Monday 24 January 2011

A Walk from Filey to Arnside

The Pennine Way, Appalachian Trail, Coast to Coast Walk, West Highland Way; and now… a Walk from Filey to Arnside.

Doesn’t have quite the same ring, does it? Never mind, the name will do for the time being.  

When I first mused about devising a coast to coast walk I’d envisaged starting from my back door. Bridlington, though, isn’t well served with paths heading west. Filey, however, a little way up the coast and linked to Bridlington by a fine cliff top path, is at one end of the Yorkshire Wolds Way, which handily leads both inland and westwards. 

Arnside lies at a similar latitude to Filey on the west coast. It is well served with named paths, including the Limestone Link which heads off eastwards towards the Dales.

With the terminal points fixed a line between the two passes through three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, two areas that should be, and one National Park. The runes look good.  

To try not to wander too far from the direct line, whilst finding safe and attractive bridging of the A1 and the rivers of the Vale of York, are major considerations in determining a viable route. Any crossing of the A1, other than by bridge or tunnel, is impracticable. Bridges across the Rivers Swale and Ure are surprisingly sparse when viewed from a walker’s perspective.   

The most compelling reason for following published routes, National trails or Regional Routes is that someone has done the field work and research and that the way is, by and large, practicable and unobstructed. My line meets quite a few of these walks: it would be currish to the authors not to use them.

Great bonus over old Alf Wainwright’s time are the computer and the internet. Bring on Memory Map, Google Maps and Google Street View. And now, the route…

Saturday 22 January 2011

New Blog 2011 onwards

It’s my new blog for the New Year (and decade). Not for any reason other than Blogger is now available directly from my Google Apps account: boring I know, but it makes things a shade easier to manage.

I’ve still got the Dales High Way pencilled in for this year or next, albeit with a Lancashire start at Pendle Hill, linking with the published route at Hetton. The new Pennine Journey route looks good too, although I’ve already walked sizable chunks of the route on other projects; the Wainwright book on which it’s based is a good, if idiosyncratic read.

I’ve whiled away the dark nights by taking Wainwright at his word and devising my own walk between the east and west coasts: from Filey to Arnside. And a good walk it looks too. I’ll probable spend time walking sections to hone the route.   

Whatever I do I’ve first got to motivate myself to get off my arse or I’ll soon have problems wobbling to the pub!