Outdoors

The lads at the landing were working hard as the ferry pulled in. Laden with cars from the city of Shkoder to the southwest, the boat would need to deposit its cargo safely at Fierze, in the northeastern section of the snaking Lake Koman.

But this meant digging out a fresh landing site from the gravel at the lake side.

As the boat dropped its ramp, the ferry terminal crew buried it with rubble on the shoreline, giving the cars a smooth – or, at least, a relatively smooth – route up onto dry land.

It was just after night fell on the approach to Bleaklow that I realised I’d made a bit of a mistake. The blistering sun of a late summer day had gone, and the evening brought with it much cooler temperatures. But it brought something else too – midges, loads of ‘em. These insects might be tiny, but what they lacked in size they more than made up for in numbers.

There's something special about cranking up the music and letting your feet do their stuff.

The right music enhances your mood, turning a familiar route into a new adventure – a new set of emotions to be explored.

Music can guide your tempo, pumping you full of adrenaline and giving you the strength to push that little bit harder for that little bit longer. It's motivating too – your favourite artist drops a new album? Stick those headphones on and get out for a run.