Travel in county Wood

Winter is coming: Bring it on, say Canadians, who revel in the thrill and magic of the season. Visitors eager to experience the winter months (which in some regions can last from November to April) are always delighted by the expansiveness of nature and intimacy of culture, the ease of engaging in outdoor and indoor activities, and ultimately the warmth of the Canadian welcome. Woven into the culture: Winter is part of the cultural identity of those living within Canada’s borders. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Inuktitut dialect of Nunavik (Arctic Quebec) includes multiple words referring to snow and ice, from qanik (snow falling) to qinu (slushy ice by the sea). The Arctic Winter Games are a multi-sport and an Indigenous cultural event held every two years involving circumpolar peoples around the world. The 2022 Games were pushed to 2023 and held in Wood-Buffalo, Alberta. Yukon is a potential host in 2026. In Ontario, Thrive Tours’ Snowshoe Experience is an Indigenous interpretive guided snowshoe experience with snowshoes provided and and learning about local Indigenous culture, history, and the natural environment included.

These oft-bypassed towns have all been, at some period in history, influential if not necessarily powerful; wealth-creating though hardly opulent; and vital to the nation’s wealth and security while never fully rewarded for it. Communications and trade once gave some urban centres the edge over others. Churches and marketplaces were social magnets. Today a brand-name art gallery, celebrity residents, or media chatter are most likely to generate appeal, however specious. What if estate agents sold houses using poetry, memories, polyglotism, ruins and rust?

Here is a plan for a day out on the Metropolitan line of London’s underground, although we will at no stage be under ground, and will travel 25 miles from London. First, however, a little history.

An hour north of bustling Milwaukee, about a mile inland from the Lake Michigan shoreline, my husband and I checked into a Frank Lloyd Wright house recently made popular by season two of Netflix's The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals.

In American fiction, my state is code for outpost. Maine is where you send a character you want to get rid of, someone who goes off to raise goats, farm oysters, prep for the apocalypse — or write a novel. Apart from California, I can think of no other state in the Union that lives as strongly in the national collective imagination as a place to play out a festering dream.

Britain crams an impressive array of landscapes, historical sites and urban environments into a relatively small area, making it a popular location for a wide range of films. Here's a selection of well-known film locations that also make for a great day out, whether you want a relaxing walk or a session in the surf.

What is it that draws us to extreme travel? Is it the adrenaline rush from a soaring bungee jump, the fulfilling feeling upon reaching the peak of a mountain or a well-deserved gratification as you complete another mile along an arduous hike?