Home > Coast-to-Coast 2006 > Reflections
For some reason, I found the Coast-to-Coast a lot easier than the Pennine Way, despite the absence of rest days. Maybe the faster pace suited me, and of course it's a week shorter. I still had some aches and pains but none of the really bad blisters and sore joints we suffered on the PW. At times, on level ground on good paths - such as along Ennerdale and on the disused railway on the North York Moors - we found we could happily march along at an almost effortless 3mph for hours on end, which was good for "breaking the back" of a long day. We surprised ourselves time and time again as we strolled into our destination at lunchtime or in the early afternoon. Our latest finish was probably about 5pm.
I tried to measure daily distances walked on my Garmin Geko 201 GPS. I cocked up a couple of times (either by taking it into a building without switching it off, or forgetting to recharge my spare batteries overnight - the unit won't quite manage a long day's walk on one set of batteries) - but our total distance, evening excursions excluded, was about 178 miles, an average of 12.7 miles per day. We had planned to use baggage couriers until we discovered they all cease operation by mid-October (just as we were starting out) so we carried packs, but travalling as light as we could manage. No major problems with gear apart from the accidental loss of a T-shirt, map and mapcase (and Andy knocking a picture off the wall with a walking pole that was sticking from his rucksack - poles that he never actually used). We cut a few corners to shorten some of the longer days - we'd recommend the flat but pleasant and interesting route along the disused railway in Smardale on Day 6; our shortcut along the plantation edge to Scarth Nick on Day 12 was more borderline, and missing out Falling Foss on Day 14 was probably an unnecessary sacrifice. We had no need for recourse to the compass anywhere and only strayed off route a couple of times (notably near Satura Crag during heavy fog in the Lakes). I frequently used a trick learnt on the latter stages of the Pennine Way and changed into fresh walking socks at least once a day...seemed to keep the blisters at bay and is a bit of a self-motivational treat, even it did mean I had to buy some more socks in Kirkby Stephen as I struggled to keep up with the additional washing (not many places we stayed offered a laundry service so we usually had to rely on washbasin-and-radiator washes). No problems with my (relatively) new Scarpa boots. Harvey's maps were OK (and conveniently compact) but I still prefer OS Explorers, weight and bulk constraints aside.
Andy was an ideal walking companion - chatty when you felt like it but happy to trudge along in companiable silence at others...and always up for a pint or a game of pool.
Lots of people prefer the C2C to the Pennine Way, but I'm in two minds. The C2C is more varied but somehow I felt much more of a passer-by rather than feeling really part of a classic journey as I had on the PW. We also met very few other Coast-to-Coasters, and nobody else doing the whole thing - one inexperienced (but fit) pair were doing the first half to Kirkby Stephen, and the other two the second half from Keld or thereabouts. Most walk the route between April and September, when the baggage couriers are operating (wimps!). We had remarkably good weather given the time of year - probably better overall than we had on the Pennine Way in May 2005 - several very sunny days and hardly any heavy rain, wind or even chilly weather. We saw a scrap of blue sky at least once every day and were never in any danger of finishing the day walking in the dark, as some had warned we might.
Wildlife was quite good - highlights were Peregrine on St. Bees Head, Roe Deer and Red Deer in the Lakes, a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in Marske near Richmond, and two Snow Buntings, one in the Lakes and a more obliging bird on the North York Moors.
The lowlights:
The highlights:
Roll on the Inn Way to Northumberland in May 2007!