by Dr_Dupree » Sat May 22, 2010 8:07 pm
Thanks for starting this thread, Gorgeous Undertow. Some beautiful photos so far.
I enjoy hiking very much, although a niggling knee injury has stopped me doing anything arduous these past 3 years. I especially enjoyed walking the length of the Offa's Dyke trail, from Chepstow to Prestatyn, many years ago. One night in Prestatyn was more than enough though, and we got the train/boat to Dublin the next day to make the most of the remainder of the two week holiday.
I walked about 200 miles of the 'Cornish' coastal path (it took in quite a lot of Somerset and Devon) in one go too, which was a blissful experience, and have gone back to walk shorter sections since.
The South Downs Way, from Eastbourne to a field in Hampshire, is brilliant too, as many Forum members will already know!
Abroad, I have tremendously enjoyed several extended hut to hut walks in the Austrian Alps. The Austrian huts are a wonderful legacy of the German culture, each one generally funded by the Alpine club in the city whose name it bears.
They enable walkers to spend entire weeks and fortnights trekking from hut to hut amidst some of the most spectacular scenery the world offers, enjoying reasonable food, beer and accommodation in the evenings, and without ever having to descend to the world of roads and cars. You can join guided groups from some of the huts, to enable you to get up to places you'd never reach without assistance.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity