author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
This is the second of four posts describing our trek around the Tour du Mont Blanc in September, a classic 170km circuit of Western Europe’s highest mountain. After starting out from Chamonix and walking the western section through France, we arrived on the Italian border at Col de la Seigne and looked down into a valley rich in history.
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Last year Edita and I hiked the famous GR20 long-distance trail along the spine of mountainous Corsica. It was our first experience of so-called ‘self-guided’ trips, where an operator books your accommodation and luggage transfers, but you make your own way from point to point. We were keen to do another, and there was an obvious one to try next.
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I don’t often read Sunday Times bestsellers, but this year I read three in quick succession, all by the same author, including one that has struck a chord with so many people over the last five years that it has transcended its niche and broken into the mainstream. The book in question is The Salt Path by Raynor Winn.
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With crappy weather on the cards for the Easter weekend, we decided to do something a bit more relaxing. I had never been to the Pembrokeshire Coast, with its rugged cliffs and secluded coves, nor walked the coastal Preseli Hills that were the source of the giant stones of Stonehenge.
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You wouldn’t believe what happened next! It’s that time of year again, when I delve into the wonders of modern technology and ask AI (that’s artificial intelligence, not insemination) to help make sense of the world’s great mountain questions.
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The weather had been good for the best part of two weeks, but the rain gods were preparing for the last dance. We were about to cross the Spasimata Slabs, the most dangerously exposed section of the trek, and we were going to cross them at the worst possible time.
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When I signed off the last post, I was enjoying a delicious pork rosti and a pichet of vin rosé at a palatial hotel tucked away in the forests of Corsica. How on earth did I prise myself away from that luxurious setting and get on with the hardest section of the GR20?
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I’ve known about the GR20 for over 20 years, but it slipped to the back of my mind as I focused on peak bagging in the greater ranges. I sensed that long-distance hiking in Europe was something I would enjoy later in life. I guessed I must have reached that stage now.
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Back in September my editor Alex Roddie was launching his own book The Farthest Shore, about his winter hike of the Cape Wrath Trail in north-west Scotland, at the Highland Bookshop in Fort William. I attended the launch and then read the book.
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It was a glorious bank holiday Sunday yesterday, so I thought I would get out into the countryside and explore the Test Way, a 44 mile long-distance walking route in rural Hampshire.
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