My younger sister, mother and I have been hiking a lot recently. We’ve always been an active family and my childhood was filled with bike rides, long walks, swimming and tree-climbing. We spent weekends exploring local footpaths, walking routes and countryside. It wasn’t unusual to tell mum of an evening that I was going to play with my sisters ‘up the fields’ and come back with numerous scrapes and stories to tell.
We still get together and go for a long walk each Christmas Day, and we all enjoy it.
I recently moved back home with mum as a temporary stop-gap and was keen to revisit our favourite childhood walking routes. Everything seems a bit smaller and shorter as an adult, but we’ve had great fun exploring and reminiscing on our evening walks around the village and surrounding area.
I’d been wearing my black/floral Nike Roshe Run trainers, but when mum suggested a hiking holiday to Switzerland for October, I started to reconsider my footwear. With flights paid for and a chalet booked, I headed to Blacks in Tunbridge Wells where I spoke with a very knowledgeable staff member about appropriate hiking boots. I picked out a waterproof pair of Peter Storms (quite cute – which helps!!) at a surprisingly reasonable £30 and tried them on for size. The helpful staff member assured me that I didn’t need to go up a size or even half a size, as this would encourage rubbing, movement of the boot and therefore blisters. I’m a size 6 so stuck with that and walked around Blacks (in my smart business attire – not a great look!). The boots were so comfortable; light and snug. The man at the triple-checked my size and the condition of the boots, which was impressive, and was also friendly and knowledgeable, taking an interest in my Swiss holiday.
Mum and I could be hiking for 8hrs a day, so tonight I’ll be taking my new boots out for their first outing to wear them in, with the aim to cover around 3-4 miles of cross-country walking. We fly towards the end of October, so plenty of time to get used to them!
Watch this space! 🙂
Laura's footprints 