About the Walk
This walk is not intended to be a race or endurance test although anybody who has undertaken long distance walking will know you need to develop a mental strategy or determination to succeed as much as ensuring one is physically fit. None of the distances to be covered each day are excessive. For most days an average pace of 2 miles an hour will ensure the daily destination is reached in less than 10 hours. Although the route gives 26 days longer than 20 miles this drops to only 7 greater than 22miles. There are a number of rest days built into the schedule (perhaps not enough) although on some days the distance is short enough to walk in an afternoon with 25 days of less than 12 miles; thus allowing a restful morning before continuing.
Many of you reading this will be laughing at the idea that it is possible to be so sure Peter can keep going and arrive back at Henton in Somerset at exactly 18:10 hours on that Sunday but perhaps you would like to contribute an extra pound or two to a charity if this is achieved. Indeed there is an anticipated time of arrival at all four compass points. The time of arrival at the westerly point and southerly point are both planned to be midday allowing a lunch stop to takes photos and appreciate the achievement. The westerly point is the most desolate place on the whole route; there is no track and the nearest road is about 1.25 miles away, indeed it is unlikely more than 50 people have stood at this spot in the last 100 years.
When it comes to the most Northerly point of Dunnet Head, I had designed my walk to reach this point by the Summer solstice usually 21st June. In practice I arrive about 12 hours late for reasons which are to some extent explained on the page The Sun
Training
The training ground for this walk has been in the main walking along and up and down the Mendips. These hills are not particularly known for their difficulty or steepness but if you walk from Winscombe or Axbridge up to the top of the Mendips you can be walking up 1 in 6 hills for the best part of 1.5 kilometres to reach over 300 metres. This difficulty of continuous climb is not repeated anywhere on the route except perhaps briefly in Yorkshire across the Pennines or parts of Scotland. When you come to plan a route from Somerset to Lowestoft you realise how level the terrain is; even walking over the Chilterns the path is usually a fairly moderate rate of climb, where the requisite 2 miles an hour can be maintained.
Navigation
From early on it was obvious it would not be possible to carry all the maps I might need to ensure I follow my predetermined path, and therefore purchased a Garmin Memory Map A2800. Although this is loaded with the whole of the UK 1:50,000 Landranger importantly this came with a CD which allowed me in stages, to load the 1:25,000 Explorer maps. I have saved and printed off several hundred pages of the route at the larger scale and am contemplating how to access these. My most likely method of how to get over carrying them is to send to the B&B’s I will be staying in. You can review and learn each days route beforehand and spot places where you may have to deviate from the selected route. On many occasions while planning I have looked to Google Earth to check the terrain and see exactly where the path goes or whether there is say a footbridge or perhaps checked that the road has a reasonable grass verge to walk on.
There is a brief description of each day or futher information on Today's Journey or For Schools pages