A couple of weeks ago I found myself reading a piece from a fellow blogger that asked the question as to whether there was bad gear. His argument seemed to be that there wasn’t (I go into this below) but many of the comments seemed to agree with me that, sadly, there is.

And this got me thinking …

The original piece seemed to be making two arguments. Firstly, the author argued, there is gear that doesn’t meet up to expectations because what has been bought actually has not been developed to meet the needs that the purchaser acquired them for. True, there are cases of people not really understanding what they are buying and therefore make a dud purchase. Hands up, I’ve probably done this myself. The second argument was that there is very cheap gear. You get what you pay for. Buy cheap gear and you can’t expect it to be durable. Well, I’m sure that there is some truth in that as well. But we’re talking about the margins here. In my experience there is bad gear around.

During the last year I wrote about three pieces of gear which I considered to be either poor or not up to the task that you would reasonably expect. The first two were both pieces of gear that were around the £200 mark. I still consider this to be expensive. For that much money I think I have reasonable expectations of quality. The third item was a computer product that — while a lot cheaper — simply didn’t really deliver what the outdoor community would want. I don’t want to go over the details of these again but it seems to me that, at least in the first two cases, the manufacturers were managing to combine both shoddy goods with dreadful customer service. The connection between the two is important. With even the best manufacturing systems a bad batch can occasionally get through and in these circumstances you should be able to expect prompt and efficient customer service, especially if the problem is with a premium priced product.

My first item was an expensive watch that exhibited a fault that I have previously experienced with the same brand, on a couple of occasions over five years or so. Thankfully, this was bought through a major high street dealer who was able to raise the problem for me. But even they had problems, especially when the company told them that it was way out of warranty on the day that it was bought. Several years ago, when I had the same fault, the goods were replaced without argument and I got the impression that everyone knew there was a fault. This time there seemed to be no commitment to a proper conversation with the retailer and the retailer was clearly getting annoyed. But as this was a major retailer they couldn’t be ignored. After a somewhat un-necessary gap the watch was replaced by a new model with lots of mutterings about changing the country of manufacture because of problems with the first batch. So, I got a result but I didn’t really feel — at any time in this set of communications — that there was any real sense of apology on offer and I was certainly not given the confidence that the problems would be dealt with  promptly.

The second problem was with a lightweight pair of walking trousers from a very reputable company who I have bought a lot from over the years, indeed, I’ve championed their products at various stages. Despite being an expensive product the build quality was very poor, and I’m not the only person to have noticed that. The seams, especially, do not seem to be that robust. I thought there might be a problem with fit as well and thought I may have bought the wrong size. So, unusually for me, I decided to purchase a second pair in a different size. The second pair — bought a year later — were just as shoddily made and the seams began to fall apart quite quickly. Both of these pair of trousers had relatively light use. I wore both on a TGO Challenge, but that was only for twelve days walking or so. In total neither pair had been used, in total, for more than twice this number of times. The second pair were unintentionally left behind in Scotland and so I’ve gone back to wearing pair one. These have seam that is coming apart and the outer fabric has torn rather too easily on a fence or something. I could send them back for repair — and may yet do. But a repair is not really going to deal with the large amount of bad stitching that can be found all over this product. I suppose I will grin and bear it, use these until they fall together and then quietly go and purchase replacements from another brand.

The customer service complaint comes in here as well. When I bought the second par I had a chat the the retailers about the problems. They expressed surprise as they’d not had any complaints in the past and the manufacturers had not informed them of any problems. There may have been some problem with an initial production batch but none since. As I’d dealt with this company for many years I was inclined to believe them. But as I began to wear the replacement pair it became quite obvious that the same problems existed — and again it is not just much that has noticed the same thing! There is a problem with this premium priced product and one which, seemingly, the manufacturer is not prepared to share with their retailer. The best that the retailer could suggest was that I sent the first pair back for repair.

Responsible Blogging

It is difficult dealing with these kind of complaints as a blogger. Firstly, you need to be sure that you are not at fault with the purchase in the first place. And secondly, you need to be able to have the clout to get manufacturers to treat you seriously. With the watch I did eventually mutter popular hill asking blog and bad publicity over the internet and I did get the impression that they logged this. But this makes me mad because that’s not how customer service should work.

As a blogger you don’t get any better treatment than anyone else which means you have to be very persistent. I suspect that should a similar complaint have come from, say, a gear magazine things would have been dealt with more efficiently and decisively.

To write about these experiences is difficult because it requires consistency and persistence over time and many of us really don’t have the time to do that in the way that a professional journalist might.

The third example is interesting because of the more positive line that the company takes in relation to customers. This product didn’t do what I had wanted to do but I recognised that I kind of knew that when I bought it. But what this company does have is excellent customer service. They talk to their customers, explain their upgrade path and are genuinely interested in you helping them in their desire to create a better product. And as a result of their customer culture you are more happy to forgive problems and more patient in waiting for the development of the end product.

Hard Times and Better Value

I think it was a shame that my fellow blogger decided to write in the way that he did. Times are hard and many of us are having to be more discerning about gear purchases than perhaps we once were. Yes, we might still shell out money for an expensive product but we kind of have even more of a right to expect value for money and quality.

A Manifesto for Gear Manufacturers and Retailers

During the year I’d like to feel that things were changing.

Firstly, I’d like gear manufacturers to be a bit more honest in the pitch of their products. If they are building ‘down’ in quality then they really should be more careful about claims of quality and suitability.

Secondly, I’d like to see companies really committing themselves to improving customer care standards. Even the most unreasonable of us know that things go wrong sometimes but a good and positive reaction from a manufacturer makes us feel happier and more secure in our dealings with them.

Thirdly, and it goes without saying, that retailers have to be prepared to stand up for their customers, and this is the same whether we are talking about high street retailers or online retailers. I will only deal now with those who I know have a real commitment to their customer.

It is hard to write a bad review

You do see ‘bad’ reviews on the net but not that many really. It is hard for an ordinary punter to really go through a process of being fair yet thorough. Yes I know you will see reviews on sites which effectively say ‘crap’ but sometimes this doesn’t really help take a debate on.

Do Better …

Our economy is likely to be — at best— flat lining over the next few years. Walkers will have less disposable income and will necessarily be more cautious in their purchases. Companies, too, face hard times. Those who are not committed to good customer service may well find themselves in trouble and I would hate to see some of our famous names going to the wall. At the very least recent experiences suggest that some famous names have some work to do to live up to their hard earned reputations.

I may still write some hard-hitting reviews about these products but the professional and responsible person in me knows that I probably have to spend yet more time going through the complaint systems. As a punter, of course, I might just simply give up, never use these companies again, and just tell all of my friends.

There is bad gear out there. Despite it being difficult to deal with the blogging community should not make things even harder by suggesting that there isn’t.

Perhaps we need an internet hall of shame. I’m genuinely interested in how you think we can deal with bad manufacture, and sub standard customer service, through the online community.

Thoughts please!

We met to catch up with each other, to talk about his trek along the Pyrenean HRP last summer, to compare notes for our routes for next year’s TGO Challenge and to talk about David’s new Challenge as he prepares to move North and develop a new career with the John Muir Trust.

Our conversation was a reminder that in these difficult and austere times the exploration of wild land doesn’t need to be massively expensive and yet can still provide you with one of those rare, life changing, experiences. There is – quite frankly — nothing I like better than talking about the Pyrenees. As we sat in a Pizza Express in Soho we ranged across the globe and backwards and forwards in time as we discussed the life of great wilderness explorers and mussed on the challenges faced by wild land over the coming years.

I was pleased that David remains an optimist although as a seasoned campaigner he appreciates how hard it is to really win your case. In my experience the best and most successful campaigning organisations are those who retain a real idealistic edge to their philosophy but who are focussed and pragmatic in their campaigning. I pleased to see that the JMT fits into this category and I’m sure we are going to see some interesting campaigning from them over the next few years.

I’ve supported JMT in the past but now I thing I’m going to become a member. They might be the kind of organisation to make a real difference in just the way — to be fair — that they have in helping communities in wilderness take control of their own destinies, like they did when they became key partners in the creation of the Knoydart Foundation.

Evenings like this are not only fun and exciting but I come away from them brimming with ideas. Now, all I have to do is to spend some time making a few of them happen!

I met my first ‘Highland Hobo’ during the TGO Challenge in May. The weather had been appalling and we were a day behind our schedule when we dropped down to the bothy in Loch Chiarain (a morning’s walk out of Kinlochleven). This a fine and sturdy bothy sitting above a small and picturesque loch. We set ourselves up in oven of the downstairs rooms to brew some hot chocolate and make some lunch when we are joined by walker who descended from the upstairs room.

I didn’t catch the name of the walker but he told us that he had spent the previous evening camping near Corrour Station, but that the weather had been so bad that he ‘d moved along in search of some more substantial shelter for a few days. He told me that he was up in the Highlands for the entire summer, indeed this was how he spent very summer — he’d been mounting these long trips for (I seem to remember) over fifteen years. Each summer he made his way North spending some o his time working on bothy restoration and maintenance and the rest of his time walking in the mountains. Almost inevitably there was a solitary feel about him. I found myself wanting to express real admiration but just held back as I could sense another side to the story, the need to escape, perhaps? Or a desire to forget? Before I could go on he announced that this would be his last summer in the Highlands. The trips were taking their toll and there were other things in ice to consider, though he didn’t elude to what they were. He wasn’t in anyway an old man, being in his mid forties somewhere I guess.  There was a sense of transition in the conversation, a maybe a notion of reaching a tipping point. The benefits of spending such a long time in the hills were there, but they were — maybe — beginning to be out-weighed by other factors. It would have been nice to have carried on the conversation, and he looked like a man in need of a longer chat. But we had to push on and left to march on to Loch Ossian with fellow Challenger Rob Slade.

I met my second ‘hobo’ during a trip to the North West in August. My walking partner Carl (the bagger) and I descended from Maol Chean-Derg to the small bothy that sits alongside the Fionn-abhainn on the descent to Coulags. The weather was ciil and miserable and the rain had been coming down for reveal hours, not a deluge but that fine Scots rain that seems to find its way through any layer of clothing.

In the bothy we met Graham, a backpacker and hiker who had spent much of the Spring and Summer on the road. He had set off from Gloucester and had walked up to the Highlands and then seemed to cover quite a lot of Highland ground. I think Carl was surprised that Graham had chosen to spend the day warm and cody in the bothy — there was  warming fire burning in the hearth. (Carl was busy trying to convince me that the weather was gorgeous and that we should knock off another five Munros before dinner).

Graham explained that he only had a tarp for shelter and that as the weather had deteriorated he had made camp in the bothy. He was not a lightweight hiker though as I could see from his gear which was strewn all over the bothy table. His cooking kit was strong and robust and his outdoor clothing was based on thick, Highland woollen jumpers rather than on the latest, featherlite, fabrics.

Graham told us that he had left both his job and his rented home to tackle this trip. He only had a few days left and next day was due to begin to make his way to inverness and the train journey home. He would be sleeping on the floor of friends. His first task was to find work and the second to find a home.

Such dedication to hiking is admirable but, again, there was a strong sense of walking to if not forget, to put life and the world in a better context. Whatever Graham was seeking, I hope that he found it in the Highlands.

There are both only fleeting contacts and yet they seemed to say so much. Graham told me of a number of other ‘hobos’ that he had met during his travels, including one man who had been living in bothies for several years. Although permanent bothy dwelling is frowned on I’ve heard enough stories over the years to realise that this goes on quite a bit, indeed I remember reading somewhere of a bothy dweller who was a skilled furniture maker and who built a fine piece of furniture for his bothy only to really annoy other bothy owners — who liked things as they were.

I can’t help having admiration for walkers like these two. There may well have been some deep-seated reason for spending extending summers amongst the heather and blue of the sky and the water, but there was clearly great joy and pleasure to be derived from them as well. Some plan such trips with a clear objective — say to climb the Munros in one tripe — but for these folks just ‘being’ in the hills was reason enough.

These two reminded me of the importance of movement and travel to us all. The late writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin felt that travel was very much the natural state of humans, and that walking was our natural speed of movement. I’m sure he is right.

Somehow — and without being able to tackle such a trip myself — I felt better for knowing that there were still people who would, whatever their reasons or their motivation.

I have no real moral message of any of this; it is a logical development in a more network and connected world. But I do know what I value personally and wonder whether it is time for us to be much clearer about what we are?

Staring from today my bog home page carries details of this blog’s Review Policy. Other bloggers may want to consider doing something similar, but these are my reasons.

I have met a lot of grab people since I have ben blogging. Some of them have been in business and some of them are my friends, but I’ve been careful to use these properly.

For example, I have a long friendship with Bob Cartwright at backpacking light.co.uk. Bob often gives me little bits of kits to play with. He has sometimes given me prototypes of things. Occasionally I talk about them online but I have only ever reviewed stuff from Bob that I have bought with my own cash. To codify this my policy makes it clear that I only review goods that I have used in the field or books that I have actually read. My ‘Living With …” reviews aim to reflect on a prolonged period of usage, something that I think is particularly valued by readers.

Now, I’m not an angel. I do sometimes get sent goods which I then review. By my new policy will ensure that I am very explicit about when this has happened. By far most of the kit and books that I have reviewed have been bought by myself, and that is how things will stay.

During the last week I have talked to a small number of people I know in the industry, who produce or distribute specialist products. I’ve asked them about this whole issue; I wondered whether I’d got this completely wrong. But their responses were interesting.

Unanimously they agreed with me. They thought my views of their products had more validity because I had bought them myself. They were all of the view that this independence meant more to them promotionally than any number of freebie posts.

I was not only heartened by this but thought I should share it. Interestingly, these are all people in innovative, small companies, who are close to the outdoor community — as opposed to big multi-national companies. Their views were very genuine I thank them for it – you know who you are

So, quality and integrity counts especially to those niche companies many of us want to promote because they fill gaps and make damn good products.

These comments led me to create my review policy. They helped me through the smoke thrown up by a new type of hybrid blog, which is written by enthusiasts but which has an un-ashamed commercial edge.

Now, I don’t thin there is anything wrong with these hybrids. They are inevitable. And why shouldn’t somebody seek to become gal personality with, say, the aim of developing a new career? All of this is fine by me, so log as they are clear about what they are doing. An honourable mention here must be given to my friend Phil Turner who’s blogging has led him into new fields including guide book writing. Phil’s blog has become more and more commercial but he acknowledges this and is now setting up a new venture that will be a real hybrid that is very different to where he started.

I wish more people would be so clear about what they were doing. There are, for example, people writing directly to outdoor manufactures requesting gear to review. Their letters map all kinds of claims about readership, their influence in the online community and so on. Now I don’t know about you but I think knowledge of this would change the way I thought about their work. Maybe I would still read it but I’d be more critical (in the good sense of the word). I also know of outdoor people with impressive experiences who have casually reviewed stuff that they have been sent trough the post. These products have not been used in the field and yet a casual buyer might attach real weight to the views of an experienced adventurer.

Why do I want to see more honesty? Well, you can see what goes wrong in the software world.

There are many blogs that now focus on computer platforms, especially with Apple macs, iphone, iPads and so on. Some of these have been going for some time and some of them I have been reading for years. But increasingly I find less and less to read. Far too much of the content comes from the press release. It soon become clear that a piece promote features but is unable to offer any real insight into the use of the product.

Anyone can see what is happening here but a real knowledge of a product can reveal a slipshod approach to serious reviews. I recently read a review, in a major title, of a software program I rely on. Because I have a good knowledge of the product I knew that the reviewer had only spent a little time with hit. He really didn’t appreciate what the program was. He compared it with programs that on the face of it seemed similar but in reality are light years away. The program I take about is not cheap and some of the competitors are. This review will sit on the web for ever and gives a very unfair overview of what is a sophisticated product developed by a small and innovative company. This is not an unusual experience I’m afraid. I’m sure the company will be OK as it has many supporters but it is the potential consumer that looses out here because they have received duff information from an apparently authoritative source.

Personally, I don’t want to see the same developing here. But, to repeat myself, I have seen stuff online that I consider to be dodgy!

The world is a wonderfully diverse place and bloggers will want to produce things in their own way. Fine. But maybe we should all be clearer about our exposure to the commercial world.

For many blogger the occasional freebie is a nice perk and that’s fair enough. It is nice that they benefit occasionally as a result of their work. But when companies are showering hundreds of pounds at someone then that is very different.

There’s one other thing I’ve discovered this week that might be worth thinking of.

I find personally that the more commercial a blog becomes the less interested I am in it. I find myself switching off and reading them less and less. I’ve discovered I’m not alone in this. So, if you’re choosing the commercial hybrid route plan your campaign carefully!

Fight your own fight and blog your own blog. But think about a review policy. Let people know what they are dealing with.

From reading the debate generated by my post I’m pleased to see that most people have many of the same thoughts and worries that I do. The Outdoor blogging world has given many people access to a different kind of gear review, one which often looks at the long term use of an item — something that is more difficult for magazines to do. But I may not have expressed myself very well and there may be people who misconstrued what I thought I was saying. So, I thought I’d expand a little. Of course, bloggers should keep reviewing gear, sharing their excitement of new kit and new techniques and so on. But the Gore Tex experience has really made me think, so much so that I’ll expand a bit.

The Gore Tex Blogger Summit is not simply a meeting, it is a major event involving a major investment from Gore Tex. The event starts on Friday afternoon with a flight into Munich with the flight being paid for by Gore Tex.  Friday concludes with dinner at a hotel. Saturday starts with a visit to a Gore plant, presentations on Gore products, a question and answer session and then lunch. In mid afternoon the Summit moves into the open where participants can play with the gear I guess. It might rain but it might not but the experience will be limited in terms of field trials. Dinner and a fin evening seems to be scheduled for out in the open but there is the a coach back to the hotel for the evening. On Sunday there is a shuttle back to the airport.

I come from a background of public service and the public sector where financial interests have to be declared and I often think about things in these terms. As a local authority councillor, by law, I had to declare financial interests and financial gifts, including gifts in kind. Good practice here requires people to declare not only the marginal cost of their ‘gift’ but to calculate and declare a proper assessment of financial value.

Gore’s programme involves flights, coach travel, two nights in a hotel, food and other hospitality costs. There will be a chance to meet Gore’s athletes, presumably who is sponsored by the company and of course that costs as well. While it is difficult to work out the costs of such a weekend I would be declaring this at around the €500-600 mark.

Fot this I would get a very convivial weekend I’m sure. Would I really learn more about Gore’s products? I doubt it. So, why are Gore prepared to spend such a lot of money on little old me?

Well, let’s be clear that Gore are not prepared to invest in us because we are hyper critical. It is more likely to be the case that we are seen as soft touches. We will go back and wax lyrically about the product. Gore’s PR departments can point people to these comments and Google searches will show up blogger writing as well. Some will declare their interests properly while others will not. Some have suggested this is nonsense, that it is quite clear to anyone who knows what they are talking about what kind of involvement you have had with a product. But that is just plain naive. This is not how the business and the promotion industry know how things work. Ultra lightweight blogger are not a big portion of the market — but their blogs and views will cary a lot of weight amongst casual outdoor market which, of course, dwarfs us small band of eccentric enthusiasts.

I may be over-egging this but I would like to see a more set of honest relationships grow up between the industry and the online world. As a humble hack, blogging in the back bedroom, it is rather flattering for Gore to acknowledge me as ” … an exclusively selected opinion leader” and anyone who has worked with marketing companies knows what this means. Gore are not interested in my objectiveness but they do know that there is a readership out there than can be influenced. I know from my web stats that many people find they way here after googling a product name — they are not simply regular readers.

It may be that this kind of event may be time limited, that it will run its course as all advertising campaigns do. But there is maybe a better way that the industry can go while learning from the software industry.

The computer and software industry has for some time used the concept of evangelists. Large companies like Microsoft employ very talented people to be, for example, public sector evangelists. These are knowledgeable people, often inspirational leaders, who are there to think laterally, help with serve and product development and to generally promote their company as innovative and imaginative. Some evangelists have a strong pubic image, like Vince Serf one of the “founders of the internet” who works for Google. Microsoft has architectual evangelists, and infrastructure evangelists as well as those who are well known as innovators and creative thinkers in public services.

But it’s not just the large companies that take this approach. Many specialist software company use evangelists to great effect. One of my favourite pieces of software is produced by an innovative German company Devon Technologies. Devon employs an evangelist who blogs about not only the products but the uses that various users put them to. He acts as a kind of online catalyst and broker of views and experiences.

Is not something for the outdoor industry to consider, recruiting evangelists who spread the word and enthuse about goods but who everyone knows have a formal relationship with the company?

For my money this would make a big difference and would be more honest, and honourable way forward.

I couldn’t do the Gore Tex blogging thing. I’d have to put a note on any posts to the effect that I had received financial support to the value of £500 or more.

No, there’s thought. How would that effect the way people saw this humble blog. Nope, it’s not the kind of thing I am prepared to do!

Most people have highlighted the importance of bloggers reviewing gear that they have use over an extended period of time, after all this is not something that the mainstream media does that often. Of course, there is a place for reviews and I have used blogging reviews extensively myself to find new gear. And thanks for those of you that have found good gear as the result of my reviews. But that’s just one part of the reason for blogging.

Ryan Jordan of backpackinglight.com responded on Twitter:

“… outdoor blogging should exist to inspire, commercial or not. Gear reviews dilute that”.

I think Ryan has this spot on. Blogging helps us connect with the outdoors when we can’t get out there, not least because many of us live in cities or far away from the hills. I know that it this that sees me join back to my favourite blogs time and time again.

One final point on the commercialisation issue. They key issue for me here is the finesing of Google results. We now know that consumers put a lot of faith in  the reviews of users as opposed to the views of manufacturers and retailers. When those reviews are thorough ad based on experience these are indeed useful, but when they are not really then they can be misleading. If we are reviewing gear — and especially if we are sent gear/books, etc to review — then we should be careful in our writing and mindful of how our comments might be anticipated!

We weren’t talking about story telling in an egotistic kind of a way, you know the kind of “I did five Munros before breakfast”. No, this was about how the telling of stories validated the experience of the walk and the trek. Of course, many of the great travel books have been written in this vain and didn’t start off as being a simple commercial exercise. But for ordinary walkers the telling of the stories is a way of not only reflecting what you have just experienced, but of making sense of it. It seems to me that many of the walking blogs exist simply to meet the need of not only telling stories but of sharing them.

Story telling is especially important on the TGO Challenge. The opportunity of sharing stories with so many people is one of the things that makes the event so special. I didn’t really enjoy my first Challenge that much until I got to the Tarfside Hostel. I’d not met many people — in my novice state I managed to leave Braemar on saturday morning! At Tarfside I spent a wonderful evening with fellow walkers, delighting in the story telling of better Bernie Marshall, or Super Legend as some of us know him. Listening to Bernie’s stories was a magical experience. The listening was not just a passive event but a cycle that allowed us to chip in with our own more modest stories. During the whole evening all of these stories combined, reacted with each other, until we had created the most marvellous cocktail of ‘actuality’.

On this year’s crossing we had really bad weather for day after day. In some ways, the story telling not only allowed us to come to terms with this but, on reflection, seems to have been one of the highlights of the whole trip. Thank goodness for the telling of the stories — they are probably the only decent memories left of last year.

One thing sticks in my mind. We left Braemar this year without a rest day and ambled down the long and winding road to Ballater. At the campsite we were greeted by Humphrey W. Immediately — without even time to put up the tent — we were into story exchange mode.I remember Humphrey having some trouble remembering some of his encounters simply because he couldn’t quite remember “which persona I was adopting at the time”. Wonderful.

Next week we will back in West Cork for our bi-annual visit. Walking here is often a more strenuous experience than you might think, due the passion that local farmers have for barbed wire fences. We might walk the Sheeps Head again, or revisit the high hill and bogs of Knockboy. But one place I’m sure we will be visiting will be Cape Clear. Each year, in September, this tiny island plays host to an international story telling festival. Story tellers descend on the island from all over the English-speaking world. While never having been to the festival the whole island has a magical feel while the story tellers are there. One year, I’ve promised myself, I will take in the whole festival. Maybe this year we will be able to take in some of it.

So, the stories are important. They connect us to each other and they connect us to the landscape. The are a means of exchange of important information. But more than this they are an exchange of the human spirit.

Keep on telling those stories.

Will I ever see the area in quite the same way again?

I came to the Highlands relatively late in my walking ‘career’ and I first took to the TGO Challenge because I reckoned a coast-to-coast walk would see me moving through a range of different territories. I would be a quick and easy way to capture the diversity of the Highlands. Since first tackling the Challenge I’ve made sure that this event isn’t my only, annual, experience of the Highlands. But other a ventures North — even those that are snatched over a long weekend — follow much the TGO Challenge pattern.

In very basic terms my understanding of the Highlands is based on walking, with a little train and bus thrown in as well. For me, time and distance, in the Highlands works on a scale calibrated by days and not minutes.

Take Gerry’s Hostel in Craig, a place where we will be spending a day next week. Gerry’s is a day away from Torridon, over or through the mountains. The hostel is an isolated place. You arrive happy and tired after a good day’s walk. There’s virtually nothing around it. Your food for the evening has to be carried in with you for there’s nowhere nearby to eat out or where you can supplement your supplies.

Of course, the car driver sees things differently, so differently indeed as to almost render Craig as a completely different place. Dingwall is just a hop skip and a jump away to the East. The Kyle of Lochalsh is just a stone’s throw to the West. Even Inverness is just a meander away. Kinlochewe is almost next door.

During the planning of this trip our ability to zip around by car seems to me almost magical and the places we will connect with it almost seem to be different countries. Our first night will be spent camping wild, somewhere between Torridon and Achnashellach. Sunday evening will be spent at the Travelodge in — Inverness — for goodness sake. Is that possible?

It gets worse. After a few nights of camping around Mullardoch we head for the comfortable campsite at Cannich. Cannich? I’ve been to Cannich once before. It took me three days good walking to get there from Torridon. This is more my scale.

It is true that the higher the mountain range the more irrelevant conventional distance seems to become. In a truly Alpine range time is measured in days and days broken up into simple sections. There’s the morning, after lunchtime — when you often need to be descending from the hill or ridge in order to avoid storms, late afternoon and evening — often spent pleasantly settling into your camping spot. In such mountains it is possible to walk for days and days without making any real impression on the one dimensional distances on the map. In such terrain I tend to measure progress by height gained rather than distance travelled, and here is where the altimeter watch comes into its own. This ‘reality’ of time and distance is quite understandable in high mountains, but I had not really thought about Scotland in the same way before.

This, I guess, is one of the cultural differences that I alluded to a few posts ago between myself and the Munro bagger. Don’t get me wrong, this trip will be great and the ability to move around flexibly is probably key to trying to cram all of the Munros into a conventional, work-based, life style. But ….

As I reflect on all of this I think I prefer the calibration of my own timescale. It is easy to romanticise about all of this of course. A long walk through the hills often means following the lines of ancient paths, of drove roads that thousands of humans and cattle have trodden over millennia and not just a few weeks. Walking these routes I’m often very aware of those who may have come this way before me. But even this isn’t really the point.

Walking seems to me to be the right pace at which to explore the Highlands. Even the speed of a bicycle means that things can pass too quickly. Even on two wheels that lochan is here and gone in a flash. On foot the tiny lochan appears in the distance. As you approach it not only do the angles change but often the quality of the light. Walking speed means that the sunshine can nip in and out of cloud. Rainbows can develop as you move on and through. There’s a chance to really take in the landscape around you.

And on foot you can stop and stare and, for me, stopping and staring is one of the great joys of life. I remember walking through the Lairig Ghru last year. The air was dry, warm and still, the first time that I’ve had this experience in the Ghru. At the highest point of the climb up to the pass I stopped and sat on a rock in comfort. I was able to really take in the landscape around me. To watch the scant wildlife and to appreciate the pinkish hew of the granite rocks. I don’t suppose I was sitting there for that long, but it felt as if I was there for ages. It was a great time. You can, of course, stop while driving a car but you can’t just stop when and where you like.

It is, of course, true that we will have plenty of opportunity to experience the pleasure of walking pace on this trip as we make away across and around the tops.

But I can’t help thinking that the wonder of the car might take away something of the magic of the place.

I think I prefer my own construct of time and space in the Highlands.

New York is a fine city to stroll around but walking is generally not something you associate with cities in the USA. However, in Europe urban walking is almost an art form, indeed when we think of the flaneur it can be considered an art form

The Parisian Flaneur is often described in dictionaries as an idealer or lounger! In reality, the Flaneur is a stroller and observer of the city and all of the life that is in it. To be a flaneur is to be a street artist. If that seems a little far fetched have a look at Edmund White’s wonderful book The Flaneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris (see bottom of article for link). While the Flaneur is associated with Paris the Flaneur does not have to be European; there is a good case to say that Hemmingway was one of the greatest Flaneurs of the 20th century. The opening pages of Hemmingway’s memoire of his time in Paris, are one of the greatest descriptions of a Parisian walk and — in true Ernesto style — the prose is a sparse and as efficient as ever.

But the art of urban walking is not to be confined to that of the flaneur. I’ve mentioned Rebecca Solnit’s Wanderlust: A History of Walking here before, a great book that should be read by all and looks at both adventure walking and urban walking. I’m certainly looking forward to Kimberlie’s posts on walking in New York. I don’t often associate many US cities with walking but New York is certainly one those places that rewards those who explore on foot.

Anyhow, all of this got me thinking of some of my favourite cities in Europe for walking. Which are the best? Could I come up with a top five? Well, here are five cities that I’ve had a great time walking around. I’m not saying these are the best, but these are five of those that came to mind quickly.

1. Paris

The City of Light is the best city I know for walking. The heart of the city is quite compact — more so than London — and it is relatively easy to cross in big chunks on day walks. Unlike London the City’s government has protected the historic look and feel of the place. If you want to find the Paris equivalent of the Gherkin or the Sharp best head off to La Defence in the suburbs. Paris is more than just beauty. Walking these streets is to engage in all manner of life. One walk can se you walk through the most chic of neighbourhoods, traverse wonderful ethnic markets, historic squares and parks, quartiers of international power and diplomacy and neigbourhoods that are more edgy and more exciting. Of course, Paris is still a greta city of bas and cafés and nowhere else really does to Café Philo concept quite as well (cafés which are gathering places for philosophical discussion).

Paris is a city to be discovered on foot. There are many good walking guidebooks to Paris and many general guidebooks — most notably the Lonely Planet Guide to paris — feature a number of different walks.

The very best of these is Andrew White’s “Time Out” Book of Paris Walks (see below). Here there are walks on every theme. There’s a historic walk of JKings and Queens, a revolution walk (you just want to know where the guillotine sat), an Existentialist walk, a Simone de Beauvoir walk, an urban green walk and many, many more. My two favourites from this book include the walk around the wonderful Marais district (in which I often stay) and the Hemmingway Walk. the Hemminway walk starts by recreating the walk described in the first pages of A Moveable Feast. As you stroll up the Rue Mouffetard towards the Boulevard Saint Michel you can imagine that you are seing, feeling and smelling Paris much as Hemminway did. The walk links together manymof the important places in Hemmingway’s life, drops you into his favourite watering holes and passes Gertrude Stein’s residence.

Whenever you go to paris be sure to pack a good pair of trainers or trail shoes! And if your a photographer by all means to set out to recreate those great black and white shots , but don’t forget the wide angle lens!

2. Helsinki

Another compact city but one which is very different to Paris. Here everything is dominated by the greens and blues of sky, water and grass. The Finns spend more money per head of population on the arts that anyone else in Europe and it shows. The Museum of Contemporary Art is a superb building with a great and provocative collection. Helsinki was laid out by the designers who built St Petersbourg and it shows. Wonderful public buildings in pastel pinks and blues are the set pieces that anchor many of the wonderful streets and walkways.

There are some great bars here, one that is an old fashioned tram that just chugs around a circular line. Be prudent and Helsinki is not quite as expensive a place as people often say. Be sure to sample the local street food in summer, rows and rows of vendors selling an amazing array of strawberries and other summer fruits, certainly different from the old hot dog.

Helsinki is a great place for a weekend break.

3. Frankfurt

A strange choice many will think but I had a great walk around here. Much of the city was destroyed in the war but the main square still exists surrounded by cathedral and traditional Frankfurt buildings. True, much can be made of the business centre but I preferred the municipal markets which provide a scene of multicultural harmony that might surprise many.

The shadow of the war still hangs over the place but in good ways. Just after the war Frankfurt twinned with a number of other European Cities including Birmingham, Milan and Lyon. International friendship is important here and the union of these cities is celebrated in a piece of great pavement art. The Opera is a magnificent building. My host told me that while he was growing up in the sixties this was still a ruin. It took a long time to refurbish as so much of it’s persona was tied up with the war. However, the now refurbished building is glorious.

For me the war seemed to create a backdrop against which it was not that cool to celebrate German history and culture and I hope that is changing. this is the birthplace of Goethe, a German Shakespeare if you like. I knew we were heading to this building and somehow imagined something like Stratford on Avon. What I found was a very modest house with a small shop attached. Do not people flock here from all over the German speaking world I asked my host. No he replied. If this was in London or Paris it would be an international centre of pilgrimage for the literati!

And don’t miss the cathedral. It was here that the electors of the Holly Roman Empire elected their Emperor. The electors were locked into a small room — and it is a small room — and not allowed to come out until they had taken their decision.

This is a city of great coffee shops, indeed my trip started at my friends favourite coffee shop and ended at his second favourite! And very good they were too.

I must go back to Frankfurt sometime soon.

4 Maastricht

Another great place for a weekend break. This city is unusual in holland in that it has traditionally been a catholic community. It sits at the very southern tip of Holland only a stone’s throw away from Germany, belgium and Northern France. You can see why the Treaty was signed here.

Today much of the city is pedestrianised and lovingly restored. It is an arty place which takes its culture seriously.

The Saturday market in the main square tells you all you need to now about the place. There are Dutch traders of course but there are also those from France, Germany and Belgium who regularly come to sell their goods.

This is not the kind of place that stuns you with tourist haunts. But on a warm weekend there are few places a nice to just stroll around and chill out in.

Montpellier

OK another French choice but in many ways this is the city that I’m most fond of. A few years ago this was voted the city that French people most wished they could live in! Sitting in the eastern Languedoc Montpellier hares the climate of Provence but perhaps not the pretensions. It is a long time competitor of Nimes up the road. Nimes may have the amphitheatre but the place has always felt sterile to me.

Montpellier is a university town indeed it has the oldest medical school in Western Europe. It is a young place. In the centre the Place de la Comedie is a wonderful meeting place for people of all ages. On a hot day the walk alongside the amazing water jets is a great experience. Start here and amble off through a wonderful old quarter of character. Or go off to visit the ultra modernist business and tech centre.

Montpellier is French, young, international, radical and chic and has great weather. If that sounds like your kind of place then don’t hesitate!

So, there you go five choices. There’s no Vienna, nowhere in Italy and nowhere in Spain and no doubt many of you will advance the cause of Barcelona. But which cities do you think are best for walking?

This film has been made over a number of years and features interviews and fly-on-the-wall stuff from both the Trump camp and the opposition. It reveals not only the dilemmas of things like this but the attitdes taken by those who are so powerful that they just take it as granted that the things they want will happen, not least because they tend to think that everyone else must be as excited as the project as they are.

The film also shows how the property developer simply can never understand those that are not motivated in money or those that simply value others things more highly. During 12 years as a Councillor in Birmingham I saw this a lot with many different property developers. Trump may seem to a somewhat mad figure but he’s not that unusual.

This programme is still on the iplayer for a few more days and can be downloaded as well if you have the desktop player installed. Really worth watching, a kind of real-life Local Hero but without a happy ending (as yet).

BTW, “Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed” is a song by Steve Knightly of the West Country Band Show of Hands. You can hear an except here. A wonderful band Show of Hands.