Eden Way Day 3

Wetheral to Armathwaite – 9.5 miles I patched the biggest and most painful blister with one of my two Compeeds and left the others to their own devices – it would have to do. I limped my way down to breakfast at 7.30 only to be told that they didn’t start serving until 8am. I […]

Eden Way Day 2

Carlisle to Wetheral – 11 miles I slept well and never had recourse to use the ear plugs. The Cartref (odd name eh?) is a proper business B&B, it must have about 10 rooms over 2 upper floors, which is sometimes better than the places where you’re sleeping in Johnny’s room now that he’s gone […]

Eden Way Day 1

Rockcliffe to Carlisle – 13.5 miles My wife dropped me off at the train station just in time to pop into the first class lounge and pick up a banana and a couple of flapjacks for lunch. The train was almost completely empty when I joined it at Crewe, and only a couple more people […]

Making Plans for… Lonewalker

I’m always wary of publishing my plans for the year ahead, just look back over my previous posts and see how many plans I’ve made and then abandoned or failed to follow through on. However, as Winston Churchill once said, “Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential” and there’s that other famous quote […]

Pocket Routes is born!

My small portfolio of written work has increased gradually over the past few years, with two new guide books added last year, and plans to add another two this year. Until now, I’ve created and managed a website for each new publication, which was fine when there was only a couple, but is just not […]

The Yoredale Way

Hard on the heels of my previous guide book, I’ve just published my fifth guide book; The Yoredale Way. This is the second in a series of three guides, following the rivers that rise on the ridge above the Mallerstang valley on the border of Cumbria and North Yorkshire. You can buy the book from the […]

The Swale Way

A couple of months ago I finished writing my fourth guide book; The Swale Way. This is the first in a series of three guides, following the rivers that rise on the ridge above the Mallerstang valley on the border of Cumbria and North Yorkshire. You can buy the book from the Pocket Routes website – […]

The Pennine Way Process

It was now or never really. I’d been waiting until as close to deadline as possible to conduct a comprehensive village survey for the Pennine Way guide book update. I figured that there was no point doing a survey months ahead of the publication, as B&Bs close, new businesses open and the information needed to […]

Page 1 Completed!

I had an email from Bryn at Trailblazer Guidebooks last night – he hadn’t received any photos from me for the book yet and he needed something to put in the new catalogue they were having printed. He was going to go with a temporary photo for the purposes of getting the catalogue sorted out, […]

Burnhead to Sycamore Gap

I’d requested an early breakfast for this morning, despite it being Saturday and feeling a little selfish at asking Dave and Christine to get up even earlier to provide for me. However, I wanted an early finish as I had about 2 1/2 hours in the car at the end of the walk. I was […]