Sojourn in the Peak District - National Cycle Network Route 68

I have just spent a couple of days talking up my Peak District Cycling Map. Visiting my various retail outlets: the National Park Centres, Cotswold Outdoor and other specialist retailers. Mayfield Books of Sheffield do a fine job in placing my maps in the many sale outlets but there is always a job to do, to get around and "Talk Up' the product.  I camped beside the High Peak Trail at Hurdlow, enjoying a couple of pints of local ale in the Royal Oak, a perfect spot for those cycling this trail, or for those seeking a small camp site, free of caravans. The cycling couple illustrated below were heading for Berwick-on-Tweed in the borders, and the northern end of NCN 68. Good luck to them!

The Shire Horse Inn, Wyaston on the NCN 68

Leaving the Shire Horse Inn, Wyaston

The Royal Oak, Hurdlow

High Peak Trail, Parsley Hay

Parsley Hay

The Peak District is a fabulous playground for family cycling on traffic-free trails, or for those seeking the thrills and spills of manic off-roading. Each to his (her) own!  I am told cycling is the new climbing obsession (for many), and long may this continue.

Our brilliant and all encompassing map

The funny fellow showing off his fine legs and handsome features is my route-man, Al Churcher - a great buddy and very knowledgeable cyclist. He is a Pentathlete and is about to compete in the Bejing Games - Good Luck Al!

Snowshill Lavender Gloucestershire

If purple is your favourite colour then this is the venue for you. But, get there now because the harvest has just begun. You can wander through the fields of lavender and admire the geometric lines....and, smell the sweet smell of....yes, lavender.

There is a splendid tea room and gift shop, and thank you, for, so far, selling ten of my Cotswold Collection.  Herewith, an example of this lovely plant.   I just love the tree on the horizon...

To Succeed - A Successfull Hostelry Must....

Is it no wonder that pubs/inns close at a rate of 100+ per week when those in charge have few social skills and can not recognize their regular customers, and fail to greet them with a "Good Evening", or "How Are You"?  Living in North Devon one has got used to lack lustre drinking holes. The olde-worlde decor was ripped out in the 60s to cater for the tourists, and so those that are left have little, or  no, homely ambience about them.  The three inns that I visit regularly: The Rock at Georgeham (bar man never smiles) with an OK ambience, The Kings Arms, Georgeham (proprietor didn't recognize my wife despite having employed my two children) serves up superb Exmoor Beef, and the Grampus Inn, Lee is improving but you wonder if the publican cares whether you give him business or not. What is it with these people? Where is the drive, the enthusiasm, the old-fashioned hospitality. Why do they  bother?

King Arthur's Camelot - Tintagel

Tintagel is known across Europe (in especially Germany and Holland) as the ancient site of Camelot.  And, has thus become a place of pilgrimage bringing in millions of pounds to the local economy of North Cornwall. A fact ignored by the Cornwall County Council who in their wisdom have closed down the stunning  Heritage Centre in Tintagel.  That the Tourist Information Centres of Boscastle, Falmouth and Penzance have also closed due to shortage of funds is anethema to me, too, and shows the complete disregard for the future of tourism in the county. Who and what pays these people's salaries? You don't look a Gift Horse in the mouth do you?

Have you been enjoying Channel 4s Camelot on Saturday evenings? I believe filmed in Ireland, and not, sadly in North Cornwall.

Cumbria is another county that has closed down all but one of the National Park Centres....They blame it all on the internet....but as we know. It is difficult to find quality, reliable information that has not been parley to heavy advertising....Comments, please.

A Literary Pilgrimage across the Cotswolds

Last week I had a chance meeting with the Earl of Wemyss at Stanway. Stanway is my favourite Cotswold house and has been host to JM Barrie of Peter Pan fame, who instigated the build of the thatched cricket pavilion. HG Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle were keen players of the game. Wells, of course, was noted for bowling a maiden over...  The Earl was kind and enthusiastic about my recent book, The Cotswold Collection, and we shared a great fondness for Patrick (Paddy) Leigh Fermor who had died a fortnight before. We discovered that he had been buried on the 16th and that a Memorial Service is planned for November in St James' Piccadilly.  I, then moved on towards a meeting at Snowhill where I soon passed Broadway Tower home to William Morris. Not that I have ever read any of his books. I have admired his artworks and legion for hard work. 

Stanway, as illustrated in "The Cotswold Collection"

My route was soon  Cheltenham bound. I noticed a sign for Dumbleton, (Paddy's home when in England)....and turned East.  On entering the church gate his grave mound was clearly visible, covered in flowers with many notes of appreciation and love, from far and wide:  Byronic, Hellenic and Greek Societies, and Cretan friends.  A moment to savour his influence on my life.  In 1977, at the age of 26 I  bought a First Edition of his "A Time of Gifts" and was captivated by his trek across Holland and mittel-Europe to Constantinopel in the 1930s....Two years later, in 1979, I had resigned my job with a London publishing house and had set out too, to walk across Europe to Greece.  My route was to take me through France, over the Alps into Italy, and eventually to Greece....My other influence was to be Laurie Lee. His "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" had romanticised my idea of a long walk, and homeward that same evening I stopped off at the Woolpack in Slad for a pint of Gloucester Old Spot.

I had got to know Laurie a little on his infrequent visits to Sheepscombe's cricket field. His sight was poor and his hearing no better but Cathy (with thighs like hams - see "A Rose For Winter") was his mouthpiece. The Woolpack was a disappointment. No papers or friends of yesteryear about. Just the usual pub boors outside guffawing, and in the bar, the ghost of Laurie, and an empty space awaiting to be filled by the local celebs, Keith Allen and Damien Hirst.  I  moved on, not keen to meet these two, and sort out Laurie's grave, opposite.  Still the mound stood tall with a few flowers over his remains. The stoney soil had not settled these past 12-years. It was as if he had been buried yesterday.

Cycling in Norfolk

I am delighted to inform you all that my Norfolk Cycling Country Lanes map is now back in stock.
It has a new photographic cover to replace the illustrated one (of many years).....

To get you in the cycling mood, herewith some Norfolk images for you to dream, the cycling dream...

Sample of the Mapping

Thurne Windmill

Cycling around The Broads

Holkham Beach 

Grey Seal from Bishop's Boats

Patrick Leigh Fermor - An Inspiration

All lovers of travel writing will be mourning the death last Friday of Paddy, "The Greatest Living Englishman", and considered the finest travel writer in the English Language. He was, indeed, an inspiration to a host of writers, adventurers and Hellenists, and especially to me. His "A Time Of Gifts" published in 1977 described his journey on foot from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople, by way of the Rhine and Danube, and mittel-Europe during the mid 30s, struck such a chord with me that I gave up my job with a London publishing house in 1979 to pursue my own dream, to walk across France-The Alps into Italy, to Greece...

The experience sparked my interest in maps and travel guides....and the idea of Goldeneye was born.

I have often been asked to write about my walk, but such has been my respect, nay awe, of Paddy's travel writing that "Just to try would be foolish....I could  not hope to match such erudition and brilliance," for I have always considered great travel writing to be the most difficult of prose styles to achieve....Laurie Lee managed it, but he was a poet, as did Lawrence Durrell, another inspiration, and friend to Paddy.

Paddy lived in the Southern Pelepponese, but whilst in England at Dumbleton, Worcestershire. I know it well having played cricket there many times...I never knew this was his home, and I wonder if I would have made a fool of myself if I had dropped by?