Inspiring Your Outdoor Adventures
Sometimes I get asked to review some beautiful books. Mont Blanc Lines is definitely one of those. It succeeds in not only having beautiful images of the Mont Blanc massif in a coffee table book format but also providing detailed topos and stories.
I have to be honest I was skeptical as to whether I’d like this book. I am really confident navigating outdoors so the idea of a running book is a bit of a novelty to me as I’d usually just head out of the door with just a map and a sense of exploration. So I expected to find this book a bit underwhelming.
However I was totally surprised.
Continue reading “Book Review// Running Adventures Scotland”
I’m a mountain biker but I love this book for inspiring some really interesting and long adventures off road around the UK. The book starts with the usual chapter on safety, and grading of routes but also includes a really good bit on bike maintenance.
Continue reading “Book Review // Great British Gravel Rides”
I got into Mountain biking thanks to the first lockdown and living in West Yorkshire this meant that I had to get stuck in with hard routes. Being new to biking the idea of gravel rides made me think was just a fancy name for the type of cycling I did as a kid. Tow paths, old railway lines. What’s special about that?
Continue reading “Book Review // Gravel Rides Scotland”
For anyone new to an activity, knowing where to start with finding information can be hard. Getting into hiking is no different. There’s a myriad of information to absorb, skills to learn and gear to buy. Here’s where Paul Besley’s 1001 Walking Tips fills a much needed gap for newcomers to hiking.
Continue reading “Book Review // 1001 Walking Tips”
I wasn’t specifically setting out to doing the wainwrights but having bagged quite a few over the years it now seems like finishing them is a reasonable challenge, especially since I now fell run.
I wish I’d had Peak Bagging: Wainwrights when I first started out! The trouble with not intending to bag wainwrights is the chances are there’s walks done which haven’t been efficient for gaining the most summits, however amazing the routes might have been.
Continue reading “Book Review // Peak Bagging: Wainwrights”
We really got into mountain biking in 2020 and the Vertebrate guides were fantastic for coming up with routes to do and knowing if I’d find them achievable (given I’m not really into tech routes!)
I loved the Big Trails guides, so I was very excited with the arrival of the Big Rides: Great Britain and Ireland book.
Providing an epic selection of 25 long distance routes catering for both road, gravel and mountain biking there’s the classic routes of Sarn Helen and Lakeland 200 but also some surprises too.
Continue reading “Book Review // Big Rides: GB & Ireland”
I’ll start by saying I don’t have a kid, but I do have a 13 year old stepson who prefers the playstation to the outdoors and a small puppy who’s currently only able to adventure for a maximum of 30 minutes. They’re the same as a small child, right?
Providing a range of great walks all as mini adventures, this book provides an opportunity to engage children in the outdoors and explore new places without having to drag them for a dreaded walk.
Continue reading “Book Review // 100 Great Walks with Kids”
I wouldn’t normally use a guidebook for day walks and definitely not for the area in which I live. But given the chance to review this guide I thought I’d see if it would still impress me, given the amount of walking I’ve done in the South Pennines.
The ‘Day Walks in…’ guides produced by Vertebrate Publishing now cover almost all of the National Parks and some extra areas too, as with the South Pennines. The same format is also used for their mountain biking guides, which I’ve used a lot since taking up mountain biking last summer. (who didn’t get on a bike in lockdown 1?)
Continue reading “Book Review // Day walks in the South Pennines”