Pilgrim's Progress – Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK

Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone. Anthony Burgess Hopes that I would have a peaceful night’s slumber in the dormitory room I was sharing with Andy were soon shattered. Within minuted of turning off the lights, Andy began to snore. At first quite gently but growing in volume like…

Read more

There is a tide in the affairs of menWhich, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.On such a full sea are we now afloat;And we must take the current when it serves,Or lose our ventures. William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar I would…

Read more

Every place is a goldmine. You have only to give yourself time, sit in a teahouse watching the passers-by, stand in a corner of the market, go for a haircut. You pick up a thread – a word, a meeting, a friend of a friend of someone you have just met – and soon the…

Read more

Kill them all and let God sort them out. Arnaud Amalric, Cistercian monk, during the siege of Béziers in 1209AD. Growing up, I was the bane of my parents’ life. Initially it was dinosaurs, then it moved on to Roman villas with mosaics before morphing into an unhealthy obsession with mediaeval castles. Family holidays became…

Read more

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley Robert Burns – To a Mouse The plan for the day was simple. Get going by 6am to reach Montségur by 4pm. From there I would catch the last bus of the day (4pm) to reach Foix where I had booked into a youth…

Read more

Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness. Auguste Escoffier Ok I’m going to start with an admission. This blog has less to do with walking and more to so with fine dining in a tiny village called Roquefeuil which was my destination for the day. As I left Puivert, it was overcast and drizzling.…

Read more

The earth has its music for those who will listen;Its bright variations forever abound.With all of the wonders that God has bequeathed us,There’s nothing that thrills like the magic of sound. Reginald Holmes – The Magic of Sound The barman in the Glacier Bar in Quillan had got it wrong. After I’d managed to get…

Read more

This is the 183rd end-of-the-world prophecy since antiquity Pierre Delord – Mayor of Bugarach Sometimes things go pear shaped for no good reason. Today was one of those days! The previous evening had been spent in a remote farmhouse gite at Camp-sur-l’Agly in the company of another solo hiker ftom the Marne department of France…

Read more

I’d rather have a beer and memories than a six-pack and amnesia. Anon Today ( actually the day before yestrrday as I write this in Puivert waiting for my pizza to artive in an hour!) and the was meant to be an easy 31km amble from Padern to Camp-sur-Angly. After yesterday’s brutal heat I was…

Read more

In the Philippines they have lovely screensTo protect you from the glareIn the Malay States there are hats like platesWhich the Britishers won’t wearAt twelve noon the natives swoonAnd no further work is doneBut mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun Song by Noël Coward There were times today when I didn’t…

Read more