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Along the Divide: Walking the Wild Spine of Scotland
Along the Divide: Walking the Wild Spine of Scotland
Along the Divide: Walking the Wild Spine of Scotland
Ebook241 pages7 hours

Along the Divide: Walking the Wild Spine of Scotland

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Winner of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild Award for Excellence: Outdoor Book 2019Chris Townsend embarks on a 700-mile walk along the spine of Scotland, the line of high ground where fallen rain runs either west to the Atlantic or east to the North Sea. Walking before the Independence Referendum of 2014, and writing after the EU Referendum of 2016, he reflects on: nature and history, conservation and rewilding, land use and literature, and change in a time of limitless potential for both better and worse.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 16, 2018
ISBN9781912240234
Along the Divide: Walking the Wild Spine of Scotland
Author

Chris Townsend

Chris Townsend is an outdoor writer and photographer whose 25 books include Scotland in Cicerone's World Mountain ranges series; the award-winning The Backpacker's Handbook ; Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles , the story of his hike along the 2600-mile Pacific Crest Trail; The Munros and Tops , an account of his continuous round of all the 3000ft summits in Scotland – the first time this walk has been done; and Along the Divide , the story of his walk along the Scottish watershed. A passionate long-distance walker, Chris's other epic walks include the 3100-mile Continental Divide Trail, the 1200-mile Pacific Northwest Trail, the 800-mile Arizona Trail, 1600 miles along the whole length of the Canadian Rockies (another first), 1000 miles south–north through the Yukon Territory and 1300 miles south-north through Norway and Sweden. He has also led ski tours in Norway, Spitsbergen, Greenland, Lapland and other areas, as well as treks in Nepal. Chris is involved with several outdoor and conservation organisations and served as President of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland and as a Trustee of the John Muir Trust. He writes on outdoor subjects every month for TGO magazine, and lives in Strathspey in the Cairngorms National Park.

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Scotland is famous for its breath-taking scenery, the fertile lowlands, rolling hills and the much climbed Munroe's. It has been extensively written about and photographed so finding another route and a narrative that flows from this landscape cannot be easy. Chris Townsend takes an idea that he got from Ribbon Of Wildness by Peter Wright. He wants to walk the spine of his adopted land from the border at Deadland Fell right up to Duncansby Head on the North coast.

     A watershed, a divide, between two worlds.

    This backbone of the country that follows the line of hills that the water drops away either to the Atlantic or the North Sea is about 700 miles long. It is a tough walk too, crossing moorlands, bogs through forests and or course over the top of mountains at an average height of 450m. At certain points of the route, the line between the two directions of travel that the water goes can be less than 50m or be vast distances apart in the flatter parts of the country.

    A  trickle begins, running gently downhill, eventually to reach the ocean

    This is the first of Townsend's books that I have read and it is not going to be the last. This thoroughly enjoyable travel book about him walking through Scotland is written at the same gentle pace that he walked at. For him, the adventure is the journey, not the finish and over his route, he has some adventures, gets soaked several times, avoids being blown off a hill, watches the sunset on a perfect evening from his tarp. He has quite a philosophical outlook, reminisces about past walks and contemplates both the independence referendum in Scotland and rues the Brexit vote. We learn about the places that he passes, touching on the history and the wildlife that he sees, but not in an overbearing way. It also has some of the best maps that I have seen in a travel book, the route is clear and unambiguous as it wiggles it'sits across the landscape.

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Along the Divide - Chris Townsend

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