In the Bronze Age on Barningham Moor

Posted on November 24, 2011 by

TIME is perplexing stuff. I’m sitting in my car at the side of a Roman road, waiting for my wife to reappear from the house of a clock-mender. Hanging above his hedge is a white sign shaped like a clock on which is written “Roman Road Clocks”. Lorries rumble by to Catterick, a place older than recorded history and enshrined in the war poetry of the Celts. Once the braying of mules, the chafing of shields and the marching of foreign feet were the dominant sounds. Now it’s traffic. Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Bronze Age, Cup and ring carvings, Environment, Hiking, History, Life, Mountains, Walking | Tagged | 14 Comments

Madeira: The Royal Road to Ruin (Pico Grande . . . nearly)

Posted on November 16, 2011 by

Pico Grande, Madeira

THIS is a tale of bewilderment and defeat in a strange and hostile environment. It started out like any other day in the mountains – one man with a cheery whistle and a bag of food. Then things deteriorated . . . Continue reading →

Posted in Allotments, Climbing, Environment, Hiking, History, Mountains, Walking | Tagged | 12 Comments

Madeira: The High and Mighty (Pico do Arieiro to Pico Ruivo)

Posted on November 8, 2011 by

The view from Pico do Arieiro, with Pico Ruivo to the right and Pico das Torres in the centre of the picture

WHO has not sat down on a rock at the end of the day, wiped the sweat and streaky suntan lotion from their brow with the back of a hand, and gazed out across a hazy ridge of noble mountains and whispered to no one in particular: “That truly was the most memorable of days”? Continue reading →

Posted in Climbing, Environment, Geology, Hiking, History, Mountains, Walking | Tagged | 15 Comments

Madeira: So Let Me Get Right to the Point . . .

Posted on November 1, 2011 by

The cliffs of the Ponta São Lourenço, Madeira

THE sea is scary because it’s deep and stretches for ever. No one has been to the bottom and returned alive. No one knows just what exactly is lurking down there. The sea sinks ships, crashes against the land and eats it away, then when the sun comes out we spread towels on the beach and sit by it. But today there are no beaches – just cliffs plunging straight into the foaming Atlantic and a crazy path skirting along the crest like a rollercoaster that’s taking us into the east . . . Continue reading →

Posted in Cookery, Environment, Food, Geology, Hiking, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Madeira: Walking with Water

Posted on October 26, 2011 by

The high peaks of Madeira from the Levada de Serra

DRIVING through pre-dawn Madeira is like driving through pre-dawn Spain. The roads are quiet; the villages are dark; but in every main street there is a bar where men gather to drink coffee in pools of yellow light before the day’s work begins. I hear their laughter as I pass and catch glimpses of them in their ubiquitous stripy T-shirts. And the aroma of coffee drifts through the car window as I head towards the mountains . . . Continue reading →

Posted in Climbing, Environment, Hiking, History, Industrial archaeology, Levadas, Mountains, Walking | Tagged | 8 Comments

Madeira: Stairways to Heaven

Posted on October 21, 2011 by

GOD, the recurring dream. The path disappearing over the edge of a cliff; the waves crashing against rocks; the circus clown training a seal on a strip of sand no bigger than a karimat; and I can’t move because I’ve lost my bush-hat. Over and over again. The same events . . . Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Environment, Geology, Hiking, History, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Voyage of a Dawn Treader (Buachaille Etive Beag)

Posted on October 17, 2011 by

THERE is something hauntingly primeval in watching the sun rise through a cold mist. And somehow a lonesome lorry roaring over the pass of Glencoe adds to the starkness . . . Continue reading →

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Environment, Glencoe, Hiking, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , , | 16 Comments