Preparations

Sat 16 April - Sheffield

Dave had spent the previous week planning the route on the maps using the guidebook and looking at the variations that were detailed on different blogs - giving us plenty of options and working out distances and possible places to stay the nights. I'd spent some time in the evenings picking information out of the book so that we had instructions to go with the basic route.
There was a rough itinerary that looked like it would take us 17 days to complete the trip.

We spent a frantic morning wrapping up the food parcels we were planning to send ahead. Dave had phoned places at appropriate distances to check they were happy to take delivery and he'd ordered in enough dehydrated food, 9 bars and fruits and nuts to sink a battleship - all we needed to do was find shoeboxes the right size and then make sure the right maps got send ahead to the right destinations. We dragged the four boxes to the post office and sent them off - one less thing to worry about; we'd worry about the boxes getting lost if that happened...

The afternoon was spent washing and treating and drying our technical clothing. Then shopping - those last minute bits and pieces and our last decent coffee for a while.

And then in the evening we packed. Because most of the gear we've used before we've got packing off to an almost fine art so it didn't take that long. So we had plenty of time to order in pizza and watch a couple of films. Our last night in our own bed for a while and a fine night's sleep.