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

Has anyone walked many of them? Or do you have any local knowledge of them?

I was thinking I might like to try one sometime, but I'm not sure which. I've never walked any of them so they'd all be new to me. Most likely it would be part of one rather than the full thing. I'd probably take about a week, and at a guess of 10-15 miles a day, they're all considerably longer than I'd fit into a week.

So, any preferred ones, or preferred sections of them?

I've enjoyed walking sections of the pennie way. You can't totally rely on the way points and still need map and compass. There are Sherpa services if you have £.

I'd also recommend the west highland way, though it's not in Emglad

I've done short sections of most of them, and I love them all. Depends whether you prefer moorland, chalk down, rocky coast ...

I've walked substantial portions of the South West Coastal Path and can recommend Skankyrich's entries about them, and I've done portions of the Pennine Way. Not walked it, but I've cycled the entire length of the Trans-Pennine Trail.

The SWCP is absolutely heavenly but very hard at times, the Pennine Way takes you through some stupendous scenery and has some lovely, relatively easy bits (the portion from Ilkley to Bardens Tower is a particular favourite) and the TPT is, the Pennine bits aside, actually pretty boring.

I'm not that choosy. I'm inclined against the Peddars Way/Norfolk coast trail, if anything, because it strikes me as a bit too flat and constant. But other than that, I don't have much preference about terrain.

Yeah, I've been looking over Rich's entries about the SWCP. It's definitely a contender. It's also a mega-longie, so I'd have to make my mind up what stretch to take on. But that one's definitely in the running. It's a plus that it can be taxing at times, too. The hard bits are often the best!

Might I suggest Cornwall if you just want to do one section: it's possible to break it down into a bunch of day walks whilst staying somewhere central (Redruth/Hayle or Truro for example).

The Jurassic Way runs practically past my house. It's quite a gentle trail. Not spectacular scenery - it mostly crosses farmland round here although if I remember rightly it also uses disused railways. It crosses another similar trail - the Midshires Way - not far from here.

Mol

I've walked Hadrian's Wall and wrote a little about it. I had hoped to walk the South Downs Way this year, but my mate The Fish (U43536) who I was going to walk with bought tickets to the Olympics and won, so he's going to see them instead. Hopefully I'll do the South Downs Way next year and this year I'll just walk the Isle of Wight Coastal Path again.

<BB<

I have walked the whole of the Pennine Way. It is hard, very hard. Took a couple of weeks. There are times when you're a long way from anywhere and times when you feel a long way from anywhere even though a short walk off the hills will bring you to civilisation. It was great

It's official - I'm walking the Ridgeway in a couple of weeks.

Anyone walked it?

<BB<

Only short stretches. Don't miss Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy.

Beware of quad bikes

Quad bikes - right, I'll bear that in mind.

Just keeping an eye on the weather forecast at the moment...

<BB<

Just checked - quad bikes and other mechanically-propelled vehicles are banned October to April, so you should be free of them:

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ridgeway/uploads/Vehicles%20on%20The%20Ridgeway%20July%2006.pdf

Not sure if they've announced it yet, but I believe they're also redoing a lot on the Thames trail. That's one I've always fancied doing, as well as Hadrian's Wall.

Good to know I'm unlikely to be run over by a jumped-up lawnmower...

The Thames Trail and the Ridgeway follow each other on opposite banks of the river Thames for a few miles (I'm tempted to rebel and follow the Thames Trail side). I've done Hadrian's Wall (with Peregrin and The Fish - The Fish is coming along the Ridgeway) and would definitely recommend it. The only trouble we found was finding shops and pubs along the route so we could get some food!

<BB<