I am biased about going on a walking holiday. Being originally from Scotland, even though I have not lived there for many years I still think that Scotland has some of the best walking in the world.
This is where I grew up. I lived in one of the houses in the centre of the photo – looking back I can see how lucky I was. The hills in the background were my play ground, somewhere to run free all day, what freedom.
I have been quite lucky to have walked the Camino Frances twice, the Camino Aragon, and part of the Camino Route in Upper Austria, as well as many other walking holidays in the Czech Republic, France, Austria, Slovakia, England, Ireland, and the Canadian Rockies. And still there are many routes in Scotland that are on my wish list.
I have still to walk the relatively short, (73 miles), Great Glen Way from Fort William to Inverness, and one could spend a life time walking all the mountains in Scotland. This Scottish walking site is amazing it lists more than 700 walks in Scotland with maps – sometimes I wish I had thought of doing this, but there is so little time in life to do all.
Presently I live in Ireland and have been walking in the Wicklow hills mostly for the last few years, though I had a great long weekend recently in the Mourne Mountains. I though I had exhausted all the walking routes in the Wicklow hills until recently I joined a walking club in Dublin.
This has been great so far and surprises me. I have not so far in life been a great joiner of any type of club and yes I do like this one. The main thing about being a member of a club for me is I just have to turn up most of the time and all the work is done for me. Now I am getting to know more routes in Wicklow that are not published anywhere simply because members of the club have went out and explored and now share with the rest of us.
I walked and rock climbed a fair bit when I was younger at some point during my life I stopped. Life was busy with other things – work and enjoying myself mainly. I had started walking occasionally before walking the Camino, however after my first Camino in 2004 I became hooked on hill walking again.
Now I find I have a certain reliance on my weekly walks in the hills. I live in the centre of the city, I work in the city, and Monday to Friday I am rarely out of the city. If I live like this for a few weeks in a row without getting onto the hills my stress level go up quite a bit. I have invested in the best of wet gear so I can get out any time – you know it rains quite a bit in Ireland!
On the Camino I relaxed an enormous amount, I put that down to a few things: no TV, no newspapers, no news really, but most of all walking everyday. These have all been good lessons to take home with me.
So the next time you are feeling overly stressed get out into the hills for a few hours and walk, and don’t forget Scotland when considering your next walking holiday.
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