Rambling and the European Financial Crisis

Walking for fun is the most well-liked leisure time activity in The UK by far. According to data from the United Kingdom government 16% of individuals do it every week, compared with 11% who head over to the gym. Maybe staying and being in the country side is linked with success and the “upper classes” who, according to accounts in literature, would possess huge country homes. Successful Victorian businessmen purchased a countryside estate to show off their success and improved social standing. Perhaps the claustrophobia caused by living in the most densely populated large region in Europe forces people to seek out open spaces when at leisure. It was in fact in the Victorian period of time that recreational walking first became favoured because it was a cheap way for factory hands to escape from the satanic mills and it became associated with a healthy almost puritanical lifestyle style. Why is it then that rambling remains so popular? The delights of walking have long stimulated poets and authors. Some have spoken of the experience of liberty that comes from leaving the city behind; and of the glorious variety of landscapes and inspiring views that the Rural landscape will offer us. In the “Song of the Open Road”, Walt Whitman wrote “Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, Healthy, free, the world before me, The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.” Walking seems to set the mind free for contemplation. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” The Welsh writer Lloyd Jones, who was inspired to produce his first book by a 1,000-mile trek all around his homeland, said that “The moving landscape provides an absorbing diversion which frees the mind and gives us a fresh viewpoint, and we’re most at ease with the world when we walk because everything is happening at a manageable pace.” A number of politicians appreciate the chance to consider the important challenges of government as they meander. William Gladstone, the Victorian prime minister and moralist, was an enthusiastic daily rambler, opening a course up Mount Snowdon at the age of 83. Whilst mixed up in the europe’s monetary problems in 2011, Angela Merkel, the German prime minister, elected to enjoy her annual vacation walking in the south Tyrol (nonetheless the trek didn’t inspire any instant solutions to the problem) Who can doubt that the English Composer Vaughan Williams was motivated by the British countryside when he composed possibly his most famous piece “The Lark Ascending”. Vaughan Williams, as were a number of other English composers, was famous for his regular rural walks not only to collect folk songs but also to be motivated by the rolling English Landscape. Perhaps we should leave the very last words to John Muir, the Scottish-bo American naturalist. “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like falling leaves.” “I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out until sundown: for going out, I found, was really going in."

The author, Bruno Blackstone, is Marketing Director at My Outdoor Store, the foremost walking and hiking outdoor gear store.