This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Over the last 25 years or so, by my reckoning I’ve done nearly 700 day walks. So picking a top 10 is far from easy. But here goes.
10. Tatranska Kotlina to Biela Voda, Tatra mountains, Slovakia
The most recent of the Top 10 walks, one I did only last summer, when we stayed in the Slovak Tatras at Stary Smokevec. This walk is beautiful, and apart from a steady climb through the forest, not too tough. I was a little unnerved to read just beforehand though that it was a favoured area of Brown bears, and also to find that much of my time I was alone. So I spent three hours walking while singing constantly ( mainly Colonel Bogey!) to deter any chance encounters. Believe me this is surprisingly tiring. The only encounters I did have , though, were with the occasional Slovak walker in the other direction who must have thought me a bit eccentric.
9. Sentier Des Cresvasses, Les Ecrins, France
This walk is a ‘balcony’ walk, by which I mean it hugs the contours and stays relatively flat, but has at times quite a big drop to one side. The views are worth it though, as you follow the Romanche river from the Col de Lauteret towards the Refuge de l’Alpe de Villar d’Arene. You cross to the other side of the valley and walk back up. The Ecrins National Park is beautiful, and not as developed as some other parts of the Alps, not far from Grenoble.
8. Richetlipass, Alpine pass route, Switzerland
I walked this pass as part of my intended traverse of Switzerland, from east to west, via the Alpine Pass route, in summer 2004. On this particular stretch I was accompanied by my friend Keith, with whom I’ve shared many a great walk, but who at this time was a complete walking novice, so didn’t know what he was letting himself in for! This is one of the few times we’ve walked carrying our all our gear, and it was tough, especially the final climb across the snow in this picture, where Keith made it up first, but I struggled and slid back.
Once on the either side the terrain changed and we had one of the longest and in places steepest descents I’ve ever encountered. It just seemed to go on forever. But beautiful, nonetheless.
7. Faja de Racun, Ordesa Canyon, Pyrenees , Spain.
I actually first saw this on tv , but in real life it’s even more amazing. Having already been to the French side, the Spanish is very different, and certainly hotter.
The Faja path is another balcony path, very high up, and I did suffer from a bit of vertigo on this one. Again I was with Keith, who took it all in his stride. But we decided not to do the faja the other side of the canyon the next day, as I’d somewhat lost my nerve.
6. Sete Cidades, Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal
This one is very different. An easier walk, once you’d climbed to the rim of the extinct volcano, now a lake. The flowers, as throughout the Azores, brought colour to the landscape. We were lucky that the initial fog cleared so that we had some stunning views. My wife and daughter joined me on this one, in the summer of 2018.
5. Timberline trail, Oregon, USA
Well I can claim to have done a small part of the Pacific Crest Trail- about ten miles!- and this was one of the most accessible bits, from the wonderful Timberline Lodge, where we stayed for three nights, high in the forest, with views across to Mount Hood. My daughter’s friend from America had moved back to the US and we spent an amazing couple of weeks visiting her in Portland and the vicinity in 2015.
4. Kasprowy Wierch, Tatra mountains, Poland
We made the mistake of deciding to catch the cable car at about midday, queued for two hours and then thought why not walk down? Not a terribly good idea when your wife is pregnant, and the path is as rocky and precarious as this one.
But the walk was beautiful and the memories will always stay with us, despite the fact that it was a lot further down than we thought and we ended up walking down in the dark, using only a torch. Luckily we weren’t the only ones and there were strategically placed minibuses waiting for late walkers at the bottom of the mountain to take us back into Zakopane.
3. Pasterze glacier, Grossglockner, Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria
Well I have done two small parts of the Alpe Adria trail already, including this part, the first half day of the trail. We did this one in 2002 for our fifth wedding anniversary. After having actually walked across the glacier- an amazing experience- we walked down towards Heiligenblut. I’m looking forward to doing this part again.
2. Circuit Des Lacs, Valle de Marcadau, Pyrenees, France
I’d nearly done this walk in 2001, but the weather hadn’t quite held, so I’d just walked in the Valle de Marcadau, which is stunning enough. But this circuit is incredible, with a succession of mountain tarns in the dips between the mountains. I’d left my wife Jeni and daughter Rachel at the bottom and decided to do this walk in a clockwise direction as suggested in the English guide book. Everyone else was doing it the other way, and right at the end I had it to myself.
Unfortunately a rockfall has obscured the decent path and I came off it , lost my way and ended up hanging precariously from a spindly tree on a very steep hillside. Totally stuck, luckily I had a mobile signal and I called Jeni, and she called the mountain police. They sent a helicopter out, but by this time it was too foggy to attempt rescue this way, so they dropped off two rescuers who located me and led me to safety. I really thought I’d had it. They were great and drove me all the way back to Cauterets where we staying. I have never been so grateful.
Despite this, I’d do the walk again, but the other way around!
1. Balestrand high circuit, Norway
I did this walk on a whim. No guide book recommendation. Just a map and followed the red paint marks. I literally did not see a soul all day. The weather was superb, but despite it being August there was lots of snow at the top, which made it tricky.
The day after it rained, and then it snowed, so was so glad I did this. But it was a bit of a risk that I’m not sure I’d take these days without knowing what was in store. So many different views, all incredible. What a great place.
Well, that’s it. My top ten, so far. You’ll notice that there weren’t any British walks in there. I nearly included a Scottish one, but I thought, on balance it was outpipped by others. But I’ll try and do a best 10 in Britain as another blog post at a later date.
Across the Alps to the Adriatic 