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Backpacks and blisters - the walking thread

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    If I had posted a photo of similar merit I think I would retire from the photography world right now. It's as if one's first ever play had been Hamlet.

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      I walked up Stoh in the Slovak Mala Fatra today. Part hike, part blueberry-picking expedition. Stoh is not the most popular peak in the area ; it's not part of the main ridge and it is not as eye-catching as its rocky neighbour Velky Rozsutec. One advantage of this, of course, is that it gives you a view of the more popular spots around it. Plus, it's got the best blueberries in the area. There are loads of them, and close enough to the path that there's no need to go tramping off deep into the bushes. You're not allowed to do that anyway, under National Park rules.

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        Prime blueberry area, for bears and humans alike.

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          Velky Rozsutec from Stoh

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            Top of Stoh. One of the Mala Fatra's straighter signs.

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                That looks lovely.

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                  Good pics James! Indeed, sometimes the 'boring' outlier is well worth climbing for the views.

                  In Wales, if you find yourself with 2/3 hours to spare in Capel Curig, get up Crimpiau. It's a tiny hill, easy to get to, with enough nooks and crannies to keep you amused but mostly offers fantastic views on the bigger hills around. Tryfan in particular looks impressive...

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                    Great shots, James. The blueberries you mention - they're bilberries, no? There are loads of bilberries round here too, but I;m not sure that blueberries grow wild in Europe. I think they're the same family, but smaller and more intensely flavoured than blueberries (which I think are native to North America only). Afonya (HU)/ Afine (RO) tend to get translated in restaurant menus as blueberries, but I am 99% sure they're bilberries.

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                      MS, thanks for that tip. I would love to return to that area, though not sure when that could be.

                      Ad Hoc, yes, they are what I used to know as bilberries when we picked them off the Shropshire hills years (and years) ago. Thing is, I've been here too long now and just accept the local translations. I've often been in these mountains with American friends too, and they don't challenge us on the word blueberries.

                      The Czech and Slovak words for this fruit (boruvky and cucoriedky respectively) are very different. Slovak people occasionally like to test their Czech friends on differences such as this.

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                        I was wondering about the blueberries, and had decided that they must have gone feral (or whatever the plant equivalent is) in Europe as I think they are farmed over there.

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                          Originally posted by jameswba View Post
                          what I used to know as bilberries when we picked them off the Shropshire hills
                          Are those whinberries, or are they another variant? MY mum went crazy for whinberries when we holidayed in Shropshire.

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                            Apparently yes. Never heard of whinberry before but wiki has it as a regional dialect word for the same berry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccinium_myrtillus

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                              We used to pick them on the fells in Cumberland back in the day.

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                                Misread that as Gangster Octopus saying he "used to pick up fellas in Cumberland back in the day". I think the kids have the TV on too loud.

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                                  Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                                  We used to pick them on the fells in Cumberland back in the day.
                                  You could have gone much closer to home. I remember picking them in large quantities every year in High Bradfield

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                                    Careful, guys

                                    (also jameswba what is the significance of the stickers on the summit pole)

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                                      Great photos, James.

                                      My Dad used to take me bilberry picking on Otley Chevin, a steep hillside above Wharfedale just a few miles from where I grew up on the north western fringe of Leeds. Mention of bilberry picking gives me childhood nostalgia.

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                                        We have a homemade one of these. The difference in the bilberry picking experience is dramatic

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                                          @EEG, Same here. It's become a once a year thing for me living here, but still takes me back to the Stretton Hills and the Stiperstones. It was my mum who was interested in picking the fruit, so these trips in Slovakia bring back memories of her. The berries are fantastic, but ....

                                          ad hoc, My father-in-law keeps pressing one of those on me, but you're not supposed to use them in national parks. Some people do, of course, then sell much of what they've picked. I usually just get a big jam jar full.

                                          @Nef, No special significance, but people do like to slap stickers on these signs. Here, the top one is the logo of a local branch of the Slovak Hikers' Club (which is a national organisation), the second is a representation of Cyril and Methodius, the 9th century missionaries who brought Christianity to the Slavic lands, the third is Polish so I can't read it all, but again it looks like a hiking club as it mentions the Tatra mountains, the bottom one represents the 'Group of Proud Alcoholics', apparently established in 2016(!)

                                          Stickers representing branches of hiking clubs are perhaps most common, though you sometimes see football club stickers etc.

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                                            I'm off to walk St Cuthbert's Way to Lindisfarne and then the Northumberland Coastal Path. Every walk should start with a train journey. Tonight I am on the night sleeper to Edinburgh.

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                                                  Sleeper trains are exciting. I’ve not been on one since I was five, which took us to the French Riviera.

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                                                    As mentioned on the Covid thread, sleeper cars have been taken off the trains between here and Budapest / Vienna. The overnight trains still exist but only seated. Which is a shame

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