Category: General

This is message 3 of 3 closing posts on my blog about the South West Coast Path.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has made my hiking adventure possible:

• My family, who had to do without me for more than 9 weeks and had to do all sorts of things that I normally do.
• Encounter Walking Holidays for arranging my luggage transport, the overnight addresses and all information and tips they have given me.
• Luggage Transfers for actually carrying my luggage, which was always present when I had finished walking.
• The weather gods (everyone can fill in their favorites).
• Colleagues, some of whom also took over from me while I was away.
• B & B, hotels, etc.
• Laundrettes that helped me with the laundry or even did it for me.
• Ferrymen who made sure that I did not have to wade through more rivers…
• Bar staff and wait staff in pubs, restaurants and other occasions that took care for my drinks and meals.
• All the nice people I met along the way, fellow hikers and others, for the nice conversations from short to long.
• Blog readers and commenters for following my adventures and the reactions I received (both via the blog and in the mail and the app).

The last lyrics from Rush are very applicable, Marathon:

It’s not how fast you can go
The force goes into the flow
If you pick up the beat
You can forget about the heat
More than just survival
More than just a flash
More than just a dotted line
More than just a dash

It’s a test of ultimate will
The heartbreak climb uphill
Got to pick up the pace
If you want to stay in the race
More than blind ambition
More than simple greed
More than a finish line
Must feed this burning need
In the long run…

[Chorus:]
From first to last
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light that gets in your eyes
One moment’s high, and glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightning
That flashes and fades in the summer sky

Your meters may overload
You can rest at the side of the road
You can miss a stride
But nobody gets a free ride

More than high performance
More than just a spark
More than just the bottom line
Or a lucky shot in the dark
In the long run…

[Chorus]

You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don’t burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance
First you’ve got to last…

[Chorus]

This is message 2 of 3 closing posts on my blog about the South West Coast Path.

A look back in numbers:

• 1227 kilometers walked
• 38021 meters climbed (and descended again)
• 326 meters was the maximum height
• 270 bottles of water (approximately)
• 65 nights
• 56 accommodation addresses
• 66 days away
• 225 pints (approximately)
• 54 walking days
• 8 rest days
• 4 travel days
• 1 time I fell
• 4 times I did the laundry myself
• 4 times the laundry was done for me
• 6547 photos taken (they are not all on the blog)
• 68 song lyrics
• 46 batteries consumed (for the Garmin GPS)
• more than 100 Porsches seen
• 8 pounds lost (despite all the beer)

This is message 1 of 3 closing posts on my blog about the South West Coast Path.

I am home for more than a week now and also started working again. Everyone was (thankfully) happy to see me again and I have already been able to tell about my experiences many times. When I got home, I immediately ended up in a heat wave. That and all regular issues that are coming my way again, have led to these closing messages being slightly later than my intention.

If I look back on my walking adventure now, I am very satisfied. Everything went well and the few minor problems that occurred were all solved in no time. The thorough preparation, by myself but also by Encounter Walking Holidays, was not in vain.

I had good weather for walking. I met many nice people, both on the road and at the overnight addresses. Also this time comments were made like “where is your horse” and I was asked if I was a musician or artist, but I’m already used to that 🙂

As far as the heaviness of the walks is concerned, it was not too bad. It is not that there were no very heavy stages, but I could handle them all quite easily. Only at the beginning I had some small blisters and my calves had to get used to climbing and descending. No problems that I could not cope with.

I have had many different overnight addresses. They were all different, ranging from a tiny single room to a spacious double room with almost apartment dimensions. Bathrooms varying from a small hutch with a shower where you could not turn your butt to spacious bathrooms with a shower with large dimensions. Occasionally no shower, but only a bathtub with (if I was lucky) a shower head. Sometimes a shower door that I had in my hands when I tried to open it.
View from the rooms ranging from sea view to a courtyard with an air conditioning installation.

The places where I spent the night varied from a big city, with or without more than a hundred Porsches, to a single hotel on the sea side with nothing else in the neighborhood.

I have eaten well in England. Despite the fact that the pub grub menu is almost the same everywhere, I had enough variation. Ranging from Chinese, Thai and Indian to a whole lobster. Breakfast ranging from a full English breakfast to waffles with fresh fruit and maple syrup.

I also drank well in England. Just like here there are a lot of small breweries in England that sell their brews locally. Every pub had one or more of these ales on tap and along with that several larger names, and of course Guinness.
On rest days I visited a number breweries or a brewery’s taste locations. Always good for a number of new entries on Untappd!

Also in terms of technology everything went smoothly. I had no problems with the all the electronics that I had with me: mobile phone, tablet, laptop, e-reader, GPS, power bank, step counter, LED flashlight and all the chargers that go with it. Except for one communication breakdown, but that was solved automatically within a day.

One of the reasons to undertake this adventure was because I wanted to come to a good rest for once. That has completely succeeded. I have hardly been concerned about normal daily worries, such as roofs with broken tiles or work. My biggest concerns were replenishing my water supply during the day and finding new types of beer for the evening 🙂

All in all, the whole adventure was a great success!

Two weeks to go before my adventure begins. Most of the preparations have been done. New stuff has been baught, tickets are ordered, travel routes have been established, the walking blog is ready for use, people have been informed, replacement has been arragned, GPS tracks are downloaded and detailed info from Encounter Walking Holidays has been received.

One note about the english version of this walking blog. I will translate the dutch version using Google translate and make corrections where I see fit. This will hopefully result in acceptable english versions of my travel reports.

Not much that can go wrong now…

To use the words of Peter Schilling: “der Countdown läuft”. The lyrics of Major Tom are a good representation on how I look at things momentarily. I just hope it ends better for me 🙂

Gründlich durchgecheckt steht sie da
und wartet auf den Start – alles klar!
Experten streiten sich um ein paar Daten
die Crew hat da noch ein paar Fragen
doch der Countdown läuft

Effektivität bestimmt das Handeln
man verlässt sich blind auf den ander’n
jeder weiß genau, was von ihm abhängt
jeder ist im Stress, doch Major Tom
macht einen Scherz
dann hebt er ab und

Völlig losgelöst
von der Erde
schwebt das Raumschiff
völlig schwerelos

Die Erdanziehungskraft ist überwunden
alles läuft perfekt, schon seit Stunden
wissenschaftliche Experimente
doch was nützen die am Ende, denkt
sich Major Tom

Im Kontrollzentrum, da wird man panisch
der Kurs der Kapsel, der stimmt ja gar nicht
“Hallo Major Tom, können Sie hören
woll’n Sie das Projekt denn so zerstören?”
doch er kann nichts hör’n
er schwebt weiter

Völlig losgelöst
von der Erde
schwebt das Raumschiff
völlig schwerelos

Die Erde schimmert blau, sein letzter Funk kommt
“Grüßt mir meine Frau”, und er verstummt

Unten trauern noch die Egoisten
Major Tom denkt sich, wenn die wüssten
mich führt hier ein Licht durch das All
das kennt ihr noch nicht, ich komme bald
mir wird kalt

Völlig losgelöst
von der Erde
schwebt das Raumschiff
schwerelos

So it has been decided. In May, June and July 2018 I will be walking the South West Coast Path in England along the coast in Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.

I discussed it with Ada and the kids and I made arrangements at work. Currently I am working on all the things that need to be arranged for a journey like this (overnight stays, luggage transfer, travel, etc.). For a big part of all the arrangements I found a good partner in Encounter Walking Holidays.

The South West Coast Path is England’s longest National Trail, running for 630 miles / 1,014 km along the coast. It originated as a path for the coast guard to  walk from lighthouse  to lighthouse patrolling for smugglers.

We have been in Cornwall before on a holiday in 2009. At that time we walked two short tracks of the South West Coast Path as part of two bigger circular walks, one in Looe and one in Land’s End.

At that time I already knew that I would be returning to walk bigger parts of this incredible footpath.

Now is that time. After having worked for more than 30 years (for the same company) and with the prospect of working for 10+ years more, I decided that I needed a longer break than the normal holiday of a few weeks. And since I really enjoy walking, the choice for a long distance trail was only natural.

I will be leaving home on May 14^th and I will return on July 18^th. On the Planning page a complete overview of my walks and travels can be found.

I will be keeping a blog of my walks / travels / adventures on this web site. You are welcome to comment on them if you like. I’ll even try to keep the blog both in Dutch and in English for my non-Dutch speaking friends.

For starters I will be posting a number of preparation blogs (like this one) and a number of test blogs of other walks I make before my England adventure.

I am really looking forward to my short sabbatical!