£4.99 buys you this slim, glossy 32 page guide to 12 two hour-ish walks with cute names such as “Royalty to the Ritz”, “Hounds of Hampstead”, “Attlee the East Ender” and “The Lovely Jubbly One”.
There’s an introduction by Boomerang who looks like a black Labrador cross and Attlee who is a three year old mongrel living in South East London.
Each walk contains details of dog watering holes, farm animals, open areas, seats, cafes/bars/pubs and water to play in (so take a towel on those ones). There’s a helpful map at the front so that you can select a walk in the region of London of interest – from my perspective, walk nine “Fenton’s Folly” in Richmond Park looks interesting as Alfie is a regular visitor there and I’ve noted that the Roebuck is tipped as being dog friendly. Will pop in there soon.
Walk one takes in eight of London’s bridges so that’s one for when you have visitors in tow. And there are eight sets of instructions for that walk which takes two hours and covers 3.5 miles – there’s a helpful note of things like whether there are lead off areas, ball throwing areas, stiles (in London?), poo bins, watering holes for canines, transport links and dog friendly pubs. Sadly, there are no postcode details so that you can use the maps or satnav facilities on your smartphone although each walk has an annotated outline map. There’s also lots of photos of dogs at key points in each walk so that you know what’s in store.
The great doggy book shop can be found at http://www.bestdogwalksuk.com/ where you can order copies online. There are also versions for Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Midlands, Ironbridge and Staffordshire that might make useful gifts for out of town friends and family. They are sponsored by Wagg dog foods.
