Book review: Walking the Woods and the Water by Nick Hunt

Aged 18, Nick Hunt read A Time of Gifts, written by legend explorer Patrick Leigh Fermor and it inspired him so much he decided to follow in the great man’s footsteps.

And so he embarked on an incredible journey or as he dubbed it, “a great trudge’’ on foot all the way to Istanbul. He walked across Europe through eight countries, following two major rivers and crossing three mountain ranges. Using Fermor’s books as his only travel guides, Hunt trekked some 2,500 miles through Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.

His aim was to enjoy an old-fashioned adventure, to slow down and linger in a world where we pass by so much, so fast and to discover for himself what remained of hospitality, kindness to strangers, freedom, wildness, adventure, the mysterious, unknown and the deeper currents of myth and story which still flow beneath Europe’s surface.

The end result is a fine book and one which will inspire! Hunt did not have it easy, he battled against weather, nature and strange companions, but came through to realise that although much had changed since Fermor’s time, the important things had stayed the same!

Walking the Woods and the Water by Nick Hunt, published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, £10.99, www.nicholasbrealey.com