By: Blonde One
Whilst in Norway I had to make do with admiring most of the mountains from the bottom. I swear I heard several of them calling my name and begging me to climb them but I had to resist! We did, however, manage a couple of walks that involved getting part-way up. The walks we tackled were through woodland. After a quite traumatic incident Mr Blonde One and I generally run a mile from woodland walks. A very long time ago, back in the days before Little Miss Blonde, we visited the Peak District and ventured into some woodland for a sunny Sunday afternoon walk. This walk was a post roast lunch walk and didn’t involve or require maps, boots or compasses. After about 6 hours in these woods we admitted that we were lost and the initial route marks for the ‘White Walk’ were long gone and nowhere to be seen. Every tree looked the same and we swore that every path would take us back to the car! Eventually we made it back to a road (not the right road) and called a taxi to take us the 50 minute journey back to our car! Since that day the words ‘white walk’ sends shivers down our spines.
I think that someone had phoned ahead to Norway and let them know that we might be navigationally challenged: the woods that we walked through had handy little markers attached to the trees to let you know that you are going the right way. Unlike the Peak District White Walk, this walk was clearly defined right from the start, all the way round back to the beginning. Even if it had been snowy, they were high enough to still be visible. There were no taxis involved in this walk!
Ha ha, reminds me of my first visit to Fernworthy Forest earlier this year!!! I was with a friend and her daughter who are now massive walkers and was trying not to show my panic of being completely lost and disorientated! In the end had to resort to the geocaching app on my i phone to get us out of trouble!!!
I have got to the stage where I never enter a wood without a compass at least – and preferably a GPS. I don’t know why Britain’s footpaths are so badly signed. One thing I remember from Switzerland was the brilliant footpath signage that told you not HOW FAR you had to go, but HOW LONG it would take you. Down in Devon now, there are quite a lot of little metal tags on stiles with the grid reference on them.