cicerone guides

I’ve mentioned a couple of times how I’m a keen follower of The Longest Way Home blog, written by UK-born travel writer David Ways. He’s also been writing a series of guidebooks to Nepal, and while I was there in March I took the opportunity to try one of them out.

Abode of the Gods by Kev Reynolds can best be described as an edited journal covering eight treks in different parts of Nepal over a 23-year period. It is the best tribute anyone could pen to a country that has become their second home.

Over the last two weekends we visited Abruzzo National Park and climbed the big four peaks. Abruzzo has provided a feast of mountains for us throughout 2015, and although it’s a close call, I think these have been my favourite of all of them.

The ascent of Monte Amaro in the Italian Apennines is a magnificent skyline walk in a moonlike landscape over peaks and along ridges, but could it be that the mountain is named after an alcoholic beverage?

I was dimly aware of the Apennine mountains running down the spine of peninsula Italy, but I’d never given them much thought. I discovered the Gran Sasso massif is a hill walkers’ paradise, with attainable mountains even in the depths of winter.

I’d like to pay tribute to a man called Graham Uney. I’ve never met him and I probably never will, but thanks to his Backpacker’s Britain walking guides I’ve had many an enjoyable weekend in the UK’s hills, in places

Move over Lonely Planet — here are the best travel guidebooks to Nepal

A 250-page love letter to Nepal

The Abruzzo Quartet: an autumn feast of mountains

Monte Amaro, a mountain worth drinking to

A Gran Sasso reconnaissance

Backpacker’s Britain: walking guides for people who like it tough