Hi Norman
One of the things that seems to happen at some stage is a major loss of spatial awareness. One way this seems to become apparent is in the diagram exercise in the memory tests.
The closest I have been able to rationalise the walking problems is in two ways:
1) I wear spectacles and if I leave them off and go up or down my stairs, I pay much more attention than normal to where I put my feet, and I also tend to hold on to the bannister, where normally I would not.
In this situation, my eyes are feeding my brain with poor information to enable it to decide where to plant my feet, or to identify where things are.
2) On the odd occasion where I have had a tad too much alcohol and I want to cross the road, I will take very great care not to fall down - or up - the kerb. I may put my foot forward several times to judge where the darned kerb actually is! If I'm with someone, I may hold on to them to assure my balance.
In this situation, my brain is having problems interpreting information coming in, and in sending actions out to my limbs.
Throughout life, we tend to take for granted the amazing way that our limbs, brain and senses co-ordinate to enable us to do almost anything. The brain is key to everything we do and if it finds that it can't quite understand the world it needs to navigate, then to assure the safety of the person concerned, it will make the body do what it feels is safest. This means hesitant walks.
Often this may look amusing to the bystander. Actually, it is rather remarkable how a body can adjust to the most extreme of conditions, and if it takes a strange gait to do that, we should applaud it! Once the ability to walk has gone, we long even for the strange walk that once concerned us.
Last point. Falling is not nice even we have full control of our faculties. Imagine what it is like [or what the fear of it is like] if you couldn't be sure that you could stop yourself falling, or if you couldn't be sure your arms would be in the appropriate place to cushion your fall. Or if you couldn't judge just how far you would be falling.
These are only my interpretations, mind!