Where's the snow?" yelled one of a group of builders I had hoped to avoid by setting out at six o'clock in the morning. "Where are your skis?" added another, mocking my efforts to perfect technique in the latest fitness trend to be imported from Europe.

With their taunts, the men on the scaffold rather neatly encapsulated the basics of Nordic walking, while at the same time underlining its main drawback; it is like cross-country skiing - but without the skis, or the snow, and it does attract more than the odd sideways glance.