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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Active outdoor pursuits
Two of the southernmost départements of France, the
Pyrénées-Orientales and Ariège are inextricably linked with the
history of the Cathars, a heretical Christian sect who were
subjected to a crusade in the thirteenth century. Striking castles
built on jagged rocky precipices are a highlight of the region and
a reminder of those turbulent times. This guidebook describes the
260km Cathar Way (Sentier Cathare or GR367), a long-distance trail
from Port-la-Nouvelle on the Mediterranean coast to Ariége's
departmental capital Foix linking several of the impressive Cathar
castles. The route follows ancient footpaths, jeep tracks and
country lanes and calls for a moderate level of fitness as it
sweeps from sea level to 1300m across the rugged hill ranges of the
Corbières and Fenouillèdes. The guide describes the main route in
13 stages and also includes the slightly more direct north variant,
as well as suggestions for shorter itineraries. Summary statistics
introduce each day's walking and are followed by step-by-step route
description illustrated with clear mapping. There are also details
of facilities available en route and accommodation listings. An
introduction covers all the practicalities, with comprehensive
advice for planning your trip - including when to go, how to get
there and what to take - in addition to a wealth of information
about the region's fascinating history and the intriguing Cathars
themselves. The trail traverses rocky hills and meanders through
woodland, vineyards, ancient villages, gorges and plateaus. As well
as the rich Cathar heritage, there are also historic wine-producing
towns, sites associated with the French Resistance of WWII and
mysterious places steeped in ancient legend. The guide is a perfect
companion to discovering the Cathar Way and the captivating stories
of this distinctive region.
Staffordshire offers a wide range of delights for the walker - from
the windswept Peak District through riverside walks to picturesque
villages. This collection of 100 walks ranges from between three to
eleven miles in length, with routes to suit all walking abilities.
Full-colour mapping is included which is sourced from the Ordnance
Survey.
"Who's Who in British Climbing" contains nearly 700 mini
biographies of climbers - the romantics, eccentrics and buffoons
that have made British Climbing what it is: dissolute and hungover
most of the time, with the odd unexpected burst of brilliance.They
form a world class cast of eccentrics ranging from the most
virtuous to the most hedonistically barbarous characters one could
ever hope to meet. At one end of the moral spectrum we have
Archdeacon Hudson Stuck solemnly tutoring his native charges on
ecclesiastical history while making the first ascent of Denali. At
the other there's Satan-loving Aleister Crowley pleasuring himself
in his tent on Kangchenjunga while his helpless avalanched
companions were crying for help a few yards away. In between are
the usual sprinkling of psychotic nut jobs, consummate show-offs
and infuriatingly brilliant athletes.The selection of folk gracing
the pages has been anything but scientifically objective. The
intention has been to include anyone who was born in Britain who
happened to do something significant or interesting anywhere, not
just in the UK.
A tremendous guide that shines the definitive light on the classic
limestone crags in the northern area of the Peak District. Coverage
extends to Stoney Middleton, Horseshoe Quarry, Water-cum-Jolly,
Raven Tor, Chee Dale, Ravensdale, Smalldale, Staden Quarry, Harpur
Hill, Aldery Cliff and many many more.This definitive guidebook
from the British Mountaineering Council covers trad climbing, sport
climbing and bouldering. It features full colour maps and tops, the
best action shots and cool historical photos and essays detailing
the heritage of the crags.
With the historic town of Fort William at its heart, Lochaber
boasts some of Scotland's most celebrated mountains and glens,
beautiful sea lochs and, on the craggy west coast, dazzling white
sandy beaches. Ben Nevis may draw the crowds, but with countless
miles of lower-level paths and tracks to explore there is far more
than Britain's highest mountain for walkers to enjoy in the region
which lays claims to the title of 'The Outdoor Capital of the
UK'.This guide features 40 varied walks that take in the very best
of Lochaber. From the iconic Glencoe and Glen Nevis to the wild
lands of Ardnamurchan and Moidart, there is something for everyone
in this diverse selection of routes.
This attractive, highly detailed and superbly illustrated guidebook
covers 60 varied routes describing fell, lakeside and woodland
walks of 2 to 9 miles in the UK's favourite walking destination
that is the beautiful Lake District.Split into seven geographic
areas, the guide covers 60 graded walks, ranging from low level
family strolls to easy fellwalks, and lengthier more challenging
fellwalks. Each walk is accompanied by its own map and more than
200 inspirational colour photographs compliment the route
descriptions. This is an ideal guidebook for both the regular
Lakeland walker and the occasional visitor.Mica guidebooks have a
growing reputation for thoughtfully designed, highly illustrated
guidebooks with detailed maps and concise descriptions.
The 138-kilometre Hadrian's Wall Path traces a grey line along
Great Whin Sill, the dolerite ridge chosen by the Romans for their
historic wall. The route, one of Britain's most popular National
Trails, is dotted with milecastles and forts, and attracts trail
runners and walkers all year round due to its sweeping views.
Beginning in Newcastle, the trail passes through rolling grassy
paths and grey-green crags to reach Bowness-on-Solway on the
Cumbrian Coast. Hadrian's Wall Path appeals to people who have
different levels of experience and travel at all speeds, and this
Vertebrate Publishing Guidemap is unique in that it caters for four
categories of user, providing custom itineraries for walkers,
trekkers, fastpackers and trail runners. This lightweight,
waterproof, durable and easy-to-use folding map features all the
essential information for a successful Hadrian's Wall Path,
including 1:40,000-scale mapping for the linear route starting in
Wallsend and finishing in Bowness-on-Solway. It also includes a
detailed elevation profile and route planner, safety advice,
terrain information and an accommodation directory, and a link to a
GPX file download.
Wester Ross and Lochalsh are amongst the most popular areas for
walks in the Scottish Highlands. The Lochalsh peninsula between the
shores of Loch Duich and Loch Carron offers varied walking from
villages such as Plockton as well as the region's main town at Kyle
of Lochalsh. Across the dramatic Mam Ratagan pass is the remote and
secluded Glenelg peninsula, a tranquil and peaceful haven far from
busy routes. Further north are Applecross and Lochcarron, with
mountains that yield nothing in ruggedness to their more famous
counterparts in Torridon, as well as attractive fishing villages
and forest walks. Finally around Gairloch is an area that has long
been famous for its fine sandy beaches, many of them still very
quiet. Inland is a vast area of little-visited, rocky peaks known
to walkers as 'The Great Wilderness'. This latest pocket guide
features 40 of the best walks in this popular area in an attractive
and accessible format.
Comprehensive, illustrated guidebook for treks in the Everest
region of Nepal that comes with a detailed, easy-to-read foldout
trekking map. With some 150 colour pictures and over a dozen
section maps (apart from the fold-out map at the back), the
guidebook is packed with exhaustive day-by-day descriptions of the
popular Everest trails: Lukla-Kala Patthar/Everest Base Camp;
Gokyo-ChoLa Pass; Side-trips to Thame, Chukhung and over RenjoLa
Pass; Jiri-Lukla walk-in. There is, in addition, practical advice
on planning the treks, plus background reading on the Sherpas, the
people who live in the shadow of Everest, and an entire chapter on
the fascinating history of the discovery and conquest of Mt
Everest.
This guide brings together a selection of the best walks in West
Sutherland. The walks include town trails, coastal walks and routes
through woodland and farmland and on the high moors.
For better adventures, use the best map. Corfu Tour & Trail
Super-Durable Map is the most detailed, accurate, toughest, large
scale map of the island that you can buy. Our large 1:40,000 scale
produces a double sided map sheet of 840mm by 680mm; big enough to
show masses of detail but compact enough to use in the car or on
the trail. Corfu North is on the facing sheet of the map with Corfu
South on the reverse side, including a generous overlap between the
two sides. Our special concertina map fold means your map is easy
to unfold, and more importantly easy to refold back to its pocket
size. You get the most detailed map of Corfu that is produced
including our 'Tour & Trail' level of detail ranging from major
roads to secondary roads to minor roads to streets and narrow
country roads, plus dirt roads and walking trails. We have a new
method of highlighting the full Corfu Trail, including its options,
with the trails, tracks, lanes and roads making up the Corfu Trail
being outlined in green. This makes it easier to identify the Corfu
Trail on the map and easier to find it on the ground. Altitude
background colouring is designed to clearly show the altitude range
when travelling across the island by car or on foot. 100 metre and
20 metre contours are clearly shown on the map along with a large
number of individual height points. Tour & Trail attention to
detail is legendary as is our useful symbol range including
miradors, picnic areas, petrol stations, bar/restaurants and
parking areas where you can pull off the road safely. We have
included special Place-Name Plaques for Tripadvisor's most popular
destinations making them easy to find. For adventurers on foot Tour
& Trail Maps are researched and designed by hikers for use by
hikers. Our comprehensive gps ground surveys produce the best road
mapping available but the value of this on the ground research
becomes even more important when you leave the tarmac.
Super-Durable editions are printed on a plastic substrate with UV
cured inks to produce a Super-Durable Map that feels like silk but
will stand up to the roughest treatment of outdoor adventuring and
yet fold up like new at the end of your adventure. Quite simply
Corfu Tour & Trail Super-Durable Map is the most detailed,
accurate, toughest, large scale Corfu map that you can buy.
Super-Durable maps are 100% recyclable. Digital editions of Corfu
Tour & Trail Map are available for phone apps and Garmin users
at our Discovery Walking Guides website.
The Van Life Cookbook goes beyond a collection of recipes that can
be made on a two-ring gas hob. It's about an approach to cooking
and eating that saves time and money, is good for the soul and
makes the most of your immediate environment. Chef Danny Jack and
his wife Hailee Kukura have travelled around the UK and USA in
their self-build campervan, rediscovering the simple pleasures of a
life spent in the great outdoors. In this book they have captured
their passions for adventure and good food and distilled them into
over 80 campervan-friendly dishes, sharing their knowledge of
foraging, cooking over open fires and making the most of what
nature has to offer. In Van Life Cookbook, they share a way of
cooking that is sustainable and seasonal and bring together
delicious recipes that can be made on a budget. The ingredients can
be foraged, bought from a farm shop on the road or even a corner
shop or garage, meaning there's a recipe for every kind of
adventure. Covering comforting breakfasts, quick-fix lunches and
fireside feasts, as well as drinks, deserts, condiments and sides,
this cookbook features delicious, accessible recipes to get you
through the day (and your journey on the road). Think Tahini
Porridge, Homemade Trail Mix, Turkish One-Pan Eggs, Winter Greens
Minestrone, BBQ Fish Parcels, Date Night Tagliatelle and Flambeed
Rum Bananas with Coconut Cream - all complete with top tricks,
kitchen hacks and chef tips. From campervans, to canal boats and
cabins, this book is a celebration of the unexpected opportunities
that modest spaces and smaller budgets can offer.
Acclaimed author of Summerwater and Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss is back
with a sharply observed and darkly funny novel for our times. 'A
tense page turner . . . I gulped The Fell down in one sitting' -
Emma Donoghue 'Gripping, thoughtful and revelatory' - Paula Hawkins
'This slim, intense masterpiece is one of my best books of the
year' - Rachel Joyce 'Her work is as close to perfect as a
novelist's can be' The Times At dusk on a November evening in 2020
a woman slips out of her garden gate and turns up the hill. Kate is
in the middle of a two-week quarantine period, but she just can't
take it any more - the closeness of the air in her small house, the
confinement. And anyway, the moor will be deserted at this time.
Nobody need ever know. But Kate's neighbour Alice sees her leaving
and Matt, Kate's son, soon realizes she's missing. And Kate, who
planned only a quick solitary walk - a breath of open air - falls
and badly injures herself. What began as a furtive walk has turned
into a mountain rescue operation . . . Unbearably suspenseful,
witty and wise, The Fell asks probing questions about the place the
world has become since March 2020, and the place it was before.
This novel is a story about compassion and kindness and what we
must do to survive, and it will move you to tears. 'One of our very
best contemporary novelists' - Independent
This guidebook explores six of Andalucia's most beautiful Natural
Parks - the Sierra Nevada regions of Aracena, Grazalema, Los
Alcornocales and Gaucin, La Axarquia, the Alpujarras and Cazorla -
along the great belt of the Cordillera Betica mountains. The 36
half- and full-day walks are mostly circular, ranging in length
from 4 to 21km: some involve steep ascents and descents but all are
within the capabilities of a reasonably fit walker. The routes are
based around the villages of Aracena, Grazalema, Jimena de la
Frontera, Cazorla, Bubion and Competa, all of which lie within
protected nature reserves. Year-round walking is possible, but the
area is best enjoyed March-June and September-October. Includes
detailed route descriptions, clear mapping, plenty of background
information about travel, food and drink, language and
communications and the author's recommendations for the best places
to stay in or around southern Spain's most beautiful mountain
villages, many of which date back to the Moorish period. Rising to
almost 3500m, the Cordillera Betica offers some of the finest
year-round walking in Europe, and wrapped within this mighty range
are some of Spain's most beautiful villages and trails.
These attractive and cleverly structured guides will give walkers
ten of the best short circular walks along each of the five
sections of the 630-mile long South West Coast Path in a popular
pocket-size format. With clear information, an overview and
introduction for each walk, expertly written numbered directions,
large scale Ordnance Survey maps, superb eye-grabbing panoramic
photographs, and interpretation of points of interest along the
way, these guides set a new standard in clarity and ease-of-use.
Featured walks along the North Cornwall Coast include: Crackington
Haven, Cambeak, Port Quin and Port Isaac, Pentire Point, Trevose
Head, Bedruthan Steps, Holywell Bay, St Agnes Head, Reskajeage
Down, Carn Galver and Cape Cornwall.
This book explains to the hillwalker, in easy to understand but
accurate terms, how geology has shaped the landscape of the Lake
District. A selection of fifteen guided walks is used to illustrate
this in terms of what can be seen on the ground. "Rock Trails
Lakeland", divided into two parts, is intended to help those who
love the Lake District's mountain scenery to understand how this
beautiful landscape came about. The first half narrates the story
of colliding continents, volcanoes, mountain-building and
glaciations in creating the Lakeland, explaining why volcanoes
occurred, the rocks they created and how to interpret signs of
mountain-building and glaciations on the ground. The second half
describes recommended walks of differing levels of difficulty, all
with a wide variety of geological features to be seen and, most
important, with consistently fantastic views of the very best of
the Lake District's wonderful scenery. The author has concentrated
on what you can see as you walk around the hills, highlighting
conspicuous, easily visible features in rocks as well as the
overall shape of the terrain while accounting for the present-day
landscape. This is the second book in the series from Pesda Press,
following the publication in 2008 of "Rock Trails Snowdonia"
(9781906095048).
This fully revised edition of the Scottish Mountaineering Club's
original and best-selling guidebook The Munros describes the best
walking routes on Scotland's 282 mountains above 3000ft.
Comprehensive descriptions in this definitive guide recommend
ascent and descent routes for each of the Munros and their 226
subsidiary Tops, with maps of the peaks and principal surrounding
hills to help you plan the most enjoyable journeys through
Scotland's wild landscape. The descriptions are brought to life
throughout with vivid photography that illustrates the dramatic
beauty of these much-loved mountains. In addition to routes
themselves the book contains Munros Tables, a complete list of the
508 Munros and subsidiary Tops, listed in height order. Whether you
are an occasional walker looking for inspiration or a dedicated
Munroist planning to tick off your next peak, The Munros is
essential reading for any hillwalking enthusiast.
On May 6, 2014 Ryan Waters accomplished something that has not been
replicated since. He and fellow explorer Eric Larsen stood atop the
geographic North Pole, after 53 grueling days battling their way
over an ever-melting sheet of ice that fought against them the
entire way. By reaching the pole the two adventurers became the
last persons to date to complete an unsupported trip to the North
Pole from land. The ice sheet that used to link the Pole to land in
Canada, once so thick and sturdy, has so degraded over the last few
decades that explorers have had to abandon any attempts to cross
it. While reaching the North Pole was monumental for Waters it also
was the final piece needed to complete a project that he had been
persistently working on for over a decade, the True Adventurers
Grand Slam-standing atop the Seven Summits and skiing full length,
unsupported and unassisted, expeditions to both the North and South
Poles. His accomplishment that day made him just the 9th person and
first American to gain entry into this exclusive club. Never one to
embrace the easy path, Waters seemed to thrive in battling through
whatever the fates threw at him, sometimes even deliberately
seeking out struggles. Despite having little experience
cross-country skiing, he decided to go to the South Pole. Eschewing
the more typical route, he and partner Cecilie Skog completed the
first traverse of Antarctica without the use of resupplies or
kites. Skiing from Berkner Island in the Weddell Sea, via the South
Pole, to the Ross Ice Shelf, the pair skied for 70 days and covered
1200 miles, 9 years prior to the much publicized 2019 "race" across
Antarctica. To this day the two hold the record for the longest
unsupported crossing of the continent without the use of kites. How
Waters ended up standing atop the North Pole on that fateful day is
a story of hope, perseverance, faith, and a fair share of dumb
luck. From his youth traipsing around the Georgia hills to his time
leading expeditions around the Himalayas, including five summits of
Everest, Waters has always seemed to stumble into the next
fortuitous step of his journey, often ending up in the most
unlikely places. This is tempered by the fact that early in Waters'
outdoor career, he learned to live by a simple credo: "you have to
make things happen for yourself." At the beginning of his climbing
career, he was consumed by passion for the mountains, every
decision was leading to the next mountaineering challenge.
Eventually giving up a stable career as a geologist, he had a
self-described "mid 20's crisis," left his 401K and comfortable
salary for living out of his truck and 40 dollars a day as a
part-time climbing instructor. Following his dream of a life of
adventure in exchange for a life of obeying societal norms, he set
out to build a mountain resume that would enable him to circle the
Earth and work as a mountain guide in the Himalayas and beyond.
After almost two decades of hard expeditions around the planet, his
experiences include being on a hijacked airplane in Russia, rescue
of injured climbers in the Karakoram Himalaya of Pakistan, the
Everest Base Camp earthquake disaster, narrowly missing out on the
K2 2008 tragedy, near misses with avalanches, the deaths of close
climbing partners, close encounters with Polar Bears on the Arctic
Ocean, relationships with fellow adventurers, and much more.
OS Explorer is the Ordnance Survey's most detailed map and is
recommended for anyone enjoying outdoor activities such as walking,
horse riding and off-road cycling. The series provides complete GB
coverage and can now be used in all weathers thanks to OS Explorer
- Active, a tough, versatile version of OS Explorer. The OS
Explorer Active range now includes a digital version of the paper
map, accessed through the OS smartphone app, OS Maps.
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