The idea of hiking between Land’s End and John o’Groats occurred to me sometime during the latter part of 2007. It just seemed the natural next-step in my walking career, both logically and literally. However, it wasn’t until mid-2008 that I realised that the idea was definitely not going to go away, so I had better do something.

OK, but ideas are two a penny. How do I make them actually happen? I know! I’ll tell all my friends, neighbours, business clients and even my dentist. Now I will look like a right banana if I drop out. That was easy! Now, on with the plan.

After a bit of research on the Internet I came to the conclusion that an End-to-End walk, mainly following footpaths, would typically have a length of 1,000-1,200 miles. With a full rucksack, I felt I could realistically manage this distance in 10 to 12 weeks. I could certainly do it quicker if I was prepared to suffer a bit more pain and risk the possibility of injury, but I decided early on that I wasn’t interested in breaking any records. I wished to gain some serious pleasure out of the experience, be free to make interesting detours, such as climbing the odd mountain peak, have the time to stop and chat to people along the way and enjoy the odd rest day in pleasant places.

Next - timing. Well, being self-employed and VAT registered, I am expected to prepare accounts and refresh the government coffers from time-to-time. Since this presently happens in January, April, July and October, I thought it might save hassle if I could squeeze the walk between payment dates. Limiting my choice to the warmer months meant either April to July or July to October. The final decision arose because I reach my 55th birthday in the latter period during 2009, which seems like a good time to go out and find some solitude in which I could contemplate my future. There are certainly parts of Scotland where I don’t think I will have any difficulty in finding solitude.

My accountant confirmed that he could deal with my VAT Return right at the start of July (thank you, Dave) enabling me to get to Scotland and commence my trek around the second week. Barring mishap, this would theoretically get me home around the end of September or early October, just in time to prepare my next VAT Return and pay any amount due, which should of course be zero since I will not be earning anything whilst I am walking - unless the BBC and the lovely Julia Bradbury decide to do a documentary on me, of course.

Given the late-summer timing of the walk, my own logic persuades me that I should start off from Scotland when it is at its warmest and move south as the more southerly weather cools. This should certainly make walking more comfortable (memories of the South Downs Way), provided that I can tolerate the plague of the Scottish midge. Also, although it is easy to fix a start date, I don’t know exactly how long the walk will take. It is cheaper to advance book a reduced-price single rail ticket to Scotland over the Internet and buy another full-price one at Penzance Station for the shorter journey back to Hampshire, than to do this the other way round. Given how incredibly mean I am, the latter argument is very compelling.

Thus, the trek will be a JOGLE (i.e. John o’Groats to Land’s End) rather than the much more common LEJOG. One ‘friend’ suggested that my route would be easy because it is downhill all the way! Naturally, Andy has now been removed from my Christmas card list.

What’s next? Ahh, I know. The route! Well, there is no standard route between the two ‘Ends’. The chosen means of transport clearly has an influence as I have some difficulty imagining a Ford Model T being coaxed across the Pennines (although one was driven to the summit of Ben Nevis in 1911). Those using a pony & trap, a skateboard, a wheelchair, a cycle (uni- or bi-), a car or a motorcycle will tend to follow roads, as did Ian Botham who, I am told, walks nearly as fast as the latter.

Anyway, us hardy, traffic-shy, trekking types prefer to choose routes which avoid the roads as much as possible. I had several relevant long-distance paths on my ‘to-do’ list, namely the Great Glen Way, the Pennine Way and the Cotswold Way, so it made sense to try and incorporate these into my walk. Also, since I had already hiked the lengths of the West Highland Way and the South West Coast Path, I preferred to find alternative routes rather than repeat these. The downside of following off-road paths is that they make the route typically a third longer. What the hell! It’s well worth the better views.

Describing the route that I eventually planned in detail would take longer than you or I have time for here, so I have relegated this to a separate tab, entitled, you’ve guessed it, ‘The Route’. Have a look at this when you have nothing better to do, are planning to use it yourself (feel free) or wish to pick me up on having ‘cheated’ and gone a different way. I offer my route as merely an initial plan, but reserve the right to go by whatever way I please should the impulse grab me.

Irrespective of the route, there are still a few logistical details to be resolved. Perhaps most importantly, where do I sleep? It seems that the majority of walkers arrange B&B or seek hostels. This enables them to walk without the weight of a tent and sleeping bag, and hopefully get a comfortable night’s rest. I have done this on previous walks, and it is fine. Out of season I have never failed to find somewhere to stay, although pre-booking might be necessary in the summer. The latter can be a problem as a single day’s delay upsets the whole booking schedule. It is not cheap either. At £30 per night, B&B’s would cost me around £2,500. Furthermore, without cooking facilities I would undoubtedly end up spending even more money buying meals in pubs and restaurants. Thus, since I have already expressed my meanness with regard to rail journeys, you won’t be surprised that I am planning to take a tent and cooking apparatus. Sacrificing three months of income is quite enough without substantially increasing my outgoings as well.

In practice I will wild-camp when and where it seems sensible to do so, but opt for a hostel or B&B if one is available and I need a break, a shower and/or a warm bed. And yes, I will occasionally eat in a restaurant when I get sick of dehydrated food, oat biscuits and squeezy cheese. In truth, the real attraction of a tent is the freedom that it affords in not being tied too rigidly to a schedule or a route - the freedom to simply walk until I feel I have done sufficient for the day and then find a quiet spot, out of people’s way, to make camp. The downside is that I may occasionally have difficulty finding a suitable campsite, and that the weather on some nights will be windy, wet and chilly.

Weight is the next issue. I know that I can carry a load of around 15kg (including the 2kg weight of the rucksack itself) over long distances without undue strain. At 0.12kg each, the (roughly 40) 1:50,000 OS Landranger maps required to cover the whole JOGLE route would weigh 4.8kg. Were I to use 1:25,000 OS Explorer maps, of which roughly 55 would be required, the load would increase to 6.6kg. Next, I will need a minimum of 2 litres of water per day (which conveniently happens to weigh 2kg). However, in the more remote regions of Scotland, I may be away from a domestic supply for up to 3 days - implying that I would need to carry 6kg of water. Last, but not least, I know from experience that I will wear out the soles of at least two pairs of boots along the way, but would rather not bear the 1kg weight of a spare pair. It is starting to look like I won’t have room for the tent, cooking gear, food, clothes, etc!

My solutions are as follows:

Maps: I found some alternative, lighter, Harvey maps covering the Great Glen Way and the Cotswold Way. Also, two Aurum Press National Trail Guides, which reproduce strips of the relevant OS maps, cover The Pennine Way. The weight of the remaining OS Landranger maps was reduced dramatically by discarding the cardboard outer covers and taking only the bits required.

Water: I will take a water filter so that I can draw water from streams in the remoter regions. If, after filtering, I still have concerns about bacteria or viruses then I can either boil the water (fine if I am having tea or hot food anyway) or use sterilising tablets. Thus, I should not need to carry more than 2 litres of water at any one time.

Boots: I could simply buy another pair of these as I go, but would prefer them to be ready worn-in. I anticipate that I will need replacements somewhere close to the southern end of the Pennine Way. Fortunately I have a friend, Jim, who without any arm-twisting at all agreed to re-supply me at Edale near Sheffield.

Being re-supplied at Edale also enables me to further reduce the weight of maps carried, since I can leave behind those I have finished with and pick up a new set. I can also change clothes and leave anything else that I shouldn’t require further, such as the midge net and possibly the water filter. In the unlikely event of a further re-supply being needed, Bath is only about two-hours drive from my home, so I am sure I could persuade someone to bring things out to me.

As it happens, when I finally prepared a list of all the kit that I will need to carry, the total came out to rather more than my target of 15kg. It presently looks like the maximum total weight of everything, including what I am wearing, could be as high as 25kg with food for two days and 3 litres of water. However, assuming half of my provisions have been consumed, and ignoring things like trekking poles and what I wear or keep in my pockets, the typical weight for the rucksack alone should come down to around 18kg, which doesn’t sound quite so bad. For those interested in these details, I have included full information under the heading ‘My Kit’.

I still hope to reduce the weight further by omitting some items and replacing others with lighter alternatives, and think that a practical minimum rucksack weight is likely to be about 14kg plus food and water.

When I first mentioned my plan to undertake this trek to friends and acquaintances, several expressed their hope that I would do it for charity. Whilst agreeing that this was a good idea, the amount of effort required is substantially increased because of the need to publicise the activity, get the website constructed, arrange mechanisms for people to give money and, finally, provide on-going progress reports.

It is useful to put some sort of figure on the effort required to plan and undertake this adventure. I didn’t realise quite how large Britain was until I had spread what seemed like a huge number of OS maps on my living room floor, and still only covered a small portion of my route. Route planning and map preparation turned out to be a very lengthy operation, taking over a fortnight of effort alone. Then there is equipment selection and purchase (although I am hoping that some nice equipment suppliers might help with this), talking to potential sponsors, persuading people to assist, preparing the website material, training for the walk and, finally, doing it.

The time and effort involved in preparing for this walk - not just mine, but also that of all of those helping me - will probably equal the time I will be spending on the walk itself.

I hope that by reading this and monitoring my progress on the Internet, people will be inspired to donate money to my chosen charities: Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation. You can review the reasons for my choices along with all the mechanisms by which you can contribute to them under the DONATE tab.