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Looking Further Afield
While I have contented myself with exploring Britain and Ireland, that is not to say that other shores wouldn't tempt me. In that vein, I have added this piece to the Miscellany to collect up ideas for those other notions, should something ever become of them. What prompted me to add this was the inclusion of inserts in a recent edition of Country Walking that set me to pondering options waiting beyond foreign shores.
A number of years back, business trips took me to Lund in Sweden and Wilmington in Delaware, U.S.A. Naturally, I didn't get to see much of where I had been though the appeal of Lund wasn't lost on me and I always fancied collecting up a list of resources on the web that might facilitate a return. To an extent, the same may be said for Delaware and Pennsylvania even if its the more mountainous and wilder parts of North America would be the real draw for me. As unlikely as it might seem that I may get to making something of such a brainwave, there's no harm collating a few bits and pieces either.
Remaining with theoretical proposals, there's also the hill country in Norway that was shown so temptingly in that magazine insert. Unsurprisingly, a whole plethora of web addresses found their way in to the brochure as if to ensure further investigation. Regardless of whether acting upon any of this takes place, it's worth sharing these and the thoughts that they engender as well.
Another of those inserts featured Switzerland and that set in train a massive amount of mental globe trotting. For one thing, there's plenty of hill country in Europe and it's not always in the most obvious of places either. After all, how go to the Canary Islands for hill walking? Also, I am not one for writing down very long lists and they wouldn't make exciting reading even if the locations were themselves attractive. For instance, I could rove all around France, Italy, Austria and Czech with dash to the other side of the world to take in New Zealand. Some may desire that collection of globe trotting but I am not so enthusiastic.
In some ways, it is amazing to see myself writing these words after reading so many walking trips from those further flung places without any compulsion to go seeing what the authors were relating. I suppose that any fledgling ambitions are stymied by realities of how far away these locations are and the presence of language barriers.
Saying that, I am open to new locations and following up a visit to the Isle of Man last July may seem tame in comparison but it is something that I fancy doing. The thoughts on that day trip are here to get things going before other such things follow. Next time, it might be a longer stay and the additional insights from the first outing will inform any future excursion.
None of this widening of horizons dulls my satisfaction for seeing new places and revisiting old haunts in Britain and Ireland. After all, there is a hell of a lot of Ireland that I have yet to see and it is impossible for somewhere to be so well visited that you're done with it. For me, much of the north of Britain falls into that category and there is no pressing need for me to go to continental because I have nothing new to see where I have been. After all, time changes things and you always can return somewhere to see it in a new light. Saying that, I'll never say that my curiosity hasn't been aroused by the prospects of travelling further afield.
