Put on your hiking shoes
Regular walking is the best and most affordable medicine in the world
For centuries, writers, composers, philosophers and ordinary people have harnessed the healing power of walking to nourish body and soul. It’s free medicine available to everyone – all you have to do is start… and continue, every single day. One foot in front of the other.
It’s 10 January and time for our first full-moon walk of 2020. As usual, we have accepted the regular invitation extended by Koringberg farmer’s wife Bregda Mostert to join her on the path that leads up the mountain from her “back yard”. From the top, we will first watch the sun sink into the sea at Langebaan in the west, before turning in the direction of Porterville to gaze in wonder at the spectacle beyond the Groot Winterhoek Mountains… At first you are staring into nothingness, but soon a halo appears… and then the moon makes a magnificent entrance.
Bregda’s full-moon walk has become an institution. Every month, we receive a reminder via WhatsApp that this month the moon will appear on this day at this time, so we will have to start walking the 5,5 km up the mountain at this time in order to get there before the sun sets. Remember your flashlight, she always adds, because it will be dark by the time we start walking back.
The table in the cosy lapa at the top of the mountain is laden with an array of snacks. And something to drink: water, coffee and, yes of course, sparkling wine. With each walk you are introduced to new faces, perhaps a farmer you’ve never met before; sometimes strangers from surrounding towns. We know we will never see some of our fellow walkers again – particularly those who puff and perspire their way up the mountain. But there’s a core group of walkers who, month after month, show up for this exceptional experience.
We are among the latter group. This is why we are intimately familiar with the view from Swartbergkop. In the east, Riebeek-Kasteel’s mountain bulges rather improperly from the earth. And to the south-east lies the postage stamp known as Moorreesburg, while our eyes cannot help be drawn further over the undulating landscape all the way to Table Mountain. Directly west we can see beyond Koperfontein and the 37 wind turbines near Hopefield to where the flat, brightorange Atlantic Ocean bathes in the last light of the day. We have taken in this view during every season, and we have often come up here alone, as the silence of this place is seldom found elseware.
Today is 35ºC, typical of the Swartland in summer, and the southeaster is just as hot. Unusually, though, this particular walk feels long and difficult because there was no fullmoon expedition in December, and we happened to miss the two previous outings. Every 100 m or so I’m forced to take a break and catch my breath. Mop my brow. Calm my muscles. I have to gather the strength to move again, to push my body up the relentless incline.
At the top, Bregda is waiting with a wide smile and open arms. “I see you are suffering a little today,” she calls out as we take our last few steps. “Christmas was too good?!”
HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE that we had become so unfit? Only four months previously, on 11 September 2019, we had stood in front of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of wellbeing and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts and I know of no thought so burdensome that I cannot walk away from it.”
— Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
after completing the inland route of the Portuguese Camino. We’d covered 250 km in 12 days. The shortest walk each day was 13 km and the longest 27 km.
Our group had chosen to spend the mornings walking in silence. This turned out to be a huge gift, as it allowed us to tune in to our senses and fully absorb the experience. Sight is easy, especially in the scenic Portuguese countryside. We would often walk through deserted towns during the siesta, feeling as though we were strolling around a movie set. Colourful tiles, beautiful forests, and the trinity of Portuguese agriculture: maize, vineyards and olives. A cork tree here and there. We would hear roosters crowing, dogs barking (Read Piet Grobler’s column on page 136. – Eds) and aunties scolding. Take in the aroma of ripe figs and cattle manure and veld. And then stand still in a forest to feel the soft moss beneath your fingertips, stop to pick a fennel flower to tantalise the tongue with its aniseed flavour.
We were also reminded here that anyone can walk: work pressures prevented us from spending months in preparation, and we’d only completed three long walks before we boarded our flight to Portugal. And somewhere between Padron and Santiago de Compostela, we met a man who had left Porto on his 80th birthday and, hale and hearty, was well on his way to entering Santiago de Compostela, 250 km from Porto. Like all pilgrims, a true born-again human being.
But opening your eyes and ears and heart does not have to involve tackling one of the many caminos to be found across the world. Walking is one of the easiest forms of exercise – anyone with two healthy legs can do it, regardless of age. No special skills or equipment are needed, and you can do it anytime and anywhere: through the streets of your own town or city, into the mountains, on farm roads, in parks.
Major world cities have specially constructed walking spaces: think about the promenade in Cape Town that stretches from the Waterfront, past Three Anchor Bay and Sea Point to Bantry Bay, and teems with walkers every day. Young and old. Petite >
“I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.”
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher
and hefty. Fit and unfit. New York has Central Park and the Highline, Amsterdam has Vondelpark, and you will always find people on the move in London’s Regents Park… One foot in front of the other. But the best place for walking has to be the platteland, right on your doorstep. THE MANY CHALLENGES of modern life make walking an affordable and easy way to keep yourself healthy – physically, yes, but spiritually too. As Shane O’Mara writes in his book
In Praise of Walking: “The phrase ‘movement is medicine’ is correct: no drug has all of these positive effects. And drugs often come with side effects. Movement doesn’t.”
What are the positives that O’Mara refers to? He reminds us about these:
• Walking increases the flow of blood to your brain and counteracts ageing.
• It is good for your heart.
• Walking helps to protect the organs that are affected by stress and tension.
• It is good for your digestive system.
• Frequent walking excursions, particularly at a brisk pace and with a good rhythm, prevent many of the ills of ageing.
• Walking is associated with improved creativity, a healthier outlook and sharper thinking. Even depression can be alleviated with regular walks.
There are also these important physical benefits:
• Regular walking will not only melt away fat, it will also reduce your body mass index (BMI).
• Walking can help to reduce >
triglycerides, the types of fats that can lead to heart and cardiovascular disease, and increase the good fats that protect the heart (high-density lipoproteins, or HDL).
THE PAST YEAR OR TWO have been difficult for South Africans. Do you remember all the problems of 2019? There were the revelations before the Zondo Commission. One corruption scandal after another. Eskom. SAA. The Guptas. The Zumas. The rand crashed. The Brexit saga dragged on endlessly. Trump caused dissention in the East. And so many heroes left us: Johnny Clegg, Chester Williams, James Small, Piet Botha, Marie Frederiksson from the popgroup Roxette, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, Doris Day… Our collective depression ran deep.
The year 2020 could only be better, decreed many hopeful friends on Facebook. Little did they, or anyone >
else, know that the virus was on its way… and Covid-19, along with the lockdown regulations aimed at slowing its spread, took the morale of South Africans to an all-time low.
Professor Bonnie Smith Whitehouse from Belmont University in Tennessee in the US has a very simple answer for this condition: Solvitur ambulando.
It is solved by walking. And by “it”, Whitehouse means literally anything.
She maintains that walking is a way to promote living in the moment, overcome anxiety, boost creativity, increase productivity and detox from the digital overload we face on a daily basis.
She writes that, for millennia, this light form of exercise has been used to improve our health and mental faculties. We clear our minds, solve problems and discover new ideas this way. She continues: “I decided that, like many creative walkers before me, I had to disrupt habits that neither fed nor sustained me by radically and literally walking away from them.”
This is why she advises that the next time you feel angry, worried, worn out, frustrated, bored or irritated, rather than swallowing a pill or consulting Dr Google, you should simply walk your cares away. Because anyone who has ever gone for a walk will always feel better afterwards.
Solvitur ambulando!