We were really chuffed to discover this blog recently from an enthusiastic brasher wearer.

The more so when we read the posters comments about our boots.

The blog is called 'A walk to the bridge'. And it really conjures up an affection and appreciation of the countryside that only a walker could experience.

What's more it features some terrific 'seasonal' photography and insightful, first-hand observations of the natural world.

We also liked the reference to 'no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing', in this post.

(Where, we are delighted to report, the blogger, on listing the required kit for walking included: "...a pair of Brasher boots. These are essential. I wear mine every day and I treat them abysmally but they never complain and keep me warm and dry.")

There's also a further reference to: "and the abysmally treated Brasher boots that I wear most days." here.

(Bonus link: You can find a more fully illustrated version of the blog here.)

That's the title of this charming letter we received in the office last week,
from a fan in Dorset.

John Earley, an owner since 1999 of a pair of our Hillmaster GTX boots,
was so taken with them on his travels around the globe that he was moved
to compose the following ditty:

"From the mountains of Bolivia,
Across the deserts of Namibia.
To the Great Wall of China,
Trekking in my Brasher Boots,
Couldn't be any finer!"

Well John, we are sure the printed page doesn't do justice to your prose,
but we do appreciate your enthusiasm and comments.

We acknowledge too your modesty, when you suggest it's not quite Keats, or
Byron. (McGonagall possibly?)

And it prompted us to wonder aloud if any other of our readers have been moved to poetry by their boots?

Particularly when you have to join 30 other participants who have to cover
approximately 85 kms in 60 hours, as part of a seven day trip to the top
of Kilimanjaro.

A demanding, 4100m (13500 ft) ascent, over generally rough terrain,
arriving on the summit to a breezy, -14 degree welcome is just what
brasher fan David Bennett, of Bennett Safetywear did early this year, when
he raised £3,500 for Oxfam by taking on Kilimanjaro.

Accompanied by walking pal, Ad Rooijakkers, an ex-PSV football playing,
ex-Dutch marine, (we're are not making this up), they were shod in brasher
Trailmaster GTX's.

As David recalled:
"The Brasher boots were fantastic- not a single blister or even
the slightest red mark on either of us! And at the summit where the
temperature was about -14C my feet were a lot warmer than my hands!."

You can see a little more about David's trip here.

On Wednesday 19th December the brasher team headed to the hills on a pre-Christmas company-wide outdoor activity day.

We were split into three - very competitive teams!:

Santa's Little Helpers, Rudolph's Reindeers and Frosty's Snowmen.

We started at the Old Repeater Station, Grindon near Haydon Bridge then set off in our groups and walked along the roman wall to Caw Gap, passing Crag Lough and also the place on Hadrian's Wall where Robin Hood was filmed.

We all had a go at abseiling down Peel Crag's before continuing on our walk. At the end of the day we had the chance to test our aim at archery, with only a few stray arrows, but most of them hitting the target!

The teams had a few more tasks to keep busy along the way - ranging from a quiz to boiling an egg which helped to boost our scores.

We collected points for each of our tasks with the winning team being announced at the end of the afternoon.

Frosty's Snowmen were the team that came out on top and took the winning position with the help of a perfectly boiled egg!

All in all it was another fantastic brasher day out!

Adventurer John Pilkington has certainly seen more than his fair share of
the world. Often with a pair a brashers on his feet. Here's his story of
an epic journey across the Sahara.

His interest in the trip was stimulated by the fact that every week
throughout the winter, caravans of up to fifty camels arrive bellowing and
snorting in Timbuktu. They are at the end of a three-week, 450-mile trek
and each carries four huge slabs of Taoudenni salt, the ‘white gold’ of
the Sahara.

To find out more, John procured three camels and a Moorish guide,
put on his brashers and set off from Timbuktu to find stunning desert
landscapes and a life lived as it was a millennium ago, when salt was,
literally, worth its weight in gold. This is his story:

A Tale of Three Humps.

"Our days soon settled into a rhythm. At 5am I would awake to find my guide
U Batna kneeling towards Mecca, deep in prayer. Three glasses of
ridiculously sweet tea, then we’d saddle up the camels and be on our way
by six. U Batna spoke only Arabic, of which I knew nothing, but as the
trip progressed he taught me the words he needed to say to me, like
‘camel’, ‘sand’, ‘rice’, ‘tea’ and ‘keep walking’. The going was
exhausting, but by a combination of walking and riding we kept up a good
pace. At midday we would stop for rice and more tea; then carry on until
sunset. There was no road – travellers to Taoudenni take routes of their
own choosing.
After three weeks we reached the salt mines and I was utterly shocked by
the conditions there. There were no streets, no houses, no electricity, no
fresh water; not even any cooking fuel apart from camel dung. Daytime
temperatures reach 30°C in winter and more than 50°C in summer – a
footwear challenge that even Brasher might find difficult to meet. The 100
or so miners survive on a diet of rice and millet, supplemented by camel
meat when a caravan offers them a sick or weak animal for slaughter. To
slake their thirst they can choose between drinking the brackish contents
of local wells or paying a premium price for decent water to be brought
in. It’s truly a posting from Hell.
Salt has been mined in the Sahara since at least the 4th Century, but the
deposits at Taoudenni were only discovered in the 1500s. They come from an
ancient time of higher rainfall when there was a lake in the Taoudenni
basin, and having no outlet its water became steadily saltier until after
many centuries it turned into a pan of solid salt. Later this was overlain
by mud and gravel, so the salt seams today lie some 15 feet below the flat
surface of the basin. Working in teams of three or four, the miners dig
pits down to this level, then cut horizontal galleries in which they hack
out the salt using crude hand-made axes.
On the return journey I fell in with a salt caravan and found out just how
tough desert life can be. The two camel-drivers and thirty camels were up
before dawn and carried on well after dark, covering up to 35 miles a day
compared with perhaps 20 when I had been with U Batna. Once under way the
caravan didn’t stop. We even brewed tea on the hoof, using portable
braziers which the camel-drivers swung in the breeze as they strode along.
At night we cooked rice together on camel-dung campfires, and slept under
the stars.
From Timbuktu the salt is shipped up the River Niger to the port of Mopti,
where Moorish traders sell it on to people from a wide swathe of West
Africa. I joined one of the longboats, known as pinasses, and as we tied
up on the crowded Mopti waterfront I wondered about the future of the salt
caravans. Lorries are making an appearance in the desert, but camels have
the edge in that they don’t consume expensive diesel fuel, and as long as
there’s a demand for salt there’ll always be a role for the camels. But
will U Batna’s sons and grandsons want to spend their lives coaxing these
cantankerous creatures across one of the most gruelling deserts on Earth ? Somehow, I doubt it."

(Footnote:The boots John wore on his epic journey were originally called 'Kubes', and now are no longer in production. However the current evolution of that boot is the new Danso XCR. For details of John’s books and multimedia talks visit www.pilk.net)