Wainwright originally described the route in his 1973 book, A Coast to Coast Walk. The book splits the route into 12 stages-if divided equally, each stage is 16 miles or 25 km-ending in quaint villages each day where walkers can find hotel accommodation. A common way of walking the route is one stage per day, with one or two rest days, which means it would take the walker about two weeks to walk Northern England from west to east following in the footsteps of Wainwright’s quintessentially English walking tour. Lonely Planet’s guide of Britain describes 14 stages: St Bees to Ennerdale Bridge – 14 miles Ennerdale Bridge to Rosthwaite – 15 miles Rosthwaite to Grasmere – 10 miles Grasmere to Patterdale – 8 miles Patterdale to Shap – 16 miles Shap to Kirkby Stephen – 20 miles Kirkby Stephen to Keld – 13 miles Keld to Reeth – 11 miles Reeth to Richmond – 11 miles Richmond to Ingleby Cross – 23 miles Ingleby Cross to Clay Bank Top – 12 miles Clay Bank Top to Blakey – 9 miles Blakey to Grosmont – 13 miles Grosmont to Robin Hood’s Bay – 16 miles However, this is only a guide, and Wainwright himself stated that he did not expect people to follow his route or his pace.