Mar 14th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Scotland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. With a varied landscape of lush glens, steep mountains, and rugged coastline, there are plenty of great hikes in Scotland to satisfy any hiker. Here are five of the best.
West Highland Way
One of Scotland's most popular hikes runs 96 miles from Milngavie to Ft. William. The trail offers a good sampling of many of Scotland's ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
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Five great hikes in Scotland
Mar 14th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Scotland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. With a varied landscape of lush glens, steep mountains, and rugged coastline, there are plenty of great hikes in Scotland to satisfy any hiker. Here are five of the best.
West Highland Way
One of Scotland's most popular hikes runs 96 miles from Milngavie to Ft. William. The trail offers a good sampling of many of Scotland's ...English wildlife and nature to get more protection
Mar 1st, 2012 at 9:00AM:
I've said it before and I'll say it again--on a good day there's no country more beautiful than England. Fans of hiking, nature, and wildlife have a real treat with England's wild places, and those places just got a boost to the tune of £7.5 million ($12 million) in additional funding.
The government has selected twelve Nature Improvement Areas where nature will be protected and ...Hiking in Spain: Santoña's rugged coastline and Napoleonic forts
Feb 20th, 2012 at 1:30PM: One of the great things about hiking in Europe is that many trails pass places of historic interest. Whether you're hiking along Hadrian's Wall or to a medieval castle, you can learn about the past while living in the moment amidst beautiful scenery.
Spain offers a lot of these hikes. One is an 11km (7 mile) loop trail near Santoña in Cantabria, northern Spain.
My hiking group and I ...America's baddest badlands
Jan 17th, 2012 at 10:30AM:
One of the greatest things about the United States is its environmental diversity. From towering forests of pine to sun-hammered deserts, from snowy peaks to steaming swamps, this nation has it all.
Some of the most compelling places are also the harshest. Take this view of the sand dunes of Death Valley, taken by talented photographer John Bruckman. This is the worst part of the Mojave ...Video of the Day: Remote camera captures action on Maine hiking trail
Dec 19th, 2011 at 6:30PM:
One of the best aspects of hiking is the escape that it provides from your everyday life. Getting lost - even briefly - in nature allows you to forget that the rest of the world exists. But what happens when you leave the trail and return home? Someone up in Maine decided to plant a remote camera along a trail that cuts through his property. Along with hikers, he recorded footage of moose, ...
Two day hikes in the mountains of Cantabria, Spain
Nov 30th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
As I've mentioned on this blog before, I've moved from Madrid to Santander, in Cantabria in northern Spain. This region is part of what's often called Green Spain, made up of the four northern regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country. I'm loving life by the sea and I've been busy exploring Cantabria's countryside, which offers some of the best hikes in Spain. Green and ...Enjoy nudist hiking? Rethink that holiday in Switzerland
Nov 18th, 2011 at 3:00PM: Last year we reported on a major victory for nudist hiking in Switzerland. A hiker in the conservative Swiss canton of Appenzell got fined for baring all, appealed, and won.
Now that victory has turned into defeat. The BBC reports that Switzerland's highest court has ruled that local authorities can fine people for hiking in the buff. Naked hiking isn't illegal per se, but but public indecency ...Historic stretch of Hadrian's Wall repaired
Oct 15th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
A stretch of Hadrian's Wall, the famous fortification in northern England that for centuries marked the northernmost boundary of the Roman Empire, has been repaired.
After 2,000 years, parts of the fortification meant to keep out northern barbarians are in pretty bad shape. People have stolen stones over the past several centuries and you can see parts of the wall in local farmhouses and ...The Way: Martin Sheen treks the Camino de Santiago
Oct 7th, 2011 at 1:30PM: I'm often skeptical when Hollywood forays into the realm of 'travel films'.
Don't get me wrong; there have been some wonderful movies in recent years that capture the true essence of the world of travel & the beauty of venturing on a grand journey: Lost in Translation, Into the Wild, L'Auberge Espagnole, Before Sunrise, Up in the Air, and The Beach (did you really think I wouldn't mention ...Hikes near Madrid: a new guidebook shows you the way (in English!)
Sep 30th, 2011 at 1:00PM: Every year, thousands of English speakers visit Madrid on holiday or to teach English. Most never explore the many hikes near Madrid, and that's a shame. The Sierra de Guadarrama offers some challenging and varied routes, and the lowland areas of the Comunidad de Madrid offer pleasant rambles. One of the best spots is La Pedriza, which can be a tough slog and easy to get lost in.
One of the ...Hiking in Cantabria, Spain: my first day out
Sep 20th, 2011 at 11:00AM: As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm no longer living in Madrid and have moved to Santander, a port in Cantabria on Spain's northern coast. Cantabria is part of Green Spain, the area that includes the regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and El País Vasco.
This strip of land situated between high mountains and the sea gets plenty of rain and doesn't look at all like the common ...Woman killed by cows serves as warning to walkers
Sep 2nd, 2011 at 11:30AM: A woman has been trampled and killed by cows yesterday on the outskirts of Cardiff, Wales, the South Wales Echo reports.
Marilyn Duffy, 61, was walking her dog through a farmer's field. It's believed the cows were frightened by the dog and attacked. Cows are calving at this time of year and can become easily frightened by dogs or even lone people. Farmers say it's best to give cows a wide berth ...Naked hiker jailed for 21 months
Aug 25th, 2011 at 12:30PM: Nudist activist Steven Gough has been given 657 days in a Scottish prison only a minute after finishing his previous sentence.
The BBC reports that the naked hiker has served numerous terms in jail for public nudity and appearing in court nude. He insists it's his right to bare all wherever and whenever he wants. His refusal to wear clothes has led to an epic fight with the legal system in ...Hiking in Oxfordshire: follies and fields near Faringdon
Aug 15th, 2011 at 12:00PM: I'm spending the summer in Oxford, and so far the English weather has been pretty disappointing with rain, clouds, and cool temperatures that are already making the leaves change color.
Whenever the weather is good here I'm out in the countryside hiking. The weather hasn't been cooperating, so I and a friend went anyway. We chose a hike from Faringdon to Buckland. Faringdon is an old ...Hiking in a natural park near Madrid
Jun 6th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
While Green Spain, the rainy north of the country, is Spain's popular place for hiking, there are lots of good hikes near the capital Madrid. The Comunidad de Madrid encompasses not only the city, but also several large parks, rivers, and mountains crisscrossed by numerous trails.
Yesterday I headed to one of the most beautiful spots in the region, El Parque Natural de Peñalara, an ...Hiking in France's Basque Region
May 31st, 2011 at 2:00PM:
The Basque region straddles the border between northeastern Spain and southwestern France. For the past five days I've been hiking in Spain's Basque region, and today I and my group are crossing the border into France.
One of our Basque guides, Josu, says the culture on the other side of the border isn't as strong. While only 28% of Spanish Basques can speak Basque (Euskara), that number goes ...Hiking the Basque coastline
May 27th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
While the Sierra de Toloño offers some amazing trails and views, the most alluring sights I've seen in the Basque region are along its coastline.
The coast of northeast Spain and southwest France along the Bay of Biscay is part of the Basque heartland. Inland villages played a key role in keeping Basque culture alive, but it's the ports--Bilbao, San Sebastian, and many smaller ...Climbing a Basque mountain
May 25th, 2011 at 4:00PM:
I've been hiking in Spain's Basque region for three days now, and now I'm facing the most challenging hike of my trip.
I and a few volunteers from my group are going up and over the Sierra de Toloño in La Rioja, Spain's most renowned wine-producing region. At nine miles it's not as long as my daily hikes along the Hadrian's Wall Path or the East Highland Way, but the 1,100-ft. ...Travel Read: The East Highland Way hiking guide
May 24th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
Last year for my annual "Oh crap another birthday I need to prove my youth" long-distance hiking adventure, I chose Scotland's East Highland Way. It runs 78 miles from Ft. William through some beautiful countryside to Aviemore. The route had just been created by hiker Kevin Langan, and was so new there wasn't a guidebook. Kevin was kind enough to send me maps and a summary preprint of his book ...Hiking through Spain's Basque region
May 19th, 2011 at 1:30PM:
Most tourists who visit Spain stick to the central and southern parts of the country--Madrid, Granada, Seville, Barcelona, and the Costa del Sol. They generally skip the greener, more temperate north. If they head north at all, it's to stop in Bilbao in Spain's Basque region to see the Guggenheim.
Yet the Basque region has much more to offer. In Spain, it's an Autonomous Community, something ...
