Great, thanks Iain, I'll have a look at it. We're generally trying not to get too remote because every day after walking I need to be able to somehow make my way back to our campervan - where all my medical supplies are. They're complicated logistics but I'm sure it's doable with enough support. Justin

Justin, for the Scottish section of your remarkable end to end, making use of the new Great North Trail (online at eg cyclinguk.org.uk but not yet on the LDWA database) may be an option. It's an offroad cycling route so on bridleways and minor roads, terminating at Cape Wrath (Durness) but not, apparently, via the Cape Wrath Trail. (It uses most of the Pennine Bridleway rather than the Pennine Way, another option between the Peak District and Cumbria.) Cyclinguk.org has a downloadable gpx file.

Iain

Thank you Tim. Curiously, I am also planning on using Cotswold Way, West Highland Way, the Great Glen Way and the John o'Groats Trail. I?d be very interested in hear the rest of your route. Your description of the John O Groats trail corresponds well with what I?ve read online, so I?m becoming aware of inland alternatives. As this is a fundraising event (Gutless End2End) which needs a lot of support, I have put a rough route on Google Maps for the benefit of potential supporters. I was planning to map my route in more detail on digital OS, with the help of GPXEditor. As far as the actual walk, and planning is concerned, the big complication we have is that I am attached to a life support system for 24 hours a day. This system feeds me liquid nutrition through a tube in my chest, directly into my bloodstream. A benefit of this is that I do not need to eat or drink. I am able to be attached to, and carry, this system in a rucksack while I?m walking. However, the big problem is that the liquid nutrition has to be stored in a refrigerator up until use. So, I have a campervan with a massive great medical fridge in the back. The campervan needs to be plugged in (electric hookup) or on the move to keep the fridge ticking over (solar panel expert having a look at this tomorrow). This all means that I need to get back to the campervan after every days walk, so I can carry out the medical procedures that keep me going. Another benefit of all this is that I will have all the OS print maps in the van, and will use them and a compass while walking, with the route on our two phones as backup.
My main concern is that the remoteness of some of the Scottish sections will make it difficult to return to the campervan each day. What was your route to get to the West Highland Way? We are coming through Carlisle and have family over near Peebles who can help us around that area, so I?ve been looking at the Southern Upland Way, then on to the Scottish National Trail even though there are long stretches of isolation. Another option is to more of less follow the M74 but we don?t fancy being in earshot of a motorway for 100 miles.
FYI, There's a rough plan of our route through England my Gutless End2End facebook page
Any other tips and advice is very much appreciated, thank you.
Justin

Justin,

A few thoughts in addition to the great advice you have already received. In planning and walking my LEJOG route (which I completed in June last year), I used both digital OS and ViewRanger (on my desktop) and smartphone. I no longer use Memory Map as I encountered a number of issues with it over the years. I also used WalkHighlands for the Scottish portion of the walk. While I used a GPX editor to piece together the entire walk, ultimately I decided to create a GPX route for each day. The principal reason for doing this was to 'force' myself to literally plan every step, even though it was a bit laborious. That way I absorbed each day in the back of my mind. Also, it allowed me to focus while walking on each day, rather than thinking about the ultimate end at JoG. Made a big difference as it took me 90 days (with one full day off) and I learned to slow down and not worry about blindly following my planned route. My routing was sufficiently different from others who have posted their LEJOG routes I figured I would do it largely from scratch. In the end I walked the full length of the following LDPs: Cotswold Way, West Highland Way, the Great Glen Way and the relatively new John o'Groats Trail (fairly tough but brilliant). I carried to smartphones, both with the entire UK 1:25K mapping on them, as well as all the daily routes. For more remote parts of the walk I carried print versions of the OS 1:25 K. In the Southwest, I went up the middle rather than take the SW Coastal Path. I found the 1:50K printed maps very useful for planning my daily walk i the Southwest (as I discovered shortly after leaving Land's End that my plan to follow the Land's End Trail was untenable (overgrown and impassable) in a number of places). That was the first of a number of challenges. Hope this helps.

Wow, thank you Iain and Mark for all the great information. I didn?t realise there were so many online options. On our walk we will have a campervan as a support vehicle (ie storage space), and I was planning to have all the relevant OS Explorer 25k paper maps available for daily use while on the trail, and so forego use of a mobile, at least as far as mapping is concerned. So it seems to make sense to use OS online to view and edit the route. I?m using Windows and so will have a look at GPX editor too. Thanks again. Justin

I've been using Memory Map GPS navigation software for 10yrs or so and the last 4yrs I've been down loading the OS Landranger 1:50,000 GB map pack onto my waterproof tough phone. So I now have full mapping , GPS and tracking where ever I am in the UK even if I've no phone signal. I also use the mapping to print of A4 sheets of the route and on long distance walks this saves a lot of weight, instead of taking loads of maps. In 2019 I walked the length of the UK on no fixed route and used the phone for the mapping, it meant I was totally free to change the route when ever I choice to. It does cost to buy the map pack but it can be put on a number of devises and transfer to new devises without extra cost.

Justin

Some multi-platform (Windows and MacOS) online sites which will let you view & save GPX tracks include:
GPX Editor (www.gpxeditor.co.uk): allows more than one track to be viewed simultaneously.
Bike Hike (http://bikehike.co.uk): view single tracks in OS 50k and sometimes 25k mapping, save in multiple formats.
GPS Visualiser (http://gpsvisualizer.com): view, convert and save single tracks in multiple formats.
Route Buddy (routebuddy.com): view and save tracks on Windows, MacOS, iPhone and iPad.
Anquet (anquet.com): view and save tracks on Windows, iOS, MacOS and Android. OS mapping with subscription.
Ordnance Survey online (osmaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk): view, edit and save on OS maps down to 25k with Premium membership (24 pounds a year for whole UK plus Isle of Man, should you need it). Single tracks at a time and non-intuitive interface, but very good value.

MacOS applications include:
GPX Viewer (gpx-viewer, from Apple?s Mac App Store) view, combine, split, convert tracks, move and edit waypoints. To save edits you need GPX Editor, also from Mac App Store). May now be a compatible version for iPhones & iPads.

My choice is OS mapping for route viewing and editing, GPX Viewer/Editor (MacOS, maybe now iOS) for combining and re-splitting (hope that anwers your question, sorry I don?t know if Anquet allows combining and splitting).

See the LDP Mapping page:
ldwa.org/ldp/public/maps.php
for more info including Memory-map, TrackLogs, ViewRanger.

A downloadable end-to-end (Cape to Cape) GPX track in five stages is from John Sutcliffe?s website (johnsutcliffe.net), which avoids both LandsEnd and John O?Groats for good reasons but includes the Cape Wrath Trail.

Iain

This is a whole new area for me, so excuse my ignorance. Several questions here: My partner and I are planning to walk LEJOG, starting from Lands End in April 2020. We want to be able to map our proposed route online beforehand ? this task is primarily for fundraising and support purposes. What is the best mapping application to use, to which we can provide a link from our website or Facebook page.
There are several of the LDWA downloadable GPX files (about 35) of the paths that we will walk sections of, although there are many that we do not walk in their entirety. So, I need to delete the unwanted sections before loading those GPX files onto my map, along with parts of our route which we will digitally plot ourselves. What?s the best way to achieve this?
Is there a smart way to condense all our route information into a single GPX file or, please don?t say yes to this, do we need to laboriously map out the whole thing from scratch?