The Coast to Coast walk may just be the holy grail of British long-distance footpaths: a from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay in , crossing the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors national parks on its journey between the western and eastern seaboards of England. The route was created in 1975 by legendary hillwalker Alfred Wainwright in his book , but in recent years another, perhaps unlikely, figure is attempting to position himself as its saviour: Rishi Sunak. While not known primarily as a vigorous outdoorsman, Sunak has made much of his successful campaign to have the legendary Coast to Coast walk, which passes through his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton, turned into an official .
At the end of October, in his final ’s Questions as leader of the Conservative Party, Sunak called on PM to to the route, which are due to be completed in 2025, go ahead – and he even claimed that he is planning on himself. If Sunak does decide to follow in Wainwright’s footsteps, what can he expect now that his mission to turn the walk into an official national trail is almost complete? It is hard to imagine that many people could single-handedly obliterate the cultural cachet of a fashionable clothing item quite as devastatingly in April. Rishi would be well advised to leave the snow-white sneakers at home, however, if he does embark on the Coast to Coast.
For one thing, tradition dictates that the first act of this coast-to-coast walk is to stroll across the sand at.
