“Many thanks for your application for the 38th Great Outdoors Challenge. We are delighted to inform you that you have a place on the 2017 Event,” appeared at the start of an email I, and over 300 others, received one day in early November. It threw me into an immediate panic. Continue reading “The Start of Something…”
I’ve decided what I’m going to do as my local long distance path project for this year – it’s the London Countryway.
The London Countryway is a long distance walking trail that circumnavigates London. It lies outside of the two better-known circular London walks – the Capital Ring and the London LOOP – and so is a much more serious proposition. Having walked the LOOP and enjoyed it far more than I ever thought I would, the idea of doing similar at a greater radius from the centre of London really appeals. If I add to that the allure of a little-known path, it’s not a difficult decision to do it. Continue reading “A London Countryway – Planning”
The Wealdway is a long distance path that runs from Gravesend in Kent, on the south bank of the Thames, to Eastbourne in East Sussex, where the South Downs terminate in chalk cliffs rising above the English Channel, making it the primary coast to coast walking route in the extreme South East. Continue reading “Planning the Wealdway”
I suppose, having looked back at 2014, I ought to do a post looking forward to 2015. I usually try to avoid posts like this as writing down plans here is usually the kiss of death to them. So I’m going to keep this as brief as I can and try not to over-commit. Continue reading “2015 Plans”
It’s been over a year, but finally I’m getting back to the Cambrian Way. In a little over 10 days I’ve gone from not even considering doing it to impatience to get out there on the trail. The Lakes has … Continue reading Back on the Cambrian Way
Those who had the stamina to endure my recent succession of Cambrian Way planning posts may have been wondering why it suddenly seemed to go a bit quiet. The truth is I’ve had to alter my plans. But unlike several … Continue reading A Cambrian Way Rethink
I’m heading off to the Lakes for a week-long backpack at the weekend as a key part of my preparation for walking the Cambrian Way in April. Here are a few notes on the process of preparing for the preparation … Continue reading Planning a Saunter in the Southern Fells
And now things get serious with the most controversial section of the Cambrian Way. Rough walking over demanding terrain, nowhere to stay overnight, but in the eyes of Tony Drake the most rewarding part of the whole route. Except in my case, I don’t have the accommodation issue… Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 8: Barmouth to Beddgelert”
Assuming that I don’t roll into Llandovery a bedraggled and broken mess of a walker, and head promptly for home, I’ll depart Llandovery and enter a whole new world – one of deep valleys, woods and wild rounded hills. It looks absolutely enchanting, and whilst it clearly won’t match the more dramatic scenery a couple of days behind me, it looks like it has a charm all of its own. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 5: Llandovery to Devil’s Bridge”
Could this be the most problematic section of the walk to plan ? It was certainly starting to look that way. It’s the longest section according to my initial carve up and with me needing to make sweeping assumptions about the daily distances I could make by predicting my fitness and the effect of any weather conditions. There’s not really much in the way of bricks and mortar between Abergavenny and Llandovery, unless you’re up for a detour off the route, and there are also some alternative routes to consider. And all this in order to make an overall northerly distance gain of 12½ miles. So it’s no wonder that after my initial burst of enthusiasm in planning the first stage, my willingness to tackle the second dissipated somewhat. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 4: Abergavenny to Llandovery”
It seems no one spotted the “deliberate” mistake in my last planning post – indeed I was even complimented on the reasonableness of my 24 day schedule. Except, if you’d added up the days for each section you’d have come up with 27, making it even more reasonable. It was only sitting down to start looking at the first two stages in detail and pulling all of my scribbled notes together that I spotted this slight chink in my numerical armour. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 3: Cardiff to Abergavenny (Stage 1)”
Earlier this evening I had an idea as I stared at my chart of Lake District Fells. I was taking a break from planning my assault on the Cambrian Way and was instead thinking about how I could put together a walk that would be good preparation for that project and which would also help propel me further onwards towards completion of the Wainwrights. Continue reading “Right Back Where I Started…”
I’ve now had a chance to walk through the route on Anquet, referring to the Cambrian Way book and the various blog accounts of the walk I’m using to assist in the planning. Not wanting to plunge into the detailed working out of daily walks and where to stop overnight at this stage – it’s far too early and there are just too many moving parts – my aim right now is to carve the walk up into a series of smaller sections which will be easier to plan. Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 2: The First Rough Plan”
How do you go about planning such a long walk ? Continue reading “Planning the Cambrian Way – Part 1: The Approach”
In between a busy couple of weeks where my current client project has reached a critical stage, I’ve not had time to do much outdoors and with miserable weather and feeling shattered from work, not much inclination either. But one … Continue reading Wainwrights update
