C2C -Pre Ramble Amblings

Like all good reads, it starts, "In The Beginning......"

As with most daft thoughts, the idea that I would hike across England happened quite accidentally. One lonely evening whilst flicking through the telly in Wales on a cold damp evening in March 2026, I came across the lovely Julia Bradbury clad in matching waterproofs, tramping along some footpath heading to somewhere ending in “thwaite” and quoting magical thoughts from AW himself.

Immediately, I was transported back to my early thirties when I did something similar (around The Pembrokeshire Coast Path), and really, that was that. The seed was set.

Was I capable of such a hike now, approaching my 60's?

Would my body hold up to camping, sleeping pads, and inflatable pillows?

Well... let's jolly well see, shall we!

A Note for my Canadian Readers:

• Julia Bradbury: A famous English journalist and TV superstar obsessed with long-distance walking. I cannot think of any one Canadian to compare her with!

  
  

• AW (Alfred Wainwright): The man who coined the Coast to Coast (C2C) walk back in the 70s. He was a fell-walker, writer, and illustrator. Again, no one comparable in Canada—probably due to the absence of any fells.

  
  

• What is a fell?  It’s a high, barren, rocky landscape feature typical of the Lake District. (Canadian readers—please use Google Translate moving forward. I can't keep explaining all the Yorkshire-isms).

  
  

By the time I arrived back in Canada, the C2C had been given National Trail status, Julia Bradbury was (seemingly) sending me emails, and I was agonizing over waterproof ratings of 10,000 or 20,000 mm, breathability, and the benefit of fully taped seams.

I had become immediately obsessed with finding out everything I could about this Everest of Walks.

Thanks for joining me on this journey! Please comment below with any essentials you think I may have missed—although, at this rate, I will have to complete the trip with a small donkey to carry everything.