Website Story
This is where you can read about the latest additions to the site, and developments that are under way or planned. It's a kind of Site Blog.
If you've not visited the site for a while, look here first to find new stories that may be of interest. You should also check the general News page, which includes current topics of debate in the walking world.
There are three archive pages which document the development of the site since its origins on March 17 2005. Each one provides photos and links through to the stories mentioned, as they were set out on the original site (which you can still access). All these stories have now been re-presented in the new redesigned site.
LATEST NEWS
30 June 2009 - there's been a welcome flurry of activity on the site, with the first story by Dan Stephens describing his climb of Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, following the addition of two city walks in Boston, New England.
27 June 2009 - at long last, the first walk around London is on the site, covering the main attractions of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square all in one short circular walk. Includes some good sharp photos.
4 June 2009 - Hamish Brown is one of Scotland's best known mountaineers and writers about walking, who is almost as well known in Morocco, which he has visited on many occasions over the last couple of decades. He gave an illustrated talk at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in May 2009 describing a 96-day traverse of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco in 1995, and you can read a summary of his talk here on Walking Stories.
2 June 2009 - an interesting addition to the site is Laura Milkins' walk through Mexico City along the Avenida de los Insurgentes - the longest avenue in the world. She talks to local people along the way, to find out about their lives and try to build better understanding between the people of the USA and Mexico. Soon after starting, her plans are put on hold by the outbreak of swine flu, but then she is able to continue her project spread over 20 days of walking from April to June. It's like a Russian doll - lots of personal stories, and the story of the swine flu, held within the story of Laura's walk. You can also visit her own website where all the individual stories are held.
19 February 2009 - despite the lack of news updates, there have been a number of stories added over the last few months. The latest is a new, detailed story describing an icy winter climb of Ben Lui and Beinn a' Chleib during "Britain's worst winter for 18 years".
Have a look as well at:
- the summary of a fascinating film about nomads in Iran - Bezad's Last Journey
- a beautiful woodland walk through the Foret de Soignes in Brussels
- a short story about the Slovensky Raj national park in Slovakia, and
- a second story from Colin Henderson describing the South Patagonian Ice Cap - which makes the Ben Lui climb seem rather tame!
23 September 2008 - our first story from Argentina describes a tricky trek across glaciers beneath Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia, with some great photos. It has been submitted by Colin Henderson, who has written a detailed guide to Los Glaciares National Park.
More stories have been added from Krakow in Poland, including the remarkable Planty park which encircles the city and Krakow Zoo in Las Wolski park. There's more too from Slovakia, with easy walks to dramatic Spis Castle and around the historic towns of Levoca and Spisska Sobota from the resort of AquaCity.
In addition there are lots of new links to stories published elsewhere, mostly in the Guardian newspaper. So you can read about community tourism ventures in Sikkim (India) and Mexico, a fascinating trek to villages and monasteries in the hidden Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, a long-distance hike to the ancient site of Petra in Jordan and mountain hiking in Oman. Plus two contrasting locations in Italy: the Majella national park and the island volcano of Stromboli. There's information about a coastal long distance footpath in Turkey, and a story about a shorter coastal walk in Dorset, England. As well as a journey with camels and semi-nomadic tribespeople in Morocco, there's trekking with a llama in Austria and with donkeys in the Alpes Maritimes of France. Whatever next?
You'll find the links to all these stories on the relevant country page.
5 September 2008 - there's a great new story by Alan Marshall of a 2-week trek to Kang Yatse in the Ladakh region of north India. Continuing the theme of animal companions, they travelled with a support team including horses. There are lots of photos as well in two linked Galleries. Together these give a really good impression of what it's like to undertake a long trekking expedition like this.
Also added in the past couple of weeks is a page about Poland and a walk around the Old Town of Krakow - with more to follow. And there's a link to a thought-provoking article in the Guardian by Robert Macfarlane about the writing of Nan Shepherd describing her experiences of walking in the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland.
More recent, tragic experiences are covered on the news page in the link to a story about the deaths of 11 people on K2, the world's second-highest mountain, in August 2008.
5 August 2008 - a new country, and mountain range, feature on the site with the addition of Slovakia and the High Tatras. Read about the climb of Slavkovsky Stit, the highest peak which walkers can reach without the help of cable cars or mountain guides! More (easier) walks from Slovakia and Poland to follow.
13 May 2008 - news of a devastating earthquake near Chengdu in south-west China brings back memories of a visit there in June 2005, walking through the gorge and Qingcheng Hou Shan to a temple high on a mountain, then another walk to a neighbouring hilltop temple the next day at Qingcheng Shan. The temples themselves, and the paths and bridges which were being built to reach them, would be very vulnerable to a strong quake like this, together with the monks who live there.
Meanwhile, the set of four walking stories from the Isles of Harris and Lewis have been completed, including dazzling white beaches, rocky coastal paths and seascapes, and one of Europe's finest prehistoric stone circles.
There's also a new story of a short hillwalk from Fife - Lucklaw Hill, at Balmullo.
15 April 2008 - a long gap since the last item, but things have been happening with the site. A promotional flyer was published in March for distribution by the University of Dundee, Cobra Mobile has continued it's advertising support for the site, and some new walks are currently being added. There are two contrasting walks around the cities of Gavle and Gothenburg in Sweden. And work has started on some walks from the Isles of Harris and Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
13 December 2007 - as a prelude to the Kilimanjaro coverage, there's a story of a walk through the rural community around Moivaro Lodge, Arusha, which was the warm-up for the main trek. It includes visits to a local school and a brewery producing banana beer! There's also a gallery of images from this walk, including many of the schoolkids and other local people as well as the intensively farmed landscape. The Kilimanjaro galleries have still to be added.
Also posted recently (at long last) is a VERY gentle walk in China, around the Terracotta Warriors near Xi'an. This has been prompted by the exhibition currently on at the British Museum with just a few of the original warriors on display. The site of the discoveries near Xi'an is simply breathtaking. A gallery is due to be added to this story as well. And a gap has been filled from the stories transferred from the old site - part 2 of the Lijiang Old Town story (from Yunnan in China) had been left behind, but now it's back again, including the vendor who came to our table in a restaurant and burst into a refrain of Auld Lang Syne!
There's a story covering the town of Aberystwyth, halfway down the Welsh coast. More local hillwalks are to follow.
And there's even a new story from just outside Dundee, in Angus, eastern Scotland, around Backmuir Wood which is managed by the Countryside Trust. It also takes in the village of Liff. It's an example of the many short woodland walks that people enjoy every day around Britain. On this occasion the autumn colours were gorgeous.
26 November 2007 - it's taken some time, but at last the full story of the Kilimanjaro climb via the Lemosho Route has been completed, two months after getting home! Go to the Tanzania page to find the links to all 7 days, together with the "Preparing for Kilimanjaro" and "Reflections on the Lemosho Route" pages. I reckon this is probably the most complete account of a climb on Kilimanjaro available anywhere on the web, but I'd be interested to hear otherwise. The next job is to add galleries of photos from the trek. By Christmas at the latest!
15 October 2007 - Colin Wilson, one of our regular contributors, has sent in another thought-provoking story exploring what this mountaineering thing is all about, deep down (or high up), and how you can combine it with "having a good time" at the weekend - see "Hedonism and Mountaineering". Along the way, you'll pick up some impressions of climbing Stob Ban and the Eastern Mamores, in Lochaber, Western Highlands of Scotland. It would be great to hear from other members, to share thoughts about what they get out of walking and climbing (both the pleasure and the pain!). If you enjoy this story, you can also read about Colin's Zen moment at Carn Dearg, and find Colin's other entertaining and informative stories at The Cuillin Ridge, Rannoch Moor, and Sgurr Dearg: The Inaccessible Pinnacle.
David Meldrum has added another story, this time from the French Pyrenees, the climb of Petit Vignemale. He and Anna make the ascent in the company of a group of Spanish lads and their duck! Surprisingly it's the first full story from France on the site.
There's now a complete story of Reflections on climbing Kilimanjaro via the Lemosho Route, with lots of helpful advice. There are photos and summaries for each day as well - just the detailed daily accounts to be added now.
1 October 2007 - there have been several important developments on the site over the past few weeks.
- Firstly, thanks to David Meldrum for his fascinating account of a trek in Tasmania (Mount Ossa and the Overland Trek - two instalments), where he had to contend with insects, leeches and snakes! He has also submitted a story from the Indian Himalayas (Chiring We) where he was part of a team which mounted the first successful British ascent of the mountain. He remained at lower levels, but gives a detailed insight into life at Base Camp coping with heavy snow and rain, and venturing up towards Advance Base Camp with enthusiastic porters.
- Secondly, after a successful trip to Kilimanjaro, a detailed account of the Lemosho Route up the mountain is being added. It will take a few more days to complete, with galleries etc, but go to the Preparing for Kilimanjaro story to start with, or check the other story links on the Tanzania page.
- Thirdly - and crucially for the future development of the site - we now have advertising on the site from Africa Travel Resource, who organised the Kilimanjaro expedition, and Cobimobi, who have taken space on the Home Page and About Us Page.
3 August 2007 - that's another lengthy gap since the last posting. In the meantime however there have been a couple of new walks added:
- a climb of Creag Meagaidh in the Central Highlands of Scotland, mostly in thick mist but with some impressive views of the eastern cliffs
- a 3-day trip to Glen Affric in the Western Highlands of Scotland, including two good hikes taking in some of the munros which overlook the little youth hostel at the head of the glen, and
- a slightly different story, describing the preparations for a trip to climb Kilimanjaro in September which may be of interest to others considering a longer trek of this sort.
5 May 2007 - that's been the biggest gap in the news since the site was set up. Sorry about that. The fact is, the site founder (that's me, Andrew Llanwarne) has taken early retirement from his previous employment with Scottish Enterprise and expected to find he had lots of time to work on the website, but the first few weeks at least of "retirement" were unbelievably hectic, setting up as a self-employed consultant.
However, there should be more time to devote to the website now, and there's a rather different new story to read, with links through to a blog with more narrative and photos. It's a walk across the USA by Paul and Barbie Bentley, starting in July 2006 and stopping off at various places along the way. They're currently in Canon City, Colorado. Read more...
3 March 2007 - the development of the site has taken a big step forward with the easywalking group becoming the first club to make use of the site. This means that club members can share photos from their walks, together with other news and comments, amongst themselves on walkingstories.com.
There's also a great new story, just completed, by Pat Hutchison covering a walking holiday she and Richard enjoyed in June 2006 in the Graubunden region of Switzerland. It sounds like a really good way to explore the Alps on foot, with the luggage being taken on by bus, and the occasional cable car (and ice cream) to make it a bit easier.
11 February 2007- not so much activity on the site in the last fortnight, but now there's a new story of a winter walk (last weekend) on the munros above Glendoll in Angus: Tom Buidhe, Tolmount, Cairn Bannoch and Broad Cairn. It was a long winter hike, but without much snow around.
Over the past week it looks as though the problems we've had with the registration process have been sorted out - the automatic registration form seems to be working. So, why not join up?
28 January 2007 - a couple of new stories from different parts of England: one is a sentimental visit to Watendlath in the Lake District, and it's about time there was a story from that part of the country. The other is from the Cotswolds, in Gloucestershire: an easy walk around the National Arboretum at Westonbirt, with an additional photo gallery from the nearby town of Tetbury.
27 January 2007 - there's a new story from Kefalonia by new contributor Allan Hook, which enables you to walk from the east coast to the west coast in just two and a half hours, finishing at the famous Myrtos Bay. And another story by regular contributor Colin Wilson describes some difficult moments trying to get a fire going in a Highland bothy, and a "Zen moment" a week later before climbing Carn Dearg. Plus, a story about a short walk up to the Falls of Acharn in Perthshire combined with a visit to a reconstructed Crannog. And there are some recollections of several walks on Ben Lawers, on the other side of Loch Tay. So - lots of new stories this week!
But it has to be noted that there are teething troubles with the Member Registration and Contribute a Story pages - apologies to anyone who is having difficulty sending in their details. If you are - then please e-mail stories@walkingstories.com and we will respond as quickly as possible.
20 January 2007 - New stories have been added for Ben Chonzie in Perthshire - reputedly Scotland's most boring Munro, but it's hard to believe with this collection of photos! And the East Lomond Hill story also brings some striking images of a clamber up through thick woods to a rugged summit overlooking Fife. A more gentle summer walk is described in the new story from Kingsbarns Beach and Cambo House, also in Fife.
Walking Stories has been moved to a different Internet Service Provider to support the redesigned site, and this seems to have gone ahead OK, although it appears to have created a hiccup for Google Search which isn't picking us up right now. Need to keep a check on this. The main e-mail address (stories@walkingstories.com) is working again, anyway, and there was a welcome message proposing reciprocal links from www.dundee4bairns.co.uk which has some good descriptions of walks for families with young kids. The links have now been added to the Dundee pages and elsewhere.
Tidying up work has included checking through to make sure all the Galleries link to the relevant stories, and that the urls for individual stories have been edited to read more simply. If you spot anything that needs tidying up, please let us know by e-mailing stories@walkingstories.com
12 January 2007 - the latest additions to the site are some historic stories from East Africa, submitted by Robin Cole. Read how Robin set out on an eventful walk across the Serengeti and ended up with shredded sandals and no passport. See the story about the incident on Mount Kenya. And find out what it's really like to trek up Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro (at least, how it was in 1972). This last story is by Robin's companion, Polly Rigby. No photos, but some graphic images in the narrative!
There's also a link on the Walking News page to an interesting interview with Rodrigo Jordan, an accomplished mountaineer and professor of management in Chile, with some insights about teambuilding and human relationships - on mountains, in business, and in combatting poverty. Well worth a read.
6 January 2007 - not much progress over the festive period, but now there's a new Scottish walking story - Mount Battock - it sounds fairly grand, but it was a reasonably gentle walk in north-east Scotland at New Year, with some good photos.
15 December 2006 - At last, the redesigned site is launched! Quietly. There's still some tidying up to be done, and a backlog of new walks to be added. Then some significant marketing effort will be required.
The Mera Peak story is the first of the new stories - an epic expedition to the highest treking peak in the Himalayas at over 21,000 feet, with lots of photos in the linked Galleries.
26 November 2006 - The Website Story Archive pages are all in place now, but still have to have photos and links to the stories referred to. That can wait until the other pages have been checked through to make sure we've not missed anything. The latest snag is trying to include the Japan map in the Japan background page. Over the past month we've g
