The challenge is to walk Wainwright's, 190 mile Coast to Coast path from St. Bees in the West to Robin Hood's Bay in the East or vice versa and be totally self-contained and unsupported with no re-supply. Wild camping, obtaining water from natural sources and carrying all food and equipment for the proposed 12 day trip. In this manner the walk becomes free or "unplugged" and is part of my larger Four Nation's coast to coast endeavour, of which details can be found at Transnationcoast2coast.com


Pre walk

The tent (5) is a Robens Summer Wind 1.4kg, which is single skin and and the lightest I own, so lets hope for good weather! It has been packaged it in such a way that pitching and striking will take the minimum of effort. The tent, groundsheet and Thermorest Prolite mat (6) 460g are folded together and bundled into a grey Exped dry bag (photo 1). Unpacking takes place in photo's 2, 3 and 4 and erection, using two walking poles (not shown) and pegs, completes the shelter. The intention is to strap this to the outside of my rucksack as most of the space is taken up by food. The sleeping bag (7), which is a down Alpkit Skyhigh 400 (no longer made) weighs 1.06Kg including orange Exped dry bag (photo 1). Totalling 2.866kg, this is not the lightest combination but for now it will have to do.
Click on picture for higher resolution.

Post walk

The experience with the tent was very positive. Quick and easy pitching at the end of a late day, being tired, hungry and besieged by midges, was a blessing. Single skin tents usually suffer with condensation and this was no exception, despite the high amount of ventilation. This led to packing away and erecting a wet tent which added to the overall weight carried and was unpleasant to enter. Having said that, the wet interior allowed for the effortless killing of midges which easily stuck to the wet side walls.
The sleeping bag gave mixed results, during the first half, I was slightly cold at night at higher altitudes, during the second and warmer half, it was adequate. I neglected to take a silk liner bag, due to the extra weight but this would have solved the problem and also kept the bags interior cleaner.