A really long walk…

Walking the whole of the South West Coast Path in one go is a project. It’s a 630-mile hike through Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Devon again, and into Dorset (or vice-versa of course), and while the highest point is only just over 1000 feet at Great Hangman, the accumulation of all those cliff climbs adds up to 115,000 feet, or Everest from sea-level about four times over.

It has been run in a staggering 10 days, 12 hours and six minutes, but most walkers spread it over six weeks, allowing more time to absorb an eyeboggling parade of coastal architecture from the limestone arch of Durdle Door to the jungle microclimate of the Undercliffs near Lyme Regis to the mining ruins at Botallack to the vast sandy beach at Saunton Sands and capes, headlands, cliffs, bays and beaches too numerous to name.

And if that’s not enough, you’ll soon be able to keep on treking around the entire English shore, as the 2795-mile England Coast Path nudges towards completion and becoming the longest managed coastal path in the world. And if that’s not enough, you can keep on trekking around the entire Welsh shore, on the 870-mile Wales Coast Path.

Or for those with better land-legs than sea-legs, there’s the classic challenge of walking LEJOG, a minimum of 850 miles from Britain’s toe at Land’s End to its top at John o’ Groats.

WAYFINDING Checking the map at Hartland Point in Devon, but navigating coastal paths is often as simple as ‘keep sea on same side’. Inset: An acorn symbol waymarks all the national trails of England and Wales, including the South West Coast Path.