C2C 2010 Planning
Walkers' reports on the C2C were beginning to appear on the web – these provided invaluable information on the walk, accommodation, maps and gear. The Sherpa website included information on, and walkers' reviews of, accommodation options at all possible stops on and near the route.
To guide us on our way we bought the current edition of Wainwrights 'A coast to coast walk: a pictorial guide', Stedman's 'Coast to Coast path ', the Harvey strip maps for the western and eastern halves of the walk, and a DVD of the just completed Julia Bradbury TV series on the walk.
Based on what we thought we could comfortably walk in a day and availability of accommodation options with favourable reviews, we devised a 17 day itinerary. We decided on the second half of September for the walk to avoid the crowds and midges of summer and then hoped for an Indian summer.
The next significant decision was serendipitous. Mary was walking past a travel agency in our local shopping mall during the week before Christmas 2009 and saw that Royal Brunei Airlines was offering a business class fare to London at less than double the economy fare, but it had to be booked before Christmas. After a quick overnight discussion we decided to book the airfare based on an itinerary that was still a work in progress, including a stay in London, the walk, and a sojourn around Scotland and England – thus the dates for the holiday were fixed!
At this stage our enthusiastic ravings about the walk induced old friends to decide to join us on the adventure. David and Robyn would make their own way to the UK and join us for the walk.
We made our accommodation bookings in January via email and/or phone. Some of our first choices were already fully booked for our chosen dates, but we were able to book into all our chosen villages. We booked Sherpa to carry our suitcases between overnight stops.