Robert farrar capon on taking up walking:

‘walking has turned out to have intellectual as well as physical benefits. I am as much the victim of placelessness, as much the prisoner of canned environment as the next person. It has, therefore, been a delightful and metaphysical surprise to be introduced to place again. I have, for example, rediscovered what a hill is. The automobile is the great leveler. It not only annihilates distances; it irons all the prominences and eminences out of the world.’

I can relate!

I’ve ridden my wife 1500 miles in 2024, and have rediscovered what a hill is.