Day 2 on the GR1 - to Cervera de Pisuerga

Today was our first day on the GR1 Sendero Historico proper, a brilliant day, fantastic weather and packed with memorable moments.

Juan was desperate to get away and make the best of the clear blue skies. After the cloud yesterday he was keen to make sure I saw the mountain tops.

It was freezing cold and the ground was iron hard. Leaving the Camporredondo del Alba and crossing the bridge over the reservoir I saw something moving and sticking out of the water. At first I thought it was an eel, it was so thin, but it spun round and two little eyes from a tiny narrow head were starring up at me; I was looking at an otter. I thought I had seen one before in France in the Canal du Midi, but that was fat and clumsy not at all like the speed merchant I had just seen. Of course it was gone in an instant ruining the day for the two guys with huge cameras who arrived just moments too late to take its picture.

Day 1 GR1 Camporredondo

It's cold at the moment in Spain and in Leon, where I stayed last night on the way to the GR1 Sendero Historico, all the women of a certain age were decked out in fur coats. Leon is an attractive city, an interesting and ancient centre with a stunning Gothic cathedral. We did a quick tour as the sun was going down and the light coming through the stained glass was wonderful.

Leon is on the St James's Way and the pilgrims were everywhere even this early in the year.

For the first few days on the GR1 I'm with my Spanish friend Juan Holgado who has organised everything. He found a particularly good place to eat last night, a bar full of locals and serving Leon specialities. The atmosphere was distinctly Spanish. All ages and types were present: family groups; groups of women; young couples; solitary drinkers; grandparents with tiny grandchildren; and all ignoring the television blaring away in the corner and all chucking debris on the floor, a compulsory bar habit bizarre in a country which has an obsession with cleanliness.

GR1 Sendero Historico - Kick Off

After a long winter spent getting fat I can't wait to start walking the GR1 across northern Spain.  Starting on Friday the 1st of March I'll be walking 38 days non-stop, covering around 700 miles, and everything about the trip looks wonderful.

To be honest the only stressful thing about a long distance trip like this is finding somewhere to stop each night.  I don't camp out, preferring the softer option of sleeping in a bed.  As well as the obvious attractions I really enjoy the "pot luck" approach this entails, especially in Spain where the variety of accommodation is vast.  Still if you don't speak Spanish (and I shall have another go at extending my very limited vocabulary on this trip) explaining what you're looking for is not necessarily that easy.  On this trip, it's all been done for me by my wonderful Spanish friend Juan Holgado - accommodation booked every night for 38 days, fantastic.

In fact planning the trip has been a doddle (it took me longer to plan the E4 than walk it).  I would like to say it's been a collaboration with Juan but really he's done all the heavy lifting.  I used the route from his website to create a schedule,  sent it to him and he then made it work - it's the nearest thing I'll ever get to a Spanish package holiday.

The fruits of the "collaboration" can be found in the attached schedule along with some notes on the things I'll be looking out for.  I'll be trying to blog every day although I'll only be publishing when I get access to wifi.  I hope you'll find it interesting.

The Old Ways - A Review

If you like books about travel (especially about walking) and you haven't read "The Old Ways" by Robert Macfarlene, then I would strongly recommend it.  It's a really interesting book which I finished almost in one sitting.

I haven't read any of Robert Macfarlene's books before and came at it with some serious misconceptions.  I was expecting a book about pathways - the sort of pathways I trudged along for 5,000 kilometres across Europe.  I had been fascinated by our universal walking heritage and the fact that walking 20-40k a day, often carrying huge loads, was something most people did for centuries if not millenia, but which has now largely disappeared in the "west" at least as, over the last 100 years or so, the countryside emptied.   There might be a book to be written about the end of "economic" walking - the transformational replacement of people and animals as "beasts of burden" - but I suspect it wouldn't be as interesting or as much fun as "The Old Ways".

Another trip along the Blue Route

A couple of weeks ago I got an email with a series of questions about the E4 in Hungary.  A young American couple - Rebecca and Nick - about to set off along the famous Blue Route, had picked up on my adventure and wanted some information to help them plan their trip.

Answering the questions bought back a flood of memories.  I'm not sure why but my memories of the walk in Hungary are particularly vivid.  While the landscape wasn't particularly dramatic it was completely different to anything I had experienced on the E4.  It was huge - huge forests (wonderful beech and oak and thankfully not much pine); massive open fields and a countryside which was surprisingly empty.  Compared to France and Spain the towns seemed to be a long way apart and the villages, when you did find them, were tiny.

Despite the emptiness I met some wonderful people, was helped out on numerous occasions,  and as much as the distinctive feel of the countryside it is the memories of these encounters that keep coming back to me.

I was in Hungary in September after 5 months of wet weather, and hit Hungary in a heat wave.  After weeks of rain in the Alps, walking through miles of sunflowers with heads bent down from the sun was a real pleasure.  Rebecca and Nick are going to walk the Blue Route in February and it will be very cold.  I think they are brave but I suspect that this sort of landscape is at its best in the winter.

It turns out that Nick is a journalist and has an excellent website which describes some of his work including details of previous adventures.  I for one want to know what walking the Blue Route is like in February and Nick has kindly agreed to put together an end of trip report - a "guest blog" and hopefully some updates as the two of them make their way to Budapest.

I'm also going to see if I can use this blog to reactivate some of the amazing support I got as I walked along the Blue Route.  Blogging everyday attracted a lot of interest and as well as being helped by the people I met "face-to-face" I got some invaluable assistance from an instantly mobilised online community.

So best of luck Rebecca and Nick and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Rebecca and Nick on the Annapurna Circuit

To Steyning via Iron Age Forts

December 10th

Reading this series of blogs about walks around Brighton you could be left with the impression that the sun always shines here.  Not so of course but with good walking on your doorstep you can afford to be picky and with the weather set fair we grabbed our chance and set off on a sunny roundabout trip to Steyning.

Getting the 1A bus out to Mile Oak at 10am, and a 2A back from Steyning at 4.30pm, with a 17 mile walk in between, our Brighton walk series - public transport only rule - was once again complied with (by the way an amazing app from Brighton and Hove bus company gives you live information on the bus timetable). The route took us along the Monarch's Way out of Brighton, joining the South Down's Way at Beeding Hill; west, following the South Downs Way, across the River Adur;  up along the side of Steyning Bowl before taking a slightly circuitous route to Cissbury Ring; north for a couple of miles to Chanctonbury Ring; and finishing, after a descent down the scarp, with a walk along a green lane to Steyning.

Walks for 2013

I've had great time walking in 2012 but, based on current plans, next year could be even better.  I've got six trips in the diary with walks in England, Europe and the Himalayas.

The first and most complicated trip takes me back to Spain and the GR1 Sendero Historico. Travelling west to east and parallel firstly with the north coast of Spain and then the Pyrenees, the 700 miles trail will take me through "old Spain", often literally deserted, and wonderful countryside punctuated with traditional towns and villages. As the title of the route suggests, it's a route that's especially rich in history roughly following the most enduring front line between Spain's Muslim and Christian traditions.  It's full of fortified towns, castles, watch towers and other ancient military paraphernalia; Romanesque churches; and paths and trails which have been tramped along for centuries.  Working out the schedule and finding places to stay is a challenge but the hospitality in Spain is good reward for the effort.