This is the seventh podcast in the series (which will be moved in due course to the new LDWA digital platform), and this time I’m joined by long-distance walker and author John Pucknell. John’s idea of a retirement project has included walking more than 6,600 miles from Spain to Cyprus on the E4 European Long Distance Path, which makes my own little arrangements look rather unambitious. He completed that journey in sections over five years, spending 440 days walking, before writing about it in Six Pairs of Boots – Spain to Cyprus on the E4 Trail.
His latest book, Through Cloud and Sunshine – Galway to Nice on the E2 Trail, begins with the rather unwelcome possibility that his long-distance walking days might be coming to an end. An arthritic knee had forced him to stop a walk from Land’s End to John o’Groats in the Scottish Highlands. John’s eventual response was to plan another journey of around 2,800 miles, finishing with a crossing of the French Alps. Presumably the knee wasn’t invited to the planning meeting and although I didn’t like to say anything the French Alps seem an unnecessarily thorough way of checking whether a knee has improved. I would have suggested somewhere flatter, but this is perhaps why no-one has commissioned a book about my expeditions around Norwich.
There was also the little complication that the Irish section of the E2 had not yet been established when he set out, so John devised his own route. I tend to wait for a footpath to exist before walking it, especially if there’s confirmation that there’s a pub involved along the route. Walking in sections allowed him to build a much larger adventure around trips of a few weeks or months, rather than having to disappear for an entire year. Along the way, we discuss walking alone, finding accommodation, making little booking errors, encounters with other people and the practicalities of breaking a very long journey into manageable trips.
What appeals to me about John’s approach is the interest in everything between the starting point and the destination. There’s local history, food and the character of the places he passes through, alongside the practical business of finding the path and persuading the legs to continue. There’s also an honest thread running through the book about getting older and the uncertainty of what we might still be able to do. I’m approaching 50 myself and have decided that I might need to have more naps and I’m hoping they count as preparation, although I haven’t yet identified which expedition I’m preparing for. The interview also contains a little sneak preview of where John is walking now and hence what his third book might be about.