'LEJOG'

Welcome to the diary of my walk, click on the day numbers to read my daily reports and on sections of the map for more details of my route.

Intended start date 18th April 2004.

Wanting a physical and mental challenge, and enjoying hiking & camping, I decided that backpacking from Lands End to John o' Groats would provide both.

My route, where possible, is 'off road', following convenient National Trails. I have broken the walk into 8 sections to make it mentally easier to manage:

1 Lands End to Minehead along the SW Coastal Path.
2 Minehead to Chepstow via Bristol then along the River Severn.
3 Offa's Dyke Path to Chirk
4 River & canal walks through Cheshire
5 Pennine Way into Scotland
6 The Lowlands footpaths through Melrose, Edinburgh, Crieff,
7 The Highlands through the Cairngorms to Aviemore, Inverness,
8 The Far North through Lairg and finally to John o' Groats.

This distance is approximately 1150 map miles, this does not account for the Ups & Downs of the route, so the actual mileage will be more. If I average 15 miles every day the trek will take 11 weeks. Carrying a tent means I do not have to stick to a schedule and can walk as I feel, hopefully taking less than 11 weeks.

This walk will be unsupported, I will have to carry everything I will possibly need. It is obviously impractical to carry all the Ordnance Survey maps for the whole journey (the maps alone would fill the rucsac !) so I produced strip maps, printed on A4 paper, this does of course mean that if I went off course by more than a couple of miles I would be 'lost' !!

Whilst the walk is purely for pleasure!! I have been encouraged to collect sponsorship and opted to do so for the local charity of Age Concern Orkney.