Naturally since I returned from the last walk, friends and family have been asking me what I would do next? That can be brushed away with a “No idea” until January comes, then it’s suddenly time to do some real planning.
This time I started with four options on my list.
I reconsidered an idea from 2024 of a personal “Coast to Coast” walk, from, say, Morecambe to Scarborough, west to east over the Pennines, across the flatter lands to the Cleveland Hills, and so to the coast.
I could take on a rather tougher challenge and do all or part of the Offa’s Dyke Path, perhaps between Abergavenny and Prestatyn, south to north mostly along the Welsh border.
I thought of Memory Lane, repeating, with variations, part of the original walk to Wales, reducing it by starting at what was the end of Day 3.
Or I could come south and start somewhere in Dorset or Wilshire, adding some miles before heading along the South Downs Way to its end in Eastbourne.
The Coast to Coast option fell out because of accommodation problems. At the The return to Wales looked feasible until a crucial pub in Herefordshire suddenly popped up as permanently closed – this is happening quite a lot in the UK now. From the remaining shortlist of two it was really hard to choose, but I settled for the southern route.
Even on the plans for that from the beginning of January I had to make changes, as another pub with rooms right on the South Downs Way disappeared into permanent closure.
So on July 2nd, after much detailed planning, I’ll take a train to Sherborne in Dorset, chosen, like Lichfield last year, only because it has a station. From there I’ll travel via Shaftesbury and Salisbury to Winchester, where I pick up the South Downs Way National Trail. Various stops along the way include Midhurst, Arundel and Lewes, with a final flourish along the chalk cliffs to Eastbourne and a train home, in time for dinner.
These routes are planned by drawing successive lines on computerised maps, starting with broad outlines, then a rough idea of stopping points and a check to see what might be available, and so on down to a very detailed route for each day which can be shared with my phone for use along the way. Not every stopping point will be available or reasonably priced eery day, especially not at weekends, so there are lots of iterations to decide which dates might work
The training thus begins, although I’ve decided to make a separate description of how I approach that, just in case it’s of use to any other septuagenarians who might be tempted to go off on solo long treks. To follow.
In the meantime we wait for the mostly miserable brown grey and very wet winter world to start turning green and happy.
