Hiking: The adventure starts when you put on your hiking boots

Hiking: The adventure starts when you put on your hiking boots is written by Sarah-Ann Hunt

It's got in to be out!

"Walking out the door at home is a dangerous thing, because once you start walking, you never know where you will end up." The quote comes from the well-known fairy tale writer JRR Tolkien and rightly so, because hiking can actually be quite adventurous.

The ability to walk, stand and run on two legs is called bipedalism, and man not only belongs to, but totally dominates the bipedal species, such as bears, kangaroos, mice, chipmunks, birds and of course the monkeys. We have been doing this ever since our ancestors learned to collect food using their hands and thus upgraded the fusses to be the preferred means of transportation from then on.

The first and most—yes, even the smallest—adventures in life begin with a single step and involve walking to one degree or another. Walking makes us well and demonstrably happier, and in fact, walking has become one of the most preferred and popular ways to experience a new country or foreign destination. A hiking holiday is a cheap, easily accessible and flexible form of travel that most people can figure out and take part in.

Hiking – lifestyle, hobby or wild bet?

That is why hiking has also gone from being an impractical form of travel in the old days to being a lifestyle, leisure activity or sport for many. The Norwegians are perhaps the best example of a people whose identity and folk spirit lie in going out into the mountains to go far, and hiking is a whole way of life for them.

Hiking - or walking fast - has become a popular sport and form of competition abroad, especially in USA og Europe. Here we are not talking racing, but the so-called trail races or trail running, where there is both money, prestige and sponsorships in climbing hiking trails, mountain passes and the wild nature quickly and efficiently.

In Denmark wins adventure races and triathlon greater entry; it is perhaps the most reminiscent of it stylistically.

Most people hike for pleasure, but others hike professionally and see hiking as their full-time occupation, profession or even career booster. We can probably all remember the period when you almost couldn't become a company manager or prime minister if you hadn't also run a DHL relay, a marathon or completed a Ironman…

A new fun trend is hiking as a purpose or bet. Now just take the young Dane Charlie, who stepped out the door at home in Esbjerg one morning and only stopped 3 years later when the sign said Lagos - i.e. the largest city in Nigeria -.

He left Denmark to Africa in the service of a good cause: To put more focus on problems of water scarcity down there. Yes, recently I read about Helge from Vorslunde, who promised to go from the North Cape to Give if the neighbor stopped smoking! So here we are talking about a hike of 3500 km, but what do you not do for a smoke…?

Get paid to enjoy the view on your walks

So, what is it like to go hiking as a job? Well, as a hiking guide, it's great to be paid to go and enjoy the view at the same time, but it's also hard - especially when you have others than yourself in tow.

I have worked both as a hiking guide and researcher, where the latter is clearly the easiest, because there you only have yourself and the route to take into account. Of course, it can also make one a little foolhardy or overconfident at times, and I have to admit that I have hiked in both thunderstorms and lightning and also has been gone up to several times in boats Norway and the French and Italian Alps.

It is important to prepare well before your hikes, both mentally and physically. A good hiking trip is also characterized by the fact that it is at least as nice to come home as it was to leave - but that requires that you can actually find home...

Hiking with other guests on a trip is quite a challenge. Wind and weather can neither be ordered nor predicted, and you naturally want to give everyone as good an experience as possible. The hardest part is that you never really know who you are on a trip with and whether they know what it means to hike or just have an idea or romantic idea about it.

What guests most often overlook or see through fingers is the number of kilometers in relation to altitude meters, because walking downhill is certainly not the same as walking uphill for a whole day. I have seen murder in the eyes of people when I told them that there was still a 200-300 meters missing to the top. You usually have to sweat and suffer a little before it gets really fat. "Everyone can see the bottom of the mountain", as they say.  

The wildest thing I have tried are people who have definitely run away or lied to themselves to avoid walking. A participant once told me that she had broken her back by falling out of the bunk bed in the cabin… And then many of us guides have tried to stand with several guests who had no idea that it was a hiking holiday they had booked - or as on the contrary have booked a walking holiday even though they do not like to walk or move at all. The classic above them all is when people book a trekking or hiking trip with the intention of getting in shape along the way and therefore can barely walk 500 meters without a break.

#YOLO

That said, everyone can learn to hike and love to walk.

I myself have always loved a good walk and loved the outdoors, staying in tents and bonfire evenings ever since I could read the 'Green Woodpecker Book' and go scouting once a week.

Gradually, I have wandered in boats Europe, USA, Africa og Asia, where the many national parks and the special nature provide extra experiences and of course also new challenges. Although I've been a professional hiking guide, everything I do is unfortunately not always well thought out - or I'm just a jubilant optimist. But I have then managed to pack a tent without a canopy for a month and a half camping in Africa, because "it never rains there". It does so, I can tell you!

Only the imagination and the feet set the limit for your hiking holiday

Just as the seasons and times change, yes, so do travel destinations and travel trends. As the interest and demand for walking holidays and hikes has increased, countless new ways, options and styles for walking or going long distances have been invented and developed.

The most well-known are probably hiking and trekking, ie day hiking or hiking in difficult-to-access terrain with a minimum of one night in the open air. And then there are the newer shoots on the trunk in the form of rambling, trampling, bush walking, nordic walking, geocaching, barefooting, backpacking, speed hiking, peak bagging, race walking and pilgrimage or formation walk, to now 'name drop' a few. And then there are my personal favorites: Night hiking, nude hiking and whiskey hiking - preferably combined.

Everything is within walking distance if you have the time for it

Some of the world's most famous hiking trails cover Great Wall of China, Inca to Machu Picchu in Peru, the trip to the top of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and the Tour de Mont Blanc in France. But also larger and longer routes are gaining ground, such as the Great Ocean Walk in Australia or the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail both in USA.

Pacific Crest Trail known as the 'PCT' is perhaps the best known and stretches more than 4000km from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific coast of the United States. It typically takes 4-5 months to complete, of which the real hardcore hikers make a 'yoyo' and of course just take the same getaway back now that they are up and running.

It may be just enough for someone's taste or pleasure, but everything is in principle within walking distance, as long as you have the time and desire for it.

I even dream of walking all or part of the classic over them all: The 800 km long route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain; also known as Camino. It has gradually become a whole tributary, no matter what you fail at or where fucked up you are, so just walk the Camino!

First, though, I'm at sea for a few months, as I'm training to be a ship officer at the AP. Møller Maersk. All my walking therefore takes place on the deck or up and down in the accommodation, but it can easily give a 9-10 km daily, when the ship is one of the world's largest and almost 400 meter long. As we sailed through the Suez Canal, I could go up and take a look at the Sinai Desert and Egypt at the same time, but otherwise it is mostly water and waves. But just as there are with hiking, no two waves are alike…

When the trip goes home to Nexø again, it is again on daily evening and morning trips. I look forward to that too!

Really good hiking holiday!

Here are great hiking tours in Denmark and abroad

Here are some of the most popular hiking routes and obvious places for a hiking holiday in Denmark

• The Camøno
• The Danish pilgrimage route
• Army road
• The North Coast Path
• Gendarme path
• The coastal path on Bornholm
• Skjoldungestien

Here are some of the most popular walking routes and obvious places for a walking holiday abroad

• Machu Picchu
• Kilimanjaro
• Pacific Crest Trail
• Camino
• West Highland Trail
• Troll tongue
• Appalachian Trail
• Torres del Paine
• Kungsleden
• Ratikon High Trail
• Tour of Mont Blanc
• Whale trail