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Wednesday 13 September 2017

The scheme of things ...

That which didn't get done, probably doesn't matter much any more.

I had a truly lovely time in the mountains, and will tell you all about it no doubt, over time.

But I also had moments of that deep mountain sadness, which having gone there, many will have experienced...

The realisation that one day, I will be too broken, tired, old, or even too dead, to go, and witness those wonders.

And of course, that should make one want to seize the moment, and glory in it, all the more.

But also it makes you cry, lots, for the sheer tragedy of it.

They say "better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all" 

But sometimes you can't help wishing you'd not seen, or felt, that which, one day you know, you will never see, or feel again...

So yes, if one day, it takes a final wander, into the hills, and a lying down to sleep, from which one never arises.

 I will very much forgive you, and wish you endless sweet heathery dreams...




Knowing that one can't always take, even those closest, on some journeys.



That awful realisation of being a separate, sentient creature, who has only one set of eyes to see, and only one  heart with which to feel. 

Tuesday 12 September 2017

Walking, a conversation with the landscape...


So to take a hiking trip, first select a promising location, and a reasonable route. 
 Equip yourself with essential kit, and good nutrition (light enough to carry, for days on end, and potentially up and down some steep climbs) 

Have navigational abilities, and be realistic about your hill skills,  and levels of fitness

Get yourself to start, of proposed route, and start walking...  That about it. 

People who don't indulge in this type of 'holiday' will enquire, "Don't you get bored, just walking all day?" .

Or, "What do you find to talk about, if you're  hiking with the same person, day after day, after day?"  

Well, often, aside from practicalities, such as way finding, or snack stops, or pointing out wildlife, whole hours can go by, in perfectly companionable silence. 

And anyway,  there's not always enough breath to spare on chat, if ascending, for hours on end. 

Negotiating boulder fields takes full concentration, if the skin on your shins is to be preserved. 

So ultimately, the conversation is with the landscape, physically as one negotiates each step, over uneven terrain. 

The narrative, is a sensory one, stories are incoming, from  near and far, twists of plot occur, moment, by moment. 

How, could that ever become dull, if given ones full attention? 







Friday 1 September 2017

Going places.


Go nice places, do fun stuff.
Well yes, why wouldn't you?

  If lucky enough to have the chance.

And due to a blessed team of women, willing to tend the 'stead in my absence, that's exactly what I'm doing.
Stomping up and down some fine Pyrenean valleys, over high passes, and generally enjoying the geology, and fabulous views.


Either this must be the way, or  someone is having random fun with a pot of orange paint.  


The weather has been mixed, the sun doesn't always shine in Spain, but when ascending for hours at a time, a modicum of cloud cover can be most welcome.

Eight or occasionally more, hours per day of hard walking, whilst carrying all the personal requisites for shelter, and nutrition,  might not be everyone's idea of a relaxing holiday.
But each very much, to their own.

The company, in the form of reliable, way finding* trail-mate is plenty congenial enough, even entertaining on occasion.

But it would be an untruth to assert that these excursions are all fun, all the time.

Undoubtedly there are times when the hills are just a tad too steep, it's overly hot, rather cold, mightily wet, or one is just too tired, and hungry for comfort.

Even 'the way' through unmarked scree can, on occasion, be hard to discern.

* i don't hand over total responsibility for this - that would be both unwise, and unfair ..


Only mild peril really, but perhaps more peril, than is usually found in everyday life..
But I guess, in part, that's sort of the point.

Not to make oneself suffer intentionally, but to give a sharper appreciation of the basics..

Food, shelter, rest,

Walk, eat, sleep, repeat.

Through some astonishing scenery.

But also, as a result of being out of contact with what passes for the normal world, it makes me appreciate, more fully, how some parts of it, were making me uncomfortable in other ways.

And how, those things, could be done without...

As is often the case - Less, is generally more :-)