The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Friday 25 January 2008

LEJOG - The Big Picture

With a few hours at my disposal with scant little to fill them, I sprawled on the floor with a 1:800k map of the whole of the UK, a pen and a pile of little dot-stickers.

The stickers were used to mark the start point of each day of our planned walk, each one sequentially numbered, giving a dot-to-dot of our route.

I’m pleased to say that having looked at the finished ‘big picture’ it looks to be mainly sensible. There is the day on the Pennine Way which ends three miles further south than it started, which (as I’ve commented before (see here and here)) just feels wrong on a south to north walk. Also, there are a couple of places in Scotland where we seem to be taking a less than intuitive direction, but that’s mainly due to a lack of obvious paths taking a more direct route.

The main result of the exercise, however, was to make me go ‘eeek!’. It looks an awful long way when you look at it on a single piece of paper like that!


1 comment:

  1. I had exactly the same feeling about this section until I walked it. It's a magnificent little walk and well worth the extra three northward miles!

    The pub in Dufton is a little gem - to make sure you get food, it's not a bad idea to ring ahead and book itto avoid disappointment.

    The Youth Hostel at Langdon Beck is a marvel of sustainability but sometimes the welcome can be a little spartan.

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