Three West-based adventurers and authors are
encouraging people to eschew far-flung escapes
in favour of some homegrown marvels and
excitement. Tina Rowe finds out more
With its promise of night walks and campfires, wild swimming and secret coves the Wild Guide to the South West sounds like a Famous Five adventure.
In fact just three adventurers are involved in this guide to some of the best fun to be had on summer holidays or weekends, or even winter evenings.
Daniel Start is an award-winning travel writer and photographer and author of best-selling Wild Swimming and Wild Swimming Coast. Tania Pascoe is a West Country expert, sustainability consultant and local food critic, based in Somerset. Jo Keeling was countryside editor of BBC Countryfile magazine and is now editor of lifestyle magazine Pretty Nostalgic.
A bitter winter and cold spring must surely make way for a glorious summer to encourage us all to get out into the wild and enjoy the glories that the West Country can offer.
The guide features more than 500 suggestions to help you plan the perfect escape in Somerset, Dorset, Devon or Cornwall.
In East Dorset, for example, one perfect weekend laid out by the authors begins with greeting the dawn from the henge and ruined church at Knowleton, then heading to Long Crichel bakery for freshly-baked organic bread, marvel at famous beaches, climb Hod Hill Hillfort and enjoy a refreshing dip in the river Stour below, see glow worms on Fontmell Downs and spend the night in a shepherd's hut
Along the river Avon, in the heart of north Somerset, there are wonderful opportunities for canoeing, wildlife-watching and wild swimming, with most places accessible by cycle and train.
The most beautiful stretch, says the guide, is the Limpley Stoke valley from Bath through to Bradford on Avon, a tranquil, boat-free zone where wildlife abounds.
At Dundas Aqueduct near Bath you can hire a Canadian canoe to pootle along the water. We all know some of these delights but this is a fine guide, well laid-out with plenty of new ideas.
"We chose to write our first Wild Guide about the South West because we wanted to celebrate simple adventures close to home," says Daniel.
"The South West is a place we know, love and live in, so the idea of an intimate local guide and app, filled with secret destinations and special places, appealed.
"Along the way, we have met so many people living a simpler, richer life, such as artisan producers making delicious traditional foods and smallholders who tend to their pigs and chickens alongside guests.
"The end result is a compendium of wonderful adventures and wild places.
"It is packed full of memories of wild campsites, night walks, foraging missions, sunset surfing, canoe trips at dawn and countless dips into moorland tarns and Somerset rivers. And all without flying, or queuing, or paying very much at all. We hope the book inspires many wild and wonderful escapades.
"The Wild Guide is a celebration of the wild places that lie hidden, just off the beaten path."
He added: "These special places are on your very doorstep, if you know where to look.
"Discover lost ruins overgrown by ancient forests; clamber down to a secret cove and explore sea caves; picnic in a meadow of orchids and rare butterflies; watch the sun set from an Iron Age hill fort; search for glow worms in the dusk then wait for the sky to turn deep indigo and fill with stars."
