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Walking home for Christmas (London to Manchester)


Marc

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1 minute ago, Dave_P said:

I enjoyed the fact that you walked further in one day then some continuous cruisers travel in a year. 

:D

Cue umpteen pages of discussion about how far people are supposed to walk along a towpath in a year, and vilification of anyone who remains standing in one spot for three weeks.

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Thank you @Rob-M, @NickF

For future reference for anyone else walking along the Grand Union Canal around Blisworth:

#BlisworthTunnel #Towpath #Walking #Detour #GrandUnionCanal

This was absolutely fine. I'm much more risk averse than my mother thinks (she was crying on the phone when I'd set off and told her I was doing this, oops!) and really didn't want to walk down a busy single lane 60mph road (it looked fast to me on Google satellite view - should have used Street View) with no pavements and tall hedges up to the road in the dark.

Perhaps a dozen vehicles passed me in the 20 mins it took to jog down it, and it's very wide, with verges to stand on on each side. 

 

Blisworth tunnel history.jpg

15 hours ago, NB Lola said:

You know what?  I suggest anyone prepared to welcome this guy should watch out for him and offer a bed on a boat.  If I was not heading to sunny Malta today I would have been inclined to vector in on you.  Crack on and keep living your dream, mega impressed and have done similar in my hardy youth, usually with some brain dead soldier beasting me around.

Thank you for the thought Lola!

I do hope to have at least a cup of tea on a boat before I hit Manchester. I'm thinking it will get friendlier the further North I get :)

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6 hours ago, JonathonGleeson said:

Marc, out of interest, was the holiday inn more expensive than a train ticket from London to Manchester??

Ha ha, yes it was. 

That said, if I'd travelled back already I'd be at my sister's having to eat weird cheese with my brother-in-law, so it's a price worth paying.  

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33 minutes ago, Marc said:

Thank you @Rob-M, @NickF

For future reference for anyone else walking along the Grand Union Canal around Blisworth:

#BlisworthTunnel #Towpath #Walking #Detour #GrandUnionCanal

This was absolutely fine. I'm much more risk averse than my mother thinks (she was crying on the phone when I'd set off and told her I was doing this, oops!) and really didn't want to walk down a busy single lane 60mph road (it looked fast to me on Google satellite view - should have used Street View) with no pavements and tall hedges up to the road in the dark.

Perhaps a dozen vehicles passed me in the 20 mins it took to jog down it, and it's very wide, with verges to stand on on each side. 

 

Blisworth tunnel history.jpg

Thank you for the thought Lola!

I do hope to have at least a cup of tea on a boat before I hit Manchester. I'm thinking it will get friendlier the further North I get :)

Remind us all of your route?

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<Day 2    Day 3

Very solid day, with clear tarmaced towpaths early on (albeit a frozen canal) meaning I could intermittently jog and knocked 29 canal miles off the total. 76 of 238 done. 

Portrait of a canal, showing artist's trekking pole and discarded underwear. £999. 

Leighton Buzzard.jpg

 

Absolute highlight of the day was early evening when looking to the side my head torch lit up a middle-aged fat dude scrambling to pull up his tracksuit bottoms whilst being noshed off by another middle-aged fat dude. 

 

Updated Stats:

Day 1: 5,909 calories; 65,139 steps; 27 canal miles

Day 2: 5,145 calories; 53,380 steps; 20 canal miles

Day 3: 5,368 calories; 55,188 steps; 29 canal miles

 

Quotes of the day:

"it's not that uncommon for people to use walking as their contemplative practice when they are in the transitional periods" - Gabija, psychologist

"urgh" - Rachael

"canals are dodgy up north. Men go there for naughty things" - Louise's sister. Seems it happens down south also...

"you're a nutcase" - Andy

RouteSoFarSmall.png

Edited by Marc
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On 16/12/2017 at 23:10, Marc said:

Absolute highlight of the day was early evening when looking to the side my head torch lit up a middle-aged fat dude scrambling to pull up his tracksuit bottoms whilst being noshed off by another middle-aged fat dude. 

 

 

I do wish you hasn't said that!!

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10 hours ago, Marc said:

Thank you @Rob-M, @NickF

For future reference for anyone else walking along the Grand Union Canal around Blisworth:

#BlisworthTunnel #Towpath #Walking #Detour #GrandUnionCanal

 I  really didn't want to walk down a busy single lane 60mph road (it looked fast to me on Google satellite view - should have used Street View) with no pavements and tall hedges up to the road in the dark.

Perhaps a dozen vehicles passed me in the 20 mins it took to jog down it, and it's very wide, with verges to stand on on each side. 

Glad all was OK Marc! I looked at the road on street view and came to the conclusion it would be pretty quiet.

I am amazed by your progress, very very impressive, and i am thoroughly enjoying your daily posts.

I live on the South Coast of Kent so can't really help bu offering you a cup of tea on the way past!

Braunstone must be the next big tunnel and the route over that looks like well surfaced easy to find footpaths.... I am pretty sure I have walked it many years ago.

Have fun, you deserve a great Christmas when you get there!

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< Day 3     Day 4

A day focussed on routing:

A nerdy 'wrong' turn at the Norton Junction to visit the Watford Gap, a 400m gap between two hills through which engineers from Roman times onwards have routed connections between the Midlands and South East England: today it contains the A5, M1, West Coast Main Line railway, and the Grand Union Canal. Not many pedestrians visit the Watford Gap Motorway Services I imagine. A quick cheeky walk a few miles across roads joined up with the 'correct' Oxford branch. Just as well, as the towpaths were not great:

today towpath.jpg

 

I also realised I was doing it wrong. The route planner has been sending me via the Bridgewater Canal for the final stretch due to a default setting of 12-20 minutes per lock. Given I'm walking, the Macclesfield canal (more locks, shorter distance) is preferable, so the Canal Mile target to home is now 227, rather than 238. Win!

 

Updated Stats:

Day 1: 5,909 calories; 65,139 steps; 27 canal miles

Day 2: 5,145 calories; 53,380 steps; 20 canal miles

Day 3: 5,606 calories; 55,676 steps; 29 canal miles

Day 4: 5,122 calories; 52,147 steps; 28 canal miles

 

Photos, not quotes today:

Rob, joining me for tomorrow's Canal Miles:

rob coming.png

 

John, fair excuse not to meet up:

John.png

 

Rebecca:

rebecca.png

 

In context:

RouteSoFarSmall.png

 

Edited by Marc
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4 hours ago, Marc said:

< Day 3     Day 4

A day focussed on routing:

A nerdy 'wrong' turn at the Norton Junction to visit the Watford Gap, a 400m gap between two hills through which engineers from Roman times onwards have routed connections between the Midlands and South East England: today it contains the A5, M1, West Coast Main Line railway, and the Grand Union Canal. Not many pedestrians visit the Watford Gap Motorway Services I imagine. A quick cheeky walk a few miles across roads joined up with the 'correct' Oxford branch. Just as well, as the towpaths were not great:

today towpath.jpg

 

I also realised I was doing it wrong. The route planner has been sending me via the Bridgewater Canal for the final stretch due to a default setting of 12-20 minutes per lock. Given I'm walking, the Macclesfield canal (more locks, shorter distance) is preferable, so the Canal Mile target to home is now 227, rather than 238. Win!

 

Updated Stats:

Day 1: 5,909 calories; 65,139 steps; 27 canal miles

Day 2: 5,145 calories; 53,380 steps; 20 canal miles

Day 3: 5,606 calories; 55,676 steps; 29 canal miles

Day 4: 5,122 calories; 52,147 steps; 28 canal miles

 

Photos, not quotes today:

Rob, joining me for tomorrow's Canal Miles:

rob coming.png

 

John, fair excuse not to meet up:

John.png

 

Rebecca:

rebecca.png

 

In context:

RouteSoFarSmall.png

 

Great stuff. How are your sleeping arrangements working out?

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Marc, you're an intrepid man and it's interesting to follow your adventure, although personally I prefer to go by boat. How did you get on with the bit of towpath just after Braunston tunnel? My experience of it (only seeing it a number of times from a passing boat, and I haven't been by there for over a year) is that until you get near the top lock it always appears to be an utter quagmire of mud/puddles even in summer, probably because it's completely shaded by tree-lined slopes.

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2 hours ago, Peter X said:

Marc, you're an intrepid man and it's interesting to follow your adventure, although personally I prefer to go by boat. How did you get on with the bit of towpath just after Braunston tunnel? My experience of it (only seeing it a number of times from a passing boat, and I haven't been by there for over a year) is that until you get near the top lock it always appears to be an utter quagmire of mud/puddles even in summer, probably because it's completely shaded by tree-lined slopes.

I think I remember some work being carried out on this bit of towpath when we passed a couple of months ago.

Ian.

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6 hours ago, Peter X said:

Marc, you're an intrepid man and it's interesting to follow your adventure, although personally I prefer to go by boat. How did you get on with the bit of towpath just after Braunston tunnel? My experience of it (only seeing it a number of times from a passing boat, and I haven't been by there for over a year) is that until you get near the top lock it always appears to be an utter quagmire of mud/puddles even in summer, probably because it's completely shaded by tree-lined slopes.

I missed that tunnel, Peter. After heading up the Leicester Line from Norton Junction to get to the Watford Gap, I yomped across directly to the Oxford Canal rather than backtracking. Lucky me if it was that bad!

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< Day 4    Day 5

Rob - what a legend - arrived yesterday evening to join me for day 5 with an early Christmas present of high end socks and a pair of santa's hats to be worn today:

IMG-20171218-WA0001.jpg

 

He noticed what a large sack I had, and in a way that only two adult men on a canal towpath can understand, it was delightful to dump my load onto him this morning. 

 

Midday marked the passing of the halfway point (around Hawkesbury Lock). The scenery just gets better and better:

Mon Pylons.jpg

 

This evening sees me in Atherton - it seemed a fairly light day.

 

Updated Stats:

Day 1: 5,909 calories; 65,139 steps; 27 canal miles

Day 2: 5,145 calories; 53,380 steps; 20 canal miles

Day 3: 5,606 calories; 55,676 steps; 29 canal miles

Day 4: 5,178 calories; 52,165 steps; 28 canal miles

Day 5: 4,872 calories; 54,371 steps; 24 canal miles

 

Quotes of the day:

"Turn off Grinder" - Airwolf

"Luv it man! You're a legend" - Giri

"Certainly spending more time on canalworld.net than I normally would" - Simon, who lives in the US. And doesn't own a canal boat. 

"my greatest achievement today* has been to finish the extended edition of Beauty and the Beast - I think that makes me the one winning at life" - Jen

*Note: Jen's statement was true as of the point she sent her message. She obviously now has a bigger achievement today appearing in print here. 

 

 

 

RouteSoFarSmall.png

 

Edited by Marc
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Hi Marc. That’s so cool what you’re doing. I walked the Grand Union Canal (as far as Birmingham) in 3 days and I wish i’d Gone further. If you actually manage this you will kind of be my hero. Would you like to do it again with a friend? I don’t mess around though. Your pace would have to significantly increase. Also, I spent all the nights in bivvy bags but mine doesn’t sound as high spec as yours. Maybe in February I didn’t need it. I wish I had such a high end bivvy bag as you.

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2 minutes ago, Gavin Higginbotham said:

Hi Marc. That’s so cool what you’re doing. I walked the Grand Union Canal (as far as Birmingham) in 3 days and I wish i’d Gone further. If you actually manage this you will kind of be my hero. Would you like to do it again with a friend? I don’t mess around though. Your pace would have to significantly increase. Also, I spent all the nights in bivvy bags but mine doesn’t sound as high spec as yours. Maybe in February I didn’t need it. I wish I had such a high end bivvy bag as you.

Gavin, that's extremely fast! I thought Marc had done quite well for December. Maybe, as you say, February is a little faster....

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