Proof of Concept

‘How far is it?’ he pondered.

‘Well, I’m not exactly sure, because it’s the end section of another longer hike. I think it will work out to roughly 11 kilometres, out and back. Two and a half hours with a break for a snack at the top,’ I said confidently.

Wallsy had that skeptical look on his face, which indicated he didn’t have complete faith in my navigation skills, but acquiesced nevertheless, knowing we were running out of time for training hikes before our next big adventure.

So it was that on a recent sunny Sunday in April, after walking Oscar to the Five Flags Merchants for his weekly dose of admiration and our dose of coffee, we packed our day packs with all the things we should take:  first aid kit, full water bladders, a warm puffer jacket stuffed in its little bag, raincoats, waterproof pants, pack cover and snacks. We dressed in sunhats, shirts made of fabric with wicking properties, Kathmandu hiking pants and our new hiking boots and socks. We didn’t forget the hiking poles either.

It all seemed like a bit of overkill for a short walk which began and ended a mere four kilometres from home, but this was our ‘proof of concept’ hike. The particular section of the Goldfields Track I had chosen, I knew, would subject us to a variety of terrains and a couple of steep ascents, which of course, then meant steep descents, all of which, and more, we expect to encounter on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk across the UK next month.

Described as one of the most popular long-distance walks in Britain, the Coast to Coast, or C2C in hiking parlance, is just over 300km in length (depending of course on how many times one gets lost and has to retrace one’s steps), and travels across Britain from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, through the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. Although the guidebook blithely describes it as ‘easily walked within a two-week holiday’, we have planned for three weeks with three rest days built in. Even so, many of the days still cover upwards of 25 kilometres – more than twice the distance we covered on our Sunday hike.

What prompted us to sign up for such an epic undertaking you ask ... well, it happened quite by accident really. In August 2023, we set out by train to nearby Bendigo to join a friend in celebrating his 70^th birthday. While we were waiting to wish the host many happy returns etc., our conversation turned to two events in the Lake District that Wallsy wanted to attend in 2024, the problem being, they were six weeks apart and if we wanted to attend both, we would need to find ways of filling in the intervening six weeks. This of course, is not really a problem as there are so many things to do in the UK and in fact, other countries nearby, the problem was more in deciding between the many things we would like to do.

The party progressed and as we chatted to the host, he introduced us to another friend of his, announcing that they were hiking buddies and  had signed up to walk the Coast to Coast path in 2024. Had we heard of it, they wondered? Had we heard of it? This was one of the many options we were toying with to fill the aforesaid  time between events. Our interest was definitely piqued, and because they had already done all the research into the best options for completing the walk, they promised to email through their findings to us the next day.  They did. We were sold on the idea. And before you could say ‘Alfred Wainwright’, we were booked to go!

Hence the urgent need for a decent local hike to test all our gear and our fitness levels, as although we were doing regular hikes last year, the summer being Wallsy’s busiest time at work, coupled with him then heading off to  the USA for three weeks in early March, meant that the business of hiking inevitably took a back seat for a while.  I’m happy to say however, we passed the test, as did our packs and our new boots, although there was one almost-blister and one of us may have taken a tumble on the way down, which you will appreciate is a different thing entirely to ‘having a fall!’ But I won’t mention names because what happens on the track, stays on the track, and there was no harm done, fortunately.

We have a couple more weekends, and a couple more planned hikes before we board the plane, so what could possibly go wrong?

Looking confident at the summit of The Monk; 

now to turn around and hike back down!