Coast to Coast 2010 - After

If you have read my posts then you will have gathered that my enjoyment of this particular walk was enhanced by the folk that I met along the way. So I'd like to emphasise that aspect as a final note rather than witter on about my kit etc.

Camaradarie grows from the outset on Wainwright's Coast to Coast Walk, as does the friendly banter and laughter which arises from shared events and experiences. That was my enjoyable overall experience and I think it will have been for the thousands before me and will be for those yet to follow. So for those reasons, I would recommend this walk. But of course there are many other things that contribute - the scenery, the challenge, and so on. And there is space sufficient for solitude for lengthy periods.

If I have a regret then it is that I didn't carry a pebble. There is a tradition of carrying a stone, taken from the shore of the Irish Sea at St Bees, which can be flung into the North Sea upon arrival at Robin Hood's Bay. I didn't quite see the point (I can be a right face ache at times). But on reflection I wish I had, although undoubtedly for the wrong reason. It occured to me that should a new civilisation, similar to ours, evolve millions of years from now, after an apocalypse say, then it would give me some satisfaction to expire with the thought that those interested in such matters in a far distant future might for ever wonder how stones from one side of the country got to the other side. No one would ever conclude that people just "did it" in the way that others might have just "done it" when constructing the mysterious Nine Standards Rigg.

So, for enjoyment and mischief, I'll be doing the walk again, and carrying a brick of course.