Route

26th April 2010

With less than a week to go now we have been through several books with possible route descriptions, all of which seem to have some good parts and some parts that we would rather avoid. The quality of the directions and mapping provided in them is variable, and probably best described as a bit poor at best. We will be supplementing these with some ordinary road maps that we picked up, and have subsequently canibalised to remove the (hopefully) unnecessary pages. It still leaves us with bits that we don’t need (at least I wil be concerned if we need to use the page with Sheffield on it), but should be small enough to carry and we can discard bits of it as we go along, perhaps with some small ceremony.

We have some slightly updated thinkings on our route planning:

Firstly a slightly more southerly route after Hatherleigh, towards Tiverton, and thence on ward to Taunton and Bridgewater, it might, but might not, avoid some hills.

Secondly, a more westerly route past Hereford and Ludlow from one of the guides.

Thirdly through Glasgow and over Rannoch Moor to get to Fort William, seems like a sensible option because we will be coming through Douglas anyway.

All still potentially subject to change right up until we have done it.

28th March 2010

We have now got a vague idea of where we plan top go, although this is all potentially subject top change. We haven’t really decided on a favoured route through Scotland yet, but the weather could be an important factor. There are a few possible alternatives for some parts, and at the moment not really ruling much out, although we like the idea of avoiding Dartmoor in the first couple of days.

The current plan is:

1. Lands End Penzance Falmouth Truro St Austel Wadebridge
2. Camelford Bude Holsworthy Hatherleigh Winkley South Molton
3. Brampton Wiveliscombe Taunton Bridgewater
4. Wedmore Cheddar Cheddar Gorge Long Ashton Avonmouth Chepstow Monmouth Hereford
5. Ludlow Craven Arms Much Wenlock Telford
6. Market Drayton Nantwich Northwich Warrington Wigan Preston
7. Lancaster Kendal Shap Penrith
8. Carlisle Lockerbie Douglas
9. Douglas Ayr Ardrossan Brodick
10. Lochranza Tarbert Lochgilphead Oban Balachulish Fort William Beauley Dingwall Helmsdale John O Groats

I’ve split it into expected days (I haven’t split the last bit, but thats probably 5 days or so), although getting as far as Lancaster by the end of day 6 (Friday 6th May) look optomistic at the moment, assuming we manage that we would expect to get to Douglas by the end of day 8 (that would be Saturday the 8th). Obviously any plans about timings after Lands End are entirely speculative

We haven’t decided on our route yet, we are still reading up on what other people have chosen to do, they are a number of ways to do it.

We are carrying all our kit to give us some flexibility on where we stop each night.

We’ll be hoping to go in a generally northerly direction, but hoping not to need to navigate by the stars.

We’re currently pondering which of the various moors of the deep South are best avoided, whether to head up the Wye valley or the Severn valley through the Midlands, and whether to go via Arran and the Argyl coast or the A9 by Dalwhinnie through Scotland.

Day 1 – 30th April
4pm-Lands End
A30 – Penzance
B3280 – Marazion
Leedstown
Praze-an-Beeble
Camborne
Carn Brae
Stayed at B&B
30 miles

Day 2 – may 1 St
Left carn brae at 9.30am
Redruth
A3075 to Newquay
A392 to St Columb Road
A39 to Wadebridge
A39 to Davidstow
A395 to Launceston
Back roads past egloskerry to Launceston
Eagle House Hotel
60miles. 6 and half hrs in saddle

Day 3 -50 miles
Launceston left at10.30am
Old A30 to Oakehampton
Bow
Crediton
Stocleigh pomeroy
Thorverton at 7pm

Day 4 – 62 miles
Thorverton to cullumpton
Cullumpton to Taunton
Taunton to westhay
Westhay to cheddar

Day 5-58 miles
Cheddar to Axbridge
Clevedon
Avonmouth
Chepstow
Monmouth

Day 6-60 miles
Monmouth
Hereford
Leominster
Ludlow
Church Stretton

Day 7 – 63 miles
Church Stretton
Shrewsbury
Wem
Whitchurch
Tarporley
Just outside Warrington

Day 8
Warrington
Preston
Lancaster
Burton in Kendal

Day 9
Kendal
Shap
Penrith

Day10
Penrith
Carlisle
Gretna
Beattock
Abington

Day 11
Abington
Douglas

Day 12
Douglas
Hamilton
Uddingston
Glasgow
Luss

Day 13
Luss
Tarbet
Crianlarich
Tyndrum
Rannoch moor
Glencoe village

Day 14
Glencoe village
Fort wiiliam
Invergary
Fort Augustus
Drumnadrochit

Day 15
Drumnadrochit
Beauly
Dingwall
Tain

Day 16
Tain
Golspie
Helmsdale
Wick

Day 17
Wick
John o groats