The global panini willing, in around 80 days I'll be off overseas on holiday. This holiday is Plan C.
Plan A was to travel to Portugal, visit Lisbon, Porto and Sintra and walk the Rota Vicentina. However, Portugal (reasonably enough) only accepts tourists who are fully vaccinated. That isn't a problem for me. However, they only accept two forms of proof of vaccination status. One is an EU certificate and the other is an equivalent scheme for countries outside the EU. Sadly, the Australian government hasn't bothered to sign up to the EU equivalent scheme. I've been told it is possible to fly into Spain and then travel by land into Portugal but I don't want to rely on that working.
Plan B was to walk across England following Alfred Wainwright's Coast-to-Coast path from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay. A roughly 200 mile (320km) trek across England passing through the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. However, this is not an official trail so it isn't waymarked. I don't trust my navigation skills enough to attempt it on my own. There are plenty of companies that provide guided group tours, however most think 14 days is a reasonable amount of time to cover that distance. I'm not convinced. I have found another company, Badger Adventures, that offers a 16 day version. Sadly, they need a minimum of 4 people to run each tour and, due to the panini, they couldn't guarantee that any of their tours would run this year.
So Plan C it is. I'm going to do three self-guided hiking holidays in Yorkshire, sticking to waymarked trails. Provided I don't get sick and the borders don't suddenly close again, this plan will work.
I'm following the basic order of Wainwright's walk, with the Lake District first, then the Dales and finally the Moors. I'm not sure if this is the wisest choice as it means the hardest walking is at the start, with the easiest at the end. Starting with the longest and hilliest days might be a nasty shock to the system. On the other hand, if I did it from east to west, leaving the hardest to last, I might be too tired to manage the last few days. I guess I'll find out if I regret my choice soon enough.
Walk 1 - Lakeland Round
This is a 6 day 118km circular walk in the Lake District starting and ending in Ambleside, with a rest day halfway through in Keswick. It's going to be a wee bit hilly.
Walk 2 - Dales High Way Highlights
This is just a short, 5 day 78km scamper through the Yorkshire Dales from Skipton to Sedbergh. Sedbergh is known as England's Book Town with a plethora of bookshops so I'm taking a rest day there too. I think my feet will appreciate me putting my feet up and just reading the odd book.
Walk 3 - Cleveland Way
The final walk is a 9 day, 178km walk around the North York Moors and down the east coast. I'm taking a rest day here in Saltburn-by-the-Sea once I reach the coast. This will be the least hilly of the bunch. In fact, the coastal section will be basically a stroll. Hopefully I don't encounter any vampires in Whitby but instead survive to come home to Melbourne where I plan to then sleep for a week.
