Category Archives: walks

the Greylag and Arcadia

The landscape in lines, left to right as you walk under the railway bridge at the edge of the town: 1, railway line on a brambled embankment ; 2, damp pasture with reeds and sedge and a shallow lake in … Continue reading →

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Underfoot

In the middle of wild swampland where the trees are intertwined in an inextricable thicket, there is a plain with very green vegetation which attracts the eye by reason of its fertility; no obstacle impedes the walker. Not a particle … Continue reading →

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in Greece, 2024

I measure my decline against the mountain’s incline. This year I was still able, slowly, to walk up from Anavriti to Livadi, from 700 metres above sea level to 1400 metres and then back down by a more circuitous route … Continue reading →

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A dream come true (and an easy walk)

The other day I remembered that I’d written down a dream in the night. I couldn’t remember the dream, but I remembered writing it down. So I opened the little notebook that sits waiting by the bed and read: the … Continue reading →

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Easy Walks No 6, at home and abroad

Easy walks are becoming more elusive; well, let’s face it, they were never always easy. A friend of mine was out on an easy walk with a friend in flat suffolk last winter, both were around the age of 80, … Continue reading →

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Easy Walks No 5, in the Vallon de Nant

Since I looked up the new exchange rate for the Swiss franc I hesitate to recommend a walk in Switzerland, but still, this is a fabulous walk and there’s a good story to it. You can get the Eurostar to … Continue reading →

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(very) easy walks, No 4, Burwell and the future

On the edge of the low chalk hills around Newmarket, just a few feet above sea level, just a few feet above the fens, just about safe from floods, lies a string of villages. Burwell is one. It used to … Continue reading →

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Easy Walks No 3, down to the river

East along Ely high street, past one of England’s finest concentrations of charity shops, and, appropriately, the medieval almonry where charity was distributed to the poor and needy, stopping off at Londis. I fancied drinking a can by the river. … Continue reading →

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Easy Pieces on Easy Mountains in Order of Easiness no 2, Falakro

I know this isn’t a very helpful map. It shows the mountains which are visible from Pangaeo (see Easy Pieces on Easy Mountain Walks in order of easiness, No1, Pangaeo). I’ve written in Drama, a nice place to stay, between Falakro … Continue reading →

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moments in time

Here’s a photograph I took in 2019 on Mount Olympus, at about 1900 metres, at the end of May. (It’s disappointingly fuzzy here, an imperfectly recovered memory.) Snow still lay in a few hollows and gullies, but spring had arrived, and … Continue reading →

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