In addition to routes that are suitable for day trips, the hiking organizations have also created and marked long-distance hiking trails that are divided into several daily stages. A special category of these routes are pilgrimage routes.
The motivation to hike is subject to considerable fluctuations, both among different age groups and generations, as well as in terms of the type of hiking and the trend over time. While it was still a natural professional necessity with the journeyman trade, combined with experience, adventure and personal maturation, the generation of the youth movement and the wandering bird celebrated hiking in songs and undertakings as emancipation from the encrusted adult world, as an escape from the desolate cities’ romantic discovery of nature and as an indispensable part of their special youth culture.
A study commissioned by the fitness magazine Fit for Fun from the Cologne Institute for Prevention and Aftercare (IPN) came to the conclusion that the energy expenditure when hiking is comparable to that when jogging. For example, the test subjects consumed as much food energy during a 2-hour hike in the lowlands as when jogging for 75 minutes. The gentle way is also said to be advantageous because the automatic pace adjustment rarely causes physical overstrain.
Ararat - Anyone climbing the 5,137-meter-high mountain in eastern Turkey for the first time is torn between pain and joy, self-doubt and belief in their own strength.
Unstrut - Another event was on our schedule this weekend because we wanted to do a paddling tour on the Unstrut, a smaller tributary to the Saale, which we had had on our to-do list for a long time.
After crossing the wooden covered bridge in Kunitz, we had taken the path into the village center, then walked up the path to the Gleißberg, which first leads us along some wine fields.
Böselstein - The sun was shining from the sky, despite the sub-zero temperatures, and once again we were after a hike, so we quickly packed our backpacks, warm tea and some provisions and set off for the Böselstein circular trail above Bad Bibra.
After our tour to the Ottoman bridge Ura e Mesit, we had continued along the river for a few kilometers and had quickly reached a valley between the foothills of the Albanian Alps, which in recent years have increasingly established themselves as an attraction for mountain hikers.
The sun was shining due to the cloudless sky and the bitter cold creating hoarfrost, and in some places there were still wafts of fog drifting in the light wind on the Finne in Burgenland county, so dress warmly and get out there.
During our stay in Lohmen we had already undertaken a few hikes in the area, now we wanted to go to the megalithic tomb and the mound of Groß Upahl, also in the hope of finding more well-kept or more easily recognizable megalithic tombs here.
Marseille - We had heard several times about the GR 2013 long-distance hiking trail, a 365 km long hiking trail that took us through the landscape of Provence to the metropolitan region of the southern French port city of Marseille.
In the mid-1990s, bulldozers were levelling the area for the construction of the Lohmen rehabilitation clinic when a Bronze Age settlement was discovered.
Once we were gripped by the fever of collecting stamps to receive the Harz hiking badge, this was simultaneously linked to research and subsequently visiting other highlights in the Harz.
A few years ago, we had already searched for a path through the Wadden Sea to visit the Minsener Oog bird sanctuary. At the time we were with some friends from the south of Germany who wanted to get to know the mudflats for the first time and thus the healthy effect of the mud and the fresh sea breeze (click here for the article from that time).
Today we took the bus to the Vieux Port in Marseille for the first time, which turned out to be the best option as the terminus of bus line 82 is just a few meters from our accommodation.
Why look into the distance, …. although you can also take an interesting hike through a gorge relatively close by.
It will soon be that time again, because then lovers of nature and especially friends of the lady's slipper will be drawn to the Tyrolean Lech Valley, because the Lech flows through the valley in the most beautiful turquoise nuances.
Peaks of the Balkans - During our stay at Camping Legjenda in Shkoder “long” years ago, we took tours into the Cem Valley, which runs almost parallel to the border mountains between Albania and Montenegro.
We were guests in Velbert where the Sunday sunshine invited us to go outside for a “long” walk. It was also extensive because there was no immediate gradient that had to be mastered on the way there and back.
We had packed our backpacks with some provisions and something to drink quite early in the morning, because today we were going to the small mountain village of Garnbach near Wiehe, a distance of around 14 kilometres plus the return journey.
Finally – so many enthusiastic winter sports enthusiasts – it’s that time again. With the heavy snowfall of the last few days and the drop in snowfall depths to below 500 meters, the slopes and meadows in southern Germany are covered with snow again.
Coming into an area, that "virgin" is a relative good expression for, means a region that still seems to be relatively undeveloped, you are very grateful if you meet someone who has devoted precisely on this problem.
We had already made an appointment several times to meet with Ömer for a canoe tour on the Oymapinar reservoir, at the so-called "Green Canyon", but something always came up.