Last Week I Fell Pretty Hard For Hiking

I knew I loved walking and day-hikes but how much I’ve absolutely loved hiking day-after-day has taken me by surprise.

Hiking is, of course, a lot slower than cycle touring. On a bike you can see so much more – 40-90 miles is a pretty easy feat for us now.

Hiking, however allows you to see so much more of where you are right now.

You can get anywhere on foot – you can travel between the trees and into the depths of the forest.

You notice the little things and finer details like the vibrant mushroom pictured or colour of the moss. You see frogs as small as a ten pence piece (see if you can spot him). You see beetles and caterpillars and I can never resist just watching them for a while.

My personal favourite moment of West Highland Way was this little vole. It is a vole right? Someone tell me if I’m wrong!

We spotted him running back into his little burrow and knew it we stayed dead quiet he’d probably come out again. Sure enough, he popped his head out for a look but darted back in at even the slightest movement from us. After about three attempts he seemed to decide that we were no threat and whatever was in that pine cone must’ve been really tempting as he chewed on it for quite a while as we stood silently and watched.