Writing and Ideas
Here are some good travel writing and great ideas for walking or hiking or holidays that include it…
First up: Charlotte Metcalf on walk-cruising (August 2011)
I am on Fred Olsen’s Black Watch cruise ship and we are anchored off Guernsey. ‘Did I see you walk the coastal path?’ an octogenarian man with wild wispy white hair booms heartily at me over the dinner table. I stammer about only making it to the top of the town and he regards me with a rather pitying smile. ‘Oh we always walk along the coast wherever we are,’ he says.
Black Watch calls at 247 ports annually with 115 different global itineraries. My UK itinerary leaves Dover and calls at Guernsey, Dublin, Greenock, Bangor, the Isle of Mull and Orkney and many of the passengers are in a state of excitement about walking the Giants’ Causeway. Walking has become such a passion with travellers of all ages that many cruises are now deliberately stopping at ports where passengers can disembark for a serious day’s hike.
Many find that cruising is the ideal transport between walks.
A bracing ‘constitutional’ or lengthy ramble are de rigeur for these Brits who believe that a walk chases away cobwebs, demons and most health problems, mental and physical. These are people for whom Walkopedia is an invaluable daily companion.