Review: Adventure Dayze, by Wayne Mullane

Blurb 

Hiking is the gateway to adventure.

Being in the Great Outdoors is great for the mind, body, and soul. And the even better news? It needn’t involve much more than putting on a pair of trainers and heading out your front door.

In Adventure Dayze, author Wayne Mullane recounts his hiking experiences in Britain and Ireland with his friends, including overcoming limitations walking at altitude and having a dodgy sense of direction!

This book aims to help you get started… or, if you’re a seasoned hiker, to encourage you to hike with renewed vigour. This story shares insights and discusses the benefits of hiking, including fitness, friendship, courage, mental health, and…err…the joy of eating.

Adventure Dayze will inspire you to overcome your limitations and get outdoors to enjoy all the unique beauty that is on offer. Even pandemic lockdowns won’t be able to suppress your exploration, as the author found out, there are many ways to bring the outdoors inside when there’s no other choice.

Author Bio
I live in Maidenhead, England. I’m a local council worker. My main hobbies are hiking, writing and playing board games. I also like spending time with family and friends. As well as writing about my hiking adventures, I write short stories and poems that appear on my website. I enjoy reading books on travel and fantasy novels. 

My Review

Thanks to Wayne Mullane for sending me a copy of his book. He’s a good writer, so follow the link to his blog for a taste. Thanks to Kelly and the team at Love Books Tours for organising the tour.

I used to do a lot of hiking, especially as a child. I went hiking with my dad and his walking group regularly. A lot of our holidays were spent in Yorkshire and Cumbria walking and exploring. I got my first pair of real walking boots at six and my first rucksack not long after. I learnt to read maps and use a compass early (an essential skill in the days before smart phones and Google maps), got my hiking and camping badges in both Brownies and Guides, and generally spent a lot of time wet, cold, sunburnt, and probably covered in mud. Mud is a common themes of stories told about me when I go out walking.

I find being outside very relaxing, even if I do huff and puff a bit more these days. It’s excellent for clearing the brain and thinking things through. One of the advantages of living in Immingham was I could take myself off on a short hike whenever I felt the need. Living in Grimsby, especially the particularly manky bit of Grimsby I currently inhabit, it’s not so easy. I don’t feel safe wandering about town like I do wandering about fields and country roads. I use swimming for the same purpose now, but I do miss the freedom of striding along, in the fresh air, listening to the birds.

Wayne Mullane started hiking regularly five years ago and found that it helped with his mental health, his overall fitness and got him through the pandemic as he adapted ways to walk at home. He learnt new skills, like making a fire, had fun with his friends, and got lost a lot.

I enjoyed his narrative and the lessons he’s learnt. The book is written chronologically and with humour, discussing his adventures and struggles with acrophobia sensitively and highly descriptively. I had flashbacks to hill walking and just wanting to get to the pub and sit down! All good walks should involve a pub.

I thought his advice on building up to longer walks and higher peaks was very sensible. His kit list is comprehensive and his ideas for exploring from home, using the internet, were excellent tips for the new hiker. There are many beautiful areas to visit and finding local gems is part of the fun. You can live in a place for years and never know about a nature reserve or woodland. I’m quite taken with the idea of getting on a train and getting off at a random station and then just walking. It’s probably not safe, given my ability to get lost, fall over, or get stung, but it would be fun to try.

If you’ve never been into hiking or you used to be, and want to know what to expect, this book is a good place to start.