PS
This walk was very much about meeting people and it caused me to
reflect on how much the nature of the Coast to Coast had changed since my father
walked it almost 30 years ago and more surprisingly how much I felt it had
changed since I first walked it only 5 years ago. We met between two and three
hundred people doing the walk going from west to east. With the exception of
only a handful, perhaps 20 at most, they were all using the bagagge transfer
services to move their luggage from one B&B to the next. Even fewer were
actually camping and even those had used a B&B at some stage on the route.
(not least because the weather had been so bad for many of them in the Lake
District. The increase in numbers doing the walk had definitely made route
finding easier since the paths were very well trodden compared even to five
years ago and there was now an improvement in some places in 'Coast to Coast'
signs (though not everywhere and certainly not on the stretches that follow the
Cleveland Way!) The increase in numbers is also putting great pressure on
accommodation along the route. As a result more stopover points are opening up
such as Lovesome Hill (near Danby Wiske), Osmotherley (near Ingleby), and Great
Broughton (near Clay Bank Top). Some or these are 3 or 4 miles off route but
B&Bs now happily offer to pick walkers up from the path and return them
there the next day. (e.g Tan Hill Inn). We also heard reports of B&Bs who
would welcome walkers for two nights stay and pick you up at the end of the next
stage and return you there the following morning. It is ceasing to be a 'cheap
holiday' and with the cost of B&Bs and, even more, campsites escalating out
of all proportion with inflation the less well off will be
precluded. It occurred to me that the logical conclusion to all of
this is that someone will offer 'centres' in places such as Penrith and
Middlesborough. You stay the first week in a hotel/B&B in Penrith and then
in a second hotel/B&B in Middlesborugh for the second week and each day are
brought to the start of the next stage and then picked up at the end of it
each evening. Along th e route itself more and more 'services' are being
offered including refreshment stops, baskets by the wayside offering fruit and
snacks and prepared food at camp sites. We met groups of ten or more people
walking together and I suspect that more and more organised groups will be
encountered. All of this opens up the Coast to Coast and its glorious
countryside to more (well off?) people, makes it easier for them to plan and
enjoy the walk. However, in the back of my mind is that this changes the nature
of of the walk. The 'adventure' element gradually disappears as the certainty
creeps in. Whether Wainwright would have expected, wanted or intended his walk
to develop like this I leave to you to decide.
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