John Hayes is a retired management consultant with degrees from Liverpool University and University College London. Immediately after finishing work in 2011 he embarked on an epic 5000km trek across Europe, walking from Tarifa in Spain to Budapest. John has written for numerous walking and trekking magazines. Having walked various parts of the Munich to Venice route on different visits to the Alps John, with his wife Christine, embarked on his first through walk in 2014 returning again in 2015 to complete additional research.