Slide Shows from the Arte Wanderlust Hiking Series

Hi. I'll be putting some slide shows from the Wanderlust hiking series up here this week as they are aired on Arte.

South-West Coast Path, Cornwall, UK

Mallorca Crete

New TV series on Arte

Hi all,

So my second TV series is about to air soon on Arte in France and Germany. It's called Wanderlust in German, or Un kilomètre à Pied in French and it's a ten-part series looking at different regions of Europe through their long-distance hiking trails. In the course of the hikes I meet Cornish fishermen, Mallorcan beekeepers, French cheesemakers, Greek park rangers and German ceramics designers, and go hiking with local guidebook writers, environmentalists and even a German princess. I learn how to use a traditional slingshot in Mallorca, eat wild edible plants in Cornwall and help deliver a baby calf in Saar-Hunsruck. Now that's entertainment.

The films are broadcast on Arte from August 4th at 7.30pm.

Mon, 4.8.2014:  South-West Coast Path in Cornwall, UK

Tue, 5.8.2014: The Saar-Hunsrück-Steig, Germany

Wed, 6.8.2014: The Dry Wall Way, Mallorca

Thur, 7.8.2014: The Stevenson Way, France 

Fri, 8.8.2014: Through Crete's Gorges, Greece

French Arte Details

German Arte Details

In the meantime we've been busy shooting the second five films. Last week I was in Norway and for the next two weeks I'm in Austria's Lech Valley. Some photos below.

Crossing the Dovrefjell on the St Olaf's Way, Norway

Lech Valley, Austria

What I've Been Doing This Summer: Part II

In between guidebook writing, this summer I've been lucky to be involved in a new TV series for Arte called 'Wanderlust'. The films follow me as I hike a selection of Europe's best long-distance hiking trails, stopping en route to explore local history, learn about regional foods and chat with people I meet along the trail.

The series consists of ten 45-minute films and so far we've filmed five;
* The GR221 'Dry Stone Route' in Mallorca's Tramuntana Mountains
* On the trail of Robert Louis Stephenson in the French Cevennes
* The little-known Saar Hunsruck Steig in south-western Germany
* Along part of the wild South-West Coast Path in Cornwall
* Mountain and coastal sections of the E4 in sunny Crete.

The aim is to give a portrait of some of Europe's most interesting micro-regions by walking its most beautiful hiking trails.

Green valleys of the Saar Hunsruck Steig

 

Wild rocky coastline of Cornwall

Samaria Gorge, Crete

Lybian Sea from fort above Agia Roumeli, E4 Crete

Lovely village outside Soller, Mallorca

End of a day's hiking at Loutro, Crete

Mountain lake, Tramuntana Mtns, Mallorca

Filming a soundbite on the beach in Cornwall

 
We have another five films scheduled for next year, with broadcast on Arte in late 2014 or early 2015. We'll keep you posted!

Marco Polo links on Arte

***Please note that the Arte broadcasts are now over. For details of the SWR broadcast in October 2011 please click here. ***

Arte now have a dedicated web page for the Marco Polo series - see www.arte.tv/marcopolo and http://marcopolo.arte.tv.

The programme also made it to the cover of the Arte magazine.

For hard-core fanatics there's also a dedicated Marco Polo Reloaded Facebook page, where you can post comments.

Short clips from the films are available by clicking on the country names on the map on this page.

Click on the links above to see the content.

Marco Polo to be Broadcast in January

I finally have a date for broadcast of the Marco Polo films! Tune in to Arte at 7.55pm for five consecutive nights from Monday to Friday Jan 3-7.

The idea of the programe is to try to retrace the route of Marco Polo's 13th-century trip from Venice to Xanadu (Beijing), following as closely as possible Polo's original route while reinterpreting the spirit of his book by seeking out the kinds of things Polo was most interested in.

The film sees me mining for oltu tash stone in Turkey, tracking down an underground rock band in Tehran, on patrol with ISAF troops in Afghanistan, visitng the lapis mines of Badakhshan, flying over the desert oasis of Dunhuang in a microlite and fishing with cormorants in eastern China, all the time hitchhiking on trucks, buses and trains across Asia.




The Arte broadcast is in French, with further broadcasts on German channel SWR and then other German public television channels throughout summer 2010.

Monday's Film
Tuesday's Film
Wednesday's Film
Thursday's Film
Friday's Film