I am the author of two walking books and a co-author of a mountain biking book, and although smitten with outdoor pursuits from an early age, (not because I was forced to walk up Scafell Pike aged 3 ½ ), due to pressures of being an Orthopaedic Surgeon I have not been able to communicate this love to you until recently.
The first book is an eight day long distance walk, a theme walk if you like, and my wife’s idea: to walk from Settle to Carlisle and come back via the classic train journey. This walk does not closely follow the line, however, but goes over quite a few hills, including three days of hard walking in the Lake District. 22,000 feet of ascent in 105 miles makes it quite a challenge, and one to which I hope you will rise.
I have been a fan of long distance walks since doing Wainwrights’ Coast to Coast in 1977, and devised a couple more over the years, but the Settle to Carlisle comes second only to the C to C in my opinion!
The second book derived from the first: a selection of 24 “day” hillwalks from the Settle to Carlisle railway stations, Appleby being the most northern one.
The MTB book details 20 mostly 4 day biking “adventures”, in Northern Britain, mostly in the Scottish Highlands.
I walk most weeks with my wife, Margaret, in the Lakes, Dales, and the Forest of Bowland fells, and also climb, cycle and mountain bike. We have also become quite good at finding rare flora, and good places for the above activities and floral habitats are mentioned in the books.