Welcome to Episode 10 of my “Travel Tales From Beyond The Brochure” podcast.
As you probably know, I’ve recently completed a hike across Great Britain (the #E2WChallenge), from the furthest easterly point at Ness Point (Lowestoft, Suffolk), to the furthest westerly point at Ardnamurchan Lighthouse (Scotland, about 55 miles west of Fort William – I am fully aware the actual point is about 200m South of the lighthouse, but it’s a good proxy). You can read more about the whys and wherefores on this post, including the planning (and hopes & fears), but now having finished the hike [SPOILER: successfully!], I thought it would be good to talk about how it went, what went well, what went badly, and how I felt about doing it.
So, in the pod, I talk about:
* The background to the hike (much of which I mentioned on a previous pod, but it’s good to go over it again)
* A quick overview of interesting statistics about the hike (including mileage, altitude gain, and accommodation)
* A breakdown of the route, with a rant about the Nene Way
* The Pennine Way, mud, and ultra-marathon runners
* How it felt to finish
* What we carried – I talk about baggage, equipment, food, and maps
* Injuries, illnesses, and apparent dyspraxia
* Realisations that walking across country gave me; that is to say why I travel and what I like and don’t like in terms of where and how I travel
* My feelings about hiking with people
* Reverse Culture Shock (again!)
* What do I do now?
You can listen via the feed above, or via Spotify, or on your podcast app of choice 🙂 Let me know if it isn’t, by the way, and I’ll see what I can do.
As always, if you have anything to say about the topic, or indeed about my podcasting in general, leave a comment or let me know. There is a Facebook group for my podcast that you’re free to join: Click here!
Unusually for my podcast, there are no contributions from other people, not even from my hiking partner Becky, at ‘Becky the Traveller’. However her voice is heard right at the very start, recorded at ‘somewhere west-y’ (Ardnamurchan Lighthouse, in fact). She also, YMMV if this is an endorsement or not, says she gigglesnorted when listening to the podcast episode at the point where I talked about problems I had going downhill. #IfYouKnowYouKnow