Long Distance Footpaths
Britain is blessed with a rich variety of long distance footpaths. The really important thing about a really successful long distance path is that it should not start from anywhere people might want to start from, and even more importantly, should end up somewhere where no-one would want to go. Also the route taken should be the most circuitous possible (a sort of anti-straight line; the longest distance between two points) and whenever possible it should follow the most inaccessible, uncomfortable and exhausting tracks. For these reasons routes following the coast line (eg the Pembrokeshire Coast Path) or mountain peaks (eg the Pennine Way) are particular favourites.
Occasionally, a long distance footpath will follow an extremely useful route, but only if the route was extremely useful several centuries ago. An example is the North Downs Way, a pathway starting for no discernible reason from the commuter town of Farnham and ending up at the dreary ferry port of Dover, possibly the ugliest seaside town in the south of England. However, when Chaucer’s pilgrims were “on the road” the old Pilgrims’ Way from Winchester to Canterbury would have been one of the most popular in England. So when, in the 1970s, no-one was remotely interested in visiting the shrine of Thomas a Beckett it was decided to build a path following much of the same route, but to put it on the muddy farm tracks along the windswept downs, instead of the sheltered valleys lined with warm pubs.
We should be especially proud of pathways that are destroying the small patches of unspoilt countryside left in our small island. In many areas, local authorities have been able to dump concrete slabs on bits of hillside too remote even for greenfield, out of town shopping centres.
Keywords:walking, walks, hiking, backpacking,travel
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