What makes a good walk?

Most of the E4 is excellent and the route takes you through wonderful countryside along walker friendly trails.  Some bits, on the other hand,  are just awful and should only to be walked by nutcases determined to complete the whole trail.  Going from Tarifa to Budapest I was that nutcase but was not far enough gone not to wonder why a particular stretch had been designated as a walking trail and whether or not “standards” had been applied.   In fact it became a bit of obsession, and I would bore friends who joined me to do bits of the E4 with my ideas for some sort of trail accreditation scheme

What I hated most were long stretches of road walking.  I’m still bitter about a hot sunny day spent walking a 35 kilometre busy road  stretch of the E4 from Santiago de la Espada to Puebla de Don Fadrique in northern Andulucia.  

On the road to Puebla de Don Fadrique