Walking Coast to Coast in the UK - How many days did it take and where did you start and end?

[Grayson]

I'm thinking about a possible coast to coast walk in the summer of 2018. It's just an idea at the moment and will be subject to all manner of things being aligned in order to take the time out to do it, but thought this would be a good place to mull it over.

If any of you have already done a C2C walk, how long did it take you and whereabouts did you start and end?

Did you use a well-known published route that others regularly use or did you sit down and plan your own?

 

[Spinney]

11 days - but wished we'd taken longer. One more day off work would have allowed us to take 12 or 14 days.

St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay, followed the Wainwright route.

Used a baggage service to make accommodation bookings and carry stuff from one to the next. We drove to Kirby Stephen and left the car at a caravan site there (by arrangement), the baggage service drove us to St Bees on the first morning, then back to KS at the end of the walk.

 

[Rocky]

It took us 14 days with a day’s break in the middle. We also followed the Wainwright route. It’s a great walk. Go for it!!

 

[TVC]

@Spinney @Rocky are there any particular websites or books you would recommend? The baggage service sounds like a great idea.

 

[Rocky]

@Spinney @Rocky are there any particular websites or books you would recommend? The baggage service sounds like a great idea.

The original Wainwright book is a good place to start

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coast-Walk-Pictorial-Wainwright-Guides/dp/0711222363

 

[Spinney]

I also bought the OS maps for it - they do (did?) a couple of 1:25 000 maps with strips on, so you get the whole route on two maps (this is all from memory from 15 years ago!). There are quite a lot of baggage services, I can't remember which one we used, but that is probably irrelevant this long after the fact!

My current long distance walks are usually only 4 or 5 days walking, and we carry all our own stuff. But that would get a bit whiffy for a fortnight, so I'd be using baggage transfers again if I did anything longer. And those were the days of having to carry a book made of paper instead of a kindle, and my camera being heavier and larger than the phone I now use for piccies.

 

[AbiS]

I did it in 14 days, camping. I used trailblazer guide and the OS map app for navigation and planning, had no issues with either. Was an awesome two weeks! Don’t rush the lakes if you’re starting there.