Walking-With Landscape

In this chapter, we consider the process of walking with landscape, underlining the importance of recognising more-than-human intimacy in proximity tourism. We set out with a small group from Reykjavík, Iceland that headed off on a tour in the north-western countryside to walk together with nature and each other. We seek to examine how, whilst walking, the surroundings themselves demand to be acknowledged as vital agents and direct participants of the walk, and we examine how the group needed to tune into the rhythms of the landscape, considering its flora, fauna, and earthly qualities, as well as the narratives that emerged as the walk continued, sometimes surprising and even confronting but constantly shifting the rhythms of the walk and shaping its atmospheres. By doing so, we demonstrate how different terrains evoke different proximities, sensations, and thoughts alongside a number of spatial and temporal connections that affect the rhythms of the body in the landscape with its outermost feelings and sensations.