I must be mad, or maybe it's a mid-life crisis, but for some obscure reason I've decided to walk Wainright's coast 2 coast trail in Spring next year. I don't really need any advice on camping equipment as I've been camping most of my life; large kit for family hols and lightweight kit on my motorcycle. What I'm after is advice from anyone who may have undertaken this trek regarding the route, what to look out for, what to avoid, etc. Thanks.
I don't think you're mad, long walks such as that can be great as I found on the Anglesey Coastal Path in May this year. I'm afraid I don't have any experience of the trail you mention so I'm unable to offer any specific advice. My main general advice would be to try and get a good guidebook if there's one available, or if not a series of O/S maps if they won't be too bulky to carry. I found that the latter are superb if you need to move away from the trail, or in checking progress on it when the route is unclear.
I'd also be interested in hearing your experiences and see any photos you take en route.
Thanks for the advice. I think the route requires 7 os maps but I'm thinking I might ask the camp sites I intend to use along the route if I can post the maps to them and pick them up as I go. I've just found a copy of Wainright's Coast to Coast on ebay so that should be on it's way to me soon. Not going until May next year anyway so plenty of time yet.
Quote: Originally posted by Simon660 on 28/8/2010
I think the route requires 7 os maps ....
Hi
I agree that carting around 7 OS maps is a bit OTT, and quite expensive too.
Have you thought about getting some mapping software with the relevant OS sheets, printing A4 pages of the bits you need and then laminating them ? A lot lighter to carry and more indestructible than flappy soggy OS maps, which will probably be fit only for the bin once you're finished.
Quote: Originally posted by Simon660 on 28/8/2010
I think the route requires 7 os maps
Two maps if you follow my link posted above, I have some of the Harvey maps and they are good quality and weatherproof without being bulky like the OS laminated ones are.
My OH loves long walks and has almost finished the South West Coast path, doing it a week at a time each summer over the last few years. He swears by the Cicerone guide, so I've looked for you and found there is one for your coast to coast walk ISBN 9781852845056. These are pocket sized books and very comprehensively written. Good luck with your adventure.
Thanks Paullynn and Fluffydogs; I'll look into both of those. Those Harvey maps do look interesting. Zorro, I did consider that option but then worried about straying from the path and not haveing a wide enough map coverage to find my way back, particularly if the fog comes down over the fells in the Lake District. Looks like I've found a walking partner to join me now so at least maps and similar items can be split between two. Oh, and Private, I'll be putting all the photos on a website when I get back, along with a daily walking diary.
That was my problem too, I only had use of the guidebook to the Anglesey Coastal Path for one day (I fell in a stream and ruined it during that day!) but the experience of that day taught me that it would have been difficult to use the guidebook for alternative routes, other than where there was specific trouble spots the book identified. On the other hand a guidebook can give you some more background on what you are passing and some ideas of things to look out for that you might not have noticed otherwise.
That would probably depend on the quality of the guidebook and the maps it contained though. Also there's a fair bit of use of alternative footpaths on something like a coastal path such as when the tide is in that might not be so necessary in coast-coast walking.