A copy of this was provided free of charge from the author in return for an honest review.

In early 2016, Gabriel Stewart set out to walk 1000 miles around the UK exploring the towns and countryside. Of course, there would have to be a charity element to it, most people expect these days that you are doing these sorts of things for others and not just yourself. Carrying only a tent, stove, food and a camera it was going to be a challenge. Especially when you take into account that he had almost no experience of camping by himself, nor had undertaken much training. Perhaps challenge would be an understatement.

Starting with a couple of easier walks alone, home in London to Brighton and then from Stratford to Folkstone. Next up was a longer walk to Norwich with a friend, Sam and the joys of camping in a bivvie bag. However, a niggling problem that he had had was getting worse and it suddenly became apparent that the searing pain in his ankles wasn’t going to go away…

This honest account of an attempt to walk 1000 miles is amusing at times. He often gets very very wet. Stewart has fiercely independent opinions on all matter of subjects and this book is sometimes as much about those as the walks. He realises that these challenges that you set yourself can also be a shared experience, but it is a part of life’s rich learning experience. It goes to prove that you need to put the training in as that builds the experience and resilience, however, his medical issues with his tendons meant that every step was agony on some f the walks. Not a bad book, but I didn’t fully click with him as a writer, probably because the target audience is his peers, who would understand more of the humour and language than I did.

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