People / Interviews
400 miles north
Instead of settling down to a long train journey, or catching the next flight from Bristol Airport to Edinburgh, imagine travelling there by foot.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have to walk anywhere you wanted to go? Probably, if you’ve ever read Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Hannah Stuart-Leech, a journalist from Bristol, had the same thought and on March 1 she set off on a journey that will take her 400 miles north, into Scotland.
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She had the idea six months ago: “I don’t drive, so I always have my phone sat nav set to walking. So whenever my boyfriend is driving us somewhere and will ask me for directions, he’s like ‘what, it’s going to take 32 days to get there?’
“It got me thinking about what it would actually be like to walk to all these places you can drive to so quickly or get a plane.”
Hannah is aiming to cover between 10 and 20 miles per day and expects the trip to take between 30 and 40 days.
“It’s not a race against time but more an experiment in slow travel, experiencing my own country on foot, as our ancestors did.
“The end point, somewhere in Scotland, remains open to the road. I’ll stop when the GPS says I’ve travelled 400 miles north.”
Tempting as it was to go for 500 miles and march into Scotland singing The Proclaimers, Hannah says that logistically it would have made the trip too problematic.
“It would take me right up to the top of Scotland, where at this time of year it gets really treacherous. I’d need proper ice climbing equipment and I thought – I don’t actually want to die!”
Currently, Hannah is almost 100 miles into her journey in Welshpool, Powys. “It’s much harder going than I ever imagined. So many hills!”
Hannah sent us a picture of the Black Mountains in Wales, where she hit snow on day 3.
“It’s a physical achievement, but it’s also a mental thing. British weather is not great, so there will be days when I have to get up and walk 20 miles in the mud and rain.
“But just having the sense afterwards that, ‘God, I just walked to Scotland’; I feel like if I can do that, other things will seem a lot easier.
“It’s a different way of seeing the country as well, like a visitor would. There are so many parts that you just miss in your daily work or your normal life.”
In preparation for the trip, Hannah followed a simple training programme and diet given to her by a personal trainer. The main thing is to have a basic level of strength and fitness, she tells us, so she won’t get injuries and end up delaying the whole thing.
“I like going for a walks on a Sunday and having a roast, but I’m not by any stretch of the imagination an Outward Bound type of person, so I’m totally out of my comfort zone.”
Hannah is also using the expedition as an opportunity to raise money for three charities which are close to her heart: Magic Breakfast, a charity which provides morning meals to children in England who arrive at school hungry and unable to concentrate; Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG); and Alzheimer’s Society.
Along the route she’ll be meeting people who use these services, and in some cases people will also walk along with her for a while.
For instance, when Hannah arrives in Liverpool, she’ll be dropping into one of Magic Breakfast’s healthy breakfast clubs at a primary school, talking a bit about nutrition and then the group and their teachers will walk with her for an hour or two.
St Mary’s Church in Newtown, Day 4.
Hannah left the rest of her journey up to chance as much as possible. “I wanted it to have an element of just see what happens. You might meet someone really interesting who has somewhere you can stay, or will let you camp in their garden, or something like that.”
Hannah adds: “I’m really limited by what I can carry. I’m just taking two changes of clothes and hoping that some kind people let me wash them at their houses.”
And only a quarter of the way through her journey, Hannah has already met some unforgettable characters and been met with some rather heart-warmingly kind deeds from strangers. Follow Hannah’s blog to keep up with her journey.
Visit Hannah’s moneygiving page to donate.