Walking

17 Feb

Posted at 14:18h in Landscape, Spain, Walking by

We often walk the Ruta de la Mineria. It runs through the hillsides where, until the 1970s, lead and iron were wrested from the rock. It’s a walk of about 10km, simultaneously scenic and chilling. Setting out from the village, you climb up into Serena, a tiny pueblo aptly named, through an almond grove and, from there the track winds through the hills and valleys that gave up their treasure to men crouching in deep dark holes wielding pickaxes and shovels through long hours of dangerous work. Disused mine workings still dot the landscape, brick and stone crumbling back to...

10 Feb

Posted at 11:34h in Spain, Walking by

Saturday morning. Yin yoga class at the gimnasio in the village. I walk there from the house where we’re staying. It takes about 7 minutes. I leave my private, early-morning world of gradual consciousness, barely-remembered dreams and scattered thoughts, climb 30 steep steps and cross into the Calle Mar, the narrow road with just enough room for a car and a pedestrian, that runs into the village. And into another world. Past the Ayuntamiento where the mayor, the police and the doctor share a gracious whitewashed building with bands of yellow around the window recesses and Spanish and Andalucian flags fly above the doorway. On...

07 Jun

Posted at 20:58h in Landscape, Walking by

I took a notebook, as I always do, to record my journey on Offa’s Dyke Path. By the end of the third day it was saturated, pages pleated together, curled, sodden scraps detaching from the edges. I put it on top of a radiator in our bedroom at the B&B that night; the one virtue of the otherwise lamentable place was the possibility of radiated heat for a while in the evening. It was still damp by morning. The upshot of this was, of course, that my note-taking was limited. Now, reflecting on completing the journey, I’m relying on the pictures...

03 Jun

Posted at 20:40h in Landscape, Walking by

Yesterday and today. What days we had. At last we left the rolling hills and lush valleys behind and ventured onto the stony trails among the ridges, peaks and moors of northern Wales. This feels more familiar. This is terrain we love for its sense of wildness. Open heather-clad country and scattered farms. Sheep are the only livestock that thrive here. And skylarks. Those softly serene rolling hills that we traversed for days have been a joy. But they deceive. The lush grass makes for hard walking, especially when it's damp with rain and the humidity is high. Heavy ground drags the...