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For most of my life I have regularly done short walks, that is
to say walks of less than ten miles, but as I got older I felt
I really needed to do some long walks that were more challenging.
All you need is willpower, sufficient time and a modicum of
reasonable kit. There is a lot of rubbish talked about walking
gear but there are, nevertheless, a few things that are absolutely
essential and worth taking care over. Really good boots, really
good socks, a rucksack to carry 30 or 40 pounds of essentials, a
compass and whistle, and a decent stick. The rest is really
vanity except, if you are camping as well, a first-class lightweight
tent.
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Using Mark Richards' "Walking the Cotswold Way" Penguin paperback I decided in
1995 to take a real break and do a long walk (102 miles) in 6 days with my
22 year old son Simon.
The Cotswold Way extends from the centre of Bath to Chipping Camden
and traverses some of the most beautiful countryside in central England.
It is an extremely well waymarked route - you could almost do it without
a guide or maps, but there are one or two places where the waymarking /
instructions are a bit iffy.
After day one my feet were wrecked, probably because I was walking in
fairly new boots with a 35lb backpack and the temperatures were up around
30C. By day four I had walked through the blisters, with the help of
heavyweight trainers instead of walking boots, but Simon then developed
tendonitis, so we had to abort at the 60mile point.
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The Monarch's Way is strictly speaking a concatenation of
the Leland Trail, which runs from Alfred's Tower on the
Stourhead estate to Ham Hill,and the Liberty Trail which
runs from Ham Hill to Lyme Regis. Both trails are 28 miles
and reasonably well waymarked although at times the
waymarking is a little confusing. This walk, being "local" to me
was attractive as a training walk for the Two Moors Way which I
intended to do at a later point in the year - especially as I'd
had a double hernia operation in the April and wanted to get back
to full fitness!
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The Two Moors Way was officially opened over twenty years ago
- 102 miles across Dartmoor, the rural central section and
Exmoor. Although the route does not take in the most spectacular
scenery on both Dartmoor and Exmoor it is, nevertheless, a most
attractive long walk with plenty of interest. I added on the
coast path route from Lynmouth to Minehead partly to lengthen the
trek and partly because the coast path scenery is exceptional.
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Having walked the Two Moors Way back in 1997, I decided it
might be interesting to walk a logical and substantial chunk of the
The South West Coast Path - Minehead to Land's End. The full
walk is the longest walking trail in Britain at 613 miles - even at
20 miles a day I could not envisage fitting that into available
leave! Once again I solo backpacked but, unlike last time, did
not suffer the same problems with feet! The whole walk took 13
days with an average walking time of about 10 hours a day -
given the terrain for much of the journey I would actually
recommend shorter daily distances in order to have sufficient
time to explore ie ~12miles/day, but I would most certainly
recommend this section of the Coast Path to anyone who loves
dramatic scenery.
Until 2007 I had detailed write-ups of these walks but, in the interests
of brevity I have decided to withdraw them. However, should anyone ever
wish to see my write-up of e.g. the SW Coast Path, please email me and I shall
be happy to make it available.
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