3#06 Patrick Davies: the diplomat who walked the length of Britain
“Once you slow down you see it all”
00:00 - Introduction.
02:40 - Welcome. Introducing “Where Skylarks Sing”, recounting 1400-mile walk from Lizard Point in Cornwall to Dunnet Head in Scotland. Reasons for eschewing LEJOG. Personal motivations for the walk and the book.
08:40 - “... about three or four weeks later I found myself in Lizard Point with a very heavy backpack.” Discussing experiences of caring for a close relative with Alzheimer’s disease, fundraising in response.
12:25 - Choosing a more mountainous line: “it seemed a little unfair to miss out the whole of Wales if you’re trying to walk across the country… and it got me into the Lake District as well.” Paring back 2-3kg after three days of walking.
16:40 - “Everything doesn’t have to be perfect at the beginning.”
18:00 - The mentality of a long walk: “It’s a slow pace, it’s a slow rhythm, and it’s repeated… to me it feels a bit like meditation. You just calm down, and slow down” A revelation to notice things, to see things, where previously the mind would be too busy, “once you slow down you see it all.”
22:40 - Highlights, including: the South West Coast Path, the quiet, open spaces of Mid Wales, the Lake District and (of course) Scotland.
31:30 - Advice to those considering similar walks: “Do it, without question. Once you start it’s addictive.”
34:30 - Previous career as the UK’s Deputy Ambassador to the United States, from 2013 to 2018. Writing “The Great American Delusion”. Working amongst American politics, trying to explain Brexit, witnessing the polarisation of views across the country.
42:00 - “I hanker back to a time when politics was really boring.”
46:15 - Recalling two great treks following walking the length of Britain: Biarritz to Barcelona via the Pyrenees (partly following the GR10, partly the haute route between it and the GR11), and from “Strasbourg to the Sea” (involving the GR5).
53:20 - Witnessing the result of serious drought in the Alps.
56:00 - Greatest Mountain Memory: Climbing Morocco’s Mt Toubkal in the High Atlas mountains, without much opportunity for acclimatisation (with predictable results) “my greatest mountain memory is that I don’t really remember much about being on the top, other than swaying a lot.”
56:15 - All the time, money, freedom… where would you go and what would you do? Latin America, to the Andes, and particular Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park.