Life in the mountains offers an extremely simple, quiet retreat from the daily pace of life. Tourists coming from different parts of the world love the simplicity of walking to the top of a mountain, visiting one of the mountain huts (best place for walking holiday in Slovenia), enjoying a hearty bowl of soup with a fantastic view and drinking tea, made with the flowers picked from the mountains and trying to converse a little with the friendly people. Interestingly, the locals of Slovenia say that when God was creating the world, he gave out to the rest of the world and kept back a little bit of everything for Slovenia
Hill-Walking With the Camisards
Hikers with a penchant for historical hill walking can re-live the main events, visit key locations and battlefields, and learn about the principal personalities in play during the course of the rebellion by visiting Trekking with the Camisards. This is a unique opportunity to experience The Cevennes and explore a fascinating theme and troubled period in French history.
La Grande Motte
La Grande Motte is located on the Mediterranean coast, within easy access of both Montpellier airport which is a 20 minutes drive and Nimes airport which is a 45 minutes drive. With La Petite and La Grande Camargue to its east, and Sete and Agde to its west, those who love the coast can enjoy its pleasures as well as spend time walking its coastal canal system.
La Grande Motte boasts 385 hectares of lawn and green space, over 43,000 trees, and 20 kilometers of pedestrianized pathways and trails that zig-zag and interconnects squares, avenues, seafront, and port. Constructed with the good life in mind, it is not just a place to hang out in the summer, but a vibrant all-year-round town, boasting an enviable infrastructure and one of the healthiest environments in the Mediterranean – plus one of its largest marinas.
Nowadays, plants and minerals are in perfect harmony, with green spaces covering one-third of the town’s surface area. Tree species include stone pine, Aleppo pine, Leyland cypress, Common Alder, Russian olive tree, poplars, and palm trees among others. There are 31 hectares of shrubs, including mimosa, oleander, thyme, lavender, and rosemary.
The Regordane Way
The Regordane is the southern-most section of the historical route that links Paris to Lower Languedoc and the Camargue. It runs from Le Puy-en-Velay, south-east of St Etienne to Saint-Gilles-du-Gard to the south-east of Nimes, a distance of 211 kilometers or 140 miles.
The jury is still out as to the true origins of the name; and whilst some point to the existence of a road of the same name in Jerusalem, the most likely is that it took its name from the ancient Province through which it passes – la Regordana. This Province corresponded approximately to the triangular area linking the towns of Ales, Pradelles and L’Argentiere.
The original Regordane Way traces the path that Pilgrims, Romans, traders, and armies would have followed en route to St Gilles and beyond. It still offers a unique and authentic experience for those who will accept no compromise other than that of avoiding obvious danger.
Trekking the real Regordane Trail takes you across a high volcanic plateau, the schist slopes of the Ceze Valley and the dry, stony and flatter surfaces of the Garrigues; through medieval villages and linear settlements, where you admire architecture, vestiges and learn about the history of this sacred route.
The Taming of The Great Moss, The Shrew, and Scafell (A walking route up Scafell Pike)
Starting from Cockley Beck at the head of the Duddon Valley between Wrynose and Hardknott Passes we headed North towards Scafell, up Moasdale, a rather boggy place even after a dry September. An hour of steady walking brought us to the short descent to Lingcove Beck and then some undulating ground on a faint track to “The Great Moss.” Although in most weathers tourists can walk straight across it as it seems to be able to soak up a lot of water and they walk across the vegetation without sinking into the depths!
Rather than head straight up to Broad Stand you then headed past Esk Buttress up Little Narrowcove up a steep almost canyon-like gully with brooding crags on either side. This would take them up to 877 Metres and then just 90 Metres more of ascent would see them on the summit.
Many people can give company while walking on the main path. On the short section over the summit probably a couple of hundred, maybe more. After being the highest people in England for a while we dropped back down to Broadstand and then the steep descent under East Buttress of Scafell with its impressive cliffs.
The final scramble down the side of Howbeck Waterfalls can bring the tourists back to the Great Moss. All that remained was the long walk back to the road at Cockley Beck, enjoying the peace and solitude, how the Lakes should be!
A Via Ferrata
Via Ferrata or paths of iron as they imply were originally developed by the Italians during the last war as a way of scaling the rock faces of the Dolomites and other areas without detection. One can imagine secret hideaways and stores of armaments in impregnable positions in the Mountains. Since then there has been a gradual but steady increase in their popularity as a leisure pursuit in their own right. In more recent years there has been a dramatic increase in their numbers as villages and tourist areas have seen their potential as a way of luring summer tourists into the ski resorts. The Briancon area alone has 20 to 30 routes of varying difficulty, certainly enough for a couple of weeks holiday. Some can be combined with walks and mountain summits to make a full day’s outing.
The basic techniques are very easy, just follow the continuous cable and keep clipped in at all times. One can make up their own “lanyards” using a friction plate or buy ready put together kit. All these kits do is provide some shock absorbing capacity in case of fall and load your harness with a heavy load. The easier routes are an ideal way of introducing children and beginners to climbing and it is, of course, possible to rope people up as you would on a climb if they are short of confidence. Some of the more recent Via Ferratas have amazing cable bridges, Tyrolean traverses across exposed gorges climb up the slides of spectacular waterfalls and even routes up massively overhanging walls via ladders where you have to face outwards from the rock face! There are many guidebooks available as well as free guides produced by the tourist boards.