Off the Beaten Track: England and Wales

England and Wales might feel familiar to many, but there are countless hidden idylls and remote wildernesses to discover amongst the soaring passes, spectacular coastlines and boundless moorlands. For many, Martin's 'slow road' routes will have opened up the country's most well known highways and byways, but there is so much more to England and Wales than these, at times overcrowded, hotspots. This book is the next, natural step in Martin's wanderings around England and Wales. If Take The Slow Road whetted the appetite for a Great British adventure, this book will be the main course, filling you up with inspiring writing and beautiful imagery from the most remote and wild corners of England and Wales. It will take you to the very edges of the map, on a series of personal journeys to uncover parts of these countries that the masses never reach but wish they could. In discovering these secret and beautiful places this fabulous book shows the reader that, with a little imagination, and some effort, they too can get off the beaten track in their own country.

Martin Dorey is a writer, surfer and serial camper van owner. In 2011 he presented the BBC2 television programme 'One Man and his Camper Van'. He is the author of Take the Slow Road: England and Wales (2019), Take the Slow Road: Ireland (2020), Take the Slow Road: France (2021), The Camper Van Bible Second Edition (2023), Take the Slow Road: Spain and Portugal (2023), The Green Camping Book (2024) and Take the Slow Road: Scotland Second Edition (2024), amongst several others. @martindorey; www.martindorey.com

Author's Preface 6 About this book 8 Introducing England 9 Introducing Wales 11 How to get to England and Wales 12 Where and how to stay overnight in England and Wales 14 Your essential kit 17 Travel, climate and the mess we make 20 ENGLAND 22 The South-west 01 Wessex Wandering 25 02 The East Lyn River 39 03 Bude's Lost Waterway 49 04 The River Avon 61 05 The Jurassic Undercliff 73 06 Devon Coast to Coast 83 The South and South-east 07 The Wight Chines 97 08 The River Test 109 09 Goring to Maidenhead 121 10 Dungeness Desolation 133 11 Kent's Pilgrims' Way 147 East Anglia 12 The Suffolk Coast 159 The North 13 Spurn Head and the Humber 171 14 The North York Moors 183 15 Stanhope to Newcastle 197 16 The Northumberland Coast 207 17 The Otterburn Ranges 219 The North-west 18 The Tweed Valley 229 19 The Solway Firth 241 20 The Western Lakes 249 21 The Forest of Bowland 259 WALES 270 22 Cwm Bychan and the Roman Steps 273 23 The Pass of The Cross 283 24 The Teifi 291 25 The Brecon Beacons 303 Index 316 Acknowledgements 320