Category Archives: climbing

                   ON THE ROCKS

Castle Rock Ignoring the screams beside me; “You’re going the wrong way, turn right, turn right!”  Deep inside I believed the direction we were heading was correct as we rolled into Lynton, aiming for a railway…only this is a special railway, so called. It has two cars that pass each other on their 854ft routeContinue reading ”                   ON THE ROCKS”

                    THE HOMAGE

DOWN IN THE BLUEGUM FOREST Walk in the Blue Mountains often enough and there’s a name that will crop up.  Blue Gum Forest.  No serious walker can avoid it, so the fact that I’d managed to not go there for 76 years indicates how serious I’d been.  For the seasoned hiker it’s usually part ofContinue reading ”                    THE HOMAGE”

  4 SWAMPS AND 31 STOPS

                                          I was huffing, lots of huffing, not to mention puffing.  The climb was seriously steep and, after scaling the first three steep sections with my mountain bike, I’d stopped to catch my breath at the top of each gradient.  Now I was stopping halfway up for a breather.  At least there were some colourfulContinue reading ”  4 SWAMPS AND 31 STOPS”

                   RUNNING HOT

I stood at the door; disheveled, sweaty, bloodied arm and covered in cobweb remnants.  I pondered what they may think of me because I was about to look after their house for two weeks and it was the first time they’d ever seen me. I hadn’t meant to arrive like this, it just happened.  Well,Continue reading ”                   RUNNING HOT”

                FIRE IN THE EYES

I’d read good reports about it but hadn’t really done a lot of research.  I’d copied out details of what to see and I moved out as soon as I had the car rental keys in my hand.  The road north from Las Vegas is straight and, when you turn off after just over 50Continue reading ”                FIRE IN THE EYES”

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

I remember saying several times before we left, “We’re going to Cinque Torri”.  Invariably, the reply would be, “Oh, Cinque Terre, that’s nice, we’ve been there.”  It’s perhaps a reflection on how tourism works.  Some place gets a name, the busloads start coming and, presto, everybody has either been or is going to go there.Continue reading “UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL”

RITE OF PASSAGE

                                  If you’re a hiker and you live in America, you can’t really call yourself a hiker until you’ve done Angels Landing.  It’s an icon in one of the world’s great national parks.  Over a decade ago I gazed up and saw ants crawling around the top.  Only, of course, they were people.  I wantedContinue reading “RITE OF PASSAGE”