Tag Archives: outdoors

Golden Autumn Days

At the end of the summer, it never ceases to amaze me how, every year, so many folks look to the approaching winter with a sense of foreboding, quite forgetting that the most beautiful season of the year has yet … Continue reading

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Wind, Waves & Wild Coast – Norway without the crowds…

People keep telling me that Norway is overpriced, overcrowded and over-touristed – in fact, images of visitors fighting for their own tiny piece of Instagram space atop the airy and iconic Pulpit Rock by Stavanger, jostle for attention on seemingly … Continue reading

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Snow Days

Straight back to the present again and winter in this part of Germany can be a grey time, often without a glimpse of sunshine for days on end. Corona lockdowns, gloomy news headlines, cancelled events and restrictive lives haven’t helped … Continue reading

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Scottish Light and Land:

There’s something unique about Scottish light and how it compliments the landforms – just like the Scottish people (and indeed people everywhere), landscapes too have their changing moods, their storms and periods of calm when they shine radiantly like the … Continue reading

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Secrets of the Wild Wood

Like a scene from a distant lost world, the damp woods of the Inde valley between Hahn and Walheim hang with  a mass of tangled ivy. Dead branches, rotten tree stumps and slippery, moss-covered rocks litter the ground, making for treacherous conditions underfoot. Ominous, … Continue reading

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“Away With the Fairies” – The Legend of Doon Hill and Robert Kirk

As a child I spent many, happy summer Sundays sailing on my Dad’s boat at Loch Ard; a scenic forest-fringed loch, located in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park within the Trossachs region of Scotland. In 2002, this area became part of Scotland’s first National Park, Loch Lomand and the Trossachs, … Continue reading

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Summer on the Schöttlkarspitze

Nights are drawing in and the first serious gales and rain of autumn announce that winter is not too far around the corner. Although there has been a bit of an Indian summer here, in general July and August were pretty unsettled months here in … Continue reading

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Summer Alm Adventure

We spent the last couple of weeks of August exploring the alpine valleys, forests, lakes and villages around the Karwendel Alps on the border between Bavaria and the Austrian province of Tyrol. The alpine meadows in this part of the … Continue reading

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Nature’s Children

Keeping kids amused in the summer holidays can be a chore but you don’t need to fly your 4-year-old half way around the world to Disneyland to have fun; forget theme parks, computer games, TV and all the organised attractions … Continue reading

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“Scotland: Landscapes and Legends”

For anyone in Aachen and surrounding area; I’ll be making a presentation at the Volkshochschule in Stolberg on the 16th May entitled “Scotland: Landscapes and Legends”. I’ll be talking about exploring Scotland’s wild landscapes on foot and by canoe (including many of the locations mentioned on … Continue reading

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