Munros and Tops, The

May 20, 2024 1:49 AM

Author:Chris Townsend

When Chris Townsend reached the summit of Ben Hope in Sutherland, he walked his way into the record books. After 118 days in which he had covered more than 1,700 miles and climber over 575,000 feet, he had completed the first single continuous journey of all 277 Munros and 240 Tops in the Scottish Highlands.This is the story of that remarkable walk from the start on Ben More on the Isle of Mull through to the finish, the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest 18 times. For the author, the real enjoyment of the walk was not in counting up the summits or the miles but in spending week after week in the hills and living in the wilds. In THE MUNROS AND TOPS, Chris Townsend recalls the joys of observing the birds and animals, the trees and flowers, the changing shapes of the hills and the play of light on their slopes. He writes about the complexities of route-finding and the challenge of rugged terrain and of coping with often atrocious weather conditions. Illustrated with photographs taken during the walk, this is a stirring account of a unique achievement.

Reviews

A delightful read ... brilliant

—— Rugby World

Bright, breezy, entertaining and revealing

—— Gerry Thornley , Irish Times

Open, honest and entertaining

—— RTE Guide

A superbly funny read

—— Cycling Weekly

Readers of Moore’s French Revolutions will not be disappointed by this hilariously painful, and poignant, adventure

—— Anna Carey , Irish Times

Gironimo! is partly a story of adversity, despair, and tenacity – and partly a funny, and often sweary, travelogue. I was hooked from the start

—— Seamus Kelly , Cycle

Absurd, inspirational and laugh-out-loud funny, Gironimo! Is a charming tribute to the dogged resilience of the amateur spirit and a golden age of road cycling

—— Tom Kerr , Racing Post

Part travelogue, part sports record and part history and all written with his inimitable humour

—— By the Dart

Gironimo is the perfect successor to French Revolutions, and provides more of everything that made the latter so popular

—— Cycling World

The author’s adventures are often highly entertaining, though, as “road-trip” literature, it is unusual in that it mostly makes the reader glad not to be on the road!

—— Good Book Guide

Insightful and witty

—— Cycle Sport

It’s just exciting to read

—— Toby Neal , Shropshire Star

My selection for the cycling book of the year so far. The incredible story of road cycling in Rwanda, it is a tale that quite brilliantly portrays the power of sport to effect change and roots itself in Africa’s challenge to what we mean by ‘global sport.’. Superb, a must-read

—— Mark Perryman , Socialist Unity

The unlikely true story of two US ex-pros who travelled to Rwanda with visions of creating Africa’s first world-beating professional cycling team

—— Simon Usborne , Independent

This book is an entertaining account taking in everyone from stage winners and former yellow jerseys who couldn’t hang on, to a breakaway leader who stopped for a bottle of wine and then took a wrong turn, to a doper whose drug cocktail backfired

—— Bike Radar

We know the winners of the Tour de France, but Lanterne Rouge tells the forgotten, often inspirational and occasionally absurd stories of the last-placed rider

—— Miss Dinky

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