I am thinking hard about a walking trip in the UK in 2010.
I’ve been looking at possibly doing part of Offa’s Dyke, or part of the Coast to Coast path, or the Cotswold Way. Right now the “where” is totally up in the air.
What I was wondering, after looking at some walkers’ travelogues online is:
Are there any times of the year that are least likely to be muddy along any of these paths, or is it unpredictable?
We’d hire a sherpa van service, so taking additional pairs of boots would be feasible, but I’d love to get away with only one extra pair if possible - which might be a problem if we run into a lot of mud.
Apologies if this is way too vague for anyone to even venture a guess.
As an alternative to answering the above query, feel free to ramble on about anything UK walking related.
Mrs Piper and I did the Coast to Coast a couple of years ago - had a great time.
Strongly concur with the sherpa van idea. we also booked through a tour company that did all the pre-booking of B&B’s, sent us maps and itineraries, and so on. It was very good value. (Not a guided tour, or a tour group - they just handled all the bookings and we walked on our own.) If you’re interested in more info, send me a pm and I’ll send you the tour company info (don’t want to breach the Board rule about commercial posts).
As to the boots - we got by with one pair each. Weather in England is particularly variable. We got soaked for the first three or four days, with lots of mud, but then went through a sunny period when Mrs Piper got a bad sunburn!
All of the B&Bs we stayed at had a boot-cleaning and drying service, so if we had muddy boots, they were clean and ready to go by the next morning. If you’re going the B&B route, probably don’t need extra boots. If you’re camping, I’d be concerned that packing muddy wet boots into your pack would get everything wet.
edited to add: we walked in late August/early September in 2007, the year that England had heavy rain and floods in the spring. By the time we were there, it was mainly sunny. I don’t think you can really predict a dry period in England…
I have sent you a PM for the company name, thank you!
We’d definitely be doing B&Bs and not camping. I had no idea that some places would have boot drying/cleaning services. I did read about a company that will arrange for the place you’re staying to pack you a lunch for the next day, though. I thought that sounded like a great service.
Yes, all of the B&Bs we stayed at gave us a pack lunch for a fee - £2 to £5, depending on the B&B.
If you’re doing the Coast to Coast, that’s essential. The trail goes through some pretty isolated areas, and it was rare that we were near a village around lunch time. Some of the other walks in southern England, you might be able to rely on pubs for lunch meals, but not the C&C.
GPS and compass are also essential.
The boot service, we discovered, was that the host would put the boots in the furnace room, which was kept warmer than the rest of the house, with newspapers wadded up in them. The newspapers absorbed the water. If they were really soaked, the papers had to be changed more than once.
Something else we discovered after the fact - here in Canada, you can get antibiotic creams for scrapes and cuts without a prescription, but when Mrs Piper’s sunburn went bad, we found that that antibiotic cream is not available without a prescription. We’d forgotten to bring some! :smack:
Slight hijack:
Wait, this is just mud – as in wet earth – you’re talking about? You’re seriously worried that some mud on your boots is going to affect your trip? Am I missing something? Is there something about UK mud that makes it especially evil…?
Why can’t you just wear one pair of boots and scape the excess mud off at night, or tie an extra pair around the outside of your pack?
Ahh, okay. If it’s the entire boot (not just the sole/outside) that’s getting drenched and muddy, that makes sense. I’d hate to have to walk around in sloppy, muddy socks all day.
We had to climb up a waterfall at one point. Not climb up beside the waterfall, but literally, up the water. It had been raining for 24 hours by that point, and the very steep path was the watercourse that drained down the rock face. We went up on our hands and knees, and everything got soaked. Our boots were squelching for the rest of the day, as were our socks. if there hadn’t been a boot drying service at our B&B, we couldn’t have worn them the next day.
Yes, as Northern Piper mentions it’s the soggy boots and socks that worry me. Taking an extra pair might give the existing pair a chance to dry, though I guess moving from place to place every day the wet boots would be packed up and wouldn’t dry. That’s why the boot drying sounds like such a great service.
For antibiotic cream and other OTC drugs, we’ll definitely just take our favorites with us. Though I won’t carry antibiotic cream as I have an allergy to sulfa - sulfa antibiotics are fairly rare in antibiotic creams but do sometimes appear in creams marketed for application to burns. Guess I’ll rely on my SPF 50 and a good hat. I was surprised when we last visited the UK that regular Benadryl (diphenhydramine hydrochloride) was not available OTC, only by prescription. I now carry a bottle whenever I travel
I have an awesome picture taken by me on the coast to coast trail in which my friend has stepped into mud past her knee. The gound looked solid but it turned out to only be grass with a shallow root system on top of the mud. We had to haul her out bodily, but not before we spent a few minutes laughing at her. and taking pictures. The mud had a high iron content and stained her leg for three days.
I did hostel-to-hostel with a backpack, way back when when American Youth Hostels used to arrange overseas guided hikes. Most of the hostels were very nice - small-dorm accommodations (ie 4-5 per room) and you were expected to pitch in with dishes after dinner and general tidying (nothing very strenuous, chore-wise). They all had “dry rooms” for drying out your stuff overnight, and also provided pack lunches at some moderate charge.
I don’t think AYH (Now HI-USA) organizes those trips anymore, but you should be able to find information on the Cost-to-coast hostels through them. I remember the Hawes hostel with particular fondness.
was that the peat bogs between Kirkby Stephen and Keld? it’s infamous for sucking down unwary hikers, to their knees or even their waists. Fortunately, when we were doing that section, it was reasonably dry and stable, although tricky in parts.
Mrs Piper has just reminded me - make sure you get some blister bandages. You will get blisters - how you deal with them may decide whether you can get through the hike.
The new blister plaster can be put right over the blister and both prevent infections and may prevent the blister from bursting. They form a second skin over the blister. Very important. We think the brand name was something like Compede?
We also got walking sticks - like ski poles, only designed for walking. They were very important for going up and down the hills.
A compass and map are still absolute musts. Weather can change very rapidly. And a GPS could be a lifesaver in an emergency. Imagine you have a fall and break something. If you can tell the emergency services precisely where you are, rather than, “Somewhere along Offa’s Dyke between X and Y” then they’ll be with you much faster.
No not at all - the English are great hikers and have been doing it forever. Not all of them approved of us using the GPS - they thought it was cheating. They relied mainly on their compasses. However, there was one day in the “mist” when having the GPS was essential for us. We were in the Lake District - same day as climbing the waterfall - you come up from a valley and then are in a boggy, marshy area. The “mist” was so thick that we couldn’t see each other if we were more than five feet away from each other. We had a compass bearing but took a GPS fix every 100 feet or so, just to make sure we weren’t wandering off course in the mist.
As one of the farmers we met along the way told us, when the mist comes down, you can get lost even if you have lived and walked in the area for years. Another good reason to have pre-booked your accommodation - the hosts at the B & Bs know each other and call back and forth to check on you. Our hosts for that night had called back to our B & B from the night before, to see when we had set out that morning. They were going to call Search & Rescue if we hadn’t shown up within the 1/2 hour. We made it just in time.
When you read the various Coast to Coast books, remember that the English are masters of the understatement. Mist = torrential downpour. Lovely little scramble = sliding down a jagged rock face. An easy day of walking = 10 miles. A good day = 21 plus miles.
Also, there is an on-line bulletin board hosted by the sherpa service where various coast to coasters post about the current conditions of various sections of the walk, with links to blogs/websites of coast to coast journeys - http://www.coast2coast.co.uk/forum/ubbthreads.php.
At the outset of our planning, I myself would have voted for the Shakespeare’s Way Walk, from Stratford to London, with a performance at the Globe as the ending. For Coast to Coast, don’t think of a walk from cozy little teahouse to the next cozy little teahouse. It can be quite grueling at times but the high points of the journey are worth it. Black Sail Hut - the most remote hostel in England - we stopped for tea and cake. Tony at Keld Lodge - the mid-way point - beautiful meal and hospitality, very welcoming. Dram of scotch at the end and dipping your toe in the North Sea with an amazing sense of accomplishment and very loose pants - you can eat anything you like on this trip because you will walk it off. The official Coast to Coast certificate signed by the Bar Maid at the Bay Hotel in Robin Hood’s Bay. The smile on Mr. Piper’s face when we reached the last gate - priceless!
I am English. You remind me of a section of the Pennine Way where we hiked over Cross Fell in “a bit of mist”. Five of us spread out keeping each other just in view and we criss-crossed the top several times without ever finding the trig point.
Yes, as Northern Piper mentions it’s the soggy boots and socks that worry me. Taking an extra pair might give the existing pair a chance to dry, though I guess moving from place to place every day the wet boots would be packed up and wouldn’t dry. That’s why the boot drying sounds like such a great service.
I was surprised when we last visited the UK that regular Benadryl (diphenhydramine hydrochloride) was not available OTC, only by prescription. I now carry a bottle whenever I travel