Three years ago I did a trip called England, Coast to Coast. That was such a good trip that I did it again. I left for this trip 7/27/2007 and returned 8/14/2007. I had just as much fun on this trip as I did the previous time. The main difference was that the first time I did the trip east to west. This time I did it west to east.
The first time I flew through London Heathrow Airport which I wasn't impressed with. So this time I flew through Manchester. Also Manchester involved much shorter train rides at both ends of the trip.
This time I flew from Indy to Chicago to Manchester. I then took a train from the Manchester airport to the Manchester train station and then a train to Penrith, where the trip would start. We were met at the Penrith train station and bused to St. Bees on the west coast. We then hiked about 200 miles across the country to Robin Hood's Bay on the east coast. We were bused from there to York where I caught a train to the Manchester airport and then flew back, Manchester, Chicago, Indy.
On the first trip weather was THE major topic. We had lots of rain. On that trip, of the 14 days of hiking, there were 2 clear days, 3 days with light rain and the remaining 11 days all had a fair amount of rain. On this trip we only had rain on 3 days. For the other 11 days of hiking the weather ranged from nice to great.
On July 1, 2007, England became "smoke free." Smoking in all public places became illegal. This included pubs, a traditional place to smoke, just like bars here in the U.S.
Also, while there I saw some discarded cigarette packs. Like the U.S. they have warning labels. Unlike the U.S., the warnings are in large type and say simply "Smoking Kills".
As a group, this trip set a Mountain Travel - Sobek record. This was the first group where every person hiked every inch of the trip. On my first trip, on the very first day, we lost our chance at 100 %. Some of the longest days included the option to take a taxi part of the way. And every day had the option of declaring yourself baggage and riding with the luggage to that day's destination.
But with this group, everyone showed up every morning with their boots and packs on ready to hike. Some people had problems with their feet, blisters, blackened toenails and so on. Some people were fighting colds. One morning Sylvia came to breakfast looking like death warmed over. But with a few pills from the doctor, she started out hiking and ended up getting stronger and stronger as the morning wore on until she was her usual front of the pack self.
No one was going around saying, "I'm going to hike this whole thing if it kills me." But everyone came with an inner determination which carried them through the tough times.
It is possible that good weather was a factor in this record. On my first trip, as mentioned, we had a lot of rain. I think that made for a more difficult trip. For example on the first trip I was convinced that the trip needed a rest day somewhere in the middle. But I did not feel that way on this trip. While there were some long, hard days, I never felt that I was getting worn down like I did on the first trip.
Like the first trip, we had an exceptional group. Like the first trip, the group came together very quickly and were just plain a lot of fun to be with. But this group was unusual in one way. Of the 17 people, 15 clients and 2 guides, all but one person knew at least 1 other person before the trip started. There were 4 couples, two couples knew each other from a previous trip, one pair of friends, one triple of friends, the leaders knew each other and I knew Dave, the leader, from my previous trip. Only Barbara started the trip knowing no one else. Of course with this group this lasted almost no time at all.
One of the attractions of this trip was all the different places we stayed. Since this was a large group and there was more than the standard number of people in single rooms, there were a fair number of nights when the group was in different locations. Some nights I stayed in places I'd been in before. Other nights I was in new places.
10 minutes before I left for the airport for the start of this trip, I received a phone call from England. I left a day early so that I could have plenty of time to get to the meeting point and also have some time to get over the jet lag. The phone call was from the hotel where I had a reservation for my first night in England. It turns out that the room I'd reserved had a problem and I wouldn't be able to stay there. But they would pay for a taxi to take me to a sister hotel and bring me back the next day. It turns out the sister hotel was a much nicer place called "The Inn on the Lake." I didn't realize it initially but this was a place where we had stayed on my previous trip. However when we got there on this trip I recognized it.
Several nights we stayed on 3 star hotels, for example "The Inn on the Lake". Of course this was always nice. But 2 nights I stayed in bed and breakfasts on working farms. While not necessarily as nice as a 3 star hotel, this was certainly a lot more interesting. I had a chance to meet the people living there and not be part of a big crowd. One place was "Lovesome Hill" and in the parlor there was a romance novel with that title, with a personalized autograph. The other place was "Hart Hall" which a guide book said had a "hob", sort of an elf that does good overnight. We asked our hostess if she'd even seen evidence of the hob and she replied, "Not in my lifetime."
One of the questions I was asked a number of times on the trip was how did this one compare to my previous trip. Since the previous trip was east to west and this trip was west to east people were curious which I saw as easier. The conclusion I reached was that the weather was the biggest contributor to how easy the Coast to Coast trip is. However I suspect that if the weather were a constant the east to west trip, my first one, would be easier. West to east you have the longest and hardest days at the start. However east to west you have some time to get used to the intensity of the hiking and are more ready for the tough parts when they come. Other folks commented that they wanted to get the hard part over with early. I also feel that the scenery is better going east to west. You go from the moors to the dells to the lake district, with the scenery getting better as the trip progresses. But going from west to east, the dells and moors are nice, but I found them to be a little bit of a letdown after the lake district.
Of course this is just a comparison of the routes. I enjoyed both trips equally even though the weather made the first one more difficult.
I picked "Round Trip" as the trip title since I've now done the coast to coast trail from one end to the other and back again. I considered a title which paralleled my first trip, "The Wind At Our Backs" since the first was titled "The Wind In Our Faces." But I think round trip was a better description this time.
One title I never seriously considered was "The Trail of Dead Bunnies" being both negative and sad. One day especially we saw a lot of dead hares. It's not certain why they're dying but the thinking is that some serious virus is circulating among them. It's probably not serious enough to kill them all off, but it is taking a toll. At one wide spot in the trail we saw a hare just hunched up on the trail. We went past it quietly trying not to disturb it. But I suspect it was dying since it didn't even seem to notice us.