Wirral man writes travel memoir about Swiss Alps

Apr 11 2012 by Linda Foo Guest, Birkenhead News

A WIRRAL man has written an inspiring tale about his walk across the Swiss Alps.

Martin Block fulfilled his dream and spent five weeks logging his adventure to turn into a book.

His travel memoir, entitled Five Weeks One Summer, is an often moving account about fearing risk but taking it anyway.

Martin, of Birkenhead, did the solo trip, which cost around £2,000, in the summer of 2004.

Initially he was planning to put together a guide book, but while writing it realised it was more of a story about his adventure.

Martin began his alpine trail at Zermatt and took in the splendours of the Matterhorn, Saas, Almagell, Monte Rosa and finally Zinal.

He also experienced the loveliness of the Weisshornalong and the usual backpacker problems.

He described his book as an informative and useful guide for mountain walkers, boasting a multitude of sound information regarding routes, cheap hostels, places to eat and much more.

The 48-year-old works as a technical author, writing instruction manuals for a technology company.

Martin told the News: “Originally my plan was to write it as a guide book, but I thought it would be better as a diary with descriptions of the walks and what it is like in the Alps.

“I have done mountain walking before, but this is the first time I have published a book. I wanted to do something different, something special.

“There were many highlights of the trip, such as walking the Grand Mountet Hut which has beautiful scenery within a semi-circle of mountains – it is absolutely stunning.

“It was somewhere I had wanted to go my whole life.

“My worst time was the first few days because I was ill with flu, but it did not take long before I recovered.

“Partway through my trip I met up with friends from Birkenhead at Interlaken, which was a lovely break.

“When I was on my own, there were plenty of other tourists and mountain walkers around to talk to.

“It was a great trip – I had been on plenty of others before but nothing like this.”

The paperback costs £8.99 and is available online from Amazon, Waterstone’s and Tesco.