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Day Walks In the Peak District -
Norman Taylor and Barry Pope
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Price:
£12.95
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Weight: 209 grammes (it's a
book...)
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Features: 142-page
paperrback book with 20 Peak District day walks between 8
and 12 miles in length, each route complete with map and
photos.
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Easy to use, good maps and instructions, nice pics and no
blather.
It would be nice if the walks were numbered to correspond to
the overview map.
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The Concept Vertebrate Graphics have produced two excellent
mountain biking guides -covering the Dark Peak and SW England - and
this is their first walking guide. As with the well-received bike
guidebooks, the new walking guide aims to cut out the blather and
present the essential information in an easy to use package complete
with maps and photographs.
Features It's a paperback volume with some 20 circular day
routes all between 8 and 12 miles in length. Each route follows a set
format with an overview followed by a map of the walk -below- and
detailed, step by step instructions. You can actually download a
sample
route from the Vertebrate Graphics web site for an accurate idea
of the book's style.
In Action Too many guide books seem mired in a curiously dated
world of 'guidebook speak' - you know the stuff: 'Upon cresting the
ridge an astonishing panorama is spread lushly before you, sheep bask
seductively in the sunlight etc, blah, blah etc...
Fortunately
the new Vertebrate Graphics guide has managed to avoid the guff and
tells you what you need to know along with some interesting side
observations in plain, normal, 21st Century English. It won't be
winning any literary prizes, but then it's a guide book.
We like the basic format with an introduction, excellent maps,
though you'll still need an OS or similar for on-the-ground
navigation and plain, thorough, step-by-step instructions that lead
you through the route and are related to the map by numbered way
points. There are also some lovely, evocative photos that give you a
decent idea of the sort of landscape you're about to encounter.
The 20 walks are spread across the Peak and split into three
sections: 'The High Moors', 'Hills, Tors and Edges' and 'Limestone
Country'. There's an overall map to help you locate the individual
walks plus area maps for each section. It would be nice if the
individual routes were numbered to make them easier to relate to the
overview map, but it's easy enough to work out which is which.
There's a good spread both geographically and in the character of
the walking with a mix of high moors and lower stuff in both Dark and
White Peak. Some hard nuts will want longer days, but its easy enough
to extend many of the routes on the ground with a bit of imagination
and a map.
Mick Tupman
The second book by Mick Fowler, the 'mountaineers' mountaineer', On Thin Ice is a guided tour through some of the varied projects of one of the world's best alpine climbers.
