Martyn Howe talks to us about how he walked the coast of England - following what has become the King Charles III England Coast Path.

Martyn shares:

• How the walk began with a single acorn waymarker in Cromer
• What it’s like to stitch together a coastal path that was still being completed
• Unexpectedly wild places like The Wash, where land and sea seem to dissolve
• Industrial coastlines in the North East — and the surprising signs of recovery there
• Memorable encounters with birdlife, including kestrels, peregrines, and wintering geese
• Why public art along the coast — from Time and Tide bells to community projects — became central to the journey
• The idea of an “experience map” rather than a route map, and how that changes how you plan and walk
• How carrying less — physically and mentally — altered his relationship with long-distance walking
• Whether walking can still act as a form of protest or environmental witness
• The kinds of conversations that only seem to happen when two people are walking side by side

We also talk about Martyn’s book The Coast is Our Compass, and how writing became a way of processing the journey — not just recording where he went, but what it meant.

Links:

The Coast is Our Compass

Experience Map

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