From the Bottom to the Top

The usual excitement symptoms are here: a sick feeling that I have too much yet to prepare & that it's a ridiculous thing to attempt. Surely I will get exhausted after 10 days & go home. Blagging it Yet I press on, surely boring everyone I meet with my only conversation topic. I include myself as getting fed up hearing my own repetitions, even as I do it by email. But I want to tell people 'cos I  am  excited AND I want walking companions to share this with and not go bonkers. Talking to Bethan on the Park Run this morning - her Dad did E2E in 2009. His book title "In Expectation of a Kingfisher" should win an award on its own for originality. Apparently he documented plants & birds he saw en route, doing about 11 miles a day (from March 10th into July, with a trip home!) & blagged coffees from farmhouses. That's what I would call leisurely, sounds great. Recent walks, testing gear : One two hour walk around Sale Water Park, & one 5 hour

Today I have 'completed' the long task of breaking up the route into daily sections of, mostly, 7-9 hours long.  A few alternatives have been plotted, particularly in Scotland, to give some poor-weather choices. The result is a plan of 84 days walking, comprising with unfeasible precision: 2111 Km (1311 miles) & 56917 m of ascent. With the odd day of rest here & there, that's going to take a little over 3 months. Slightly scary, but I am looking forward to the trip, mostly keenly felt when doing the  food shop in the supermarket. (No more cat food for months!) What next? Set up a sponsorship page , as a couple of people have offered to give donations. Deciding where to place food stashes, if any. Getting the stash boxes, filling them with suitable supplies & putting then in place. Oops - half of February gone! Printing route maps Deciding on what is the main gear, checking it, buying any missing items. Sorting spare gear into packages with mailing mate

The  decision  to take a long walk " From the Bottom to the Top " of the UK mainland has been made. This blog is part of the project to record the  preparations  &, once I set off in March or April 2018, the walk itself. I hope friends will be able to join me for sections. If this is you, please give me some warning, if only to manage my face-shaving schedule. I have told so many people, it will be an embarrassment not to go, so now it's  planning  time. A friend, who always plans his walks in some detail,  told me not to bother. "Use the map on your phone & just go", has some appeal. I did just over half the Cotswold Way &, later, a wander around the Isle of Wight like that (pre-smartphone era). Both were over a Christmas break & I enjoyed the looks of surprise on B&B hosts when turning up unannounced. Some route decisions must be made, as stated elsewhere. Having just read  " Hell of a Journey: On Foot Through the Scottish Highlands