4.6 • 732 Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2024
⏱️ 25 minutes
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Clare joins Hannah Engelkamp and her donkey, Chico, for a ramble in the Dyfi Valley a few miles east of Machynlleth in Powys.
On the way Hannah tells Clare about the extraordinary adventure she shared with Chico when they walked 1000 miles around the perimeter of Wales. She did this despite having no previous experience of donkeys, or horses, or any animals really. It took twice as long as she intended and was much harder than she ever imagined. The idea of 'carrot or stick' doesn't work, Hannah says, so the first thing she learned was when a donkey stops you just have to wait and stand and look and wait until the moment seems right to move off again.
Hannah also tells Clare about her involvement with 'Slow Ways'. It’s a Community Interest Company whose aim is to map, improve, and promote walking routes between Britain’s towns, cities and villages.
Clare and Hannah met at Grid Ref: SH 850 027, and walked a section of a Slow Way known as ‘Maccar One’ near Chico’s home at Dyfi Donkey Woods. Maccar One is 23 miles long and connects Machynlleth with Carno. Slow Ways are named for the first three letters of the place at either end of a route e.g. Mac for Machynlleth and Car for Carno.
Presenter: Clare Balding Producer: Karen Gregor
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | Eleven climbers appeared to have died on the world's second highest mountain K2. |
0:06.0 | It was one of the deadliest days in mountaineering history. |
0:10.0 | Rock falls, avalanches. |
0:11.0 | Huge pieces of ice. All are big enough to kill you. |
0:14.0 | He just flew out into Devoid and he was gone. |
0:17.0 | How did it all go so wrong? |
0:19.0 | And is it really worth risking death to feel alive? Why would |
0:23.2 | somebody pay to go to a place called the death cell on a vacation? Extreme, peak danger. With me, |
0:29.9 | Natalia Melman Petrazella. Listen to the full series now. First on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
0:42.2 | I was standing in a stable. |
0:44.5 | There's a chicken ahead of me just pecking at the little bits |
0:48.2 | that might have been left behind at the edges. |
0:51.5 | And a donkey. |
0:53.1 | I'm particularly enjoying the high-vis vest |
0:55.9 | that is stretched over his bottom. |
0:59.3 | Hannah Engelcamp is persuading Chico |
1:02.4 | that he might like to go for a wonder. |
1:04.2 | And you actually, it's not like he hasn't just gone for a wonder with you. |
1:07.9 | You and he have walked the whole of Wales? |
1:11.1 | We did. We walked the full perimeter of Wales, but somehow or other, despite that, |
1:16.0 | I still feel like a complete amateur. So I'm never quite sure if he's going to leave and come |
1:19.7 | for a walk with me, even a short one like today's. |
... |
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