Last summer, I sailed the Mediterranean Sea for seven days on a luxury Virgin Voyages cruise ship. The food was the best I've ever had on a cruise.
02.04.2024 - 11:27 / theguardian.com / Charlotte Brontë
Start Housesteads Fort
Finish Brocolita Roman Temple
Distance 4¼ miles (use regular AD122 bus to shorten, if needed)
Those who walk the whole 84 miles of Hadrian’s Wall in a week may refer to it as a type of pilgrimage. But in the last few years the ever innovative British Pilgrimage Trust has worked with English Heritage to devise historical pilgrim trails – incorporating ancient sites across Britain – including the 23-mile section between Housesteads and Corbridge. For a pilgrimage with Roman flavour, begin at the Roman fort of Housesteads – a place where it is said “hooded gods” were worshipped, and walk east taking in the milecastles, turrets and the temple remains dedicated to Mithras, the Roman god of light (use the Hadrian’s Wall bus to return to the start).
Start/finish Harbour House, Newcastle
Distance 3-7¾ miles
Established by the St Patrick’s Centre in Downpatrick as a guided offering (still available as a day trip for £45 a person) this Irish camino takes in the town where CS Lewis holidayed as a child and no doubt heard the legends of the adjacent mountain of Slieve Donard – said to hold a hermit’s cell for Saint Donart, as well as, in Irish mythology, a tomb of mythical figures and a doorway to the otherworld.
Wandering in a loop from town (a case of following your nose, or a map, from the centre) the goal is the Narnia-esque Tollymore Forest Park, where a choice of footpaths can create a circular stroll through giant redwoods and rocky outcrops, and over stepping stones and 16 bridges across the Shimna River – an area of special scientific interest owing to its rare mosses, population of Atlantic salmon and geology. Evidence of prehistoric man has also been discovered here.
Start/finish Sundon Hills Country Park
Distance 2½ miles
Published in 1678, The Pilgrim’s Progress has been translated into more than 200 languages, has never been out of print and influenced writers such as CS Lewis, Charlotte Brontë and Enid Blyton. This trail is named after its author, who was incarcerated for preaching. In 1995 the Bedfordshire Ramblers group created a memorial walking route that transposes places from his book on to the real locations on which the writer based his tome. This section begins where one of Bunyan’s persecutors lived and meanders the chalky landscape to the summit of Sharpenhoe Clappers (cut out Streatley for this shorter route) – a spur of tree-covered ground that rises dramatically from the flat arable land surrounding it.
Start/finish Berwick station
Distance 1-11¼ miles
In 2014, Will Parsons and Guy Hayward noticed an ancient path on the 14th-century Gough map (one of the oldest maps of Britain) that linked churches and holy places together. They used it to try to resurrect what they
Last summer, I sailed the Mediterranean Sea for seven days on a luxury Virgin Voyages cruise ship. The food was the best I've ever had on a cruise.
I’m lying on my back. Directly above me is “a vault of heaven” with great wooden beams. I’ve never woken before under such a high ceiling – but then I’ve never gone to sleep in a church before.
Accra is rich with stories, some of them only a few words long — Still Hustling; Work Hard and Dream Big; Short Ways Are Dangerous — and written in bold letters on the rear windows of tro tros, the ubiquitous minibuses that ferry residents and visitors around the city. These mantras are meant to represent the people who own the buses. But they also tell of life in Accra, and what it takes to make it in this vibrant city.
One of California's best resorts and a World of Hyatt favorite, Alila Ventana Big Sur will remain closed through at least May 26. This is due to the closure of Highway 1 for construction following a series of events, including storms and multiple landslides, that seriously damaged the road over the last few weeks and months.
The neglect I had shown to my native Wales over the years, while writing about the streets of Delhi, or small town life in Kansas, shamefully hit home recently while listening to music in my apartment in Hong Kong, where I have been living for much of the past 20 years. The voice of the great British singer-songwriter Ian McNabb rang out loudly: “I never saw my hometown ’til I went around the world.”
As I slip off the jetty into the chilly water of Lagmanshagasjön, the world loses all distinction. Low mist blurs everything; I can’t see where the lake ends and the sky begins. It is like breaststroking into a silvery infinity. I haven’t bothered with swimwear. Between the tannin-dark water and early morning brume, I can barely see myself, let alone be seen. And dissolving into nature feels delicious: wearing nothing and seeing nothing, I am feeling everything.
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