The Marathon Snail

As published 7 August 2024 on JourneyWoman , the world’s largest and most trusted resource for female solo travel Sarah O’Regan braves the elements and the Himalayan heights and finds tranquillity in the company of women who are breaking the traditional mould Danu and Kumari, women hiking the Himalayas The Himalayan wind pushes me to the side of the footpath once again, and I tack, zigzagging like a sailboat in a headwind. A half-heard sound makes me turn, and on the steep mountainside below I see my companions frantically waving. While they are clearly shouting, I can’t hear them over the howling in my ears. I sit on a stone and rest, rocked by the gale. When they catch up, I learn that Kumari and her heavy pack have been blown over, and tumbled down the mountain some distance. A few metres to our right the ground disappears into a deadly ravine, but luckily no serious damage is done. Later, my guide Danu tells me she has never experienced winds like this in fifteen years of trek...

Via Francigena: Arras to Péronne

I pick up the Via Francigena, the 2000+km pilgrim path from Canterbury to Rome, in Arras, where I left off last year. Étapes 13-14 Once free from the outskirts of Arras, the Via emerged onto the agricultural flatlands of Pas-de-Calais. Vast fields of thick warm-brown soil, meticulously ploughed, alternated with waving green wheat and yellow oilseed. A heavy afternoon thunderstorm led me to shelter under some young trees in the Sunken Road Cemetery, resting place of 213 soldiers from the WWI 1916 Somme offensive, fallen in trench warfare. Thinking they might be scared of the noise, I reassured them. “It’s only thunder”, I said. “Not war”. I told them what the land looked like now - all evened out, and planted with crops, guarded by wind turbines, shepherded by friendly farmers in tractors. I described the Paris-Lille TGV rushing past on the horizon. The flowers, the butterflies and bees around their graves. How brightly green and soft the grass was. One headstone had several ...

Wild camping in France: FAQs and practical tips

What are the official rules in France? Wild camping ( camping sauvage ) and bivouacking are not allowed in France in the following locations: on private land (except with the owner’s permission) on the coast in protected natural sites at historic monuments within 200m of a water collection site Anywhere else it is permitted, and local authorities may have their own rules, stricter or less so, about the above locations too. Is it camping or bivouacking? Camping tends to refer to those in campervans or larger tents and/or who want to stay somewhere more than one night. In France, bivouacking tends to be cyclists or walkers with a small tent (like me) or no tent who are looking for a discreet one-night stop. However, in English terminology and UK outdoor practices, bivouacking tends to be wild camping sans tent, possibly in a bivvy sack. For linguistic purposes I'll continue to refer to what I do as camping. My personal rules an...