Counting Down the Days to Start the Coast to Coast

Our adventure is getting so close that I can smell the sea air and feel the wind in my face at the top of the Lake District fells. We fly overnight to Heathrow on Friday 24th June before getting a long shuttle from Heathrow to Ulverston to avoid the planned rail strike. After a day in Ulverston visiting friends and a warm-up hike up Hoad Hill, we’ll head to St. Bees!

“We” are a team of six. It is great that Dean and Tracy are joining with Dean providing lots of entertainment! In addition to individual training, the four of us have completed a couple of training weekends which have been great learning experiences, hopefully getting blisters out of the way. The lack of hills in Houston has limited our uphill training. The kids are already active so don’t worry us. We are all pumped and ready to go.

We have affectionately called ourselves “Team Sloth” during the training hikes, as we look forward to taking our time as we do the trip, and we will “get there when we get there!” The 19 hours of daylight gives us plenty of time each day!

The next week will involve final preparations and packing. Our luggage is constrained by Packhorse. Packhorse is a company that will shuttle our bags between hotels during the trek and they have a strict 44lb. limit. For navigation preparation I have recently “virtually walked” the route using maps (OS Maps, AllTrails, FarOut, and Google) which has just increased the excitement. I have recently tried posting a blog entirely from my iPhone which worked well. I’ll be taking photos on my phone (13 Pro), capturing in Raw and processing in Lightroom Mobile. I take videos sparingly to capture atmosphere. I also am taking my drone (DJI Mini 2) to capture some cool shots but need to practice the workflow from capture to post. Samuel is threatening to take photos with my “big” DSLR camera.

The posted vistas from the Facebook groups that we follow are fantastic. That is when they are not covered in cloud and fog… There are many beautiful quaint villages and plenty of sheep. History spans recent industrial past to millennium-old churches. Some hills look tough to climb and tougher to climb down, yet some potential bog-wading looks the most challenging. We look forward to the many refreshing teashops and the warm welcomes of our guesthouses. And I look forward to seeing Dean enjoy his first Fish and Chips.

This page is linked to from my England’s Coast to Coast home page.

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