The Pyrenees are by turns beautifully natural and bleakly austere; shaped by centuries of labour... and scarred by human suffering. In "Footprints on the mountains," Steve Cracknell returns to them - on the Spanish high-level Senda - to see how they are changing. It is the story of an ageing hiker and a long and sometimes difficult walk.

In the valleys he talks to locals and meets an eccentric cast of hikers. But on the heights he is alone with "marmottes" and "sarrios." He listens to both sides of the argument over the reintroduction of bears. And goes searching for ibex imported as...