The Route: Parts II and III

I’ve finally finished planning my route.  In the last part of the trip, unlike in the UK, the trails are pretty continuous, all the way down the west of France a small stretch across the Pyrenees, and joining the Camino.

I’ll be picking up the Plantagenets Route from Le Mont Saint-Michel to Saint-Jean-d’Angély for 354 miles (569 km), and continuing down to Irun (how long this is exactly, I haven’t been able to find out yet).

At Irun I will pick up the Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne, over the top of the Pyrenees, for a few days until Col d’Ibañeta, which is near Roncesvalles, one of the starting points for the Camino de Santiago.  Sadly I won’t be able to do the entire Pyrenees route, unless I completely alter my plan and skip Spain altogether!

The Camino, certainly the most popular part of my route, will take me another 500 miles to Santiago de Compostela, a mere 75 km from where I live now, in La Coruña.

So there it is: the route I hope to complete next summer from June through September.  In the coming weeks I’ll be posting more about the charities I hope to fundraise for, and will be using my weekends writing letters (or emails, rather) hoping to get donors, sponsors, and new friends for this coming adventure.

The Route: Part I

For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to piece together my route for next summer.  Although I had many ideas about where I’d like to walk in general, it has been a lot harder than I thought it would be to piece together what should be both a cohesive path as well as a challenging one.  Rather than simply walking on a straight line from point A to point B, (across a country for example), I wanted to choose a mix of established trails in order to see both the best of the area, and to keep it in large part in natural surroundings.

I’ve already known the final stage of my walk for some time now: the Camino de Santiago.  It only seems fitting since the Camino will bring me right back to where I’m living now (well, almost).  The first stage of my walk I knew would be in the UK, and I had first imagined a combination of Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales.  Unfortunately, because of how convoluted I was going to have to make the trail (do I start and Scotland and take a ferry to Ireland, and then ferry back over to England?), I’m passing on Ireland for the time being.

So now I’ve more or less decided on the first 1000 miles!

1.  West Highland Way.  95 miles from Port William to Milngarie, in Scotland, after which I’ll be connecting to the–

2.  Ayrshire Coastal Path.  100 miles from Skelmorlie to Glenapp, also in Scotland.  After this I will likely have a big gap before I start walking again on the–

3.  Offa’s Dyke Path.  177 miles, crisscrossing the Welsh-English border.  This takes me down almost to the beginning of the–

4.  Southwest Coast Path.  This is the biggie: 630 miles along beautiful coastline.

Although I would have liked to plan a route without any major gaps, this seems now like the most cohesive plan, providing a variety of scenery and challenges.  Now to plan the next phase: France!

Marisa Walks Across Begins!

Welcome to Marisa Walks Across!

In the months leading up to June 2013, I will be chronicling my preparation of walking a series of routes across Ireland, Scotland, England, France, and Spain in order to raise money for a couple of charities.  In the months following June 1^st, I will be telling the world all about it!  It’s going to be an adventure indeed, and the possibility of raising money for some special organizations makes it even more exciting.

Soon I will be posting more about the routes, my charities, and how to donate to them, or to sponsor my walk itself.

Until then!

Marisa