Background

Some of you have followed our adventures over the last few years, but for those that haven’t I’ll go back a little into the mists of time.

Around 2012 I decided to do the English Coast to Coast, 300kms. Having always been something of a hiker (tramper, if you’re a New Zealander) it seemed an appropriate adventure – a significant step up in length to anything I’d done before, but not scarily so. After all, no matter how far you walk, it’s just one foot in the front of the other. I was astonished at how many people I met who were either being guided – askance at my doing the walk alone, or awed my the immensity of the undertaking. As I’ve said it was just a long walk.

The following year I decided to tackle the Camino de Santiago, 800kms. Definitely a major undertaking. I was accompanied by my old chum Mark Mackay. We did a mixture of walking and biking as Mark was on a limited time schedule, but we ensured that in the walking days we would go over the Pyrenees. It was tiring and tough at times, certainly very hot and of course stressful on the relationship (we seemed to take it in turns to have scratchy days). Incredibly, in Leon, I ran into Paul Banks, who I had met on the Coast to Coast – he too had become addicted!

For Sharon’s first trip to the UK she decided she’d like to tackle the Coast to Coast. It’s certainly a great way to get to see and learn about a country and I was definitely up for sharing the experience. Since then we haven’t looked back. Next we did the English South West Coastal Track, about 270kms. In 2022 we decided to walk from Big Ben in London to Edinburgh Castle, about 950kms. We made it to Hadrian’s Wall and then a little further, but Sharon had taken a fall and done her back on Cross Fell, so we limped into A&E in Newcastle and called a halt there. Gluttons for punishment in 2023 we walked from Rye on the south coast of England to Gretna Green on the Scottish border, about 850kms. After the disappointment of the year before it was great to finish and to finish in good nick.