I've found that Open Route Serve Maps gives far more flexibility than Google Maps to get off of main roads, although still not perfect.
Here's the route i've planned out so far:
https://maps.openrouteservice.org/directions?n1=55.007945&n2=-2.097702&n3=10&a=51.509648,-0.099076,51.907148,-0.192704,52.204059,0.135671,52.593358,-0.258996,52.910007,-0.645732,53.083585,-0.800948,53.52427,-1.138946,53.964533,-1.089318,54.520079,-2.00544,55.477738,-2.549903,55.944321,-3.242511&b=2&c=2&g1=-1&g2=0&d=4&k1=en-US&k2=km [nofollow]I'm going to add in smaller villages between each and am hoping to be able to make it in 3.5 weeks, do you guys think that's realistic for a fairly fit mid thirties guy walking 6-8hrs/day?
Thanks for all your advice so far, if anyone can see any nice trails near that route that i should jump on then i'd love to know which ones and i'll add them in.
I intend to leave on Sat the 30th of this month and break the world record for the World's longest Free Hug event - in terms of distance (i don't believe there is one) to publicise the launch of our Public Happiness App which gets people around the world out on to the streets doing something small to make the world around them a little bit friendlier, safer and happier. It's almost ready, you can have a sneak peak here:
https://focallocal.org [nofollow] (..and also to get myself away from the computer screen i seem to live at)
Everyone here is welcome to join me for as much, or as little as you like - especially if you have dogs as i've decided to wait until i get back to adopt one, you can follow along here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2017603075153330/ [nofollow]also if you have ice packs i'd be extremely grateful i'll be carrying my Achilles tendinitis along with me. so far its holding up ok to 30mins runs every day and a few 10k walks as training, and the endless amount of stretching i'm doing seems to be making it feel better than before i began training so i'm in good spirits.