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[theblondeassassin]

Spammy McSpammer's contribution to this thread (post deleted):

hicking is bad thing and we should ban hicking and should take some steps against hakers.

You might want to avoid hiking through that neck of the woods.

For non-UK residents, you might find http://nationaltrail.co.uk/ useful.

[scotia]

Having heard various people on the subject, the Thames Path on TBA's link does not seem to come highly recommended by serious hikers. 'Repetitive and boring, alleviated only by occasional tea shops' is the kindest thing I have heard said about it. Admittedly the people I talk with tend to be people interested in landscape photography, who have found the scenery somewhat lacking in variation, but the most disparaging was a lover of bookshops and teashops who find the whole thing mind-numbing (I think the whole trip was a plot by her partner to ensure that she either stayed at home or agreed to more challenging walks: she loved the Offa's Dyke path, which was their next trip).

[wegie]

The Thames Path is our local path, but there's no way that I'd describe it as serious hiking. There's a grand total of one uphill stretch somewhere around Goring on the whole route -- and lots of the sections (particularly between Staines and London) are completely blighted at the weekends by inconsiderate berks on mountain bikes. And it does help a *lot* if you like chalk downland scenery (I'm from Hampshire, so my liking of chalk downs is a bit immoderate).

Having said that, WH and I are vaguely plotting on doing the last bits of the path we haven't done from Oxford to the source at the weekend. Or maybe not. It does have the advantage that it's a path you can do a bit at a time over a long period -- we've been doing it in bits and pieces for years.

[maugham]

The Cleveland Way is a gorgeous trek through the North York Moors park.  You start in the village of Helmsley and travel north west to the coast finishing up in either Scarborough or Filey if you want to do the whole thing.  I last hiked it in the mid 1990s so things may have changed, but the scenery is well worth it.  All told the trail is roughly 110 miles as I recall.

[bookishone]

bookmarking in envy....

[irhack]

Gosh, we did half of Offa's Dyke er, gee, 12 years ago? Ending in Hay, land of books. How can you beat that? It was great. I liked the orienteering aspect, you really needed to follow the elevation maps and I remember spending about an hour in what turned out to be somebody's manure pit or something when we got off track. Can't wait to finish it... someday. My favorite stay was some two-room pub in the middle of nowhere, they rented us a room upstairs and fed us downstairs. What a great way to end the day.

It was April and sunny the whole time, Mr. Hack got sunburned.

[llanfair]

Sounds brilliant, Irhack.  I was in Monmouth a few years ago, and saw the Offa's Dyke signs, but the SO can't hike - something about a knee badly damaged in a car accident - so I just had to content myself with imagining.