Category Archives: Walks

Winter walking in Austria

By Chris Hughes:

The vast majority of people who choose winter holidays in Austria do so for the skiing – great downhill and spectacular cross-country skiing exists in many villages all easily accessible from the UK after a short flight and coach transfer. If you prefer to make your own travel arrangements then many villages are on the railway line out of Innsbruck. Seefeld and the next valley of Leutascsh are especially good for cross-country skiing having hosted the winter Olympics events, there are kilometres of prepared ‘loipertrails’ of all levels of difficulty.

But best of all, from the point of view of the walker, there are equally large amounts of cleared winter walking paths. The paths are well signposted, set out on maps available from the Tourist Information office and offer flat or slightly hilly walking through beautiful countryside, woodland and riverside locations. The snow conditions do vary from year to year and month to month but December to march is a pretty reliable time from good winter walking conditions. Continue reading →

My Favourite Walk – Annika Ruohonen

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To celebrate the first two months of Under a Grey Sky, we asked contributors to send in a post on the subject of their favourite walk:

The best thing about walks is that they prevent me from doing anything. I pride myself on not ever having had a dull moment in my life. Well, the downside to that is that I find it difficult not to do anything. When I’m out on a walk I can’t write emails, arrange photos or write blog posts. Walking gives me the privilege of letting my thoughts flow freely and that, I think, is necessary if you want to be creative. I have sometimes found the solution for a problem at work while having a walk in the woods, quite suddenly without even trying to find it, or not knowing that I was looking for it. I don’t know if there is any scientific proof for it, but I feel that there is so much truth in the saying that having a walk clears you mind. Continue reading →

Footprints in the Spanish snow

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Sheila Scraton on a high walk in southern Spain:

Usually a winter holiday in Spain conjures up pictures of sun, sand and warm days as the welcome heat seeps into your bones after the long winter in northern Europe. We were visiting our cortijo (Spanish farmhouse) in the Alpujarras in Southern Spain for a couple of weeks, hoping for some warmth but realistic about the fact that the house is situated at about 1500 metres which is above the height of Ben Nevis (1350m), the highest mountain in the British Isles. The cortijo is above the village of Bérchules, a lovely mountain village perched above a spectacular river valley, the source of the Guadalfeo which flows from high in the Sierra Nevada to the Mediterranean sea.

As always the air is cool and clear in February but as soon as the sun appears from the south and shines straight at the cortijo, the heat can be felt and, even at low air temperatures, sun cream is needed! Each morning we managed to enjoy breakfast outside on the patio although one morning we awoke to quite a surprise. Overnight several inches of snow had quietly fallen and, as we opened the shutters, a black and white scene had replaced our normal February view of pink and white almond blossom across on the Contraviesa hills. As the sun arose opposite, the black and white was quickly replaced with a wonderful orange glow as the sunlight glittered on the snow flakes and the sky moved to a deep blue. Continue reading →