Accommodation Planning

With the framework of the route established, I was now ready to arrange the accommodation. From the earliest stages of planning my walk, I’d set out three principles regarding accommodation:

Firstly, I wasn’t going to camp. Although camping in theory gives much greater flexibility, I’d read about other End-to-Enders who had set out to camp, but had discarded their tents and sleeping bags after a few days due to the excessive weight being carried. The prospect of erecting a tent in the rain after a full day’s walking didn’t really appeal to me – a comfortable bed, en suite facilities, a convenient meal and somewhere to update my blog and provide any medical attention to my feet certainly did!

Secondly, I would book all of my accommodation in advance. June and July would be high season for many areas of my route and I didn’t want to risk walking all day, then finding that the nearest available bed was another five miles distant. Peace of mind was important, but booking early would also give me better choice of suitable and convenient accommodation and, hopefully, better rates. But booking early was also a double-edged sword – it would be inflexible, especially if I was to experience injury, illness or other delays. To counter this, I would include some rest days and the option of reducing daily mileage on certain days by deploying more direct but less scenic routes.

Thirdly, I would stay in a variety of different accommodation. I would cover the spectrum from youth hostels, B&Bs and guest houses to inns, budget chain hotels and higher quality hotels, the latter being earned as ‘treats’ for completing sections of the route. In addition, I would try to spend a few nights with family and friends who live close to the route.

With the ground rules in place, I set out to book my beds. I encountered problems immediately - in John O’ Groats. I’d planned to stay at the youth hostel, only to find out that it had closed the previous year. To compound matters further, the main hotel in JOG was being refurbished and a ‘Ride Across Britain’ cycle event was scheduled to begin on the day after my own start. I developed a cunning plan - I would stay in Wick, catch a bus to the start in JOG, then walk back to Wick for a successive night’s accommodation.

Booking the rest of my accommodation turned out to be a time-consuming and frustrating process. Although I’d targeted to walk around 18 miles each day, it soon became apparent that this guideline would have to be adapted, especially in northern Scotland, where 16-20 miles walking would have taken me to uninhabited areas of the route. I soon became an expert in tracking down any accommodation, using local websites, national booking websites (e.g. booking.com, laterooms.com) and scouring Google maps for the infamous bed symbol. I deployed tripadvisor.co.uk extensively to review any available customer feedback before selecting my accommodation.

Locating suitable accommodation was only the start of the process and completing a booking was often a much greater challenge. I had tried to manage the entire accommodation booking process on-line – this was in part due to the anticipated convenience, but also to the fact that I was working late at night. Individual websites were almost universal, but the level of information provided and the ability to respond to a booking request varied enormously. A few B&Bs have still not replied to my original enquiries (have they closed down as a result of the economic situation or are they reaping last year’s profits with an extended winter break in the sun?), so I quickly had to find alternatives. Another frustration was exorbitant single supplements which sometimes, counter-intuitively, resulted in a hotel room being cheaper than a B&B.  Booking on-line also brought several dilemmas – if the website doesn’t make special reference to being ‘walker friendly’, how will the owners respond to having muddy boots and the aroma of a day’s walking invading their pristine home?  How do you select between a budget chain hotel (universal standard, but somewhat antiseptic) and a ‘character’ private hotel? Such decisions were taken based on limited criteria, but in reality the outcomes of my selections will not be known until I arrive during the walk.

There were additional obstacles further into the route. A sudden steep rise in hotel rates which coincided with my arrival in Glasgow turned out to be due instead to Robbie Williams, who would be performing in the city for a couple of nights. I had to adjust my plans, not necessarily to avoid him, rather to secure a more reasonable overnight rate. I encountered another accommodation challenge in North Wales, when my enquiry elicited a rapid response, pointing out that my planned visit clashed with the International Eisteddfod and that all rooms in the area had been booked months ago. An adjustment to my route (i.e. walking another 5 miles!) enabled me to find a room further south.

Sometimes it became necessary to revise the original route to incorporate suitable accommodation. At times the process became obsessive, as I searched in vain for the perfect combination of walking (scenic, interesting and close to my daily mileage target) and accommodation (comfortable, hospitable and good value). Gradually and painstakingly, I linked together each day’s walking with an overnight stay until my chain from John O’ Groats to Land’s End was complete.

Many thanks to all who have donated so far – I’m well on track to raising over £10,000 for Cancer Research UK. If you would like to contribute, please use the JustGiving link on this page.

Planning my route

To the surprise of many, there is no fixed route for walking from John O’ Groats to Land’s End. The shortest route is just over 600 miles as the crow flies, but unfortunately most of this is across the sea, with a half way respite on the Isle of Man. The shortest route by road is 814 miles, but most walkers add to this by opting for more scenic (and less dangerous!) routes. There are walking routes which eliminate roads almost entirely, but inevitably these add significant miles to an already lengthy journey.

Ultimately, the route chosen is influenced by a number of personal decisions:

• How many miles will be walked each day?
• How long is available to complete the walk, including rest days?
• What balance of off-road and road walking is desired?
• Are specific destinations or footpaths to be incorporated?

I spent a few early January evenings reviewing the journeys of other End-to-Enders and was somewhat bemused by the sheer variety of routes followed – no two journeys were the same.  After some deliberation, I established the principles and parameters for my own walk:

• Due to holiday commitments, I had a window of just under two months to complete the walk
• I would aim to walk for an average of around 18 miles per day (excluding rest days)
• I would seek to utilise long distance footpaths, footpaths and towpaths wherever possible, but not if they resulted in a significant deviation from my overall route. As a first contingency I would use minor roads and, if all else failed, I would resort to ‘A’ roads.

My own route was primarily designed around the inclusion of two long distance footpaths, firstly, the West Highland Way from Fort William to just north of Glasgow and, secondly Offa’s Dyke Path, which mainly clings to the border of England and Wales from north to south. I’d walked a short section of the West Highland Way when I spent a year in Glasgow as a student and had always intended to walk the entire route one day. The choice of Offa’s Dyke was influenced more by the fact that I’d holidayed in Wales since I was a small child and must almost have spent enough time there over my lifetime to qualify as an honorary Welshman!

With over 230 miles of long distance footpath walking as the foundation for my walk, stringing together the rest of the route was reasonably straightforward. The first stage from John O’ Groats to Inverness offered little or no routing choice. From Inverness I would take another long distance path, the Great Glen Way, to Fort William to link with the start of the West Highland Way which finishes near to Glasgow. I would then head for Carlisle, before skirting the Lake District and joining the Lancaster Canal to its finish in Preston (about the halfway point of the walk!) and onward to Liverpool, my home city. From here it’s a short distance to join Offa’s Dyke Path all the way to Chepstow, then across the Severn Bridge near to Bristol. The final stages slice through Somerset and Devon, before passing through Truro and Penzance on the final stretch to Land’s End.

Not far short of 950 miles in 57 days, including 5 rest days. Incidentally, the record for the journey on foot is a mere 9 days! And a Kawasaki motorbike once completed the trip in 11 hours!

With my own route now fixed, I was ready to set about booking my accommodation…………

Many thanks to all who have donated so far – I’m well on track to raising over £10,000 for Cancer Research UK. If you would like to contribute, please use the JustGiving link on this page.