Resor

Adiary of Monty Don's journey around France looking at the history of French gardens.

OS Explorer is the Ordnance Survey's most detailed map and is recommended for anyone enjoying outdoor activities such as walking, horse riding and off-road cycling. The series provides complete GB coverage and can now be used in all weathers thanks to OS Explorer - Active, a tough, versatile version of OS Explorer.

A bear's eye view of London as told by the classic, best-loved character from Darkest Peru.

A pocket-sized Times Atlas of the World packed with the essentials, fully revised and improved to take account of all recent changes from around the world. The whole world is covered with the accuracy and authority for which Times atlases are renowned.

From the African plains to the Himalayan heights, this title includes over 60 easy-to-read maps to uncover the world's continents, regions and countries. With detailed factfiles on 195 nations and a full index-gazetteer that contains 20,000 entries, it features improved landscape modelling showing the most important roads, railways, and rivers.

The perfect holiday read (pre, post or during)

This highly amusing and unorthodox travel book resulted from a light-hearted summer journey by the young poets Auden and MacNeice in 1936. from Auden's 'Letter to Lord Byron' and MacNeice's 'Eclogue', to the mischief and fun of their joint 'Last Will and Testament', the book is impossible to resist - a 1930s classic.

Some, such as Venice or New York, involve relatively comfortable journeys, whilst others present more of a challenge - crossing the wilderness to see the rock-hewn churches at Lalibela in Ethiopia, for example, or trekking for nine days at altitude to see the stunning Himalayan scenery around Makalu in Nepal.

This guidebook describes the 570km (354 mile) Traumpfad or 'Dream Way', an Alpine trek from Munich's Marienplatz to the Piazza San Marco in Venice. The route is broken into 30 stages of between 5hrs 30mins and 9hrs, graded according to difficulty, with 5 alternative stages and the option to spend a day traversing a section of via ferrata in the Dolomites. Previous experience of Alpine trekking is not necessary as the route is suitable for most able walkers: however, a head for heights is essential. Known as 'Europe's playground', the Alps boast an unrivalled walking infrastructure and breath-taking views of angular peaks, flower-strewn valleys and verdant slopes. Hugely popular with German trekkers but little-known in the English-speaking world, Der Traumpfad revels in this stunning scenery. The route passes through German Bavaria then Austria before entering the Italian Tyrol, taking advantage of the region's extensive network of mountain huts for accommodation en route.With custom-designed mapping and stunning colour photography, the guide has all you need to get the best from your trek. Alongside detailed route descriptions, there is useful practical advice on when to go, what to take and refreshment stops, background information on the region's fascinating history, plants and wildlife and full contact details for over 80 places to stay. The result is an ideal companion to discovering this amazing route, regarded by many German trekkers as 'the hiking experience of a lifetime'.

This guidebook is all you need to discover The Westweg, a 285km walk along the length Germany's Black Forest from Pforzheim to Basel. This classic long-distance trail takes around two weeks to walk, in stages of 15-28km. The route is well way-marked and suitable for experienced hikers and those new to long distance walking, though some sections are steep. The Westweg incorporates many of the region's highlights, such the Schwarzwald National Park, the source of the Danube and Lake Titisee. At Titisee there is a choice to make: the western route taking in the Black Forest's highest peak Feldberg and the vineyards of the Markgraflerland, or the quieter eastern route via the Herzogenhorn peak and on to Basel, with all its cultural attractions and old-world charm. With well-maintained and waymarked trails, an efficient public transport system and conveniently placed huts and farmhouse inns, the Black Forest is one of Germany's best-loved walking destinations. Soft-contoured, forest-clad hills, interspersed with pastures and picturesque villages combine on with far-ranging vistas right across the Alpine chain. Detailed descriptions and 1:100,000 maps accompany each stage of the route and the book describes options for shortening stages using public transport. There is also information on when to go, where to stay and a German-English glossary - all of which will earn this useful guide a place in your rucksack.

A comprehensive guidebook detailing walking routes in Austria. The 101 walks reflect the diversity of this popular region and cover Austria's magnificent Alps - including the Ratikon, Silvretta, Stubai and Zillertal - as well as the Dachsteingebirge, Hohe Tauern and the Karawanken. Graded according to difficulty and ranging from short walks of a few kilometres to day hikes and multi-day hut-to-hut tours, from the classic to the lesser-known, there is something to suit every level of ability and ambition. A full description of each route is accompanied by clear sketch maps. This book has all the information you need to make the most of an active walking holiday in Austria, including information on public transport, accommodation, gear required and safety issues, full details of over 100 mountain huts and a German-English glossary.Austria is one of Europe's most walker-friendly countries. Its 40,000km of well-maintained and waymarked trails pass more than a thousand Austrian mountain huts and countless attractive villages, hospitable hotels, inns and restaurants. It also boasts an extensive, integrated public transport system that is particularly useful for walkers. The Austrian landscape is enchanting in its beauty, featuring rugged limestone spires, towering snowy peaks, majestic lakes and tranquil valleys.

ParisCity of Love, City of Light, City of Flowers. From elegant floral boutiques to lively flower markets to glorious blooming trees and expansive public gardens, flowers are the essential ingredient to the lush sensory bouquet that is Parisian life. With beautiful photography, Paris in Bloom transports readers on a stunning floral tour of the city, and provides recommendations to the best flower markets and a detailed guide to spring blooms. Timeless in content, Paris in Bloom is a book for Paris lovers to savor again and again, one to keep on the nightstand to conjure fond memories of their first visit and inspire dreams of the next.

'Reading Brodsky's essays is like a conversation with an immensely erudite, hugely entertaining and witty (and often very funny) interlocutor' Wall Street JournalWatermark is Joseph Brodsky's witty, intelligent, moving and elegant portrait of Venice. Looking at every aspect of the city, from its waterways, streets and architecture to its food, politics and people, Brodsky captures its magnificence and beauty, and recalls his own memories of the place he called home for many winters, as he remembers friends, lovers and enemies he has encountered. Above all, he reflects with great poetic force on how the rising tide of time affects city and inhabitants alike. Watermark is an unforgettable piece of writing, and a wonderful evocation of a remarkable, unique city. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature

"e;A sorceress of the essay form."e; John Berger Five years after Findings broke the mould of nature writing, Kathleen Jamie subtly shifts our focus on landscape and the living world, daring us to look again at the 'natural', the remote and the human-made. She offers us the closest of perspectives and the most distant, too: from vistas of cells beneath a hospital microscope, or the pores of a whale's jawbone under restoration, to satellites rising over a Scottish island, or the aurora borealis lighting up an iceberg-strewn sea. We encounter killer whales circling below cliffs, noisy colonies of breeding gannets, and paintings deep in caves. Written with precision, delicacy and personal recollection, Sightlines invites us to pause and look afresh at our surroundings.

In 1953 Hermann Buhl made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat - the ninth-highest mountain in the world, and the third 8,000-metre peak to be climbed, following Annapurna and Everest. It was one of the most incredible and committed climbs ever made. Continuing alone and without supplementary oxygen, Buhl made a dash for the summit after his partners turned back. On a mountain that had claimed thirty-one lives, an exhausted Buhl waded through deep snow and climbed over technical ground to reach the summit, driven on by an 'irresistible urge'. After a night spent standing on a small ledge at over 8,000 metres, Buhl returned forty-one hours later, exhausted and at the very limit of his endurance. Written shortly after Buhl's return from the mountain, Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage is a classic of mountaineering literature that has inspired thousands of climbers. It follows Buhl's inexorable rise from rock climber to alpinist to mountaineer, until, almost inevitably, he makes his phenomenal Nanga Parbat climb. Buhl's book, and ascent, reminded everyone that, while the mountains could never be conquered, they could be climbed with sufficient enthusiasm, spirit and dedication.

This is Patrick Leigh Fermor's spellbinding part-travelogue, part inspired evocation of a part of Greece's past. Joining him in the Mani, one of Europe's wildest and most isolated regions, cut off from the rest of Greece by the towering Taygettus mountain range and hemmed in by the Aegean and Ionian seas, we discover a rocky central prong of the Peleponnese at the southernmost point in Europe.Bad communications only heightening the remoteness, this Greece - south of ancient Sparta - is one that maintains perhaps a stronger relationship with the ancient past than with the present. Myth becomes history, and vice versa. Leigh Fermor's hallmark descriptive writing and capture of unexpected detail have made this book, first published in 1958, a classic - together with its Northern Greece counterpart, Roumeli.

A guidebook describing 40 trail running routes in the Chamonix Valley and around the Mont Blanc massif, visiting France, Switzerland and Italy. The routes, which range from 3.8km (21/2 miles) to 168km (104 miles), are graded from 1 to 5 and categorised as trail running, fell running or skyrunning. Starting from Chamonix, Les Houches, Servoz, Champex, Courmayeur, Orsieres and Vallorcine among others, and covering classic ultra trail routes as well as shorter day runs, there is something for every runner. Step-by-step route descriptions are accompanied by 1:100,000 mapping and route profiles, with notes on safety and useful tips for runners. Also included is a comprehensive equipment checklist plus information on running at altitude, adapting to the Alps, navigation, maps and mountain safety. GPX files for all routes are available for download after you have purchased the book by logging in to your Cicerone account. Renowned as a mecca for trail runners, the Chamonix Valley and Mont Blanc region is home to some of the greatest trail running races in the world, including the Tour des Gants and Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. The landscape, with its dramatic mountain scenery and ethereal vistas, offers diverse trail options and true adventure - the perfect playground for this exhilarating sport.

This guidebook describes 33 half- and full day walks on the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino. Basking in the Mediterranean sunshine between Sicily and Africa, the islands have a colourful and complex history from the Neolithic and the Medieval to the present day. The routes range from 2.5-30km, beginning with a short heritage trail around the city of Valletta. Then follows a series of walks around the coastline of Malta, with a final few moving inland to explore the island's interior, before a description of the Heritage Trail around Mdina and Rabat. Malta may be known as a tourist destination but it also offer plenty of historic walks, stunningly beautiful and dramatic architecture and excellent scenery, especially around the cliffs and coastlines. Walks on Gozo start with a heritage trail around Victoria, followed by a clockwise exploration of spectacular coastal walking that allows a complete circuit of the island. The final walk on Gozo wanders over a series of little hills further inland, while the last walk in the book might be the best of them all: a circuit around the lovely little island of Comino. The guidebook also gives details of accommodation, transport and tourist information.

WINNER OF THE 2016 EDWARD STANFORD ADVENTURE TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD'Levison Wood has breathed new life into adventure travel.' Michael Palin'Levison Wood is a great adventurer and a wonderful storyteller.' Sir Ranulph Fiennes'Britain's best-loved adventurer... he looks like a man who will stare danger in the face and soak up a lot of pain without complaint.' The TimesFollowing in in the footsteps of the great explorers, WALKING THE HIMALAYAS is Levison Wood's enthralling account of crossing the Himalayas on foot. His journey of discovery along the path of the ancient trade route of the Silk Road to the forgotten kingdom of Bhutan led him beyond the safety of the tourist trail. There lies the real world of the Himalayas, where ex-paratrooper Levison Wood encountered natural disasters, extremists, nomadic goat herders, shamans (and the Dalai Lama) in his 1,700-mile trek across the roof of the world. WALKING THE HIMALAYAS is a tale of courage, stamina and the kindness of strangers that will appeal to the adventurer in us all.

Ted Simon is the author of the classic travel book JUPITER'S TRAVELS. It documents his four-year journey round the world by motorbike, travelling through Europe, Africa, South and North America, and Asia. A number one bestseller in the late 1970s, it is still regarded as one of the greatest motorcycle books - indeed, one of the greatest travel books - ever written. In 2001, at the age of 69, Ted Simon decided to retrace his journey, and DREAMING OF JUPITER is the result. It took him two and a half years - during which time he revisited all the countries he had travelled through in the 1970s. He found much had changed, and he reflects upon the increased poverty, political upheavals, environmental issues and indeed the changes in himself. But ultimately, DREAMING OF JUPITER is a hugely inspiring read with a positive message at its heart - that even at the age of 70 you can still set off on an adventure, and be surprised and excited by what life throws at you along the way.

'I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of One Hundred Pounds that he cannot hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month'A foolhardy attempt to win a drunken bet led to Tony Hawks having one of the most unforgettable experiences of his life. Joined by his trusty travelling-companion-cum-domestic-appliance, he found himself in the midst of a remarkable, inspirational and, at times, downright silly adventure.In their month of madness, Tony and his fridge surfed together; entered a batchelor festival; and one of them had sex without the other knowing. The fridge got christened, and they even met the poorest king on Earth.An absurd story of an extraordinary adventure, Round Ireland with a Fridge follows the fearless pair as they battle towards Dublin and a breathtaking finale that is moving, uplifting, and a fitting conclusion to the whole ridiculous affair.

In April 2008, Ed Stafford began his attempt to become the first man ever to walk the entire length of the River Amazon. Nearly two and a half years later, he had crossed the whole of South America to reach the mouth of the colossal river.With danger a constant companion - outwitting alligators, jaguars, pit vipers and electric eels, not to mention overcoming the hurdles of injuries and relentless tropical storms - Ed's journey demanded extreme physical and mental strength. Often warned by natives that he would die, Ed even found himself pursued by machete-wielding tribesmen and detained for murder.However, Ed's journey was an adventure with a purpose: to help raise people's awareness of environmental issues. Ed had unprecedented access to indigenous communities and witnessed the devastating effects of the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest first-hand. His story of disappearing tribes and loss of habitats concerns us all.Ultimately though, Walking the Amazon is an account of a world-first expedition that takes readers on the most daring journey along the world's greatest river and through the most bio-diverse habitat on earth.

We ve left a lot of men in Borneo know what I mean? With their SAS trainer s warnings ringing in their ears, the naturalist, Redmond O Hanlon, and the poet, James Fenton, set out to rediscover the lost rhinoceros of Borneo. They were loaded with enough back-breaking kit to survive two months in a steaming 95 (in the shade) jungle of creeping, crawling, biting things. O Hanlon could also rely on his encyclopaedic knowledge of the region s flora and fauna, and had read-up on how to avoid being eaten by anything (stick your thumbs in a crocodile s eyes, if you have time). And yet they proceeded to have an adventure that neither O Hanlon, nor his friend, nor even his guides were remotely prepared for Consistently exciting, often funny, and erudite without ever being overwhelming Punch.

Between 1920 and 1934, Gerald Brenan lived in the remote Spanish village of Yegen and South of Granada depicts his time there, vividly evoking the essence of his rural surroundings and the Spanish way of life before the Civil War. Here he portrays the landscapes, festivals and folk-lore of the Sierra Nevada, the rivalries, romances and courtship rituals, village customs, superstitions and characters. Fascinating details emerge, from cheap brothels to archaeological remains, along with visits from Brenan s friends from the Bloomsbury group Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf among them. Knowledgeable, elegant and sympathetic, this is a rich account of Spain s vanished past.

Travels with Herodotus records how Kapuscinski set out on his first forays to India, China and Africa with the great Greek historian constantly in his pocket. He sees Louis Armstrong in Khartoum, visits Dar-es-Salaam, arrives in Algiers in time for a coup when nothing seems to happen (but he sees the Mediterranean for the first time). At every encounter with a new culture, Kapuscinski plunges in, curious and observant, thirsting to understand its history, its thought, its people. And he reads Herodotus so much that he often feels he is embarking on two journeys the first his assignment as a reporter, the second following Herodotus expeditions.

In 1940 Steinbeck sailed in a sardine boat with his great friend the marine biologist, Ed Ricketts, to collect marine invertebrates from the beaches of the Gulf of California. The expedition was described by the two men in SEA OF CORTEZ, published in 1941. The day-to-day story of the trip is told here in the Log, which combines science, philosophy and high-spirited adventure. An exhilarating and highly entertaining read.

An English comic novel about a World War II expedition to a Himalayan peak.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BILL BRYSONAn outrageously funny spoof about the ascent of a 40,000-and-a-half-foot peak, The Ascent of Rum Doodle has been a cult favourite since its publication in 1956. Led by the reliably under-insightful Binder, a team of seven British men -- including Dr Prone (constantly ill), Jungle the route finder (constantly lost), Constant the diplomat (constantly arguing) -- and 3,000 Yogistani porters sets out to conquer the highest peak in the Himalayas.

What would happen if you were cycling to the office and just kept on pedalling?Needing a change, Mike Carter did just that. Following the Thames to the sea he embarked on an epic 5,000 mile ride around the entire British coastline - the equivalent of London to Calcutta.He encountered drunken priests, drag queens and gnome sanctuaries. He met fellow travellers and people building for a different type of future. He also found a spirit of unbelievable kindness and generosity that convinced him that Britain is anything but broken. This is the inspiring and very funny tale of the five months Mike spent cycling the byways of the nation.

Dark Star Safari is Paul Theroux's now classic account of a journey from Cairo to Cape Town.Travelling across bush and desert, down rivers and across lakes, and through country after country, Theroux visits some of the most beautiful landscapes on earth, and some of the most dangerous. It is a journey of discovery and of rediscovery -- of the unknown and the unexpected, but also of people and places he knew as a young and optimistic teacher forty years before.Safari in Swahili simply means "e;journey"e;, and this is the ultimate safari. It is Theroux in his element -- a trip where chance encounter is everything, where departure and arrival times are an irrelevance, and where contentment can be found balancing on the top of a truck in the middle of nowhere.Praise for Paul Theroux:'Theroux's work remains the standard by which other travel writing must be judged' Observer'One needs energy to keep up with the extraordinary, productive restlessness of Paul Theroux ... [He is] the most gifted, most prodigal writer of his generation'Jonathan Raban'Always a terrific teller of tales and conjurer of exotic locales, he writes lean prose that lopes along at a compelling pace'Sunday TimesPaul Theroux's books include Dark Star Safari, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Elephanta Suite, A Dead Hand, The Tao of Travel and The Lower River. The Mosquito Coast and Dr Slaughter have both been made into successful films. Paul Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.