Hiking coast to coast across England – 205 miles, 18 days, 31,000 cumulative feet elevation gain, 3 people with different communication styles: no conflicts! Yes, we had our differences, but when we had them, we understood them, and found humor in the display of communication style. I am the “structured” one, and I had to research every aspect of the trip beforehand, then had to have contingency plans when I discovered that we had no way to get cash for the last 100 miles of the hike in a rural area where our credit cards did not work. How would we eat??? I figured out that we could order the full English breakfast included in the prepaid fees to our bed and breakfast accommodations: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, 2 bacons, mushrooms, toast and tomatoes, all fried to perfection. We could wrap up the excess paid-for breakfast food and make it last for the rest of the day! Yum!
Our “paced” hiker had some issues when our “direct” hiker went into storming mode. He did this when we had a major climb and 15-18 miles to cover before the end of the day. But what about seeing the abbey ruins on the way? What about those ancient stone circles? “No time!” said our “direct” guy. “You’ve seen one stone circle, you’ve seen ‘em all. And besides, that’s probably not a stone circle. Those are probably just a bunch of sheep sleeping in a circle.” Time for problem solving! We persuaded the kind host of the B & B to drive us back to the abbey early the next morning, so that our “paced” girl could see the ruins as she had been planning for weeks. And “direct” guy could
handle the side diversion to stone circles because “paced” girl shucked her pack and ran full out to the stone circle site. Successful compromise!
Time to stop for lunch? For our “direct” guy, it was always, “Let’s get to the top of the next hill.” So “paced” girl and I gave notice well in advance of our desire for sustenance, so that the next hill could be conquered before a taking a break. We were so consistent about meeting the need to bag one more hill before lunch that Mr. “direct” was able to compromise. On the day we saw the most beautiful display of purple blooming heather, he was even able to turn around and go back a few hundred yards (and even downhill!) so that we could plunk ourselves down in the middle of the exquisite moor.
Sore feet, blisters galore, sun burn (yes, in England!), nettle stings, aching muscles – all part of the common experience. But laughter and a great time were had by all, in no small way because we were able to joke about our temperaments.