Turn Left At Mont Blanc: Hiking The TMB - One Couple's Inspirational, Funny & Brutally Honest Account Of Their Adventure Around Europe's Highest Mountain (Alpine Thru-Hiking Collection)

Hiking like that takes a lot of courage, energy. And the love of living outdoors. At my age this is something I can no longer do and a failing back. I do love reading stories of other people's lives on doing it. The people they meet and new friends. A world of peace and beauty, taking your time and doing what you love. I wish I was brave enough years ago to try and do this. But life goes on, day in day out, making a living to support yourself and family and time flies by. They had wonderful times and they also had miserable times but in the end the wonderful times always wins. They are having a wonderful life. Keep it up.

I was hoping for a story of the the easier route around the TMB, however, this account is interesting in a more driven way. A couple motivated to take the more difficult routes fueled by a vegan diet provided an interesting trip into what motivates people I wouldn't normally been exposed to. I was also interested in the author's choice to write a detailed account of their experience when that didn't seem to be one of their many goals.

Great travel tale well told. I was very surprised to realize after reading it that it's self-published. I had vowed never to buy a self-published book after giving up on plowing through some very poorly written and poorly edited books, but this one is very well written.

Generally an interesting read but soon becomes a preachy vegetarian missive with a lot of talk about the author's toilet troubles. Doesn't even attempt to be a guide to the TMB, which is fine but the ego-stroking preachy side ruined the entertainment for me.

I usually read about Appalachian Trail thru hikers so this was a different type of read for me. Dan and Esther were a very active couple who started out hiking the GR5 but turned left at one point and took the TMD trail instead. They both had health issues but had determination and sticktoitedness and we're flexible enough to make their hike work. I clicked on the review link within the book but could not leave a review on Amazon UK. So I had to login to amazon US and was able to leave a review here. Nice read.

Great fun, insightful, honest story of hiking, inadvertently, the TMB. As a hiker dreaming of doing the TMB in the future, I found this to be a truthful account of days on the trail and what you will encounter. I enjoyed following along and laughing at situations and emotions that I've been through myself. A little much on the toiletting, but everyone has issues and it's nice to know they shouldn't hold you back from your adventurous side. Looking forward to reading the next book and hoping to follow, almost, in Dan and Esther's footprints in the future!

I got this book in hopes of hearing a first-hand account of hiking the TMB. The author is very vulnerable in one sense: he admits to not having planned anything, shares about a very personal physical issue that requires additional consideration when hiking, and is honest about having arguments with his wife. Unfortunately this authenticity is delivered with random tangents, and a lot of desperation to be viewed as a tough guy. It all just feels a little awkward. As the reader, there are parts that resonate and stir compassion. But then there is also a lot of disconnect as the author discusses great financial loss, but later mentions selling their secondary residence. There is a real disconnect for people who have to be frugal out of necessity. So it all makes for a strange read: part confessional, part stand-up attempt, part sermon, part over-explanation, and part travel guide.

I felt as though I was in the mountains along with Dan and Esther while they hiked and camped through the amazing Alps. I highly recommend this memoir for anyone who likes to travel through the book with the author as though you are there.

Wonderfully told adventures..

Dan’s adventure books are not novels and so should not be read in long sessions waiting to find out what happens at the end. Dan has shared his and Esthers’ experiences of hiking in Europe to places many people will never have the chance to go to, whether it be because of health, time, money or other constraints. I am single and an asthmatic, so have avoided joining a walking group because of holding people back or having problems, but I would have loved to do some of these hikes. Dan has recorded their trips in diary form with plenty of detail of each day’s trials and successes. I have spent all of lockdown reading a chapter each evening, but looking up on the internet all the places he mentions, and so seeing lovely views in good sunlight rather than the rainy days they sometimes experienced. The internet web sites then get you digressing onto other topics before you get back to the book maybe an hour or so later. I do ski and have been to many of the places they walked which made it interesting to see them without a deep snow covering, and it made it more interesting comparing walking maps with piste maps. I also watch the cycle tours, so I read that D and E were cycling up the Passo dello Stelvio the night before this year’s Gira d’Italia did the same route, so got a helicopter view of it.I have been reading travelogue books since the beginning of lockdown but Dan’s adventures inspired me to look up places on the internet, a methos I would recommend for other readers. I 'joined' them in May and have just finished his last book 6 months later which he must have completed a few weeks ago. I am now a bit at a lost as to how to spend my evenings. So thank you Dan and Esther for getting me through these difficult times while I have stayed more or less in solitary confinement. And although I have stayed in one place, I feel I have travelled and experienced and seen so much this summer.

Having read the authors blogs I naturally dipped into this his first book and could not stop turning the pages!Mr Colegate himself is an interesting man ,Oxford intellectual and sportsman from a northern working class home who learned to cope with an unusual “handicap “Food and relationship issues are in here but don’t harm the readability even if like me you still need a beer and a cheese sandwich after a long hot hike !Most of all thanks to this lovely easy read my wife and I are gagging to get on the TMB !

Having had our holiday to the Alps cancelled this year it was nice to escape into a good book about someone else'sjourney through mountains and green pastures. I liked that it was not always rosy in the garden as sometimes theymight bicker a bit but who doesn't and it was refreshing to read in that sense. I particularly liked the hissing under their breath in the mountain rifugio about whether they should stay the night. it is a scenario I can imagine ourselves in too. a great read and I shall be looking at buying his other books about the Matterhorn and the Alps soon. I alsopurchased The sunny side of the Alps by Roy Clark at the same time and this is turning into another good read.

Absolutely loved it! After following Esther and Dan on their blog,I only discovered this book recently...read it in 2 days or so... Found it so honest,true,humane, could feel myself climbing with them...can't wait to start the 2nd of the serie! Thank you for sharing this amazing wxperience!