A walk, a ramble, a hike, a trek or a stroll? The appeal of just experiencing what’s around us. - By: Bruno Blackstone

On British Telly during September 2011 was a seriously enjoyable and fascinating programme involving two UK comedians Rhod Gilbert and Greg Davies. Their task was to journey across Tibet by automobile from India to China, a feat that at first consideration, could possibly not appear very difficult, nonetheless the feature highlighted the mayhem rife on Tibetan streets, from farming stock on primary routes to a land slip causing the track to actually slide apart below them while the comedians travelled it. The TV programme presented the tensions surrounding differing opinions, on opening up the far more inaccessible areas,, held by trekkers and locals but what particularly held the author's interest was a remark by Rhod that was “what’s the difference between a walk and a trek – people over 40 go for a walk, if you are under 40 it’s a trek”

This made me want to think about the phrases most of us utilise for exploring the outdoors on foot; walking rambling, trekking, hiking, strolling. Therefore I started looking in Wikipedia for walking:

“Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of locomotion among legged animals, and is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an 'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults over the stiff limb or limbs with each step. This applies regardless of the number of limbs - even arthropods with six, eight or more limbs.”

The definiton failded to capture it naturally therefore I retried with Hiking. “Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain.” Now I thought I was getting closer. Wikipedia then aided further by informing me that “Trekking is a long journey undertaken on foot in areas where common means of transport is generally not available. Trekking is not mountaineering; it is days of walking, along with adventure.”

But, I got confused all over again when I was informed that “Walking in the countryside is also called rambling,and walking in mountainous areas is called hillwalking." As a result I have decided to stick to strolling – “Strolling is walking along or through at a leisurely pace”. Strolling every little thing that I like about placing 1 leg in front of the other when outside. Experiencing the stunning outdoors which we have been we have, searching and listening for wildlife, inhaling the life enhancing fresh air and, needless to say, it’s also ideal physical exercise

Naturally therefore as a proven stroller I will just abandon the walking to other over 40’s and the trekking to the under 40’s.

About the Author

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