C2C Planning & Preparation
Why?
Sat in a holiday cottage in Hebden, Yorkshire on a rainy afternoon in September 2011, we both decided that 2012 was going to be the year we attempted the Coast to Coast. The late Alfred Wainwright, Illustrator, Artist and perhaps the greatest ever fell walker, devised the route in the early 70s. Starting at St Bees on the West Coast of England and finishing at Robin Hood’s Bay on the East Coast, it is an extremely popular route and at 192 miles, is physically demanding. The route passes through 3 National Parks – The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors.
Why do it then?
It would be easy to say “because it is there” but that is not the case. The reasons are twofold. Firstly, the opportunity to travel on foot from one side of England to the other, indulging in our favourite pastime of walking, staying in nice B&Bs with the opportunity to eat out every night, indulge in lots of cake and drink lots of the excellent real ale on offer was too good to miss. Secondly, having both recently retired from demanding careers in the Royal Navy, we now had the time and in turn we were both keen to use this opportunity to help a local charity raise much needed funds.
Initial Thoughts
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” is a famous quote by the great basketball coach John Wooden. Wise words indeed, and we were determined to utilise other people’s experiences in order to enhance our planning. We spent a lot of time on the internet reading through blogs and journals, gleaning as much information as we could. This was time well spent. Additionally, we obtained a lot of information from several C2C books - the Stedman Guide, the Cicerone book and the recently updated Wainwright edition.
Anyone who tries to second-guess the British weather system is clearly wasting his or her time therefore we decided early on that the timing of the walk was irrelevant and that we would plan to finish at Robin Hood’s Bay on 15 June, Dave's 50th Birthday. Therefore working backwards we planned to start on 1 June and undertake the walk over 15 days with a couple of rest days included.
Managing your Preparation and Planning
A good excel spreadsheet with everything detailed on it from costings to B&B website links, kit and itinerary. I can e-mail a copy of this to anybody that requires it – it certainly worked for us.
Itinerary & Route
Again the internet and other people’s experiences were invaluable. We tried to break the walk down into bite-sized chunks and several itineraries were mulled over but at the end of the day we were governed mostly by B&B availability. The main problem was Grasmere where it seems that if you want to stay there you have got to both stay for two nights and be prepared to be ripped off. Undaunted, we gave Grasmere a miss and opted to walk straight through to Patterdale.
Therefore after much debate, e-mails and toing and froing, the following itinerary was drawn up:
Sat in a holiday cottage in Hebden, Yorkshire on a rainy afternoon in September 2011, we both decided that 2012 was going to be the year we attempted the Coast to Coast. The late Alfred Wainwright, Illustrator, Artist and perhaps the greatest ever fell walker, devised the route in the early 70s. Starting at St Bees on the West Coast of England and finishing at Robin Hood’s Bay on the East Coast, it is an extremely popular route and at 192 miles, is physically demanding. The route passes through 3 National Parks – The Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and the North Yorkshire Moors.
Why do it then?
It would be easy to say “because it is there” but that is not the case. The reasons are twofold. Firstly, the opportunity to travel on foot from one side of England to the other, indulging in our favourite pastime of walking, staying in nice B&Bs with the opportunity to eat out every night, indulge in lots of cake and drink lots of the excellent real ale on offer was too good to miss. Secondly, having both recently retired from demanding careers in the Royal Navy, we now had the time and in turn we were both keen to use this opportunity to help a local charity raise much needed funds.
Initial Thoughts
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” is a famous quote by the great basketball coach John Wooden. Wise words indeed, and we were determined to utilise other people’s experiences in order to enhance our planning. We spent a lot of time on the internet reading through blogs and journals, gleaning as much information as we could. This was time well spent. Additionally, we obtained a lot of information from several C2C books - the Stedman Guide, the Cicerone book and the recently updated Wainwright edition.
Anyone who tries to second-guess the British weather system is clearly wasting his or her time therefore we decided early on that the timing of the walk was irrelevant and that we would plan to finish at Robin Hood’s Bay on 15 June, Dave's 50th Birthday. Therefore working backwards we planned to start on 1 June and undertake the walk over 15 days with a couple of rest days included.
Managing your Preparation and Planning
A good excel spreadsheet with everything detailed on it from costings to B&B website links, kit and itinerary. I can e-mail a copy of this to anybody that requires it – it certainly worked for us.
Itinerary & Route
Again the internet and other people’s experiences were invaluable. We tried to break the walk down into bite-sized chunks and several itineraries were mulled over but at the end of the day we were governed mostly by B&B availability. The main problem was Grasmere where it seems that if you want to stay there you have got to both stay for two nights and be prepared to be ripped off. Undaunted, we gave Grasmere a miss and opted to walk straight through to Patterdale.
Therefore after much debate, e-mails and toing and froing, the following itinerary was drawn up:
B&Bs
We used the Sherpa Van Accommodation page and Trip Advisor for our research which proved invaluable. Reading other walker’s comments gave us an idea as to whether the B&B would be suitable or not. Because it is an extremely popular route, we started booking the B&Bs immediately in September 2011 and even then some of our first choices were already booked up – one B&B owner reminded us it was the Golden Jubilee weekend during our walk – clearly 9 months notice is not enough in some cases.
By and large we got what we wanted although some B&Bs are not great at administration although it is accepted they are busy people. Be prepared to chase B&Bs up for replies and deposit requests/confirmation of receipt. Additionally, about 2 months before you go, ring round again to confirm your booking. This paid dividends for us as one B&B had sold up without telling us but managed to get us in with another B&B close by. It pays to check, check and then check again.
At Ennerdale Bridge and Blakey Ridge we could only book B&Bs off route but the owners very kindly provided a pick up/drop off service therefore do not be alarmed if you cannot get a room in a B&B exactly on route – ask if any arrangements can be made to pick you up and drop you off the next day. It is also advisable to gauge what time you will be able to have Breakfast as this will aid your planning, particularly where you have a long day ahead of you. Additionally, make a note of check in times - some B&Bs do not like you turning up too early apparently.
Baggage Transfer
The thought of having to carry everything with us filled us with dread therefore we planned to utilise Packhorse to take care of our baggage transfer, our transport to/from the start/finish and car parking in Kirkby Stephen. They are clearly a professional outfit that are well used to the demands of walkers on this popular route. Whilst we organised our own accommodation, they will do this for you, however you can save yourself a bit of cash if you start your planning early enough.
Kit
Trying to be pragmatic about how much to take is very difficult. Suffice to say that in our daily luggage will be some handwash and we are hoping for areas to dry stuff – end of!! As far as medical and first aid kit we have everything from painkillers to Immodium plus a fair amount of Compeed.
Food
Doing the C2C is great as it is a really good excuse to eat out every night. We have pre booked a table at every stop apart from Muker and Grosmont plus our rest days in Shap & Richmond where the plan is to go with the flow. Muker said there was no point booking as “The Farmers Arms has never failed to feed anybody yet” and Grosmont said “don’t bother you will be fed!”
The thought of 15 or so “Full Englishes” for breakfast fills us both with dread therefore the plan is to try and deviate from the standard breakfast menu as and when. Hopefully the B&Bs have some imagination – watch this space!
Mapping
Having recently invested in a GPS we should be ok navigating now that we know how to make best use of this fantastic piece of kit. The SATMAP Active 10 Plus http://www.satmap.co.uk/about.php is very handy but like most people we are both proficient in map and compass and will be taking all the maps covering the route. Going on the hill with only a GPS is just plain daft. We have also cut out and laminated the Stedman Maps and will use these for the most part, checking with both the map and GPS as and when the need dictates. Additionally, before we set off, we checked the Trailblazer website for any amendments to the Stedman Guide. Overall we are confident we should not get lost!!
So there we are – with just over a week to go we are both ready and willing to take on this fantastic walk.
We used the Sherpa Van Accommodation page and Trip Advisor for our research which proved invaluable. Reading other walker’s comments gave us an idea as to whether the B&B would be suitable or not. Because it is an extremely popular route, we started booking the B&Bs immediately in September 2011 and even then some of our first choices were already booked up – one B&B owner reminded us it was the Golden Jubilee weekend during our walk – clearly 9 months notice is not enough in some cases.
By and large we got what we wanted although some B&Bs are not great at administration although it is accepted they are busy people. Be prepared to chase B&Bs up for replies and deposit requests/confirmation of receipt. Additionally, about 2 months before you go, ring round again to confirm your booking. This paid dividends for us as one B&B had sold up without telling us but managed to get us in with another B&B close by. It pays to check, check and then check again.
At Ennerdale Bridge and Blakey Ridge we could only book B&Bs off route but the owners very kindly provided a pick up/drop off service therefore do not be alarmed if you cannot get a room in a B&B exactly on route – ask if any arrangements can be made to pick you up and drop you off the next day. It is also advisable to gauge what time you will be able to have Breakfast as this will aid your planning, particularly where you have a long day ahead of you. Additionally, make a note of check in times - some B&Bs do not like you turning up too early apparently.
Baggage Transfer
The thought of having to carry everything with us filled us with dread therefore we planned to utilise Packhorse to take care of our baggage transfer, our transport to/from the start/finish and car parking in Kirkby Stephen. They are clearly a professional outfit that are well used to the demands of walkers on this popular route. Whilst we organised our own accommodation, they will do this for you, however you can save yourself a bit of cash if you start your planning early enough.
Kit
Trying to be pragmatic about how much to take is very difficult. Suffice to say that in our daily luggage will be some handwash and we are hoping for areas to dry stuff – end of!! As far as medical and first aid kit we have everything from painkillers to Immodium plus a fair amount of Compeed.
Food
Doing the C2C is great as it is a really good excuse to eat out every night. We have pre booked a table at every stop apart from Muker and Grosmont plus our rest days in Shap & Richmond where the plan is to go with the flow. Muker said there was no point booking as “The Farmers Arms has never failed to feed anybody yet” and Grosmont said “don’t bother you will be fed!”
The thought of 15 or so “Full Englishes” for breakfast fills us both with dread therefore the plan is to try and deviate from the standard breakfast menu as and when. Hopefully the B&Bs have some imagination – watch this space!
Mapping
Having recently invested in a GPS we should be ok navigating now that we know how to make best use of this fantastic piece of kit. The SATMAP Active 10 Plus http://www.satmap.co.uk/about.php is very handy but like most people we are both proficient in map and compass and will be taking all the maps covering the route. Going on the hill with only a GPS is just plain daft. We have also cut out and laminated the Stedman Maps and will use these for the most part, checking with both the map and GPS as and when the need dictates. Additionally, before we set off, we checked the Trailblazer website for any amendments to the Stedman Guide. Overall we are confident we should not get lost!!
So there we are – with just over a week to go we are both ready and willing to take on this fantastic walk.
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