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Cicerone publishes guidebooks for long distance walks and treks, day walks, family walks, scrambling, climbing, ice climbing and mountaineering, cycling guides, hill and mountain skills and outdoor photography. Cicerone's aim is to inspire you, and to provide the information needed to enable you to plan and enjoy your favourite outdoor activity, whether in the British Isles or overseas.
Strider Book Review by Les Maple August 2007
Being a member of the LDWA, Ronald Turnbull is well known for his award-winning outdoor books. He tends to spend most of his life outdoors and has a special interest in the various types of challenge walks. In 'Three Peaks, Ten Tors', he takes a serious look at what it takes to do a long-distance, or challenge, walk which includes mental toughness and slight madness. And even though the book touches on a serious subject the Turnbull humour is never far away. Many LDWA members will appreciate his opening sentence - 'Ever since man came down out of the trees, stood on two legs, and started to walk, some other fellow has been trying to walk further'. He could quite as well added the words 'and faster'.
The author offers tips not only about choosing the challenge, but also about the planning, preparation, route outlines and schedules that have to be taken when taking up the challenge. He offers further tips on finding enjoyment along the way and the more serious elements of keeping the pain and suffering to a minimum. He also covers environmental issues and how to minimise the impact that can be caused.
The book has been sub-divided into five parts. Part 1 covers the National Three Peaks Challenge. After introducing the big three mountains - Ben Nevis, Snowdon, and Scafell Pike - he then gives guidance on how to go about completing the challenge (a) within 24 hours and (b) by using public transport. Part 2 ('Three Peaks Rather Closer Together') not only introduces you to Yorkshire's Three Peaks but also to the three peaks of Lancashire, Somerset and others. In this section you will find another way of making an unusual ascent of Ingleborough in the dark - but you may have to be a bit of a worm to succeed.
In Part 3 ('More and Moor') you will find the author's 'Ten Tors for grown ups' in which he enthuses that 'such fun should not be reserved for the army and under 21s'. He follows this with chapters on the Lyke Wake Walk, the Derwent Watershed, the Across Wales Walk and, finally, the great through-route through the Cairngorms, via the Lairig Ghru. Part 4 deals with the fundamentals of survival and a 50-mile walk the author took through the Southern Uplands to visit a friend. Starting from his front door in Thornhill, his route took him over the Lowther, Moffat and Manor hills before finishing his walk at Innerleithen. In Chapter 15 you can read his experiences of completing the Exmoor Hundred, the flagship event of the LDWA. The LDWA 100 mile challenge has to be completed within two days (48 hours) and is held in a different part of the country every year.
In the final section (Part 5), which he calls 'River Deep, Mountain High', he introduces the reader to the Welsh 3000s, the Lakes 3000s, the old County Tops, the Cairngorm 4000s, the Mourne seven Sevens (Northern Ireland's 700 metre peaks) and Tranter's Walk. Just reading the index and synopsis is enough to make one feel totally exhausted but for the real challenge enthusiast, the author sums it up nicely with his final sentences: 'Every pair of legs has, at the other end of it, a thinking brain. Let fly the imagination; then bend down and lace up the boots.'
This book is a must read for all LDWA members and is well recommended.
Les Maple
Available from Cicerone in e-book format compatible with Android, iOS, Mac and Windows devices. Available in Amazon Kindle format from Amazon.
