Alittlebitoutoffocus

Alittlebitoutoffocus

If Day 1 was a little too long, (which was due to a lack of available accommodation leading into Ludlow) Day 2 was exceptionally short, with legs of only 8 and 9 miles respectively. I therefore decided to adopt the Shropshire Way instead, which also went to Clun and conveniently split into two almost equal halves of a little over 11 miles at Craven Arms. (That’s a town not a pub by the way!) Also, I noticed that the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre was there, so we could park the car (for free) and, Liam and I could stop for a refreshing cup of tea and cake before driving on to Clun.

The day proved much more enjoyable, partly due to the weather, but mostly due to the well signposted route. Though Liam and I did have to endure a stretch of very sticky mud crossing a field. (See the state of his boots in pic 7). This was soon forgotten though, when in the space of just 100 yards we spotted a herd of deer, my first captured butterfly of the trip and 3 damselflies. After that, I was one happy walker!

Again, below we have 2 galleries, with the second set courtesy of Pete.

Leg 1: Ludlow to Craven Arms (11.2 miles approx. with Liam and me)


Leg 2: Craven Arms to Clun (11.3 miles approx. with Pete, Dave and Tim)

4 responses

  1. Jim Earlam Avatar
    Jim Earlam

    I like the relay idea Mike and the mixing up the company. I remember being disappointed on the Dales Way at the lack of ‘pit’ stops, by far the best walk for coffee/cake places is the Coast to Coast in my opinion

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    1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar
      Alittlebitoutoffocus

      Funnily enough the relay idea was first thought up in 1995 when we did the Coast to Coast (possibly even 1994 when we planned it). Our other running mate Colin, who couldn’t make this trip, and I had the idea of doing the C2C, using a car as back-up. But when I realised that it would be very easy for someone to get lost or worse, injured leaving the other one stranded. So we recruited Pete and Tim to make sure we had two on each leg. (No mobile phones in those days of course!)
      We were all reasonably fit runners in those days and we ran the flat bits and walked the uphill sections, covering the whole route in 4 days. On day 1 we did it as a true relay, with one pair waiting for the other to arrive before setting off, but we found we were getting cold waiting around. So we soon switched to one pair setting off and the 2nd pair setting off as soon as they’d parked the car (in a safe but obvious place for the others to find). It was split into days of either 4 or 6 legs in total (2 or 3 each pair), but now we just do two (one each pair).
      When we were working (and especially when Tim and Liam were working for other companies) and had families, it became difficult to get 4 of us available at the same time and we have done e.g. the Wolds Way with 3 of us. But sometimes we got 5 so it was a 3 and a 2.
      Fed up of trying to arrange dates, Pete and I once arranged to do the first 50 miles of the SW Coast path (by then carrying our gear) and said to the others, “We’re doing this route, if you’re interested, come along” and all 4 of the others accepted the invitation!

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      1. Jim Earlam Avatar
        Jim Earlam

        That sounds like an epic doing the C2C in four days! Yes the advent of mobile phones has made life a lot easier for us all, perhaps too easy in some ways, the idea of trying to find a ‘phone box’ to book accommodation or being uncontactable for days on end seems like another planet!

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        1. Alittlebitoutoffocus Avatar
          Alittlebitoutoffocus

          Yes, this year we sent a photo of the car via Whatsapp showing exactly where it was! (Pete would never see it of course with his brick!) It does make you wonder how we ever got through life! The kids of today will never experience those little challenges!
          We also did the Pemrokeshire Coastal path and Offa’s Dyke path in 4 days and the West Highland Way in 2. We set off from York early in the morning and 2 of us were in Crianlarich by 7pm! The others arrived about 8 cursing the midges and roots along Loch Lomond! It seems I missed all the ‘best’ bits – like 9 Standards Rigg on the C2C! We did the C2C in 5 days about 15 years later.

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