Things learned on the Coast to Coast

Well it’s been what seems like an age since we completed the Coast to Coast and I’ve just found this post lurking in my drafts folder so thought I’d publish it in case anyone might find it useful.

Here are a few things we learned on the walk, some were our own experiences others are from people we met along the way.

Book your accommodation well in advance…places en route book up over a year in advance so be warned.

The pack horse/sherpa van facility is worth it’s weight in gold especially when the weather is rubbish. If your bags haven’t arrived when you get to your destination it gives you a good excuse for a few beers before they arrive.

Don’t upset your Bed and Breakfast owner, a lot of the local business owners know each other and they will soon ring ahead and tell your next point of call if you’ve caused trouble.

Nuun tablets are great… while quite expensive they help replace vital nutrients and make your water more interesting, we found these to be a great bit of kit especially on the really hot days.

Trust your navigation skills and if in doubt double check them… don’t follow everyone else, they may not be doing the same route, they may not know where they are going, I’ll admin we went wrong a couple of times where I wasn’t concentrating and was too busy talking. We also saw a couple of people following a pre planned route on their GPS that sent them them wrong way when the compass hadn’t updated…oopsie.

Don’t be miserable – if people say hi/good morning/afternoon, say hi back, you will bump into the same people throughout the walk and you don’t want to get a reputation of being a miserable git.

Just because its cheap doesn’t mean it’s crap….some of our cheapest accommodation was the best.

It is Possible to go to the lakes and not Get wet…we managed to walk the entire lake district section without wearing our waterproofs, there was a little bit of mist on the Grasmere day but not rain!

A good breakfast sets you up for the day – a bad one puts you off fried breakfasts for a while.

Take care of your feet, once u’ve got A blister it’s hard to Shift, if you feel any rubbing use Zinc oxide tape, if a blister does develop then use a compeed plaster. You can also thread some cotton through the blister and let it drain over night, I learned this from someone on the walk and it worked a treat on my one and only blister.

Buy some bodyglide, it helps prevent joggers nipple and various other chafing issues making for an altogether more comfortable walk

Enjoy your self – no matter what the weather is like you’re there to have fun, it could be worse – you could be at work.

Oh and if you blog…always check your spelling and that your blog template supports the images you are uploading, apologies that I didn’t do this during ours, hence why some of the blog posts here look a bit ropey…