Walking Adventures

From walkabouts in the Australian outback to power walks in local parks, putting one foot in front of the other is universally recognized as one of the best   therapies on earth. Problems that seem insurmountable come untangled during a long walk. Charles Darwin devised a Thinking Path in his own backyard, an oblong path under great trees. He stacked a number of rocks into a cairn to designate the scope of the day�s problem, and with each lap kicked away a stone, allowing himself only so much time to come up with a solution. Local school children, hiding behind a hedge, would replace the stones, extending Darwin�s walk, and his problem, until he caught on to them.

You don�t have to be an evolutionary biologist to know that walking is great exercise for the mind as well as the body. Thirty six million Americans walk as a form of exercise, and in addition to great local walking trails, the longest one in the U.S. has just been opened. The 6,356-mile Discovery Trail runs from Cape Henlopen in Delaware to the Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco. In the Midwest, the trail splits into two branches -- a northern route that can take you through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, and a southern route that cuts across Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. The trail passes through hundreds of small towns, leads to 14 national parks, 16 national forests and thousands of historic sites.  The terrain includes footpaths, city streets and canal towpaths. Some segments are open to bicycles and horses. For information, guidebooks and maps, www.discoverytrail.org . 

Walking safaris are a great way to get away from vehicles and tourists, see details on the landscape, and track elephant and rhino the old fashioned way � by following footprints. Safari walks can be brief dawn forays with a Maasai or Wandorobo tracker, or you can choose the ten-mile a day trek in places like Tanzania�s Selous, where Richard Bonham has organized some great walks on the Sand Rivers, with fly camps up the Rufiji River. 

Walking around the edge of the Serengeti and the highlands of Ngorongoro give you magnificent views of landscapes that others see from vehicles. 

WALKING TIPS