Pennine Way (North to South) 2024 – Intermission 2

It’s been a little over four weeks since I spat my dummy out and walked away from the second leg of the Pennine Way, taking my proverbial ball with me. It felt like the right decision at the time, and as I expected, I did feel a little bit of guilt after a few days – but then I just look at the weather reports for the days that followed my exit, and I think I made the right decision. Storm Lilian brought 50-60 mph winds across the areas I was walking through, the tents of festival-goers in nearby Leeds were ripped up and blown away, weeks worths of rain fell in a single day, and I would have been walking through it all. Even with my rose-tinted hindsight glasses on, I think I made the ‘best’ call, even if it still doesn’t really feel like the ‘right’ call.

I also know I can’t just leave it there – I have to go back and finish it off. Thankfully, Chris has agreed to help me out, and we’re planning on spending a couple of long weekends over the next month or so, finishing off the 60+ miles I have left. We’ll use two vehicles and break a couple of the longer days into smaller, bite-size chunks, more appropriate for the shorter days to come. I don’t imagine the weather in October and November could be much worse than the August Bank Holiday storms, but you never know – the shorter days will probably be welcome there too.

Unfortunately, walking the Pennine Way from north to south has left something of a bitter taste in my mouth. I’ve already explained why it’s definitely the wrong way to walk the route, but more than that – deep down – it’s actually ruined the walk for me. What I’ve always considered to be one of the finest walks in the UK now has a black mark against it – I know this is ridiculous – but I also know it’s how I feel. I can’t think about the Pennine Way at the moment without thinking how I’ve ruined its memory for myself. I can’t let that lie of course, so I’m going to have to walk it again – and I don’t have too many good walking years left in me I don’t think, so I’m going to have to do it soon. I will walk it south to north of course!

Even for me, September is very early to be planning next year’s long distance path, but within a couple of weeks of getting home from the Pennine Way, and quickly arranging with Chris to finish it off before the end of the year, my thoughts were turning to 2025. My eagerness to erase the stain of the failed north to south walk had me thinking about walking the Pennine Way in the proper direction again – but it’s probably too soon for that – maybe 2026, but not next year.

I really want to go back to Scotland – despite moaning about some of the harsh tracks and too many miles of tarmac, I really enjoyed the scenery and the surroundings of the three (and a half) Scottish trails I did in 2021, 2022 and 2023. So I started browsing the other official routes on the Scotland’s Great Trails website. I dismissed many as being too short, or too urban, or already done, and quickly whittled the possible candidates down to the Kintyre Way and the Loch Lomond & Cowal Way.

The Kintyre Way is about 100 miles in length – so its long enough to make the travel time and logistics worthwhile and it offers a mix of coastal walking, moorland, forests, and hills. The summary information provided by the SGT website suggests about 25% of the route is on tarmac and accommodation is sparse. I spent an hour or two trying to break the route down between the B&Bs I could spot on Google Maps, interspersed with public transport stops where they were available. The lack of obvious accommodation and the problems of getting there and back soon put me off – and although it may be a route I’ll come back to in the future, I ruled it out for next year.

The Loch Lomond & Cowal Way is actually a link route, connecting the Kintyre Way with the West Highland Way – it’s about 60 miles in length and some of the route looks absolutely spectacular. However, much of the southern part seems to run beside the main road for long distances, and a quick review of accommodation suggested this would be even more challenging than the Kintyre Way. It’s a little short for a long walk for my liking, but there’s the option of walking it south to north and then joining the West Highland Way and walking south along that, back to Fort William – which would make it about the right length for me.

However, I’ve decided not to walk either of them – I’m going to walk the Southern Upland Way again and try and complete it in one year this time. I’ll break it into two sections, one in May and one in July/August – just like I did the Pennine Way – and I may add the Berwickshire Coast Path to the end of the second leg, just to add a couple of days and a few extra miles. I’m not going into any more detail now, I’ll do a separate planning post – but safe to say, my 2025 long distance path decision is now made – I just need to finish 2024’s path now!