very instant? Then this one is for you.
A Long, wet walk in Wales
While Mrs. Easy Hiker and myself have not yet experienced hiking in Wales, the next article is about an area that we have visited and greatly enjoyed – even though, for some reason, we appear to have missed one of its major attractions. You can read this article as the companion piece of something we wrote about vertical hiking recently – only that this time, we are heading in the opposite direction.
On this site, we have “done” backpacks, hiking boots, hiking trousers, outdoor jackets – have I forgotten something? At any rate, this one is about a hiking utensil that we have not yet covered. Another gap I can hereby consider closed.
Pimp my walk
I have said it before and am going to say it again: you do not have to travel half way around the world for a great hiking trip. The next article is about London, but London here stands in for “virtually-any-town-or-city-on-earth”. Beyond your home town’s last bus stop, there is a world of adventure waiting to be discovered.
Finally, why walking is good for you, always, no matter what the circumstances may be. We are going to hear this theme played in two different ways: first in a roundhead, “eat-your-veggies”-register – but then, this is, after all, a piece from the liberal roundheads’ house journal, the Guardian.
Walking works
And now the same theme, done in a more cavalier fashion. Admittedly, this is not the greatest piece of journalism you will find all year, but I bet you will find something in it that makes you laugh.
Actually, it does not even say that “walking is good for you”, but … well, just have a look, and see what you think.
In my mind at least, the message is clear: none of this would have happened if these people had only set out on their own two feet.
In the Alps of Goethe and James Bond
On walking : why we should be careful what we give away.
Walk this way
On walking – and how its speed is perfectly suited to the speed at which we develop thoughts.
Skipping steps
Walk from SanFran to LA.
