My 16 U.K. LDWs revisted (again).

 

It has been quite some time since I posted on my walking blog site.  That is partially due to the job I am currently doing, which is 6 days a week standing under kiwifruit vines (unless it is raining), which means the only regular day I get off is Sunday and, if it is not raining on Sunday, I'm usually too worn out from standing on my feet all day to go off for a long walk.

However, that does not mean I do not think about walking, especially walking in the U.K., which is the place I enjoy walking the most.  It is often only when you are prevented from, or otherwise incapable of, doing something that you truly miss it (although truth be told, I miss U.K. walking whenever I am not there doing it).  Due to the COVID pandemic walking in the U.K. is very much out of the question at present, so I have been reading other walkers online blogs about long distance trails they have done in the U.K.

It was when reading another walker's blog that I came across the idea of describing a walk by saying what the best and worst of it was.  I thought about that for a while, and decided that in reality you need to, not only, describe the best and worse parts of the trail, but also the best and worst experiences you had while walking that trail.

I have already ranked the 16 LDWs I've done in the U.K. to date (you can read about the rankings of them here), and mentioned pros and cons of each in that post, however (at the risk of some repetition) I thought I would revisit them with an eye to the best/worst things as mentioned in the previous paragraph.  And to, at least partially, sate my desire for being walking those trails right now.

In order to try and not repeat the same post as the one in which I ranked the walks, this time I will list them alphabetically (and not read what I wrote about each one in the ranked post while writing this).  Also, it has been over 15 months since I have been on any of those walks (and over 7 years in some cases), so my memories of them have softened somewhat since - meaning things that irked me then may not irk me quite so much in hindsight (yeah, right) and things I loved at the time might not seem quite so wonderful now.

So, on with the critique...  (Note: I've marked the walks that I enjoyed so much that I would do them again with an *)

Borders Abbeys Way (2019)

Best Part of the Trail: The section along the River Tweed

Worst Part(s) of the Trail: Pretty much everything else, especially the long stretches of road walking.  Having 3 of the 4 abbeys occur in a single day's walk.

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: I am hard pressed to think of something to say here... uh... finding that the sections between Hawick & Selkirk and Selkirk & Galasheils was easily done in a single day (saving me the cost of 2 bus rides)... or, perhaps how the section between Galasheils & Kelso was so flat that it allowed me to maintain an average speed of 5.7km/hr for the day.

Worst Experience during that Walk: Having to stay in a dank, dreary, depressing town that unfortunately has a name that sounds exactly like the sound you make when clearing a big yellowy-green gob of phlegm from your throat.

Cleveland Way (2018) *

Best Part(s) of the Trail: The purple heather-clad hills near the turn-off to Osmotherley.  Some of the coastal section (especially the evocative fog-laden day).

Worst Part of the Trail: The dog-shit covered path entering Staithes.

Best Experience during that Walk: Rievaulx Abbey.

Worst Experience during that Walk: The town of Skelton (my namesake) and the run-down look of both it, and the pub I stayed in there.

 

Cotswold Way (2014)

Best Part(s) of the Trail: Broadway Tower and Hailes Abbey

Worst Part of the Trail: The rest of it - it was rather boring.

Best Experience during that Walk: Walking some days with a couple I met the morning of the first day, going out for dinner with them twice, and seeing them at the end in Bath the day after we'd finished.

Worst Experience during that Walk: The very odd evening meal that was compulsory (and at additional cost) at the first night's B&B in Wood Stanway.

Dales High Way (2019) *

Best Part of the Trail: Pretty much the entire first 3 1/2 days, culminating at Blea Moor.

Worst Part of the Trail: The overgrown section shared with the Dales Way bypassing Dent.

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: Walking over the Howgills in torrential rain and with zero visibility.  Negotiating swollen rivers during the last day approaching Appleby-in-Westmorland.  The rhubarb cider in the pub in Malham.

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: Staying in the house of an elderly smoker for 3 nights in Embsay (online it seemed like a regular B&B, but it was like staying in a retirement home without staff), and losing my appetite completely the night I stayed in Chapel-le-Dale (I couldn't eat).

Dales Way (2018)

Best Part(s) of the Trail: The riverside section through Hubberholme (minus the traffic on the road alongside), and Cam Fell (where the Dales Way meets the Pennine Way).

Worst Part of the Trail: The very long road walk from just after Gayle Moor to Lea Yeat.

Best Experience during that Walk: Reliving/re-walking sections that overlap with Lady Anne's Way.

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: Getting very lost along the River Lune, the field a farmer had recently sprayed with cow manure sometime after Lowgill (that made my boots stink for the next year-and-a-bit before I threw them out), the ugliness that is Bowness-on-Windermere (and the crowd-shock that came with it) at the end of the walk, and how expensive it is to eat/stay in Kettlewell.

Great Glen Way (2013)

Best Part(s) of the Trail: The variety between Inverness and Drumnadrochit, Urquhart Castle, the woodland section alongside Loch Oich, and Inverlochy Castle.

Worst Part of the Trail: The boring pine forest sections between Drumnadrochit and Fort Augustus (and possibly later in the trail during the parts I didn't get to do).

Best Experience during that Walk: I'm struggling to think of something... fish 'n' chips for dinner a couple of nights?

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: Having tendonitis (or whatever it was that caused my ankle to "lock") and the pain that came with it, preventing me from walking 2 of the 6 days, and making 2 of the other 4 days extremely uncomfortable (and essentially cancelling my planned Ayrshire Coastal Walk right after).  Having the legend of Nessie destroyed at Drumnadrochit.

Lady Anne's Way (2015 & 2019) *

Best Part(s) of the Trail: Cresting the hill to see the view over the moors around Lower Barden Reservoir, and the upland sections between Grassington and Kettlewell (2015).  The (morning) upland section north of Hawes/Hardraw (2019).

Worst Parts of the Trail: Nothing that comes to mind (2015).  The mud-covered sections of trail between Appleby and Long Marton (especially alongside the duck pond) (2019).

Best Experience(s) during that Walk:  Having so many castles (6?) in a single LDW (2015).  Literally walking right into a period-piece film-shoot for All Creatures Great and Small in Grassington, and being totally oblivious of it (2019).

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: Getting lost twice on the first day, the first near Halton East and the second just before Grassington, the detour to Soulby (near Kirkby Stephen) for accommodation that required a harrowing road walk there, and an unnecessary (in hindsight) chilly river wading the following morning (2015).  Choosing to walk roads most of the final day and having to avoid traffic on some very narrow, twisty, wall-lined, sections of it (2019).

Mendip Way (2014)

Best Part(s) of the Trail: Coming into Wells and Cheddar Gorge.

Worst Part of the Trail: All of the overgrown, closed and unmarked (no waymarkers/signposts) sections of trail that was along the entire length.

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: An amazing sunset the night before I started (near Frome) walking to a pub for dinner but unfortunately I didn't have my camera then - and I'm not the sort of person to gush about sunsets.  Sneaking apple cider into the hostel room in Cheddar, when there was a rule about purchased alcohol being brought in.

Worst Experience during that Walk: Getting lost twice on the final day and resorting to not completing the walk (but doing something else instead).

Pennine Way (2019) *

Best Part of the Trail: Too many to mention here.  Pretty much everything.

Worst Part(s) of the Trail: Not actually part of the trail, but part of a connecting route after staying in Haworth overnight, coming right into someone's farm near a rundown barn where there was literally a pool of mud (I detoured through high weeds and finally clambered over a barb-wire fence on to a road that I used to get around said area only to see the piles of rubbish in the same property on the other side of the barn).  The section from Alston to Greenhead that we totally did not walk because Robin and I had read how bad this section was and found a very speedy alternate to it.

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: Encountering almost no large areas of bog.  Encountering Robin, who I walked with for 5 days in a row (or at least the bulk of each of those days).  The atmospheric environment around High Cup Nick and Great Dun Fell due to zero-visibility fog.

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: The under-calculation of the distance for days 2 and 4 (or the mis-reporting of said distance on the websites I researched) and my shortage of water, shortness of breath, and general weakness in the latter stage of day 4.  The guy in the bunk above me in Haworth that must have had sleep apnoea and the noise of his portable machine that kept me awake all night.  Leaping over what I thought was a small pool of water at the top of the Devil's Cauldron, only to have my feet shoot out from under me, causing me to land butt-first in what was actually bog, staining the back of my shorts and making me look like I'd shat them (then walking dressed like that for the rest of the day).  Missing the views of High Cup Nick and Great Dun Fell due to zero-visibility fog.

Ridgeway (2013) *

Best Part of the Trail: Pretty much all of it.

Worst Part of the Trail: The dog-shit covered Coombe Hill.

Best Experience during that Walk: Ending at Avebury and the ramping up of historical sites over the days preceding my arrival there.

Worst Experience during that Walk: My B&B near Watlington that charged a lot for a sun-room (not a bedroom) with a pull-out couch to sleep on, and the boiled eggs and toast for breakfast.

St. Cuthbert's Way (2019)

Best Part(s) of the Trail: St. Cuthbert's Cave and Holy Island.

Worst Part of the Trail: Most of it, especially all of the road walking.

Best Experience during that Walk: Uhhh, uhhh ... having my laundry done for me at the B&B in Kirk Yetholm?

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: The crowds on Holy Island, and the death-defying road walk to get over there.

South West Coastal Path (2015) *

Best Part(s) of the Trail: Most of it, except for the sections mentioned in the next paragraph.

Worst Part(s) of the Trail: The rocky section between St. Ives and Pendeen Watch that caused my ankle issues of 2013 to resurface.  Sections through larger towns/cities that were boring and urban.  Some sections through sand dunes that were hard to walk in and filled my boots with friction-enducing sand (that rubbed holes in the lining of said boots).

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: Too many to mention.

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: The dog owner that refused to acknowledge that her dog being off-leash and biting me (or nipping me, as she preferred to term it) was not appropriate.  The Polperro B&B owner (for allowing dogs in the dining room/cafe) and the ignorant dog owner that came in with 2 small dogs that kept trying to jump up into my lap (or onto my table) when I was trying to eat breakfast.  That same B&B (owner) for having the most expensive, yet smallest room, with the thinnest walls ever during this whole 44 night walk.  The recurrence of tendonitis (or whatever) that impacted about 7 days walking.

Wainwright's Coast to Coast (2019)

Best Part of the Trail: Finishing it.

Worst Part of the Trail: The Lakeland/Lake District sections (I know I'm in a minority here, but I just didn't like it).

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: The atmospheric, misty, rainy, foggy, mysterious days.  The Lion Inn's value for money room/breakfast.

Worst Experience during that Walk: The zero-visibility, cold, rainy, wet, trudging days (yes, the same days as above :) ).

West Highland Way (2019) *

Best Part of the Trail: The section from Inveroran to Glen Coe.

Worst Part of the Trail: The final section from Ben Nevis into Fort William.

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: The fish 'n' chips from the chippy in Kinlochleven, and beating the woman (who took the bus from Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse) from Bridge of Orchy to Kinlochleven (I walked the entire distance between).

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: The near-constant road alongside the trail (or within sound or sight of it), and the road that mars the idyllic Glen Coe by going right through it.

White Peak Way (2019)

Best Part(s) of the Trail: Stanage Edge and moor (okay, I cheated, as this isn't part of the trail at all).  Okay, the (extremely short) section coming into Youlgreave that I saw photos of online when researching that probably clinched the deal when considering this walk.

Worst Part of the Trail: Most of the sections I walked, including one of the biggest patches of mud I've ever seen.

Best Experience(s) during that Walk: Taking a day out to visit Stanage Edge, and then detouring off route on my last day to Castleton and then over to Edale.

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: Wet, shivering and cold, while waiting in a very cold and empty church in Youlgreave for 4 hours until the youth hostel opened.  Having the section coming into Bakewell covered by the many tents that were pitched right over the path (there was some event on) and the crowd-shock of the number of tourists there (and realising later that I probably could have continued walking all of the way to Hathersage, instead of waiting for ages for the bus).

Wye Valley Walk (2019)

Best Part of the Trail: Most of it - after typing what follows, this sounds unlikely, but the trail itself was pretty good.

Worst Part(s) of the Trail: The lengthy roadside walk into Hereford, and (although technically not part of the trail) my road walk back into Ross-on-Wye after staying in the Wye Valley YHA.

Best Experience during that Walk: After typing the next paragraph before considering this one I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to say here.  That the Monmouth B&B owner didn't charge me or complain when I spent the night in the hospital in Abergavenny instead??  It's kind of hard to think of the best experience, when there were so many negative ones.

Worst Experience(s) during that Walk: The heat of the first day (it was the only time I've had to change socks because they became sodden with sweat).  The heatstroke/dehydration on the first day that sapped my strength/breath, caused me to collapse in the pub, lose my appetite, and end up "sleeping" on a hospital gurney in a well-lit corridor for the night (as well as made me cancel my planned 2-day Welsh Three Castles walk).  The stay at Wye Valley YHA as the website says they have a laundry (they don't) and the 7 people in my dorm room snoring and preventing me from getting to sleep.  The dog owner that said "S/he's really very friendly" in response to her off-leash dog viscously lunging and barking at me suddenly from out behind her car as I walked up the centre of the quiet country lane - a comment all dog owner's seem to make when their dog is unfriendly. My response was "That's what the last dog owner said to me just after it bit me."  Her mouth hanging open, dumb with a lack of comeback only somewhat made up for my beating heart, jangled nerves, and anger/frustration at dog owners who don't consider the feelings of people who aren't dog people.  The fact that there was no cost affordable accommodation and baggage transfers beyond Hereford.

Way to end on a negative!