Lands End - John O'Groats ("Lejog") walking plan

[harry42]

It has always been my aspiration to walk LEJOG (lands End -John o groats) around 2000 miles.

I'm going to do it when I leave college at 18 (with a friend.) I will still be working, however!

I thought I would share with you the planning for the 1st 2 sections. I have fully planned the whole route, but I have omitted that.

Any comments, suggestions etc.

Also...any pubs en route! Or swimming pools, cheaper accommodation etc. very much appreciated!

Attachment is excel.

 

[Gathursty]

Hi,

I know your route will be longer than ~874 miles for a car but I'd like to know where you have 2000 miles from.

I was at Perth and spoke to a man who was on his 13th RETURN walking journey between the two points. It took him 6 weeks to get so far from Land's End and you could tell the strain on his legs immediately.

The best of luck though. If i find it tiring driving (via every station of course), then I've every sympathy for you!

 

[maniacmartin]

Hi,

I know your route will be longer than ~874 miles for a car but I'd like to know where you have 2000 miles from.

That was my first thought! I have cycled it and only clocked up just over 1000 miles in 12 days. The first thing I would do before you start planning every day in detail is to come up with a rough idea of the way you'd like to go - West Coast, East Coast, through the Pennines etc. I took the West Coast route as I grew up in east England so wanted a change of scenery (and less contours and headwind, which is less on an issue on foot)

I don't fully understand the spreadsheet. Is each line a day? If so, this will be a very expensive and time consuming trip. I'd advise you look to walk at least 25 miles per day to make some progress.

 

[harry42]

In a couple, (well...) of years time I and a friend will be walking the length of our own huge country: The United Kingdom, (well huge in comparison to Vatican City and similar ,) using the infamous LEJOG, Land's End (most SW,) to John O' Groats (most NE.)

A total of a lot of miles and a lot of pounds will lead to 2 strange people (me+my friend,) walking LEJOG!

All for a good cause though! (TBC.)

Attached is my extended plan which gives a day-by-day guide of how we are going to do the sought after LEJOG. (Excel)

I have also used my slight lack of knowledge of this forum to create a poll-please respond!

Feel free to comment, advice: D

Harry

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I guess you are aware that you could reduce the overall distance by about 100 miles by NOT going northeast up the coast beyond Dundee - the shorter routes would be via Pitlochry to Inverness or via Fort William to Inverness.

I hope you don't mind me telling you, but I very strongly advise attempting a series of short practice walks in the years and months before embarking on this.
You need to learn a lot about your capabilities and how you repond to fatigue, to minor injury, to pains, to changes in diet and in sleep patterns, and a number of smaller walks would be a good way to learn; you would progressively increase in the length of each walk until you know more about how you would respond to continual walking for weeks.

 

[harry42]

I have already walked the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and the Peddars Way as preparation.

I would prefer to walk along the coast of Scotland!

 

[theblackwatch]

I see you have a cost of over £5,000 on accommodation along - and that only covers around 75% of it! Have you considered trying something more simple (like the Coast to Coast walk, which is 182 miles and should take around 2 weeks, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_to_Coast_Walk ) to see if 874 miles would be within your capabilities?