It’s a relief to lay my rucksack down, plunge hot feet into the cool stream and pause to revel in the fairytale surrounds. Foxgloves stand tall against a cornflower-blue sky, ferns look almost luminous, the water glints in the early summer sunshine. A patch of moss-covered ancient forest provides shade, …
Read More »Actor Pierce Brosnan pleads guilty to illegal hiking charge in Yellowstone case
Actor Pierce Brosnan has taken a plea deal in his illegal hiking case out in Idaho, just after entering a not-guilty plea two months ago. Court documents obtained by TMZ showed he pled guilty to one of two illegal hiking charges brought against him after he allegedly wandered into …
Read More »In the Greek midwinter: hiking around the Vikos gorge, Greece’s ‘Grand Canyon’
“Daisy,” I say, eyeing the snowy peaks rising heroically before us. “I’ve a feeling we’re not at sea level any more.” The little terrier sniffs at a biting cold wind. Imposing peaks called the Towers of Astraka dwarf the small hamlet of Papigo, which is perched at roughly 1,000 metres …
Read More »A different Italy: hiking Emilia-Romagna’s Ducati trail
“The Ducati trail?” My husband was suddenly excited. “Do we get to ride motorbikes?” I had to explain that the “Ducati” in Sentiero dei Ducati, a new hiking route being promoted by Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, refers not to the high-performance bikes made nearby, but to the medieval duchies that once …
Read More »Moldova football player Violeta Mitul dies aged 26 in hiking accident
Moldovan international football player, Violeta Mitul has died aged 26 in a tragic accident. UEFA announced that Mitul passed away earlier this week following an accident while she was on a mountain hike with teammates from her club Einherji. The left-back died after an accidental fall from a cliff in …
Read More »‘The mountain’s power sends volts through the soul’: hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc
It was the penultimate day of my Tour du Mont Blanc and, as I scrambled up the side of the Aiguilles de l’Argentière, I was feeling smug. I’d ticked off more than 90 of the 105 miles, almost all in dazzling spring sunshine. Such luck with the weather was encouraging …
Read More »A Bavarian fairytale: hiking, frosty peaks and an ivory castle
In a clearing at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, a stoat breaks cover. The little creature flows quickly across the grass, its eyes set ahead, the ice white of its fur broken only by the black tip of its tail. The dazzle of its winter coat provides zero camouflage …
Read More »Steam trains, sculpture and street food: fill your boots hiking Derby and the Derwent Valley
Browsing Derby’s new Museum of Making, my guide ushered me over to her favourite object: a copy of John Flamsteed’s Atlas Coelestis, a fat catalogue of stars, instrumental in fixing longitude. Flamsteed was appointed as the first Astronomer Royal in 1675 and started his astronomical life here in Derby before …
Read More »A paradise for walkers: Germany is home to more than 150 long-distance hiking trails
The morning sun is shimmering through the forest as my wife, Melanie, and I shuffle upward along the extremely rewarding Himmelsleiter (sky ladder) hiking route near Heidelberg Castle. Verdant rolling hills frame the refurbished brownstone ruins of the palace grounds. Our increasingly laboured breathing is the rhythmic bass drum to …
Read More »‘In a single walk you can see an acropolis, falcons and eagles’: hiking Greece’s ancient island paths
Beauty is all around us on the bright April morning my daughter and I climb a path marked as a donkey trail on our map of the Cycladic island of Sifnos. Butterflies flit over terraced meadows brimming with wild lupins, red poppies, and soft, green grasses. A whitewashed chapel is …
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