Our Coast to Coast Experience
by Kerry and Nancy Connell
June 2000
Hi. Welcome to our Coast to Coast Diary. We hope you will have as much fun reading it as we had writing it. Let us introduce ourselves. I am Kerry Connell (the webmaster) a Baptist minister from Sydney (Australia) [moved home to Brisbane 2003] and my wife Nancy (the diarist) is an office secretary. We are both in our fifties and recently decided that with old age fast approaching we needed some healthier hobbies and so took up walking (not too seriously).
As a family we lived in England and Europe for two years during 1978-1980 and really loved the experience, especially the countryside which is so different to our home country of Australia. We love Australia, but the lush green of England and the verdant flower cover in spring and summer is an enjoyable change occasionally. So, when I had to return to UK in 2000 as part of my sabbatical studies we thought it was a marvellous opportunity to revisit this now almost forgotten experience. Having seen all the tourist spots so many years before we decided to do something different which would just enable us to interact with the country and its people without all the tourist trappings. We started to investigate the idea of a walking holiday and the concept of walking from one side of the country to the other in just two weeks seemed fascinating - especially for Australians (ever tried to walk across Australia?). So the Coast to Coast idea was born.
As we investigated and prepared for this "trip of a life time" one of our greatest pleasures was reading other people's diaries of their own adventures on the C2C. So we thought we would also try to record our trip for others to read. We do not have the literary flair of some or the interesting pictures of others, but we trust this may yet be a contribution to your plans and dreams as you contemplate this magnificent adventure. A special thanks to Simon Pitts and his Coast to Coast site where we found so much useful information and those great chat rooms as well as links to other people's diaries.
A further element of our trip happened a month or two before we left home. As we spoke to friends about our upcoming adventure, a 73 year old ex-Yorkshireman we knew insisted that he just had to join us as it was something he had always wanted to do. He is a very active and fit old fellow and we had no doubt he was not to be denied. So our party suddenly increased to three and some hurried emails to Simon Pitts found him accommodation either with us or nearby each night of our itinerary. You will see as you read our story that Allan's presence certainly added some colour at times and made it all the more memorable. We trust you will enjoy coming with us on the adventure of our life.