Reuters author Brian Mooney walks home to London from Madrid

Brian Mooney, co-author with the late Barry Simpson of the last book on Reuters as an independent company - Breaking News: How the Wheels Came Off at Reuters - is back from another of his long walks.

At 1,757 km in 57 days, the walk from Madrid to London was much more than a marathon.

He stayed a night on the way north of Madrid with former Oxford University and Reuters colleague Tom Burns, now director of a leading Spanish financial PR company and a prominent author. Mooney and Burns both worked for Reuters in Madrid though at different times.

“It was a very varied walk - from the plains of Castile to the rugged hills of northern Spain and the pines and dunes of the Les Landes, and it led me through some great cities - among them, Santander, Bilbao, La Rochelle, and Nantes. I enjoyed every step of the way,” he said. “I took an unusual route  from France to England, crossing the Channel via the Island of Sark.”

Mooney (Reuters 1971-2000 as a reporter and chief correspondent and in various business and management roles) says he did it for the sheer enjoyment. “I just love walking, especially in rural Europe. Walking puts us back into touch with our natural environment; you cannot travel any slower. It was also to some extent a 'return' for the pilgrim walk I did from Walsingham in Norfolk to Santiago de Compostela on leaving Reuters in 2000.”

In 2012, Mooney finished the return leg of a walk to Rome (where he was a correspondent from 1977-1980) - 2,100 km over 69 days. He had previously walked 2,200 km to Rome over 75 days. That walk resulted in a book, A Long Way for a Pizza. Is another book in the works? “Maybe, but I'll let the journey distil before deciding.”

Photo: Brian Mooney arrives in London on 16 July at the milepost outside the Royal Geographical Society where he is a Fellow. ■