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1. Summary of the walk:
Phase I (1999) 274 miles in northern Scotland in 11 days
Phase II (2000) 215 miles in southwest England in 8.5 days
Phase III (2001) 282 miles in western and northwest England, ending in southern Scotland, in 11 days
Phase IV (2002) 96 miles in southern Scotland spread over 5 days (4 full days)
Total miles walked: 867. Full days walked: 34.5
Average distance walked per day: 25 miles
Signs at John O'Groats and Land's End give the distance between them as 874 miles, I believe. Although my distances are certainly subject to rounding errors, the bridge that was built on A9 over Dornoch Firth in Northern Scotland in 1991 cuts off a number of miles and is used by most End-to-End participants.
It is appropriate to thank my mentor, Noel Blackham, even though I have never met him or even talked to him. His book, "One Man and His Dog Go Walkies" (you can tell he's English, can't you?) showed me the route, which I duplicated almost exactly. He walked for 35 days and listed his distance as 873 miles. He made the walk in 1988 and didn't have the benefit of being able to walk over the bridge across Dornoch Firth.
Wednesday, May 29-Starting at 1:15 p.m. I walk 14 miles north on B7076, from Ecclefachan, in southern Scotland, where I stopped in 2001. Ecclefachan is 76 miles south of Glasgow. Traffic is very light on my road because I am walking parallel to a motorway, the A74M, which carries all the through traffic. I walk on a bike path with very few bikes. It rains, sometimes heavily, and the wind is gusty, but sometimes pushes me. The route is that of an old Roman road. The Romans were good engineers and built their roads straight, wherever possible. I walk past Lockerbie, the site of the crash of Pan Am 103 on December 21, 1988. Bonny and I stay at a bed and breakfast in Lockerbie and visit the Garden of Remembrance, in a cemetery, a memorial to the 270 people killed in the plane crash. The names of all the victims are engraved on a wall and there are also some individual markers.
Happiness is a deserted B Road
Thursday, May 30-I walk 22 miles north on B7076 and A702 to Crawford. We are in the valley of the River Clyde, which sometimes runs near the road. In addition, my road parallels the motorway and a rail line. Most of the trains are Virgin passenger trains, part of the Richard Branson empire. The road makes its way up into hills, some covered with pine trees, others green but treeless. When the rain comes, the wind, which has been pushing me, turns and blows the cold rain into my face. My rain pants get soaked. The combination of wind, rain and cold does me in. Bonny hasn't seen me this disheartened in a long time and worries about my resolution.
Friday, May 31-I walk 27 miles north on A702 and B7078 to Ferniegair. I wear 4 layers on top and 3 on the bottom to blunt the effects of the headwind. The rain holds off and the sun comes out, playing with fluffy clouds. My spirits improve. I actually take off my North Face rain top in the afternoon. The route climbs to ever-higher valleys. The wind stream from a large truck blows my Michigan baseball cap off my head and it flies over a wire fence. Not wanting to lose it I climb over the fence after it. Bonny makes friends with some cows, who crowd around her. The ubiquitous sheep haven't been shorn yet this spring, but they have lots of babies.
Saturday, June 1-I walk 24 miles north to Old Kilpatrick. I walk through Hamilton and then into the city of Glasgow on A72, A724 and A749. Bonny and I coordinate very closely on our approach to Glasgow, so as not to lose the route or each other, as we did in Bristol 2 years ago. Fortunately, we have detailed street maps. Within Glasgow I follow the north bank of the River Clyde. I walk through the grounds of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Center and then pick up the Loch Lomond bike path where it parallels A814. Sheltering trees often line both sides of the path, creating a sense of isolation, and it is laid out so that it crosses few streets. Some bicyclists, dog walkers and children from nearby high-rise apartment buildings are on the path. Usually, I am not allowed to walk off-road, but since Bonny and I have agreed to meet in Old Kilpatrick I can pick my route to get there. I switch to A814 at Clydebank and follow it to Old Kilpatrick, which is almost literally underneath the high-arching Erskine Bridge. After mid-afternoon it is T-shirt weather.
The ice cream shop in Old Kilpatrick, under the Erskine Bridge.
Sunday, June 2-I walk 9 miles north to Balloch, at the south end of Loch Lomond, and finish the End-to-End at 11:30 a.m. The route is A814, A82 through Dumbarton, A13 through Bonhill, and then A811 west to Balloch, which I also reached on July 13, 1999, walking south from Northern Scotland. Appropriately, a McDonald's Restaurant has been built at my exact finish location in the intervening years.
Celebration lunch in Balloch
Thoughts on the End-to-End
People ask me why I go for long walks. If you are an avid walker you don't have to ask that question. Why do people collect baseball cards (as my son does) or go skydiving? Part of the reason is to do something nobody else has done. Of course, others have walked the End-to-End, but how many have also walked the coast of California and from Los Angeles to Denver? But there is more to it. I do it because I can. I do it because it is a physical and mental test. I do it because I like to be alone, at least part of the time. I do it because I am interested in how the world looks, and you can see a heck of a lot more at 3.7 miles-per-hour than you can at 50-or 500. And I was never very good at sitting at a desk 8 hours a day. It's lucky I've already had a walk this morning or I would probably have a hard time sitting still and finishing this.
Alan Cook
http://alancook.50megs.com
Books by Alan:
"WALKING THE WORLD"
"THIRTEEN DIAMONDS"
"CATCH A FALLING KNIFE"
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