Just keep walking

ALMOST 30 years ago, a chap called Ian Bleasdale wrote a guide detailing all the walks on the Greek Island of Paxos. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had fallen for the island's rugged charms and, after many visits tramping its networks of old paths, decided to share their knowledge with like-minded souls.

- Pamela Goodman

So popular did this prove that they went on to produce multiple editions, publishing the lastand 12th-edition, in 2011 before hanging up their walking boots and closing the lid of the laptop.

By this stage, the guide had morphed into a more substantial publication than its first incarnation, evolving from a map with annotations in the margin to a book containing photographs, a brief history of the island, walking notes of immensely intricate detail and a handy, pull-out, topographical map veined in red lines like a diagram of human blood vessels. Conveniently, too, the book and map also included walking routes on Paxos's neighbouring sister island of Antipaxos, should keen hikers wish to hop across the narrow channel dividing the two.