The English Countryside Is a Hiker's Paradise

Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.4 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our guest this week is British journalist Emma Lunn, an avid hiker who has hit the trails all over the world. But a particularly memorable solo walk for her was closer to home—across the English countryside, and filled with dramatic moors and grand coastlines. Lale chats with Lunn to find out how she pulled it off, why she believes in the healing powers of hiking, and how she navigated both unexpected wildlife and eccentric fellow travelers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, I'm Lale Aricoglu with a women who travel episode that's about a rather unexpected
0:05.9	solo hike in England. It's a hike I've never done because I didn't grow up doing much hiking,
0:12.0	because, well, the weather can be a little unpredictable. And yes, in this episode there is a lot about
0:16.9	the weather. And there's mentions of cows and a bear called Arnie and lots and lots of pubs.
0:22.6	My guest is Emma Lung, who wrote about her solo walk for The Guardian newspaper.
0:27.7	You might think that Britain isn't the place for the most intrepid of hikes, but turns out this one really was.
0:34.8	I'd say a fairly fit 47-year-old with quite a bit of hiking experience behind me,
0:39.9	including Kili Banjaro, you know, some big mountains.
0:44.0	But some of the days in the late districts, I was absolutely knackered by the end of it.
0:52.3	Emma did what's known as the UK's coast-to-coast walk.
0:55.0	It crosses three national parks across the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North Moors.
1:00.0	And like most hikers, Emma started in the west on the Irish Sea and ended up on Yorkshire's East Coast.
1:07.0	This year, the 190-mile walk's been designated a national trail.
1:14.2	So the coast of coast starts in a town called St. Bees on the Irish Sea.
1:19.5	When you start and you go and you dip your toe in the Irish Sea and you pick up a pebble off the beach and you carry it with you and then you throw your
1:28.6	pebble in the north sea when you get to robin hood bay on the other side and you also have a
1:34.3	little paddle on that sea as well how long did it take to do this and how long if someone was
1:40.2	planning this trip how long would you ask them to kind of factor into their itinerary?
1:45.2	Okay, I did it in 12 days with the no rest days, which is pretty ambitious.
1:50.4	What time of year were you doing it in? September, which the English weather, it could be dodgy,
1:55.5	but I just got really lucky. I probably had about half an hour of rain an entire fortnight.
2:00.2	I'd argue September is an oddly okay time of year. I feel had about half an hour of rain an entire fortnight. I'd argue September is an oddly
	...

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