By organizing the events within EURORANDO 2011, ERA wanted to:
- show the walkers from the member organizations that they are part of a bigger movement
- create a concept that would be suitable for addressing potential sponsors, thus raising the interest of politicians and companies in supporting walking in Europe
- show that walkers are responsible users of nature
- concentrate on the E-Paths
- demonstrate cooperation among the members of the ERA by means of the 3rd Eurorando event
EURORANDO 2011 had the theme “Water and E-paths” and was divided into 2 activities: “EURORANDO Europe” and “EURORANDO Andalusia”.
All the walks in EURORANDO Europe were organized by the member organisations.
18 member organisations participated in the walks with a total of over 380 walks. KCT from Czech Republic alone arranged 168 walks.
Statistics show that more than 62,000 walkers participated in a Eurorando walk. Several walks had participants from several countries. Many organisations used the opportunity to invite politicians and the media to the event. The biggest event was in Slovenia with more than 3,000 participants.
Each member organisation which represents a country or a bigger region filled a bucket with water typical for that country or region.
The water came from the most important European springs, or it could also have been from rivers situated between the spring and the river mouth, from lakes or other resources (e.g. glaciers).
If possible, the event was in connection with a walk on or leading to some of the E-Paths.
Walking groups or delegates from all over Europe took the water that had been collected to Andalusia.
At the closing event in Alhambra in Granada, the amphoras were emptied into a Fountain in the courtyard of Alhambra.
4,000 to 5,000 walkers participated in the final week – or in part of it. Of these more than 800 walkers were from France. There were also walkers from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, Montenegro, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Malta, Serbia, Slovenia and many other European countries. They were joined by delegations from the eight provinces of Andalusia and the rest of Spain. Everybody had a good week and learnt that Andalusia is a wonderful region for walking and that the hospitality to foreigners is great. The level of security on the walks was higher than ever seen before and the walks offered a great variety of environments and degree of difficulty. The participants enjoyed the international aspect of the walks and made many new contacts.The final week was arranged by Federación Andaluza de Montaňismo. They formed an organising committee together with Federación Española de Deportes de Montaña y Escalada, Diputación Provincial de Almería, Diputación Provincial de Granada, Junta de Andalusia and ERA.
See more details on the pages “Europe” and “Andalusia”.