Since his departure on 9 December we have heard little from Nick Hunt. He did post a short piece describing his departure from Hook of Holland on his blog, but since then silence.
However, it appears that Nick is making good progress and on 28 December he was in Bingen near the end of the Rhine. It was here that Paddy celebrated Christmas 1933 staying with an innkeeper and his ‘pretty daughters, who were aged from five to fifteen …’ (A Time of Gifts p53 in the John Murray paperback). This is pretty good progress seeing as Paddy had earlier taken a trip on a Rhine barge.
Skip over to Nick’s blog to read about one of his first walking days in Holland.
Stop Press! – open the comments section of this article below to read a further update from Nick as he tells us a little more about his walk down the Rhine. He is now at Heidelberg .. the Red Ox beckons (ATOG p 56 if you are keeping up!).
Patrick Leigh Fermor 
Warm greetings and “bravos” to Nick, perhaps flavored with a bit of healthy envy. I hope he does keep us well informed of his doings and goings.
Blake More
1st of January 2012 and I reached Heidelberg just after dark, despite the New Year’s Eve hangover. Yes, the walk is going well — apart from the foot problems in that first week, a result of doing too much too soon, but learning a lesson the painful way is the best way to learn it. I tried to cadge a lift on a Rhine barge, as Paddy did from Cologne, but there were no lifts to be cadged — the sailors’ taverns where he met his crew were obliterated in the war, and all I could find in the way of shipping were tourboats full of elderly Americans doing their Christmas cruise down the Rhine. They didn’t seem especially enthusiastic about having a mud-covered, bearded man accompanying them on their cruise, and anyway, it wouldn’t have been a particularly Fermorian way to travel. So I walked that stretch where Paddy took the boat. I’m glad I did — I spent two nights sleeping in ruined castles by the river, hidden away in a sleeping bag in cosy dark archways in the walls, sleeping surprisingly well in this strangely mild winter.
More on that, and other stuff, soon. Thanks for keeping a watchful eye. I’m posting a new piece on my blog this week, about walking and landscape, and there should be something for The Times after that, which will also go on my blog. Happy new year to all.