I’m Nick Heath, an active ‘60-something’ who loves trekking, nordic walking, and just being in the outdoors. This passion has led me into some ambitious endurance events and to undertake some wonderful journeys on foot around the UK and overseas.
Based in west Hertfordshire, my trekking experiences over the last decade, aside from LETJOG 2021 and my other charity walks outlined above, comprise many of the UK’s long-distance paths, including the Pennine Way, Offa’s Dyke, the Ridgeway, and some significant overseas walks such as climbing Mount Toubkal in Morocco and completing the Gokyo Lakes and Everest Base Camp trek in Nepal.
I have enjoyed trekking since my teenage years, and in 2008 I took up nordic walking (with poles), initially as therapy for a lower back condition. In recent years I have participated in a number of endurance and competitive nordic walking events, including the 2019 Nordic Walking UK annual marathon around Purbeck, where I somehow managed to stride to second place!
My solo and unsupported LETJOG 2021 (Land’s End to John O’Groats) nordic walk in early Summer 2021 was kindly sponsored by a great many generous friends, family and followers of my Blog. In total we raised nearly £13,000 for three wonderful charities in the healthcare sector, namely Mind, Parkinson’s UK, and The Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted. More details of my LETJOG walk can be seen on the LETJOG tab, and on my BLOG tab, above.
The next year, in April 2022, I completed the C2C walk alongside my old schoolfriend Rob Stubbs, raising over £3,500 for Parkinson’s UK. Again, our journey can be followed on the C2C tab, and on my BLOG tab, above.
In September 2022 I joined the Ride & Stride Team of ten friends to complete the North Coast 500 route around the northern coast of Scotland. Together we raised over £13,000 for Cancer Research UK, Mind and Parkinson’s UK. More details are on the R&S and BLOG tabs above.
My most ambitious escapade for 2023 was my LETJOG Peaks challenge, completed over six months between March and September, that entailed climbing to the top of all of the Counties of England (50 in total), whilst raising £700 for the British Red Cross’ Ukraine Crisis Appeal. All told, my ‘County Tops’ walks totalled 609 miles, with nearly 70,000 vertical feet (21,225 metres) of climb. You can look back on all of these ascents on the PEAKS and BLOG tabs above.
And in November 2023 I completed the 87-mile Ridgeway trail from Overton Hill in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon, Buckinghamshire, in just under 98.5 hours – again my journey can be followed via the BLOG tab above.
My challenge for 2024 was to cover the 675 miles of walking between the eastern and western mainland extremities of the British Isles, namely Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk and Dunmore Head on the Dingle Peninsula in western Ireland. I completed this solo and unsupported walk in 40 days, raising £3,300 for Parkinson’s UK in the process. You can find further details on the E2W tab and follow my journey on the BLOG tab above.
My challenge for 2025 was the Camino Francés across northern Spain in April/May, a 32-day trek that I undertook solo and unsupported. Having said that, I was joined along most of the route by dozens of other pilgrims, all heading purposefully for Santiago de Compostela in the north-western province of Galicia.
Smitten by the Camino bug I flew out to Porto in May for amother two-week pilgrimage along the Camino Portugués, finishing as before at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Like my 2025 walk, I undertook this Camino solo and carrying my own pack, whilst booking accommodation a day or two ahead. My pilgrimage walks have been for my own personal benefit rather than as sponsored challenges, although further fundraising remains a future objective.
And in August this year I was joined by my wife Rachel, and by our friends Karen and George, on the 68-mile Camino Inglés from Reading Abbey to Southampton Docks – which we completed in five fine days and one rather wet one!
As for the future, I am always looking out for new walking challenges, so watch this space! Meanwhile please feel free to follow me on Instagram: @ nickletjog where I post photos of my regular walks in the Chilterns and further afield.
