#Penguinjourneys: featuring Clare Balding
Have you Penguins packed yet? Are you ready, with book in bag, to hit the road this summer with #penguinjourneys? Yes? Brilliant. We have a whole summer’s worth of literary adventures all matched to audiobooks to keep you occupied for the duration.
Not only that, but rambling expert Clare Balding has joined us to introduce our #penguinjourneys podcast special. The podcast also features top travel tips from our friends at Rough Guides. Have a listen here:
You might know Radio 4’s Ramblings which Clare presents, which has been going strong since 1999. Clare has well and truly caught the walking bug, and we’re lucky to have some quotes from her new book, Walking Home, to celebrate the launch of #penguinjourneys:
‘Up on the Downs above my family home Kingsclere, there’s a sign that I would see nearly every day. It said Wayfarer’s Walk. The arrow pointing left said ‘Emsworth, 60 miles’. The one pointing right said ‘Inkpen Beacon, 12 miles’. I had sometimes wondered what it would be like to walk the whole thing. I never actually planned to do it, of course. It was just an idle thought. Until now…’
Wayfarer’s Walk – the route that Clare takes her family on in the book.
‘I have felt the delights of the North East Coastal Path, the Highland Way from Milngavie to Fort William, the South West Coast Path and the South Downs Way. I have bounced on spring dews and crunched on autumn leaves, I have felt the brutal wind bend me like a misshapen hawthorn bush, and I have strolled for miles with the sun warming my cheeks and refracting off chalk and water.’
‘I have walked with Historians, geologists, twitchers, botanists, poets, artists and adventurers. They usually have boundless knowledge and endless enthusiasm, so I always learn something new. With every step I discover more about the land in which we live.’
‘Walking slows me down, it gives me time to think, time to explore the land, the seasons, the person and the dog I share my life with, and the beauty in every day.’
These quotes are from Clare’s book, Walking Home, out in hardback on 9th September 2014. The book features journeys from the Pennine Way to the South West Coastal Path and beyond. You can pre-order Clare’s book, and purchase all other books on our #penguinjourneys over on iTunes (opens in iTunes).
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