Class-of-2016 #walk1000miles veterans Martin and Maureen Shipley completed their challenge in one go, walking all the way from Cape Wrath to Dover! Now the story of their adventure is about to hit bookshops.
Martin and Maureen Shipley had only been walking a week, when they decided in 2004 they’d try doing the 192-mile Coast to Coast. It was the start of a love affair that saw them set off to complete an extraordinary – and possibly unique – achievement: to walk the length of the kingdom in both the longest directions: north-east to south-west (John O’Groats to Land’s End) and in summer 2016 north-west to south-east (Cape Wrath to Dover). And yet, they insist, they are nothing out of the ordinary – and anyone could, and should, follow in their bootsteps.
Doing the 212-mile Southern Upland Way in 2005 taught the couple, who’d spent a working life chained to desks in busy offices, to savour the days of solitude wild walking provided – “We did it in 14 days and on seven of those days we never saw another soul. We’d leave the B&B in the morning, head up into the hills and isolation and come down in the evening feeling exhilarated and brilliant”. The story 'A Bit of a Caper' is out in February published by North Staffordshire Press.
You can read our interview all about their 79-day, 1041 epic walk and order the 249-page book for £9.99 (+£2 P&P) via martin_shipley@hotmail.com or by calling 07946 590637. 25% of all proceeds go to Thrombosis UK.
