After 72 days of walking, a long-distance hiker has completed the Wales Coast Path — a route that runs roughly 870 miles around the entire coastline of Wales — finishing the last 13 miles into Chepstow on the English border despite shin pain that peaked around 8 or 9 out of 10.
The final day started at 7am in thick fog, with the walker pacing themselves against the distant view of the Severn road bridge. Even the last stretch came with hurdles: a standoff with a cow blocking an embankment (the cow won), and a careful timing calculation to pass a firing range before operating hours to avoid a two-mile inland diversion — though the range's website does say they'll hold firing for walkers. A local woman out with her dogs filled in some local history, from a court battle to keep the foreshore path open to walkers to a tsunami that struck the nearby village of Rogiet back in 1607.
The physical struggle was the real story. With UK pharmacies' over-the-counter painkillers that combine ibuprofen or paracetamol with a small dose of codeine, the walker managed the pain mile by mile — five miles in, they sat on a rock questioning whether to quit, whether the shin was actually fractured, and whether an upcoming Kilimanjaro climb was at risk. A passing dog-walker doubled back to check on them, offered encouragement, and they pressed on. The route wound through the outskirts of Chepstow, past one final sheep, along the Severn estuary to the River Wye, where a stranger took the finish-line photos. Fittingly, the pain briefly vanished as they headed for the train station — before returning on the ride back to London. Follow-up X-rays the next day confirmed no stress fracture.
For anyone tempted by the Wales Coast Path, the takeaway is less about the painkillers and more about what's possible: it's one of the few dedicated walking routes on the planet that traces an entire country's coast end to end, passing dunes, castles, cliff tops, industrial docks and quiet saltmarsh. Most people tackle it in sections rather than one 72-day push, and this account is a good reminder that the trail culture is friendly — dog-walkers, locals and strangers will chat, help and share stories along the way. The path also connects easily to rail, so you can walk a stretch and hop a train back, exactly as this hiker did into London.
If you've got a fortnight and decent knees, a single region — Pembrokeshire is the classic pick — gives you the drama without the 1,000-mile grind the author joked they could have kept walking.
Story via The Trek.
