LEJOG

Why LEJOG?

Picture of Nigel Dunk

Nigel Dunk

Planning LEJOG

LEJOG

When we recently announced to our friends that we were going to undertake LEJOG, one of them was slightly confused by this. He thought we were going to go for a run and were announcing it in a slightly pretentious way – “Ah – you are going for a le jog dans the countryside. Tres bon!”

LEJOG actually stands for Land’s End to John o’Groats and refers to a journey taken from Land’s End, the most south-western point of the UK to John o’Groats, the most north-eastern. (It is referred to as JOGLE if undertaken in the opposite direction).

Sometimes it is also called `The End to End Trail’ as these two geographic locations represent the furthest points from each other on the UK mainland and a journey between them spans the length of Britain.

LEJOG has a long history, dating back to the earliest recorded continuous journey in 1871. In recent times it has been often undertaken for charity/fundraising purposes usually with a novelty approach taking the shortest possible route usually along main roads.

The approach we are taking of using the two points and linking them with a continuous footpath, avoiding roads wherever possible originates from John Hillaby and his book `Journey Through Britain’ published in 1968. (1)

The Route

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Route Map from Guidebook (ours will differ slightly)

There is no set route or official path for LEJOG. Instead there are a near infinite number of possibilities. Having read many blogs of people who have completed LEJOG we have settled upon a common variation of the most established route as described in the Cicerone Press guidebook Walking the End to End Trail by Andy Robinson. This route avoids major cities, has minimal road walking and links up some of the best long distance paths in Britain.

Our journey will begin on the South West Coastal Path from Land’s End as far as Barnstaple. We will then head inland on a variety of paths across the hills of Exmoor and over the Quantocks into Bristol. From Bristol we will head across the Severn Estuary to Chepstow in South Wales. 

From Chepstow we will follow the first half of the Offa’s Dyke Path which journeys north along the England-Wales border. At Knighton, halfway up the border we will cut northeast to join the Staffordshire Way and Limestone Way into the Peak District and eventually to Edale.

At Edale we will join the most famous of the British long distance paths, the Pennine Way. We will follow the Pennine Way for its entire length, up the spine of England across the border and into Scotland where it terminates at Kirk Yetholm.

St Cuthbert’s Way will then take us across the Scottish borders to Melrose where we will link a number of paths to eventually arrive in Edinburgh. Here we will take some rest days to spend with family.

We will then leave Edinburgh and follow the Union Canal for 2 days to the outskirts of Glascow where we will strike north to reach the West Highland Way. 

The West Highland Way (the best known of the Scottish long distance paths) will take us north into the highlands and eventually to Fort William at the base of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain. 

From Fort William we will take The Great Glen Way which is a relatively new long distance foot path which follows several Lochs including Loch Ness from Fort William to Inverness.

The John o’Groats Trail will be our final path. It is another new trail which leads from Fort William up the East coast of Scotland to our final destination at John o’Groats.

We estimate that the entire journey will be about 2000km.

Why LEJOG?

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Long Distance Walking

Since 2017 we have completed several long distance walks. These have included –

  • Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Uk 2017 305km/12days (N+L)
  • Offa’sDyke Path UK 2017 Chepstow to Knighton 123km/5days (N)
  • Cape to Cape WA AUST 2019 123km/8days (N+L)
  • Great Ocean Walk VIC AUST 2020 110km/6days (N+L)
  • Great South West Walk VIC AUST 2021 250km/12days (N)
  • Fraser Island Great Walk QLD AUST 2022 (N+L)

We have really loved the experience of all of these walks. It is difficult to put into words why they are so enjoyable. It could be the slow pace of the travel or the disconnect from modern life that they allow or maybe it is the sense of achievement and accomplishment of completing a difficult and lengthy task. Having read some books on pilgrimage recently, I wonder if they also fulfil a spiritual need, in that the physical act of undertaking a long journey by simple means causes us to consider our place in the universe and reflects the spiritual journey we take from birth to death.

Regardless of the reason we both agreed that at some point in the future we wanted to undertake some of the longer walks both in Australia where we reside and further afield.

Last year, for a number of reasons we decided that the time had come. We both quit our long term jobs and are now working casually with the plan to take several months off at a time to complete a long distance walk followed by several months of work.

Choosing LEJOG

The first task was to choose a walk. There are many we plan on doing including the Australian triad of Bibbulmun, Heysen and Australian Alps as well as some of the great European walks in the Alps.

Whilst reading some blogs of other long-distance walkers however, we came across several references to LEJOG and after a little research we decided that this would be our first multi-week long distance walk.

We choose LEJOG because it travels across a territory we are familiar with (the UK), there are multiple accommodation options, and it gave us the chance to see how we will handle the multi-week walk in an easier environment than a wilderness walk. 

We will be camping for the second half of the walk and this will also give us a chance to see how we cope with multiple nights in the tent (previously we have only done 6 nights in a row).

Planning LEJOG

Resources

Our main resources for planning LEJOG have been Walking the End to End Trail by Andy Robinson and a number of blogs detailing journeys taken over the past few years.

Mark Moxon’s excellent website Walking Land’s End to John o’Groats with Mark Moxon is the best on-line resource and as well as his entertaining blog of a journey taken in 2003, it also includes a comprehensive links page that lists most of the other available blogs. We have found reading the blogs to be very useful as they have given an idea of what the journey is like and have suggested possible route variations and accommodation options that we wouldn’t have found otherwise.

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The guidebook is comprehensive, well written and entertaining. Some of the suggested stages are a little heroic in length so we have truncated them and others we have altered to take account of available accommodation. We have also adjusted the route in a couple of places including an alternative route from Cheddar through to Bristol, an alternative route through the Peak District so we can complete the entire Pennine Way, a deviation to Edinburgh to visit family, and taking the suggested alternative route from Fort WIlliam on the Great Glen Way and then the John o’Groats Trail rather than the wild route through the north of Scotland.

There are strip maps included for all stages not on established long distance paths. We have not used them yet but they look very comprehensive with detailed descriptions for route finding.

The guidebook only includes cursory descriptions of days on established long distance paths so we have also purchased eguidebooks for –

  • South West Coastal Path (Complete Guide to the South West Coastal Path 2022/23 available from South West Coast Path Association. Also need the Reverse Guide for directions heading NE)
  • Offa’s Dyke Path
  • The Pennine Way
  • West Highland Way
  • John o’Groats Trail

We will be using the OS Map app which is amazing value at 28.99GBP for an annual subscription that gives access to 1:25000 and 1:50000 maps for the entire UK. It also allows you to download maps for offline use.

Accommodation

We have made the decision to book all our accommodation up before setting off. The advantage of this is that we know where we are going to be every night, we don’t have to worry about not being able to find something during busy periods and we won’t have to expend energy trying to book accommodation whilst out on the walk. From reading blogs it would seem that quite often people have found difficulty booking accommodation on the go, particularly as the year progresses into summer. Some areas, particularly along the Pennine Way and West Highland Way seem to have very limited options and we didn’t want to have to stay off the path.

The disadvantage is that we have a very fixed schedule and if injury or unforeseen circumstances lead to delay, this could be problematic for our bookings. We have factored in rest days which could be abandoned if we have to make up time.

 

Initially we have chosen to stay in a mix of pubs, B+Bs, hostels and Airbnb for the first month as we thought the weather would be too cold to camp. After the first month we will be picking up our camping gear and then camping for as much as possible for the rest of the walk.

We will try to document our accommodation and give a review in the daily posts. 

Final Thoughts

We have been planning and talking about this walk for the past 6 months. The accommodation is booked and we have organised transport to the start. We have organised our gear list. All that is left now is to set off and start the journey. Bring on April 18th!

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50 Responses

  7. What a true adventure! Strong legs required!

    We have a house on SWCP; if I’d known you were passing you could have used it!

    Reply

    1. Sure our accommodation won’t be a patch on your place, most likely a hostel full of other walkers!

      Reply

  11. Amazing!!! Seeing the map just impresses me even more what is ahead of the two of you. Truely inspiring. Enjoy every moment of your incredible trip. Enjoy & good luck 👍🏼

    Reply

    1. Thank you Troy! We’ll be moving a bit more slowly than you usually do – slow and steady wins the race in this case we hope!

      Reply

  12. A perfect way to spend a few months of spare time !

    I’ll definitely be with you both in spirit if not in body.

    Good luck.

    Reply

  13. Love the fabulous blog and already enjoyed my virtual walk along the Gold Coast😎. Looking forward to the UK virtual walk.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Roxanne. It’s certainly not going to be as hot as the Gold Coast was the other day!

      Reply

  14. This sounds truly amazing and I am hoping to see you over the Clifton suspension bridge. Good luck 😉

    Reply

    1. Let’s hope I can finish this adventure standing up and not vomiting! Perhaps you should come over so you can haul me over the line?

      Reply

    1. I hear you are doing a fantastic walk yourself this year. Can’t wait to see the pictures!

      Reply

  21. Great stuff! So excited for you and am really looking forward to reading along the route with you both (and doing a bit of walking with you as well!)

    Reply

  22. Hi tһere! Τhis bl᧐g ⲣost couldn’t be written much
    better! Going thｒoᥙgһ thіs post reminds me of my preνious roommate!
    He constantly kept talking about this. I’ll send this information to him.

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    Reply

    1. Hi, many thanks for your kind comments and your interest. Hope you continue to join us on our upcoming adventure!

      Reply

  23. Loved the 1st post already! Super exciting. I hope you have an absolutely amazing time, making incredible memories. Looking forward to reading the posts and following your journey.

    Reply

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