Wednesday 21st to Tuesday 27th November 2018
Hamble to Town Quay, Southampton 7.59 miles (plus 1.5 miles to my accommodation)
Town Quay, Southampton to Calshot RNLI station (via So’ton to Hythe ferry) 9.36 miles (plus 1.5 miles from my accommodation)
Calshot RNLI to Beaulieu 11.11 miles
Beaulieu to Lymington 11.00 miles
Yarmouth ferry to Compton Chine 12.04 miles
Wednesday 14th to Tuesday 20th November 2018
Prinsted to Langstone (around Thorney Island) 11.01 miles
Langstone to Hayling Island RNLI station 10.01 miles
Hayling Island ferry to Portsmouth docks 5.07
Gosport ferry to Hamble 16.00 miles
A short week due to a sight-seeing stop over in Portsmouth
Wednesday 7th to Tuesday 13th November
Littlehampton to Pagham 13.84 miles
Pagham to Bracklesham, East Wittering 15.82 miles
Bracklesham to Chichester canal basin 14.04 miles
Chichester marina to Chidham 10.67 miles
Chidham to Prinsted 6.32 miles
Wednesday 31st October to Tuesday 6th November
Pevensey Bay to Birling Gap 12.59 miles
Birling Gap to Newhaven 13.25 miles
Newhaven to Hove 13.39 miles
Hove to Worthing 10.02 miles
Worthing to Littlehampton 8.71 miles
Wednesday 24th October to Tuesday 30th
St Mary’s Bay to Lydd 11.54 miles
Lydd to Rye 11.75 miles
Rye to Hastings 12.85 miles
Hastings to Pevensey Bay 12.29 miles
Wednesday 17th to Tuesday 23rd October
Ramsgate to Deal 14.13 miles
Deal to Dover 11.87 miles
Dover to Sandgate 9.66 miles
Sandgate to St Mary’s Bay 10.12 miles
Week 2, Wednesday 10th to Tuesday 16th October
Lower Halstow to Sheerness to Sittingbourne ~12 miles*
Sittingborne to Faversham 12.33 miles
Faversham to Whitstable 10.15 miles
Whitstable to Westgate-on-Sea 15.17 miles
Westgate-on-Sea to Ramsgate 11.48 miles
What are you doing?
How many miles is it?
How long will it take?
Are you going with people?
Why are you doing it?
Are you scared?
How did you choose your charities?
How many miles do you intend to walk each day?
How many days per week will you be walking?
Where will you stay overnight? Are you camping?
Are you being sponsored by anyone?
Can I join you on part of the walk?
What will you do when you’ve finished?
The plan is to walk the coast of Britain visiting every lifeboat station along the way. I will aim to follow the coast as much as possible but if lack of footpaths, footpath closures, or a more pleasant or safer way exists, then I will head inland a little. For example, trying to follow the coast around Kent is problematic in parts so I’ve decided to follow the Saxon Shore Way instead. With the exception of the Thames, which has 4 RNLI stations, I shall cross rivers at the first available public crossing nearest the mean high water point rather than wander upriver for miles.
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This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer, but Ordnance Survey calculated that it is 11,072.8 miles (17,820 km) using their Boundary-Line high-water data. But it depends on how you measure it, as Alasdair Rae explains in his blog. The Wales Coast Path is 870 miles (1400 km), and the England Coast Path will be around 2,795 miles (4498 km) long when it’s complete. So already we’re up to 3,665 miles before we even factor in islands or the complex Scottish coast! Just taking into consideration that the Ayrshire and Fife Coastal Paths, the Cape Wrath, John o’ Groats, and Moray Coast Trails, and West Highland Way total 725 miles (1167km) alone, and they don’t make up the whole of the Scottish coast or necessarily go past RNLI stations, it’s going to be a long walk. Probably between 5,000 and 11,000 miles; one fundraiser, Alex Ellis-Roswell, walked over 9,500 miles visiting every RNLI station on the coast of Britain and Ireland.
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In all honesty I’m really not sure, although it took Alex Ellis-Roswell 3 years to complete his walk around the coast of Britain and Ireland and he’s younger, and I daresay fitter, than me.
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No, I am going alone. Thankfully I don’t tend to get lonely.
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Good question. It was an idea that evolved in my 2nd year of university when I was pretty low mentally (due to bereavements and uni stress) and desperately wanted to jack it all in. It was then that I started considering what I would do once I’d graduated, to give me something to look forward to. My 1st idea was to go travelling around the world before settling into a new career, but then I decided that I’d really like to explore Britain, and if I was going to explore Britain it would most likely involve a lot of walking. I enjoy walking and have been a member of the Ramblers Association for many years so this seemed ideal, and if any trip was going to involve a lot of walking I should do it sooner rather than later; after all, who knows what’s around the corner regarding our health. But this all seemed a bit airy fairy and I needed a plan, so it evolved into walking around the coast, and if I was going to do something so huge why don’t I do it for charity?
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I’m more excited than scared although I must admit to having some days where I have major concerns. The biggest one by far is how I’ll cope with carrying 10kg in a rucksack. Although I’m used to carrying 5kg whenever I go on day hikes over variable terrain and up to ~17 miles, I’ve found that increasing the weight means I can’t walk as far before getting tired. Theoretically I should be able to carry about 20% of my body weight (so 11kg), but I just don’t know how my body is going to behave in practice. I’ll either get hurt or very fit!
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Regarding the RNLI, I’m in awe of what they do, and once I’d decided to walk around the coast it seemed a natural progression to support them. My idea to support the Association of lowland search and rescue came after watching a documentary about missing people. I had always thought that it was only the Police that conducted searches so I was surprised to find that they work closely with regional search and rescue teams made up entirely of volunteers. In addition, although I suspect pretty much everyone has heard of the RNLI, I’m finding that far fewer people have heard of lowland rescue. I wanted to change this. I also felt that LSAR and the RNLI made a logical pairing as their operations tend to overlap.
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This is another question that is quite difficult to answer because “it depends”. It depends on terrain, weather, how I’m coping with carrying a load day after day, etc., but I aim for 10 miles.
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I’m not out to break any records or to push myself to exhaustion, so realistically I think 2 days walking followed by a rest day is realistic, so walking 5 days a week. I think that it’s better to feel I could do a little more than to be overly ambitious and need time off to recover, and I want to enjoy this not be battling with low morale and pushing my willpower to its limits as I have been these past couple of years.
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Because my main concern regarding this trip is how I’ll cope physically with the weight of my backpack I am loathe to add extra weight by carrying camping equipment. As I only weigh 55kg I have to be mindful of keeping my pack weight down and if I added camping kit it would not only be miserable but would significantly increase my risk of injury. Plus, although I have enjoyed camping trips, these have always been with someone rather than alone and have never been in the colder months. The thought of having to cope with the elements, be tired after a day walking, and on top of that not having somewhere comfortable to sleep does not sound very appealing. Nope, having somewhere comfortable, dry and warm to sleep so that I can rest properly and being in the right frame of mind to start again the next day is what I’m hoping for, be that a B&B or on someone’s sofa.
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No. Maybe this will change as I progress with the journey though.
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If you wish to join me on some of the walks you’re welcome to. I will tweet my location and should be wearing a charity tabard for easy ID.
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At this stage I’m not sure, although my interests are in type 2 diabetes and obesity prevention and management, and in footpath management. I want to let life evolve for a while and see where I end up though.
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I’m Beth (short for Elizabeth) and I dislike housework so much – well come on, I mean you put the hoover round and do the washing up and it looks lovely but 6 months later it needs doing again doesn’t it – I’ve decided to give up my house later in the year and go on a very long walk. The plan is to walk the coast of Britain, from RNLI lifeboat station to lifeboat station, raising awareness and money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the Association of Lowland Search and Rescue.
At the moment this is very much in the planning stage, and the next few months will be spent fine tuning the details with these 2 organisations, researching how not to need rescuing whilst raising money for rescue charities (can you imagine that! I think I’d be so embarrassed I’d have to emigrate), and getting fit enough so that I don’t come a cropper only a few weeks in.
I think it’s important to have clear expectations, so you know what to expect of me and my journey and I know what to expect myself, so there will be a few guidelines and rules I shall follow. It may sound daft but the main one is “what exactly is the coastline?” as this can vary by thousands of miles depending on whether I follow estuaries and rivers or not. So, as the planning evolves it will become clear what, when, and how I shall be undertaking this mammoth task. In the meantime I shall update on my planning and training, so at least if I take a wrong turn during the walk, end up on Bodmin Moor and get eaten by feral goats, there may be some useful information for anyone who may want to have a go themselves.
The Association of Lowland Search & Rescue is the UK’s governing body for the 35 UK Lowland Rescue teams. ALSAR set the training standards that they have to reach, and the code of practice that they use. They are members of UKSAR, alongside Mountains Rescue and the RNLI, providing official Search and Rescue coverage “From Hill to High Water”, whenever requested.
They work with Police to locate people who are deemed to be in any danger from bad weather, ill-health, age or their location, for example missing children or dementia patients. Many teams also work alongside the Fire Service for flooding, wildfire SAR and drone support at major incidents.
These teams are highly trained and equipped to search across any terrain, administer medical assistance and recover the missing person to safety. They form the backbone of the unpaid Search & Rescue services in the UK with Lowland Rescue covering 33 police authorities, Mountain Rescue covering many mountainous and moorland areas, and Coastguard Rescue covering the coastline.
Key points (from the LR Association Incident Report for 2017) include:
• There were over 1350 operational members and 580 non-operational members;
• Resources included 52 dogs, 75 vehicles, 45 boats, 18 drones, 79 bikes and 41 canoes and kayaks;
• In total there was over 60,000 person-hours of incident activity (22 person-years);
• In 2017 there were 1,234 incident callouts including assists and 1,147 of these associated with searches for missing people;
• Based on the full economic costs of a police officer (National Policing Guidelines 2015) the total value of the Lowland Rescue Services provided for incidents alone would be £3.6 million. This excludes all costs associated with training and equipment.
Currently, funding is used for training of the local teams, bringing them to a recognized national standard, and provision of materials to support online learning. However, they are about to undertake a large dog training program with an aim to deliver 100 ground scenting search dogs nationally. They are also invested in future research for finding missing people, be this the pioneering use of Drone technology or the creation of unique scent bottle kits for trailing dogs. They are a registered charity, run entirely on a voluntary basis, on a par with Mountain Rescue and the RNLI.
The RNLI is the largest charity that saves lives at sea, through lifeboat search and rescue, lifeguards, water safety education and flood rescue. It operates around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man as well as on some inland waterways.
The RNLI has 237 lifeboat stations and operates 444 lifeboats, plus lifeguards operating on more than 200 beaches. Although the lifeguards are paid by local authorities the RNLI provides equipment and training. The Institution also operates Flood Rescue Teams (FRT) nationally and internationally (iFRT), the latter prepared to travel to emergencies overseas at short notice.
Giving these lifesavers (most of whom are unpaid volunteers) everything they need and deserve – from boots to boats – is costly. It cost £176.5M to run their lifesaving service in 2017, mostly funded by legacies and donations.