{"id":569,"date":"2012-12-07T16:38:02","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T16:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=569"},"modified":"2014-11-22T15:17:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:17:50","slug":"wanderbust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2012\/12\/wanderbust\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanderbust hedgehogs and why hiking in the UK winter is fab"},"content":{"rendered":"

I couldn’t help but laugh at the ‘United Kingdom travel guide<\/a>‘\u00a0article on the Wanderlust website<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There’s not much to recommend the UK in winter.\u00a0Daylight hours are too short to enjoy outdoor sights and the weather can be foul. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I guess the poor things at the Wanderlust site hibernate or somesuch as they are missing out on great hiking in the UK’s winter countryside.<\/p>\n

So, to put the record straight here’s five reasons why UK winter hiking is FAB.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Walking the first morning after a snowfall is wonderful. The day is fresh and the landscape utterly transformed. \u00a0Start early and have fun identifying animal tracks, breaking iced-over puddles and throwing snowballs at scarecrows. \u00a0Big fun!<\/li>\n
  2. You don’t have to get up early to start a walk early, if you see what I mean. I love starting walks as the sun is rising. \u00a0The dawn chorus is in full swing, the light on the countryside is focused and sharp, nature is bursting out all around. \u00a0In summer you’ll need to get up at 4.30am for this, in winter 7am is just fine.<\/li>\n
  3. The same applies for sunsets. \u00a0A north Norfolk beach in December at 3.30pm is ablaze with reds, pinks and oranges as the sun starts its swift descent westwards. \u00a0The wind picks up, birds are heading home to roost and that pub a few miles away starts to sound like a very good idea. \u00a0Winter is also great for night-hikes, no more waiting around for 10.30pm, hurrah!<\/li>\n
  4. Ah yes, pubs. \u00a0A country pub is always a fine idea after a long hike but is doubly good when one stumbles in out of the cold cold to find a roaring fire and best bitter on the go.<\/li>\n
  5. Less people around, including the Wonderbust hedgehogs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"Welney
    Welney nature reserve in the winter – Wanderbust website thinks you should miss this as it is cold and stuff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I couldn’t help but laugh at the ‘United Kingdom travel guide‘\u00a0article on the Wanderlust website: There’s not much to recommend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[32,50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}