Hiking - Etic (Page 2)

Red sandstone cliffs curving round a bay, with reddish shallows meeting blue sea

Along red cliffs bitten away by landfalls

So I walked on, the sun in my eyes and the sea on my side, along red cliffs bitten away by landfalls old and new. In places the path veered very close to the edge and you could see cracks in the dry earth.

Aerial view of people walking a seafront path between red sandstone cliffs and the sea

A short history of rambling in England

I know no easy way to break this news gently to my English friends, so I am going to come out and just say it: you are more indebted to the Americans than you are aware of.

Low-angle selfie of a hiker in a bucket hat and sunglasses against a blue sky

An Indian’s incredible journey into the English psyche

Walking is the second favourite pastime in England (the first is queuing, of course). Only here have I seen people go trudging across muddy fields on the most miserable day and coming back exclaiming, “Ooh! That was lovely!” It is astonishing.

Hawker's Hut, a small turf-roofed wooden hut set into a muddy clifftop path above the sea, Cornwall

The crazy good Christian of Cornwall

England is full of good-natured nutters who do amazing things for their community in their own quirky ways. I got to know one such by the name of Robert Stephen Hawker when I walked into Cornwall from Devon.

Person in a hooded jacket and backpack looking over a sea wall at choppy sea under a cloudy sky

The village that ends with an exclamation

Who wouldn’t want to live in a place that ends with an exclamation mark?

Roofless stone cottages behind a dry-stone wall in Tyneham, with an old phone kiosk and church among trees

The village that died for England

I went to Tyneham because of its history. I wanted to see a village ‘frozen in time’ with my own eyes.