Lakeland horses

-- Post From My iPhone

Sponsor #1 - thanks to Reid Lifset

Excellent news - the sponsorship drive is now underway. Hearty thanks to Reid Lifset for getting the ball rolling. Reid is editor of the prestigious and interesting Journal of Industrial Ecology, and he is based at the School of Forestry/Environmental Studies at Yale University in America.

Well done, Reid.

EVERYTHING ARRANGED - StB to RHB IN 7 DAYS OR BUST

The accommodation, the route, the baggage, the charity links - everything is now in place.

August 5 is when this starts, and hopes are high for a dip in the North Sea on August 11.

Sponsorship sorted - support WWF for a better world!

OK, those nice folks at WWF-UK would like some money, and the way to give it is via

http://www.justgiving.com/CoastToCoastGumpathon/

I hope to raise £2,500 for this most worthy of causes, and it is one of the two charities Kathie (daughter) and Ed (fiance) - see photo above - have favoured for their wedding (October 2, 2009) beneficiaries, instead of the more traditional call for presents. Well done, the pair of them.

2 days, 2 weeks or longer?

So the C2C can be done in a couple of days (see below), but here is a more normal itinerary, this one offered by one holiday company at:

http://www.mtsobek.com/mts/ECC

Walking England Coast-to-Coast

• Day 1 - Meet in Penrith, England, and transfer to St. Bees, a historic town dating from A.D. 650.
• Days 2-6 - Begin the hike, heading inland along the lakes and fells of the Lake District. Pass through Grasmere, Patterdale Valley, Lake Ullswater, and Kidsty Pike, at 2,558 feet the highest point of the walk.
• Days 7-11 - Cross a limestone plateau interspersed with ancient stone circles, burial mounds, and prehistoric settlements. Continue through the Pennine Chain and the scenic Yorkshire Dales National Park, where little stone built villages nestle by streams on the valley floors.
• Days 12-14 - Traverse the North Yorkshire Moors National Park past the Cleveland Hills, the scarp cliffs of Hasty Bank, and on through Glaisdale High Moor to Glaisdale and the river Esk.
• Days 15-16 - End the hike at Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea, with a welcome ritual bathing of the feet! Depart on Day 16.

The Coast to Coast, according to Wikipedia

The Coast to Coast, according to Wikipedia:

The Coast to Coast Walk is a 192-mile (according to a recent re-measuring the real distance is almost 220 miles) unofficial and mostly unsignposted long distance footpath in Northern England. Devised by Alfred Wainwright, it passes through three contrasting national parks: the Lake District National Park, the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and the North York Moors National Park.

Wainwright recommends that walkers dip their booted feet in the Irish Sea at St Bees and, at the end of the walk, dip their naked feet in the North Sea at Robin Hood's Bay.

In 1991, the route was run in 39 hours 36 minutes and 52 seconds by Mike Hartley, setting a new record, beating the previous record set in 1985 by Mike Cudahy who completed it in 46 hours 49 minutes.

Biting off more than one can chew?

I have yet to meet anyone who thinks it is possible to do this in one week. Even sensible folk consider it wildly optimistic. Maybe I need to re-assess the situation, though all the accommodation and baggage transfers are booked.