With all the environmental problems connect with long distance travel, why not explore more places in your own country?
The olde cliche,‘travel broadens the mind’, is probably true. However, we are sometimes so busy exploring foreign parts that we are in danger of neglecting our own country.
I have been a travel journalist for twenty years and have visited every continent except Antarctica. Yet I haven’t seen all that much of my own country, the UK. I guess the lure of ‘the other’ has usually been the draw.
However, things seem to changing. This past year two friends (one living in Vancouver, the other in New York) independenty emailed me to see if I would like to spend a short walking holiday with them here in the UK. One suggested the Ridgeway, in the county of Wiltshire - an ancient pathway that has been in constant use for over two thousand years. The other wanted to do some walking in Northumberland, the place of my birth which, I'm sorry to say, I have not seen a lot of.
What came out of this was the realisation that I must see more of the UK. We walked over heather-covered hills in Northumberland and discovered pre-historic carvings on huge rocks. We ambled along miles of beautiful beaches, passing only a handful of people, and we explored some of the numerous historic castles that are dotted all over Northumberland.
Wiltshire is such an unusual, mystical county, not only because of the Ridgeway, which starts here, but because this is home to many of the strange, intricately designed ‘corn circles’ that appear overnight in farmers’ fields. It also has ancient historical monuments like the stone circles at Avebury and white horses carved into the surrounding chalky hills. A very strange place.
The UK is like this - full of surprises - and I intend to see more of them. So... check out this site and share my discoveries,
