An enjoyable but frustrating read. A long walk, across the watershed of Europe from northern Spain to Istanbul, in the company of Mr Crane. An amiable, likeable companion. Up to a point. Completed the walk was certainly an achievment. But along the way we lost sight of why he was doing it in the first place, except to be able to produce a book about it in the end. He treks determindly on, as do we, plodding through too many descriptions of pathways, great views, fleeting passers by. He is remarkably ill equipped often getting lost because of poor maps and getting himself into difficulty by being poorly equipped. There is the lack of a big picture just endless days in the mountains. Tit bits of research into history added from post-hike research only add to the sense of a manufactured task whose end product was a book. ( )

An honest account of Nicolas Crane's walk from Finesterre to Istanbul, across the mountains in the way.
I particularly enjoyed the section through the Alps and the Carpathians. He writes with sympathy and awe about the mountain people he meets, mostly shepherds and he writes knowledgeably about the land and its history.
This is a book you can pick and choose from, but it is also a coherent whole; he talks honestly about how much he misses his partner and of their brief meetings over the 18 months of the walk. He also talks honestly about how he felt at the end of the walk. ( )

Crane's transcontinental trek was a fine achievement, and the book is well-written, but the story never really seemed to "come alive" for me - not even when he unexpectedly found himself face-to-face with a bear. ( )

Evocative. Makes you want to put on your walking shoes. ( )