welsh hills again

I have never been walking in the Austrian Alps before so I was not ready for quite how stunningly beautiful it is.  This is the Lunersee, glowing like a turquoise far below us on our first day. Neither was I ready for quite how hard much of the walking was. When you look at this picture and think that you have to get over some of these mountains, it is not really surprising.  I think I had just forgotten what real mountains are like, or put my head in the sand, overwhelmed by life before we went and just closing my eyes to the scale of the task. Also we were carrying these: although mine was much smaller than Ian's.  I had hoped for that magical moment which came on about day five of my Offa's Dyke Path walk last year when you lift your rucksack and it suddenly seems lighter and you start walking and think you could go on for ever.  Sadly it never came and I carried on grunting and puffing my way up the high hills. it is just the most extraordinary thing to be i...

Right, so I am away for a couple of weeks.  We are going walking in the Austrian Alps.  Everything I need is in my rucksack, although I would admit that this sounds better than it is as Ian is carrying a rucksack twice the size and much of our joint stuff is in there. Will I enjoy it?  I don't know.  I hope so.  We are walking with a group of people I know a little.  We are sleeping in Alpine mountain huts in shared rooms, like little dormitories.  I loved my walk last year when I walked the Offa's Dyke Path and I know I enjoy walking.  Last year I was setting the pace though and could go as slow as I liked!  I have never walked in Austria, only driven through on my way to Croatia marvelling at the high green pastures and the neatly stacked woodpiles. We have had to call on kind friends and family to move in and look after everything while we are away and the place is full of notes and lists.  The garden is full of things which are n...

Yes, I know it not the 1st of January.  I'm just a bit late.  One of the good things about blogging is that it is so easy to check what I have been doing in January for the last couple of years.  I see that last year I didn't make any resolutions at all and the year before I tried to make postive resolutions rather than the usual "lose weight, drink less, exercise more" litany that has been following me around for years. Reading them now from 2008 I see   I didn't too terribly well with the ones I did make.  The resolution to cook more interestingly, using my huge range of cookery books, was the one which was most successful.  I can't say I achieved the one about being glamourous on Thursdays.  I do from time to pull out something which is not the ubiquitous jeans and fleece and dress up a bit, but it is more like once every couple of months than once a week - less in winter because the urge to keep my clothes on when I have got dressed is very powe...

Wednesday 20th June Four Crosses to Carreg y Big 13 miles, 1091 calories used, 8.45 to 4.30 No more rest days now, just five days of walking to the coast. I was fired up with the knowledge that on Friday night I would be sleeping at home and we both felt stronger and fitter. Five days walking, no problem. To Llanymynech took us along the Montgomery Canal, about as different from the hills both behind and ahead of us as could be - ducks, swans, irises and water lilies, beautiful houses with gardens stretching down to the water. Then we began to climb, unable to see the views today in the haze. We were passed as we climbed by three walkers going at what seemed to us an unsustainable speed, the woman at the front setting a scorching pace, a man who seemed to be her partner just about keeping up and another man puffing at the back who looked as though he would far rather have been walking with us! By lunchtime it was raining again but not too hard and we trudged on to Carreg y Big . Grea...