Good

This picture is of part of the GR20 - also known as the Corsican High Level Route. I walked it when I was 18, about twenty-three years ago, with three friends. It is reputed to be the hardest long-distance walk in the world, but I can tell you it is not.

But it is impressive, and has stayed with me every last minute of those last twenty-three years.

Recently I have found myself indebted to the days I spent as a teenager in such places. I was as free as anyone can reasonably expect to be without becoming a hunter-gatherer and perhaps making the local news one day after being found dead with a very long beard and no friends. I've never been one for long beards and whilst I am nowadays part of a very small circle of friends, no friends at all would be unbearable.

Nevertheless, on odd days when I struggle to make sense of the things I see and hear and read and am told, the wilderness seems civilized and good, maybe too good to be true.