What could be a better place to launch a new cycling Cicerone guidebook to the Peak District than the Peak District Outdoors Festival launch event? It seemed a no-brainer really, so when the opportunity arose for the author Chiz Dakin to do just that, she accepted rather quickly.
And on the day even the weather was co-operating, it could have been a mid-summer heatwave rather than late April, but the sun was scorching down all day. Being positioned within close proximity to the ice-cream stall in Buxton’s pavillion gardens was a good call for getting extra visitors, and fortunately not too many were small children with ice-cream daubed fingers to leave indelible prints on the display copies! The short speech by Julia Bradbury launching the Outdoors Festival itself also seemed to bring quite a few extra folks to Pavillion walkway.
The visitors came in all sizes and shapes, from the lycra-clad hard core (who just wanted to scrounge some free water) to those wanting advice on all things cycling. Quite a few were even interested in the book! (And none of those left without a purchase or promise to purchase before their next visit to the region).
Possibly the weirdest comment of the day was the non-cyclist who thought that cyclists should be banned from the roads – he really ought to try out some of the easier routes in the guidebook, that might just change his mind! Perhaps one of the electric bikes on a stand nearby was more his sort of thing – after all they would cope with many of the routes in the book too.
Tags: 9781852846305
