Walking with Plato

A Oneworld Book

First published in Great Britain, North America and Australia by Oneworld Publications, 2016

This ebook published by Oneworld Publications, 2016

Copyright © Gary Hayden 2016

The moral right of Gary Hayden to be identified as the

Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with

the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved

Copyright under Berne Convention

A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78074-656-2

eISBN 978-1-78074-657-9

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders for the use of material in this book.

The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions herein and would be

grateful if they were notified of any corrections that should be incorporated

in future reprints or editions of this book.

Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh

Oneworld Publications

10 Bloomsbury Street

London WC1B 3SR

England

For

everyone who helped us on our way.

Contents

Map

Prologue

1 First Steps

2 Simple Pleasures

3 Open Spaces

4 Sentimental Journey

5 Getting There

6 Heart of England

7 Wild Life

8 Bittersweet

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Prologue

It’s a beautiful mid-July afternoon. Down below – and getting closer all the time – are the blue waters of the North Sea and the green moorland pastures of the northeast ­Highlands.

The tiny propeller-plane is bouncing around and making whining noises. So, to take my mind off the bouncing and the whining, I do some mental arithmetic:
There are two thousand steps in a mile. So that’s two million steps in a thousand miles. But we’ll probably do nearer to twelve hundred miles. So that’s two-and-a-half million steps, as near as dammit.

Soon, we’ll land in Wick. From there, we’ll take a bus to John o’Groats. And tomorrow, we’ll start walking to Land’s End.

Wendy, sitting beside me, is looking happy and serene.

‘Do you realize, we’re going to be walking two-and-a-half
million
steps?’ I say.

She ponders the information for a moment, then grins and says, ‘Brilliant!’

I lean back in my seat and wonder what the hell I’ve let myself in for.

The fact is, I’ve always been a reluctant walker. In the early days of our marriage, I would sometimes accompany Wendy on mountain-walks in Snowdonia or the Lake District. But I’d usually get bored and grumpy within a few hours. So eventually she gave up on me and joined a walking group.

Since hitting middle age, I’ve become more tolerant of perambulatory excursions. They’re good exercise, if nothing else. But, on the whole, I’ve still tended to view walking as a rather dull affair.

On the face of it, then, I’m an unlikely candidate for the ‘End to End’: Britain’s longest long-distance walking challenge, extending from the northeastern tip of Scotland to the southwestern tip of England. But I was prompted to it by two considerations.

First and foremost, Wendy wanted to do it. In fact, she’d wanted to do it for years. And now, at the end of a five-year stint teaching in an international school in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, she’d finally found the time.

Second, I’m a sucker for a physical challenge. Like many middle-aged men, I’m engaged in a constant, bitter, and losing battle against physical decline. This means that, when I’m not devouring pasties and guzzling beer, I take grim pleasure in making my paunchy body run around, do press-ups, and perform tricks with a skipping-rope. So, in that sense, a three-month hike up and down hills carrying a heavy rucksack is right up my street.

For those reasons, when Wendy suggested End to Ending, I surprised her by saying yes.

Even so, I still had my doubts about the whole thing. After all, three months is a long time; and twelve hundred miles is a long way; and two-and-a-half million steps – that’s an
awful
lot of steps.

The plane continues its bumpy descent. I look out of the window, and I have to admit that those blue waters and green pastures
do
look inviting.

So who knows? Wendy might be right. It could just turn out to be brilliant . . .

The beginning is the most important part of any work.

—Plato,
Republic

Chapter One

First Steps

John o’Groats – Duncansby Head – Wick – Dunbeath – Berriedale – Helmsdale – Brora – Golspie – Dornoch Firth – Evanton – Inverness

There’s no set route for the End to End. You can do it entirely along roads or you can navigate your way through forest, field, and mountain. You can take a more or less straight line or you can zigzag around, stopping off anywhere that takes your fancy. You can do it from Land’s End to John o’Groats (LEJoG) or you can do it – as Wendy and I did – from John o’Groats to Land’s End (JoGLE). You can take as much or as little time over it as you like.

All that matters is that you walk every step of the way.

If you take the direct(ish) route, along roads, the journey is about 850 miles, which means that you can do it in six weeks or less if you hoof it.

Most End to Enders, however, opt for a more scenic route, taking long-distance paths whenever possible and using roads only when necessary. These journeys are typically between eleven hundred and twelve hundred miles long, and take two to three months to complete.

Wendy and I planned to take a scenic route along some of Britain’s best-loved National Trails, including the Great Glen Way, the West Highland Way, the Pennine Way, the Heart of England Way, the Cotswold Way, and the South West Coast Path.

The first of these, the Great Glen Way, begins at Inverness, Scotland’s most northerly city, which is situated 120 miles south of John o’Groats.