W is for Walking

I'm totally ignoring that tomorrow is x in this marathon of blog posts so for now lets concentrate on the letter W which in our blogging from A to Z challenge is walking. This is something that we have enjoyed so much over the years and have found each one to be fab (though if it involved a hill it usually involved me crying at some point). I've selected just a few of our walks to share with you.

First walk pictured was on Scalpay in the Outer Hebrides. The first picture is quite early in the walk when we reached one of the high points and added to the cairn that was there. The second picture is looking down the hill we had to get down to reach the beach - this would be where I panicked and told Ken he'd have to walk out and arrange for a helicopter to get me out. Instead of getting me rescued my beloved helped me down by being with me every step and letting me be as pathetic as I needed to be.

Thankfully I got to return the favour when we went to the Tahune Airwalk in Tasmania. It's a great place to visit and do some fabulous walks. The picture below is taken with us on the cantilever section which is 50 metres above the river - It took a lot of reassurance to get my usually incredibly brave man to go out there (he has a little bit of a fear of heights which I didn't find out about until we were going up the Eiffel Tower a few years before). If you look closely you can see how tightly he is gripping onto the railing and me.

Another walk on Scalpay that we did was to Eilean Glas lighthouse. Right near the start of this walk these three lovely collies decided that they didn't have anything better to do for the day and came on the walk with us - all 7 miles of it. The scenery was beautiful and I'm sure I only had a brief moment of tears when I couldn't possibly carry on, but the dogs (and Ken) gave me the encouragement I needed and on we went.

A walk we love to do at home in Tasmania is from mum's house, through Gutteridge gardens and out to the beach at East Wynyard. Along the way we often meet up with a pelican or two, and then we usually have the beach to ourselves - beautiful.

In the past we've done several sponsored walks for charity and when I did a ladies night walk I had to rope poor Bertie in and of course I dressed him in his own pink t-shirt (I think he's looking away from the camera hoping nobody recognises him).

A lovely walk is along the Danube in Budapest - there's so much to see and it's great for people watching. Now I couldn't be beside the beautiful blue Danube without touching it so here I am putting my hand in the water - Ken was convinced I was going to catch some dreadful illness but then he's a bit of a clean freak.

An important part of walking is making sure that the route you're taking has somewhere to go for lunch or just a drink.  This was a lovely cafe in Budapest which did the best coffee and desserts.

A walk we really wanted to do many years ago was from the lodge at Freycinet Peninsula to Wineglass Bay, Tasmania. We'd stayed there for one of our anniversaries, arranged a picnic from the restaurant to carry with us, and were looking forward to a good walk followed by a lovely day sat on a pristine white beach. That was the plan. We awoke to fog so thick you couldn't see anything and very heavy rain. We're nothing if not adaptable so the picnic happened in our hotel room and descended into a food fight at the end of it - Ken has carrot cake through his hair and I have a lovely face mask of chocolate cake.

The next day, we woke up to sunshine so when we were leaving we decided to climb to the lookout and then at least we'd get to see Wineglass Bay. No!! We got to the top and all we could see is cloud - if you peer through it you can just make out the shape of the beach. So Wineglass Bay is still on our bucket list.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and have a great day wherever you are in the world.

Pamela & Ken
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