Tag Archives: Nick Hunt

Transylvanian Book Festival – so much better than Hay; are you joining us?

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Lit fest authors

Arrangements for the Transylvanian Book Festival are proceeding apace. This will be a truly wonderful event and I want to encourage as many of you as possible to come along during 5-9 September. Look at it as a holiday in itself, spending five days in the most beautiful setting, a region lost to time, that reflects the history, culture, and architecture of one of the last untouched Medieval landscapes in Europe. A chance to talk to the authors and like-minded folk in a calm and relaxed atmosphere.

The line-up of authors is growing all the time. More details can be found on the website here.

The following have confirmed:

  • Artemis Cooper: An Adventure, the biography of Paddy Leigh Fermor
  • Professor Roy Foster: Bram Stoker, Ireland and Dracula
  • Jessica Douglas Home: Once Upon Another Time
  • William Blacker: Along the Enchanted Way
  • Michael Jacobs: Robber of Memories but will talk on Starkie or von Rezzori
  • Caroline Juler: Author of the Blue Guide to Romania
  • Jaap Scholten: Comrade Baron
  • Nick Hunt: After the Woods and the Water
  • Andrea Rost: on the biography of Hans Schaas
  • Sarah Dootz: Her autobiography
  • Countess Elizabeth Jelen Salnikoff: talking about her grandfather Miklos Banffy
  • Others to follow

You can make a reservation and book online here.

Unlike other book festivals this will be a relatively small and intimate affair. The authors will be living in the same villages and mixing with all those attending in a relaxed atmosphere. All food is included and we can expect some magnificent meals and picnics under the warm Transylvanian sun, with just the sounds of horse drawn carts, cows going to and from the fields, geese and ducks filing along the dusty roads, and our own animated conversation in English, Romanian, German and Hungarian as we reflect on the day’s events.

In addition there will be excursions included into the woods and countryside surrounding Richis so we can all get close to the land which is one of Prince Charles’ favourite spots. There is a lot included for the money which does not happen at other similar festivals.

If you want to know more please get in touch with me. I am happy to advise on travel options, flights into the country, car hire, and possible extensions to your visit so that you can visit some of Romania’s other wonders, many of which are just 1-2 hours away from Richis. There are already plans for extensions to turn your visit into a longer stay if you wish.

Romania is a very safe country for travellers with a good infrastructure. If you hear things from others that put you off, like the state of the roads, or are deterred by its very mysteriousness, please be assured that none of this is remotely true, nor should it be a barrier to you having a great time.

Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page. I am looking forward to seeing as many of you there as possible. Perhaps this medley of images may tempt you to come along by making your booking here 🙂 Some of these you may have seen before; many others are new. I promise!

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£1 a week – Up Down and Across

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Nick Hunt will be giving a talk about his epic walk in Paddy’s footsteps from Hook of Holland to Istanbul at London’s Westminster Reference Library on 11 May, and will be joined by other adventurers in an evening of talks, performances and art about walking.

Find out more on Nick’s blog, After the Woods and the Water here.

Nick Hunt outside the Hotel New York (Continental), Cluj

Nick Hunt outside the Hotel New York (Continental), Cluj

Patrick Leigh Fermor’s ‘magical’ tour

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Friends of Patrick Leigh Fermor outside Heywood Hill, his favourite bookshop, in London’s Shepherd Market

To celebrate the publication of Artemis Cooper’s biography of travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, Today presenter James Naughtie joined a party led by Artemis Cooper to walk past some of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s London haunts. As you may see from the photograph, the participants included Colin Thubron, Cherie Lunghi, Justin Marozzi, Robert Macfarlane, and Gabriella Bullock who is “Billy” Moss’ daughter.

Starting at Paddy’s favourite bookshop (and temporary post-war residence) Heywood Hill, we first braved the traffic in Curzon Street to cross into Shepherd Market where curious drinkers at The Grapes watched as we gazed in awe at 28 Shepherd Market, the place from where Paddy set out on his walk on 8 December 1933. It may have been bombed in the war as the building is a replacement with the enticing Plus News newsagent on the ground floor.

We weaved our way in the dusk to Berkeley Square which Paddy passed through one night during the blitz and later noted ‘only one thing remained standing, three storeys high, stood a white marble privvy’. The journey to Stratton Street was quick and this is where Paddy left two trunks containing most of his documents from the walk which were eventually deposited by the keeper into Harrod’s Depository; Paddy could not pay the large accumulated storage fee and when he did return the trunks and their contents had been sold and dispersed. Artemis observed that perhaps it was a good thing as he had to rely upon his mind and was perhaps ‘set free’.

50 Albemarle Street, the entrance to publisher John Murray

Our touristic snake trailed into Albemarle Street and we passed John Murray’s at number 50, crossed Piccadilly to the entrance of The Ritz where Paddy often stayed, but once had great difficulty entering when in training at the Guards’ Depot as he was dressed in the uniform of a private soldier, the Ritz being for officers only.

Paddy went to riotous and notorious parties at The Cavendish hotel in Duke Street, St James’ with many of the “bright young things” which did not include Evelyn Waugh as he had offended the owner, Mrs Lewis who said of him ‘When I see that Mr Waugh I’m going to cut his winkle orf’. Mrs Lewis indulged Paddy and others of somewhat straightened means and let them build up virtually unlimited credit. She knew that they would be unable to pay, but it was small beer to some of her more wealthy clients who did not check their bills too closely and ended up paying for Paddy’s extravagancies.

Throughout the walk we were accompanied by James Naughtie from Radio 4’s Today programme. He recorded the package below and left early as you would expect from someone who has to get up at about 3.30 am when presenting the programme. Naughtie grabbed some time with Nick Hunt who walked Paddy’s route from Hook of Holland to Constantinople just this year. He promised to make Nick a star. Let’s hope so.

Nick Hunt being interviewed by James Naughtie

This tour through Paddy’s Mayfair was a pre-cursor to the official launch of Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure at Paddy’s old club, The Travellers. Artemis got a very well deserved round of applause for the biography, and she spent most of the evening busy signing books; dozens must have been sold. Ian Hislop made a sartorially unkempt appearance near the end (how did he get in without a tie?), and I think I saw Bank of England Governor, Sir Mervyn King pop in and do his bit for the consumer economy.

Artemis and Colin Thubron in the lobby of the Travellers Club with bust of Paddy

Listen to ‘Patrick Leigh Fermor’s ‘magical’ tour’ on Audioboo


Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure will also be the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week from 19th November onwards.

You can buy Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure here.

Don’t forget to visit Artemis Cooper’s Facebook page for further information.

Flying to the moon

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Inside the Hotel New York (Continental), Cluj

As many of you will know by now, I travel to Romania pretty frequently and I am fortunate enough to stay and work in the beautiful city of Cluj which Paddy says he visited during his road trip tryst with Angéla in the summer of 1934.

Paddy’s descriptions in Between the Woods and the Water are very accurate and detailed, and the one of the Hotel New York was the most impressive which I highlighted in this article last year with accompanying photographs.

Nick and Tom outside the Hotel New York (Continental), Cluj

During Nick Hunt’s recent walk across Europe we were able to meet up outside of the hotel and I was desperate for us to drink a cocktail there just like Paddy, Istvan and Angéla. The fact that the hotel is closed should not have been a barrier to this; all I had to do was find the recipe and a willing local barman and all would be OK. Unfortunately following an ‘occupy’ protest security at the hotel was heavy and we were firmly told we could not enter. It must have been Nick’s road weary look and dusty attire which was the blocker!

I had done some research, and whilst I could not find the recipe of the Cluj cocktail which was described by Paddy thus in Between the Woods and the Water …

An hotel at the end of the main square, called the New York – a great meeting place in the winter season – drew my companions like a magnet. István said the barman had invented an amazing cocktail – only surpassed by the one called ‘Flying’ in the Vier Jahreszeiten bar in Munich – which would be criminal to miss

… I contacted the Bar Manager of the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski in München to find out the recipe for Flying. Florian Fischer kindly replied as follows, so maybe this autumn, to celebrate the publication of the biography, you may order one or even make it at home.

Dear Mr. Sawford,

thank you very much for your request. These are the things which are creating culture!

I am really interested in cocktails of this period. I was thinking about the recipe and I am quite sure, that it must be the following :

Flying Cocktail

2 parts of Gin
1 part of curacao Triple sec ( Cointreau preferred )
1 part of freshly squezzed lemon juice

fill up with champagne
served in a champagne flute

Actually it is the famous “White Lady” with champagne and this drink was really popular in these times.

Greetings from Munich and enjoy your “Flying Cocktail”

Cheers

Florian Fischer

Barmanager

Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski München

Maximilianstr. 17 · 80539 München · Germany Tel +49 89 2125 2217· Fax +49 89 2125 2222 florian.fischer@kempinski.com

Related article:

An eye for detail and the memory of the Hotel New York in Cluj

An obituary to Paddy in German

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Greichenland Zeitung obituary

This obituary in German has been lurking in my drafts folder for too long. Christian Peters lives in Köln, Germany (Cologne) and keeps in touch regularly. I am not sure if he met up with Nick on his walk but I am sure Christian will tell us.

Dear Tom,

Thank you for bringing me in touch with Nick Hunt. I have had the plan to contact him for more than two months now, but now it came the other way around …

After Paddy’s death I tried to publish an article in the German newspaper in Athens called “Griechenland-Zeitung”. But a couple of days before my  article reached the editorial staff, they had published a much better one by Wolf Reiser. The chief editor was so nice to send me a copy of the first part of the article. Maybe that is interesting for the “German section” of your blog.

I am really pleased about your blog, day by day.

Next year I am gonna have a sabbatical in order to complete my dissertation on skateboarding . I am planning to write parts of it either in Kardamyli or in Sfakia /Crete, the region Xan Fielding has been writing about which is kind of my Greek homeland.

Thank you for your work.

Best from Cologne

Christian

Click the image to enlarge the text.

£1 a week – Nick to talk about his journey, Saturday 1 September in London

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After a short period of adjustment to ‘normal life’, and, I dare say, some personal reflection, Nick has contacted us to say thank you for the support you gave to him and to announce that he will be giving a talk about his walk on 1 September.

Dear everyone,

Thanks so much for all your support before and during my walk to Istanbul. Knowing that people were following me, reading and enjoying my blog, made a lot of difference on the rocky, rainy days.

I hope you all got your postcards. Some of you are also due a handmade book, and/ or a CD of audio recordings from the journey. I will get round to these as soon as possible — be patient, they will come!

I’ll be starting work on the book very soon. It will hopefully be published next year — you can sign up for updates on my blog, if you want to be kept informed.

For anyone in London, I’m giving a talk about the journey at the Globetrotters Club, who also funded me. It’s on Saturday September 1st, around 3.00pm, here:

Church of Scotland Church Hall,
Crown Court,
London, WC2B 5EZ

I think it’s £5 or £6 on the door, but they normally have an enormous array of free biscuits. Come if you can.

Thanks again for all your support!

Nick

Here is a useful map!

£1 a week – Nick has arrived in Constantinople!

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He left England on a warm and balmy December 8 2011, and has today, 17 July 2012, arrived in the hot and bustling melting pot of Istanbul as we in England endure the foulest, accursed summer weather.

Nick’s boots, which he had just had repaired by a Romanian cobbler in Turda when I met up with him in Cluj in May, have finally collapsed, and it appears that his emotions are about to undertake a twisting, heaving, never experienced before maelstrom of sweet contradictions as he comes to terms with the conclusion of so much commitment, planning, and effort.

Link to here to read his immediate thoughts and follow him in the coming days as he tries to come to terms with his next steps.

As we discussed in Cluj, he could not see how after reaching his goal he could just jump on to the next plane home; and why would he want to? He faces the ‘plan your journey’ congestion of the Olympics and rain, and floods, and worst of all … normality.

Paddy would have been very proud of him; I am sure of that. And we all are.

Well done Nick!!!!

£1 a week – (not so) Sunny Beach

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Last Saturday I was listening to From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4. One of the packages was from Croatia and concerned the tug of war between environmentalists and business people about controlling and ‘improving’ yet another stretch of the Danube. It reminded me so much of the Persenbeug Prediction in A Time of Gifts. The forecast of the taming of the Danube which now appears to be entering its final round on the Croat-Serbian border.

In his latest dispatch from his epic walk to Istanbul entitled Summer Metropolis, Nick Hunt encounters more uncontrolled development and taming of nature along the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and reflects on how many of us perhaps fail to find the happiness and fun that we seek in our modern world ….

I wandered inadvertently into an all-inclusive resort. Everyone apart from me was wearing coloured plastic wristbands to demonstrate their allegiance to a particular package deal, like some form of indentured servitude. The broiled bodies on the beach didn’t look particularly happy – in fact most of them had the frowns and down-turned mouths of deep dissatisfaction, as if they didn’t quite know why they’d come here or what they were meant to be doing.

His latest article is very good (Nick’s writing seems to be improving with every piece) and shows just how much things have changed since Paddy walked along that same Bulgarian coastline, encountering Greek fishermen in 1934.

Read Summer Metropolis here.

£1 a week – Rendezvous in Cluj

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My visits to Cluj are always a pleasure, notwithstanding the need to get up at five o’clock in the morning to catch an early Wizz Air flight. However, as I prepared for my last visit, there was an extra dimension to my anticipation.

If you have been following Nick Hunt’s journey on his blog and the occasional updates here, you will know that he arrived in Romania in early April and was making good but steady progress in the Mures valley visiting some of the houses that Paddy had stayed in, including Istvan’s kastely. As I prepared for my visit it became clear that there was a chance that Nick and I might meet up in Cluj as he, like Paddy, had decided to complete the ‘Transylvanian Loop’ by motor; getting lifts from people he had met or just hitch-hiking.

As the last week of April arrived Nick was staying at the house of a Romanian philanthropist in Turgu Mures. We corresponded and Nick told me that he would be getting a lift to Cluj on the Monday, the day of my arrival. I was able to arrange some accommodation for him through a colleague at work and suggested that we meet at the Hotel Continental (aka the New York) in the main square in Cluj after I had finished work.

This, therefore, is how we managed to meet after five months and, for Nick, over 1,300 miles of walking. He arrived at the Continental looking slightly bemused, carrying his quite small rucksack, sporting a well-developed beard, and wearing the most battered pair of walking boots I have seen for a long time (they are his original pair and a recently ‘serviced’ by a cobbler in Turgu Mures). Despite our pleading the security guard at the locked hotel would not let us in, and any thought of having a cocktail diminished.

Later we had a few beers and some food whilst talking about his journey. He is clearly enjoying it all and making daily discoveries. Whilst he is following Paddy’s route, and this provides an inspiration and an anchor, it is clearly very much his own expedition which he will tell in his own words in the book which will be published by Arcadia, possibly in 2013. Whilst Nick has as yet no definitive structure for the book he is making comprehensive notes every day and being very careful to guard his notebooks!  From what he told me I think it will be enjoyable, and having read some of the longer pieces on his blog it will be well written and easy to read.

I asked Nick if he was missing home. Only his girlfriend, he replied, and they keep in regular contact via email. Perhaps the biggest difference between his journey and that of Paddy is the ability to keep in touch using modern communications including the essential mobile phone. A striking comment that Nick made was that whilst the first part of the journey through Germany was to a degree well planned, the further east he has gone he has had to make arrangements for accommodation as he has gone along bringing a higher degree of spontaneity. “It is as if there are dark places on the map ahead of me that gradually illuminate the further I proceed, becoming brighter and more defined as each day passes.”

Nick is now somewhere in the heart of the Carpathians on his way to Baie Herculaneum and the Danube. We joked that he must take care to avoid the bears and wolves in the mountains and he promised he would keep a good look out. In two to three months his journey will end and I asked him how he will return home. He answered, after a long pause, that he does not know, but he is sure that he cannot just jump on a plane and return to London in one day, even mentioning the possibility of walking around the Black Sea. There was a certain wistfulness in his eyes as he answered, and it struck me that this may be the hardest part of the journey; giving it up and returning to what we call reality.

Related article:

An eye for detail and the memory of the Hotel New York in Cluj

Criss-crossing Europe – this time from Istanbul to Edinburgh!

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It is envy time again. I was recently contacted by Owen Martel who made a long walk across Europe last year. His was a slightly different journey to Paddy’s and to our current venturer, Nick Hunt, but nevertheless it must have been exciting. Unfortunately Owen did not hear about Paddy until he was half-way through his journey, and he only read ATOG and BTWW upon completion of his walk.

Dear Tom,

From March to December 2011, I was on foot from Istanbul to Edinburgh; and at one point, while I was laid up with badly damaged feet at a mountain hut in Austria, a fellow traveler showed me the book she was reading and urged me to find it in the original English when my journey was over. Upon settling for three months in Glasgow this past winter, I accordingly tracked down at the public library and read “A Time of Gifts” and “Between the Woods and the Water,” alternately laughing and shaking my head in bewilderment at the all-too-familiar and bafflingly different experiences Patrick Leigh Fermor recounts. While my own route was quite different from his – certainly nothing like the retracing that, I have just learned from your site, Nick Hunt embarked upon almost exactly as I was finishing my own odyssey – the spirit of the thing was highly in keeping, and if you have any interest in this latter-day echo, I’ve posted various aspects of the trip on my blog at Walk Across Europe.

Thank you for running the Patrick Leigh Fermor blog, and for helping to keep this particular sense of possibility alive and well.

Owen Martel

£1 a week – Surprisingly easy to Hungarian padded hands

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Nick Hunt by the Danube

Nick Hunt by the Danube

Nick has been making quite an impact with the local press in Austria and Hungary. In a recent piece on his blog entitled “Surprisingly easy to Hungarian padded hands” you can find links to some interesting articles and an explanation of that title.

Urgent! Can we help Nick locate Istvan’s kastely?

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I know I could open BTTW but I might still find that I don’t know the answer so I thought in this electronic age the best thing would be to go viral with the question Can we Help Nick Find Istvan’s Kastely?

I received this note from Nick just an hour or so ago …

Tom

Thanks so much for your support with reposting some of my articles. I’m glad people seem to be finding them interesting. I’ve got one question about the Romanian leg of the journey — do you have any idea where Istvan’s kastely was? It’s somewhere east of Zam, near the river Mures, but there’s nothing more specific than that. I’ve had a lot of help on the other kastelys from someone called Ileana who works for this organisation – http://monumenteuitate.blogspot.com/ – involved in restoring and preserving historic buildings in Romania. She contacted me having found my blog somehow, and is really helpful. I’m not sure if she has any more clues about the location of Istvan’s place.
Hope all is well with you. Have you been travelling recently? Best wishes from Budapest… and soon from the Great Hungarian Plain.
Nick
Any clues or answers please email me or add a comment. I am sure we will crack this so thank you in advance!

March 2012 – Nick reaches the bridge at Esztergom

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Imagine Paddy standing in the middle of this bridge looking at the cathedral

It took Paddy until Easter 1934 to get to this bridge. Nick is moving well now. The bridge at Esztergom was one of my first blog posts back in April 2010!

The bridge linking Slovakia and Hungary, between the towns of Štúrovo and Esztergom, also links A Time of Giftsand Between the Woods and the Water. Here Paddy paused both in his walking and his writing, ‘meditatively poised in no man’s air,’ before crossing into Hungary and the second phase of his journey.

I reached that bridge a week ago (or rather the reconstruction of that bridge — the original was destroyed in 1944), and in a rather unbelievable way came to the very last page of my notebook standing above the Danube … read more

Related article:

Easter 1934 – Paddy reaches the Hungarian border at Esztergom

£1 a week – “The greatest happiness I could know”

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The good news is that Nick is alive and well and enjoying the snow in Austria which reminds us of Paddy’s adventures. Read his latest piece on After the Woods and the Water.

With certain exceptions I could not agree more with his closing words …

But walking, I think, brings adventure closer. And in this winter, walking alone through a snow-covered landscape still seems like the greatest happiness I could know.

I am sure Paddy would have concurred.

Hobbled in Ulm

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The rigours of the road are taking their toll on Nick. He makes an interesting point that we never hear about Paddy encountering such issues (and rarely are these things mentioned in the SOE stories we read). Whilst we may be a little ‘softer’ these days, I suspect that similar injuries may have been encountered but perhaps were not considered important enough to mention. To me all this is fascinating and I like to know about the strains, and the aches, and the blisters!

After the Woods and the Water

For the past two weeks I’ve been laid up in Ulm, on the outskirts of Bavaria, suffering from Achilles tendon strain. It dates from the sudden steep hills of Baden, when I pigheadedly continued walking despite a nagging pain in my ankle, which increased in jolts and jumps until I was practically hobbling. Luckily I found refuge with exceptionally lovely people who didn’t mind me sitting around  rubbing ice on my feet all day, necking ibuprofen, growing my beard and generally feeling sorry for myself.

It’s been an anxious, frustrating time, but at last I’ve reached the point of no pain, and I’m setting out again tomorrow. The German healthcare system is amazing — I’ve been given free ultrasound therapy and acupuncture, and have been fitted with an ankle support and custom-made insoles for my boots. The most important thing, of course, was simply resting up. And it taught me a lesson…

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Above the Rhine

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Schloss Burg Rheinfels, above the town of St. Goar on the Rhine

There are a couple of updates from Nick on his After the Woods and the Water blog including some snippets about sleeping rough in some ruined Rhine castles.

He has been experiencing unseasonably warm weather. Whilst this is a good thing I do feel that he needs a few days of snow and ice to really experience how it can be whilst outside in Germany at this time of year. I have happy memories of sleeping in hay barns as a soldier in West Germany, cocooned by the hay which prevented my water bottle from freezing solid in the up to minus 10 degree temperatures! I also remember some wonderful views when the sun shone brightly on the snow covered ground making visibility in the daytime almost unbearable, whilst by night the reflected moonlight was a God-send when on night patrol without the benefit of today’s night vision aids.

£1 a week Hook of Holland to Constantinople: Where is Nick?

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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!).

£1 a week to Constantinople – Bon Voyage to Nick and Nice Weather for Young Ducks

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Paddy does not say if his last night in London before his epic journey was as busy as it was on Wednesday as Nick Hunt gathered with some friends in Shepherd Market to wish him well on his epic journey, but seventy-eight years ago today our hero, and let’s not be ashamed to say it, our hero, Patrick Leigh Fermor celebrated his last night in London as just another under-achieving public schoolboy, setting out to emulate Robert Byron, from this untouched corner of old London, which is now the haunt of hedge fund managers and buccaneering chief executives of junior mining companies; London clay brick Georgian squeezed into some of the highest priced real-estate in the land.

A new endeavour is about to start as Nick sets off on Friday to walk across the New Europe just as it is probably about to undergo the most significant peacetime turmoil since the rise of Nazism in the 1930’s into which Paddy stumbled with only a few links to ‘civilisation’ to accompany him, including his copy of Horace’s Odes.

Frankly I am as envious as I can be. Who could not wish to spend time away from the demands of today’s ever connected world? To endure physical challenges whilst encountering architectural marvels and meeting interesting people, each with a unique story to tell. It could well be the journey of a lifetime and I hope I send Nick off with all your best wishes. He has mine.

The weather today is better than that encountered by Paddy as he set out ….

The weather in London on December 9th 1933 was typical. The sky darkened, the clouds lowered and then it rained hard. A young man walked the cold pavements towards Cliveden Place to collect a rucksack that his friend Mark Ogilvie-Grant had used on a journey to Mount Athos accompanied by Robert Byron. After stopping to buy a stout ash stick, and probably some cigarettes, at the tobacconist on the corner of Sloane Square, the young man collected his new passport – occupation ‘student’ – from the office in Petty France. He cast his eyes up to the ominous clouds and then made his way quickly north across Green Park. Now the rain splashed down as he dashed between the traffic on Piccadilly and entered the house of his landlady, Miss Beatrice Stewart, in Shepherd Market.

A former model who sat for Sickert, and Augustus John, and who is said to be the model for the bronze figure of Peace atop Wellington Arch, Beatrice Stewart’s career was cruelly cut short after she lost a leg in a road accident. She had arranged a lunch for the eighteen year old Patrick Leigh Fermor and two of his friends to wish him bon voyage before the start of what was to become one of the most famous journeys of all time, and certainly the longest gap year in history.

After lunch, Paddy said thank you and goodbye to Miss Stewart, and jumped into a waiting taxi, which drove off through Mayfair, around Trafalgar Square, up Ludgate Hill, and past the Monument towards the Tower of London. It was raining so heavily that all they could see out of the steamed up windows were hordes of umbrellas, some carried by bowler hatted men, as the rain splashed down in the dark. “Nice weather for young ducks.” said the taxi driver as he dropped the small party by the first barbican on Tower Bridge.

The two companions, one a young girl wearing a mackintosh over her head like a coal shifter, stood in the rain to watch Paddy descend the stone steps down to Irongate Wharf. With a final wave, he strode up the gangplank of a Dutch steamer bound for Hook of Holland.

This was the start of Paddy’s journey down the Rhine and along the Danube which he so memorably describes for us in his book A Time of Gifts. This part of the story ends on Easter Sunday 1934 as Paddy stood on the long bridge over the Danube, in no-man’s land, between Czechoslovakia and Hungary at Esztergom, just as the Easter celebrations started in earnest.

A Time of Gifts is almost universally acknowledged as a masterpiece of English literature; Sebastian Faulks is a dissenter, but he would be. Described by some as a travel book, it is essentially the journal of a young man with a superb gift of memory, for languages, and for making friends, written with the benefit of a lifetime of amazing experience and learning, forty years after the events it describes. It is embellished by anecdotes and essential historical background, making it a rounded piece of literature and no mere travelogue. It should be compulsory reading for all seventeen year olds; it is truly inspirational. The sad part is that the very reason for the ending of Paddy’s ‘gap year’ whilst with his lover Balasha Cantacuzene in Romania in September 1939, resulted in the destruction of many of the towns and cities he passed through, and certainly ended the way of life of the peoples of Europe that he describes so well.

I have no doubt that today, were Paddy still with us that he would pause for a while to recall that day, wish Nick all the best, and reflect on the events that followed during his amazing and full life, and the friends and lovers who have gone before him.

Perhaps Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor DSO OBE, who was the Greatest Living Englishman, would pen a short letter to Debo?

£1 a week Hook of Holland to Constantinople – Nick has a publishing deal!

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Great news by email from Nick. He has a deal with Arcadia who also publish the Banffy Trilogy which I adored.

Hello, all you good people who helped to fund my journey. I just wanted to let you all know that I’ve found a publisher for the book that’ll come out of the walk I’m starting in a few short weeks. It’s a company called Arcadia Books, and they seem pretty great. So all of you whose rewards include ‘a thank-you in the published book,’ I’m only a walk and a book away from fulfilling my promise.

 I wrote something about it on the blog.
 
Thanks all,
 
Nick

Read more about the deal on Nick’s blog.

£1 a week from Hook of Holland to Constantinople – packing the rucksack

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With just over a month to go I asked Nick if he could provide us with an update on his preparations. Nick is absolutely delighted with the support that many  of you have given to him. Some by giving money. Others with offers of accommodation or contacts to help him on his way. Hopefully, we will have one more update before he sets out.

I have just over a month to go before starting my walk to Istanbul, following in Paddy’s footsteps. Ferries don’t leave from London these days, so I’m sailing to Rotterdam from Harwich, and from there will pick up his route to Dordrecht, and on towards Germany.

With my funding from the Globetrotters Club, I’ve bought most of my supplies. It’s kind of reassuring to know that despite 80 years of advances in technology and materials, and the growth of an entire ‘outdoors’ hiking industry, the most important things I could buy are still a rucksack and a decent pair of boots. Essentially I’ve just bought the same stuff Paddy did, but lighter and more waterproof. So while Paddy packed ‘different layers of jersey, grey flannel shirts’ and ‘a soft leather windbreaker,’ I have layers of merino wool and a wonderfully warm down vest. No hobnail boots, I’m sorry to say, but a pair of Scarpa Terra GTX boots, waterproofed with Goretex. And in place of an ‘old Army greatcoat,’ a lightweight Berghaus jacket.

During my journey I’ll be posting intermittently on afterthewoodsandthewater.wordpress.com – there’s a ‘Follow’ button, if you’d like to be informed when something new comes up. I may also be writing a weekly column for a newspaper – details are still to be arranged, so I can’t say more at the moment. It will surely be an interesting time to be walking through the heart of Europe, with the Eurozone bucking and writhing and its future increasingly uncertain … a reminder that the continent is still changing, is always in a state of flux, struggling with its identity, as it was when Paddy did his journey.

More to come before I go. For now, I’d just like to quote from James Kenward, Paddy’s great-nephew, who I had the great pleasure of meeting in London a few weeks ago. Paddy was clearly a huge influence and source of inspiration to him, and here are a few of his thoughts on what I’m setting out to do:

Personally I always find it difficult to understand why someone would seek to follow the line of someone else’s arrow … but the mission statement that emerged through our conversation seemed full of fresh intent and knocked the aforementioned out of me. Perhaps the very course of a great journey holds its own through time’s passing like the essence of structure provides timelessness to a heroic tale. The breadth of Europe will not cease to be a story and having such an incredible point of reference in Paddy’s writing adds another dimension. I think that Nick will dig deeply and write well of his journey and my hope and suspicion is that the seed of his inspiration — his regard for Paddy and his adventuring ways — will yield entirely new crop that Paddy would admire. Frankly his romantic masochism invested in and infected by a new age interests me — previously there was snow, and there will still be that — but imagine the frigging motorways.

Related article:

£1 a week – Nick explains the reason for his journey 

£1 a week from Hook of Holland to Constantinople – a word of thanks from Nick

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Your response to helping Nick meet his funding target has been amazing. It was surpassed on Friday and has reached £1,660. Nick has been out of contact for a few days … No he was not caught up in the so-called London riots, but was in the wilds of Wales. I would like to add my own word of thanks to all of you that responded and supported this exciting and bold venture. You can still donate! (and I see you still are! Another £10 tonight!)

Over to Nick ….

Thanks to the help of many readers of this blog, I have now reached (surpassed!) my funding target on the crowdfunding site We Did This, and am up to an amazing £1,660 to go towards my walk across Europe, following Paddy’s route from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul. Thank you so much, everyone who’s supported me, whether through financial contributions or with thoughts, ideas, encouragement and offers of hospitality. The response had been truly amazing. People have contacted me from all over the world to express their enthusiasm. I’ll be keeping everyone updated on my progress — http://afterthewoodsandthewater.wordpress.com/ — as and when I can on the road, as well as sending back short story postcards, and later preparing hand-stitched books and CDs, to thank individual funders more eloquently. In the end, there will be a book… but first, I have a long way to walk.

It does seem as if this project has struck a chord with a lot of people, and I’ve had requests to explore many aspects of the changes that have taken place in Europe since Paddy walked this way. People want to know about cultural changes, changes to the landscape and environment, changes in attitudes and beliefs, and changes in the experience of walking. One person who funded me, in particular, said something I really like:

‘I love the idea of uncovering ‘wild’ Europe. I had always sensed that in the land, as I’d been travelling, and was thrilled at the idea of someone investigating and documenting that — the magic underneath the surface.’

I’ll be doing my best to scratch at the surface to find the magic Paddy put into words, the magic that I believe still exists in the Europe of today. Thank you so much, once more, everyone who’s helping me do this.

Nick

Your cash is worthless – you might as well give it to Nick!

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As we face yet another phase of financial Armageddon. As stock markets tumble and the only worthwhile assets to hold are copies of Paddy’s books in first editions, farmland and gold. As Europe’s leaders sun themselves, seemingly oblivious to the death throes of the Euro, it is time for the sprint to the finish line for Nick Hunt’s funding exercise to support his walk from The Hook of Holland to Constantinople on just £1 a week.

Thanks to your amazing generosity we are just £40 away from the target of £1,500. Who will be our sprint champion and help Nick across the finish line by the end of today?

Remember if he does not reach the £1,500 target he will not actually receive a bean.

Watch the video; get inspired, click here and take out your debit card! There are no penalties for giving more than he needs!
Thank you !

To donate visit After the Woods and the Water on WeDidThis.

Untitled from Nick Hunt on Vimeo.

£1 a week from Hook of Holland to Constantinople – a final push!

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Nick Hunt’s appeal for funds to support his journey in Paddy’s footsteps was launched exactly two weeks ago. The response has been amazing with £1,140 pledged and only £360 needed to reach his target of £1,500.

You have been very generous but with so little now required for success I want to ask that we all consider even a small donation – £1 a week is about £26 for the journey – a final push!

If Nick is able to make this project work it will bring benefits to us all as we can enjoy his jottings from a journey made 78 years after Paddy.

Remember if Nick does not reach the £1,500 target all the donors will get their money back and Nick will receive nothing. This is the way that Crowdfunding works.

You can donate varying amounts and you will receive a range of items from Nick when on his journey to thank you and remind you of your support. Slightly higher donations will permit a mention of your name in his final book about the journey as well as a copy of the book.

This is a very worthwhile and very serious venture requiring a major commitment from Nick of a year of his life, so please visit the WeDidThis website and donate something.

I have said it before, but I will say it again, watching his video on the site and dreaming, just for a moment, that it could be you walking that fabled route has to be worth £10!

£1 a week Hook of Holland to Constantinople – come and meet Nick Hunt tonight Dalston, London

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Nick Hunt will be at the kick-off event tonight for his fundraising along with a bunch of other people who are raising funds through WeDidThis.

There will be drinks, and good things to look at with plenty of interesting people to talk to including Nick!

Free music, performances and wine in Dalston Heights from 6.30 to 10.00pm. Details here.

£1 a week from Hook of Holland to Constantinople – funding update

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Nick Hunt’s appeal for funds to support his journey in Paddy’s footsteps was launched exactly one week ago. The response has been amazing with £870 raised and only £630 to go to reach his target of £1,500. Nick tells me that donations have poured on from all round the world from Australia to the Czech Republic, from the sunshine state of Florida, and even the Scots have found some change down the back of the sofa!

Many blog readers have contributed and I am asking for another big push this week to reach the target. If Nick does not reach the £1,500 all the donors will get their money back and Nick will receive nothing. This is the way that Crowdfunding works.

You can donate varying amounts and you will receive a range of items from Nick when on his journey to thank you and remind you of your support. Slightly higher donations will permit a mention of your name in his final book about the journey as well as a copy of the book.

This is a very worthwhile and very serious venture requiring a major commitment from Nick of a year of his life, so please visit the WeDidThis website and donate something. Watching his video on the site and dreaming, just for a moment, that it could be you walking that fabled route has to be worth £10!

£1 a week – from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul, in Paddy’s footsteps

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Here is a very exciting venture, and one that if we only had the time I am sure many of us would want to do.

In December, a young writer, Nick Hunt, will set off from London with the aim of walking from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor, seventy-eight years after Paddy commenced his own, life-changing journey.

Nick intends to report on his journey and to write a book. He is not seeking to copy Paddy as he explains below, but to create his own experience whilst comparing the Europe that he encounters with the one our eighteen year old hero stepped into with such joyful anticipation.

Such things cannot be achieved without money and I am asking if you will make some contribution to ensure that Nick does not starve on his long journey. Who knows he may even need some cash to replace a lost rucksack at some point!

We have the idea of emulating Paddy’s “One Pound a week” concept. If you would like to help Nick on his journey (for which you will receive personal reports and in good time – hopefully not forty-three years like Paddy! – a copy of the book) please visit the page he has set-up with an on-line site that helps to raise money for interesting arts projects – We Did This – and make a donation. Nick needs to meet his target of £1,500 within one month. One Pound per week for a six month journey works out at £26 but I am sure any help you can offer will be very gratefully received!

To find out more and donate visit We Did This

Please visit Nick’s website which has details of the route. And now over to Nick …..

Please fund me with £1 a week to walk Paddy’s route across Europe!

Nick Hunt

On December 9th 2011 – 78 years after Paddy’s great journey from the Hook of Holland to Istanbul – I will set out in his footsteps. Using his writing as a roadmap, his words as a background murmur in my ear, I’ll walk the same route through Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. I’m a freelance journalist and writer, and the journey will be documented through audio recordings and through writing – to produce a series of short radio programmes, and a book of travel journalism, on my return to England.

My intention isn’t to emulate Paddy – who could ever attempt that? – but to explore the ways in which Europe, and the experience of walking it, have changed since he set out. In the intervening years war, politics and progress have reshaped the continent several times over. Obviously towns and cities will have grown, villages will have been swallowed by roads, and certain landscapes will have been altered beyond recognition. But as well as these more tangible changes, I want to explore the deeper shifts in the cultures, traditions and identities of the countries Paddy passed through.

My journey will come at an interesting time, with Europe still undergoing great changes, new patterns of migration and fusions of different cultures, as well as facing great challenges – from the uncertainties thrown up by the economic crisis to the ominous resurgence of right-wing movements across the continent.

‘Everything is going to vanish! They talk of building power-dams across the Danube and I tremble whenever I think of it! They’ll make the wildest river in Europe as tame as a municipal waterworks. All those fish from the East — they would never come back. Never, never, never!’

This prediction was made by a man Paddy met in Persenbeug, Austria, in an inn overlooking the Danube (A Time of Gifts). Much of the reason for me making this journey, almost 80 years later, is to see if these words became true.

Has Europe been tamed? Has everything vanished?

Is adventure still possible in Europe?

As admirers of A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water will know, Paddy managed to fund his journey on £1 a week (which works out as about £50 today). I’m asking people to support this project by funding me just £1 a week for the duration of the walk, which should take around 6 months.

If you would like to fund me, or just to get in touch with thoughts, ideas, suggestions, you can contact me at scrutiny[at]gmail.com

For a fuller description of the journey, please see my blog: www.afterthewoodsandthewater.wordpress.com

Many thanks!

Nick