Walks - Matt's Website

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Walks

Travels on foot – from urban edgelands to deep countryside.

You did not walk with me

You did not walk with me

When my mum was seriously ill in hospital and not expected to live, I sought solitude on an early morning walk.

Two people walk along a high, grassy track bordered by a drystone wall. Beyond them is a low valley, above them only sky.

Dales Way: thunder and lightning

Our two days of walking included a very apt flavour of ice cream and ended with a journey in the wrong direction.

A large expanse of sandy beach at low tide, with small sailing boats standing among channels of water.

A postcard from the Wirral

Drawn to the peninsula’s big tides and even bigger skies, we followed in the hoofprints of an Arthurian knight.

Bike tyre tracks and footprints are visible on a sandy beach, with the silhouettes of people in the distance by the sea.

Along the foreshore

Moving through the liminal space where sea meets land, we’re immersed in a transitory world.

The night's sky full of stars, with trees silhouetted at the bottom of the picture.

Walking into darkness

The story of two winter walks, one at dawn and one at dusk, and a call to dream.

A view of Bellano on the shores of Lake Como – red-roofed buildings surrounded by wooded hillside.

The Wayfarer’s Way

Walking on the Sentiero del Viandante in the footsteps of wayfarers, traders and smugglers is a reminder that journeying on foot was once part of everyday life.

A courtyard in Lyon surrounded by buildings with terracotta-coloured render.

Drifting through Lyon

Wandering on foot, metro, tram and funicular to soak up the city – and buy a bottle opener.

A gas lamp illuminates the tree that surrounds it.

Darkness, my old friend

A pre-dawn dog walk stirred thoughts about how society resists the close embrace of darker nights.

A distant figue in an oranhge coat stands amid the wide green expanse of Dartmoor under a grey sky.

Walking with Wulfgar

An annual pilgrimage to Dartmoor takes us past the territory of Brian Carter’s vulpine hero.

The House of the Wannsee Conference – a large white villa in a forested garden where Nazis met to discuss and coordinate the deportation and murder of the Jews of Europe.

A walk in Wannsee

After making my way past lakeshore villas and yacht clubs, I walked along a tree-lined driveway and into a house that lays bare the banality of evil.

Two walkers and a Golden Retriever dog head away from the camera on the stony Cam Fell track

Over Cam Fell

Walking through a parched yellow springtime, we left the River Wharfe's dry bed and crossed the high point of the Dales Way.

An adult, child and dog walk down a misty canal towpath in the gathering gloom of midwinter.

Out of darkness cometh light

As winter’s grip loosens, I've come to recognise it as a time of renewal and exploration.

Three figures walk down a hilltop ridgeline with low cloud stretching to the horizon.

Above Silurian clouds

A week of high atmospheric pressure saw us happily marooned on hilltops, cut adrift in splendid Paleozoic isolation.

A Golden Retriever dog sits on a huge sandy beach under a cloudy blue sky, with industrial chimneys beyond.

Walking the sands of Sker

Leaving busy Rest Bay behind, I walked on sand that stretched towards a dragon breathing its last.

Camping wild and free on Dartmoor

Camping wild and free on Dartmoor

Exercising our fragile, threatened right to sleep under the stars, we hike high on to the moor before pitching our tent in the fading light.

A child in an orange coat walks along a path by a waterfall, tall trees on either side.

Walking the Simmenfälle

The whitewater channel carrying the river Simme from the mountains is not what it seems.

A narrow stone path weaves along a cloudy mountain ridge with green grass and trees on either side.

Patience and the panorama

We awoke to see low cloud shrouding the mountain. There was nothing to do but sit and wait, refreshing the summit webcam and the weather app.

Viewed from a cable car, a white and black train snakes up a steep track in a lush green Swiss valley.

The slow way to Switzerland

An unhurried journey by train and on foot stretched time and filled our summer with stories.

A notice in yellow chalk on a square brown stone reads "The Dales Way is this way (left) not that way (right)".

Into the Dales

Walking upstream along the River Wharfe in the footsteps of Iron Age settlers and an 18th century murderer.

Revelation by Angela Connor, a mechanical sculpture reminiscent of a seed pod made in silver and gold metal

Walking the sculptor’s landscape

A stroll around Canwood Gallery reveals the power of art and nature.

A child in a green coat rides a red sledge down a snowy hill, watched by a Golden Retriever dog.

The first and last of the winter snow

With the late snowfall came a morning of childhood joy, and a chance to use our crazy coracle sledge.

Silhouetted against the sunset, an adult and a child on a bench and a dog sitting next to them.

Hot chocolate on the hill

Following in Celtic footsteps, we welcome spring with our own family ritual.

In grey light, distant figures walk on a large swathe of sandy beach covered in water, industrial chimneys in the distance.

Cynffig: life in the sand

A walk through towering dunes takes us into a story of nature, people and a sand-drowned town.

A Golden Retriever dog covered in black mud sits in long green grass

The incident of the curious dog on the Thames Path

A two-day family walk with an excitable pup. What could go wrong? We got our answer a couple of kilometres into the walk.

Sheep graze on a hill covered by low cloud.

As I walked out one midwinter morning

One January morning I stepped out of my front door and didn’t return until the sun was setting and I’d walked 30km.