h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well done BB!

It's one small step

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Just seen this in Coming Up, Bluebottle. Some friends and I are planning a trip this year so this entry will be very handy! It didn't even occur to me to look on h2g2!

Let me know how you get on! Which way you go, where you stay - I'd love to know.

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Having now read it I can say that, as someone planning a walk, this entry is exactly what I hoped it would be. Thank you so much! I will definitely print a copy to read again and take with me. The section on facilities in different towns will be particularly useful, I suspect.

Thank you also for this:

"Tynemouth - For those wishing to make the Hadrian's Wall walk coast-to-coast, start at Tynemouth and follow National Cycle Route 72 Hadrian's Way for the 6 miles between Tynemouth and Wallsend, where you meet the official start of the National Trail. This makes the journey 90 miles rather than 84, but gives the satisfaction of knowing that you have truly walked from one side of the country to the other."

I read something that said you could make it a coast-to-coast but couldn't find more information online so that's really helpful. I couldn't find anything about where you had to go to do the rest.

I knew it was six extra miles but I thought it was split between each end. Do I take it the Bowness end is basically on the coast then? I think if I'm going to walk all that way 6 extra miles to be able to say I walked coast to coast has to be done!

There are a bunch of my friends interested and we're in the early planning stages (I seem to have been lumbered with the research) and as budgets are a concern I like the look of this trip: http://www.hadrianswalladventure.co.uk/treks.html

I was thinking West to East for two reasons: that's the way all the guidebooks and route descriptions describe it, and it gets the boring Newcastle bit out of the way first.

If you do this trip, will you post to the Edited version once its published please Elentari; the sort of comments you've written in your previous post are a wonderful endorsement of Bluebottle's Entry.

Like all of Bluebottle's writing for h2g2, it is really well researched and accurate in many details.

I've learned so much about things I knew nothing at all about beforehand when I've been subbing them.


Lanzababy

I'll certainly try to remember! It probably won't be until the summer though.

Just to warn you that the walk from Tynemouth to Wallsend isn't the most picturesque - although there is a lot of riverside walking, the river was full of shopping trolleys. There are some nice bits on that section of the walk, don't get me wrong, but nothing to compare with the breathtaking sections of the walk in the middle. (But then, very little can compare with walking along the best sections of Hadrian's Wall). I think it's definitely worth doing if you have the chance.

Bowness-On-Solway is where the Solway Estuary meets the Solway Firth, and as a firth is a coastal water I consider it coastal. It is part of the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which shows it is officially considered coastal. The beach isn't very nice, though, so if you want a proper coastal seaside resort you have to keep walking, but that's where I walked to for my coast-to-coast walk.

That website looks good - should take the stress out of planning the trip. As Lanzababy says, let us know how you get on!



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Thanks Bluebottle!