Welcome to The Ancient Highway. Thanks for landing here at this website, which is lovingly devoted to tales of intrepid travel, far and wide or maybe closer to your own door step than you might think. Its main aim is to highlight the literary ramblings of those who have been courageous enough to leave home one morning and venture out on a challenging journey into the unknown.
My name is Damian Rainford – My profile section contains a short paragraph. Making journeys into the unknown, managing to get back home and piecing my memories together into short stories rocked my boat for quite a few years.
No surprise then that writings about my own explorations feature quite prominently within this website, particularly under the ‘Ancient Highway Stories’ sections. However, we also cover the exploits of some more famous names, for example as part of our reviews of travel literature books. And for those who haven’t made it into print yet, but who still receive thousands of a hits a month on their travel junkie blogs, we pay tribute to them as well, under the External Travel Websites heading.
Our website was created in the thick of Lockdown, when the capacity to get up and go in search of adventure was very restricted. Launching the website was, and is, a way of still being able to hold a candle to this obsession.
Closer to our English West Midland’s heart land, we hope soon to feature tales of rambles that uncover lesser known elements of our towns and cities, venturing beyond these borders as we get braver.
I hope this piques your interest enough to come back again and see how we are getting on.
We would love to hear from you, particularly over how we can continue to shape our focus on intrepid travel. I am around more these days – marriage and two children, and of course the manner in which Covid has changed our lives, well this means that I am very unlikely to do a 19-year old Laurie Lee* any time soon, kissing my mother goodbye and setting out one mid-summer’s morning, just with a few bob , a pot of jam and a guitar, seeing how far my feet will take me – in his case, into the heart of the 1930s Spanish Civil War.
Eat your heart out Laurie.
*Laurie Lee, “As I walked out one midsummer’s morning”
Back home to http://theancienthighway.com
