Collected Musings of a Hill Wanderer

Having allowed it to lapse, I renewed my subscription to Country Walking, the magazine that let me in on places to walk in the British countryside, but this was not as easy as I thought it would be. These days, Emap is promoting direct debit payment for subscription to their magazines over and above credit card payment. Personally, I much rather the latter method because the idea of sending my bank account details over the internet doesn’t appeal to me, as secure as these things are these days. That said, the credit card option has become a little hard to find for Country Walking on greatmagazines.co.uk, Emap’s subscription store; in fact, I found it buried in the Spring Subscription Specials section after I had used the web address from the renewal reminder that they sent me. As appealing as the direct debit option is (cost spreading for the reader, continuation of revenue for the publisher), I still much prefer to pay by credit card.

When passing through Leeds on my Easter Yorkshire Dales excursions, I popped into Waterstone’s and spotted that Lonely Planet has finally updated its guide to walking in Scotland; the previous edition dated from 2001 so it might have been time for an update. Being easily persuaded, I acquired a copy to see what’s in the new one. There are changes to the routes featured but I’ll hang on to my copy of the first edition as there seem to be a number of changes to the featured walking routes and I might find some use for it yet.

On the surface, not much has changed with the included walking information apart from updates to the text and changes to the presentation. These include putting the walking information chapters at the back and adding glossy sections at the front containing a good supply of colour photos. But dig deeper and the changes appear. The recently enacted Scottish access legislation must surely have had an impact as walks in the Campsie Fells and Ochill Hills are now headline inclusions. New routes such as the John Buchan Way now get a mention. Some previously featured routes now find themselves in the Other Walks sections at the end of the chapters along with new additions such as the Rob Roy Way. Another fate for previous headline routes is that they find themselves in boxes sitting outside the main text. Classic routes such as the Aonach Eagach ridge or the ascent of Ben Nevis via the Carn Mor Dearg arête find themselves in this position.

My recollections of following the Pennine Way through clag on the moors around Standedge have garnered me a mention on Weird Darren’s OUTDOORSmagic blog round up. I have to say that it’s a bit strange seeing your own words appearing somewhere else and thanks are well due to Darren for this. Speaking of gratitude, it is also due to Bearded Git for his adding a link to these ramblings as well.

I happened on Maverickapollo’s Just Rants and Raves and spotted that he also has given this a mention. Thanks are due to him for that. His latest post is about a walk along the Nidd Gorge that he did yesterday but there’s loads more there.

I mentioned Rucksack Readers in an earlier post but I thought that I’d say a bit more about them. They offer a range of guidebooks covering trails in Scotland, Ireland and beyond. The idea is that you carry them in your rucksack while out on the trail. Consequently, they are waterproof and lightweight. Added bonuses are the inclusion of mapping and the ability to fold the guidebooks flat. Their Irish range includes: Dingle Way, Kerry Way and Wicklow Way. Apart from maybe the Dingle Way, I had heard of these and the guides are a welcome addition to the market. But it was the Scottish range that alerted me to some trails about which I had known nothing: Cateran Trail and Kintyre Way. Otherwise, stalwarts such as the West Highland Way and Great Glen Way are covered as are the Rob Roy Way and the Speyside Way. Going further afield, treks in Europe, Asia and South America get are featured.