I rarely “review” things but really wanted to feed back how good I think this book is!
Despite being a climber and relying on guidebooks I have always held a certain snobbery over "walking guides", "wild swimming guides" and their ilk, feeling I could find my own adventures. However, I realised trying to introduce my children to outdoor adventures is somewhat thwart with difficulty. I had no idea what an appropriate level of challenge was for a three and six year old and was terrified of getting them into something that would put them off for life. After reading Rachel's "Why You Should Get Out More With the Kids" article on UKClimbing I swallowed my pride and bought the book.
What a great decision and cue a multitude of fab adventures with the family in the Lakes over the last two years. The highlights of our camping trip last week in Eskdale for the girls and myself both came from the book, swimming in Kali Pot (the girls) and riding the Esk Trail (for me). I'm glad they weren't too truthful about the hill as I'm not sure we'd have done it if we'd known, it was already a big enough ride for a five year old without gears on sixteen inch wheels! I'm already bookmarking pages for our next trip up in a fortnight.
I rarely “review” things but really wanted to feed back how good I think this book is!
Thank you Rachel and Carl.
Nicholas, by email
This is an excellent book and one that I am sure will be invaluable for any families with children from the age of five to 12
IN the next month or so, children will be breaking up from school and families will be heading off on their summer holiday. The chances are that quite a number of these will head to the Lake District as part of the 15.8 million visitors who visit each year to enjoy the scenery, peace and quiet and walking but many others who visit specific attractions or take part in an outdoor activity.
A new book from Cicerone will be extremely useful to aid families in activities that they can undertake in the Lake District National Park. The book is divided into two main sections - The Southern Lakes with activities to the west of Windermere and around Coniston Water and The Northern Lakes around Ullswater, Thirlmere, Derwent Water, Buttermere, Bassenthwaite Lake and Ennerdale Water. There are 20 chapters in each of these two areas with activities including Hiking, Cycling, Water Activities, Exploring, Scrambling, Mountain Climbing and Overnight Stays in Bothies or Mountain Huts.
Some of the forty adventures include only one of these activities whereas others include up to four of these. For example the Cathedral Caves visit in Little Langdale includes Cycling, Hiking, Exploring and Water Activities (paddling) all or some of which can be included in this particular adventure. The adventures are geared towards mainly Primary School age children up to the age of 12.
This is an excellent book, well written by Rachel Crolla and Carl McKeating and one that I am sure will be invaluable for any families with children from the age of five to 12. All the activities have been rigorously road tested by this couple and their children and I only wish that it had come out 25 years ago when my own children were in this age bracket as there are some cracking activities for the whole family to enjoy.
John Burland
Perfect read for any families that are heading to the Lake District this summer and beyond.
After years of having our own outdoor adventures, it can be tricky when we become parents to plan suitable days that will not only keep little ones occupied but will also encourage them to love our natural landscapes as much as we do. This handy guidebook is packed with 40 family days out for those with kids under 12, all based in the Lake District. There's a variety of outdoor pursuits, including hiking, biking, boating, scrambling, mountain climbing, water sports, exploring, overnight missions and more. All the adventures are graded, with alternatives given where they exist, so you as a family can embark on the level of adventure that suits you- and so you can progress to more challenging outdoor activities as the littles ones grow up.
Perfect read for any families that are heading to the Lake District this summer and beyond.
Outdoor Enthusiast magazine
The authors are to be roundly congratulated
i mentioned a few days past, my visit to the local secondary school to address a group of pupils undertaking a relatively short cycle from the islay ferry to arran's small ferry to lochranza. i won't bore you with the details again, but my opening gambit was to enquire just how many of those i was about to address actually owned a bicycle. the show of hands led me to reverse my interlocution and ask how many did not own a bicycle, to which only one half-hearted hand was raised.
the group's size was probably around twenty pupils and i confess that this knowledge came as something of a surprise. i have been riding round islay for well over 30 years and the number of junior cyclists on the road has not varied one iota, so far as i can see. granted, there are always small kids on scooters and little bikes, but when it comes to the teenage generations, you could count the numbers on one finger. that fact alone pretty much explains why the sunday morning peloton consists of an ever-ageing bunch of velocipedinists, with a youth recruitment programme that remains pretty much steady at zero.
in my early years on the isle, i would organise easter bunny hops, a red nose day stonk around the runway and several other cycling activities that were rarely oversubscribed and ultimately faded into nothingness. but unless parents put some time and effort into encouraging cycling activity with their own kids and their peers, all the commuting strategies in the world won't crack the climate change problem. while this need not be location-specific, somewhere fun for a family holiday would make for a good start.
this is precisely where the first in cicerone's new series 'outdoor adventures with children' is likely to score well on the satisfaction scale. authors rachel crolla and carl mckeating have started with the lake district, a highly attractive region of the uk, sporting a decent spread of offroad bike rides, along with water and walking activities that ought best complement the cycling. while the post generally concerns itself with the road-going end of the cycling world, it's hard to argue against using gravel and dirt tracks for young apprentice cyclists, to guard against an increased level of motorised traffic, particularly around specific holiday regions.
the authors are to be roundly congratulated for not presenting the act of cycling with children as being a parent's ultimate goal in life, something that will be every bit as simple as making peanut butter sandwiches. "There's no getting away from the fact that cycling with children can be a faff." thankfully, they haven't left the keen reader with that as their endgame, moving on to explain how best to accommodate the needs and aspirations of the next tao geoghan hart, or lizzie deignan.
though the more draconian of cycling inflected parents may scoff at the velocipedinal dilution espoused by including other outdoor activities, the authors have obviously realised that kids often get bored quickly and a handy and immediate alternative is always a good call. for instance, as suggested within the book's well-illustrated pages, the carrot on the stick might be a boat trip or swim in a lake at the end of an offroad ride. deception and encouragement often go hand in hand.
this compact and bijou publication contains a total of forty adventures, all categorised not only at the top of the chapter pages, but in an easily accessible list at the front of the book. this is further divided into lists of each specific activity in appendix a, before the various other appendices at the rear of the publication, list attractions and playgrounds, cycle and boat hire and activity providers. for those parents looking for brownie points as a deflection from the amount of time they spend riding when at home, an active holiday in the lake district might be just what her/him indoors ordered.
washingmachinepost
thursday 25 april 2019
For the mountaineer with young children
For the mountaineer with young children there is inevitably the desire to introduce them to the outdoors as soon as possible so that the pleasures of climbing can be continued and shared. Cicerone have produced this book of adventures for children under the age of 12 - and accompanying adults of course - with 40 days of easy to challenging days out in the Lake District. Activities include scrambling, climbing and exploring.
Alpine Club
