Getting on with my life and thinking about things.
Based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Reached 200 within 72hrs
CLOSED at 2,017
APRES CLOSE: 2,021
If we all send out happy thoughts (difficult in these days of the capitalistic/faux-Christian Winter festival), but stay focused on one thought: please, Peewiglet, finish posting your final Coast-to-Coast diary. 190 miles from Irish sea to North sea. Across England. She walked it for the 3½th-time earlier this year.
Oh, and congratulations, Shirl. You are, as ever, an inspiration.
I've been pondering over the last few days, and now come to the conclusion that I can't be bothered with the Wainwright Coast to Coast this Summer. Mainly I can't be bothered with the lack of wild camping. legal wild camping that is. Everyone tells me not to worry, the police have more to do with their time, etc etc. But it is a breach of the law of the land.
And I don't want to walk across a land that doesn't want me sensibly wild camping upon it. They might be happy with me paying for B&B or campsites, but I can't afford it. I also prefer the solitude of wild camping. I can't be bothered hiking across a country that declares such pleasures illegal.
That too rules out Offa's Dyke, and a Welsh coast-to-coast.
The fallback position was to tab it somewhere wild in Scotland and see how many Munros I could get to. Or chose a long distance trail in Scotland.
It isn't an anti-Welsh or anti-English choice; but why visit a country with the intention of breaking its laws? I have more respect for the law than that.
"Wainwright's Walks" BBC2 Scotland.
Just watched Julia Bradbury climb Scafell Pike (England's highest peak), following in the footsteps of Alfred Wainwright. She chatted with Joss Naylor, and asked about his follow-up to the "70 at 70" and his epic 214 peaks in 7 days.
Further up the way, a path repair crew is encountered, and the public is given some insight into the work that goes on to make their trek easier. Well done, chaps.
Another insight given was that Julia mentioned that it would normally take 7 hours to walk, but longer with a film crew. By the end of the programme she had taken 10 hours to summit. A long day.
I would take umbrage with the comment that "it's not beautiful" - it looked gorgeous to me.
By coincidence, I'm down in the Lakes in a couple of weekends time - guess where I want to make a detour to now?
Oh, and pronunciation. She pronounced it "Skoh-fell" rather than what I was (mis)pronouncing it as "Skah-fell". I'll find out. Names are important.
It would have been nice if the powers that be designated the Coast-to-Coast a National Trail on the centenary of AW's birth, but I don't suppose politicians have that much foresight these days.
Anyway - good excuse to sit down with the AW-featured C2C DVD and some maps and go "oooh".
I wonder if there'll be a mention of him in Coronation Street? Not that I watch it.
One podcast I listened to on Saturday was the TGO Show nr 7. All about Alfred Wainwright, and included a piece about the Coast to Coast. There's a campaign underway to have it designated as a National Trail [link]. 2007 is the centenary of AW's birth, so it would be nice if the powers that push pens got it together for that.
Also from TGO, in the magazine this time, a mention of "The Original Coast to Coast B&B Accommodation Guide". Some information from the 2007 edition is reprinted on the web with permission of the author, Doreen Whitehead.
I'll need to get a planning weekend set aside and start planning it. Only 2 things concern me. One is the transport to and from the trail head/foot, and the second issue is the access laws in England relating to wildcamping. I simply can't afford to pay for accommodation unless there is really no alternative. A fall-back position would be to tackle the Southern Upland Way, or maybe Offa's Dyke. But I don't know about either of these trails at the moment.
Been a quiet week. The skin on my feet has been peeling off the blisters to reveal lovely new shiney skin beneath. Picked up the Harvey's maps of the Coast-to-Coast route. It's so big it takes 2 maps, though they are only printed on one side of the paper. It'll be to make folding easier.
No C2C books in Aberdeen, so ordered via Amazon. Got the Trailblazer book by Henry Stedman/Jim Manthorpe, and, of course. "A Coast to Coast Walk" by A Wainwright. I couldn't not get that one!
Went to the MCofS meeting on Thursday. Exciting stuff. Some problems about changing to a company, legal issues, and issues concerning voting procedures. I thought we'd entered a timewarp when block votes was mentioned and thought Mick McGahey was going to be quoted. I'll stick to Markism. Bought a couple of dvds co-produced by the MCofS: "Winter essentials" and "Water hazards in the mountains".
Got an email through from a group who hiked the WHW and Great Glen Way to Inverness. You can find their blog here. They raised over £1000 for SCOPE. Shiney. Nice to see different stopping places. Reading the blog, I'm glad I missed the midge-season.
My new iPod arrived. Been listening to podcasts on it. Been watching movies on it. Being me, I dug out the oldest movie I possess: Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", from 1927, to put on the iPod. Of course, being me, I now find that "The Battleship Potemkin" is 2 years younger. Ah well.
I noticed that some of the links I put to YouTube are now dead. Both were to clips that had been cut to music, rather than dvds recorded from the TV. I guess it's part of Google's clean-up. Hmm, I wonder how they are getting on with their copying of in-copyright books? Anyway, it just means that some of the links in the blog for the WHW will be dead. In an alternative universe, I'd go and point to new links, but I have neither the time nor the inclination.
