Start small, then stretch

A first long-distance walk should feel like an adventure, not an audition. The most common mistake is picking a 100-mile national trail for the first outing and discovering on day two that 25 kilometres of rolling farmland with a full pack is a very different thing from a Sunday afternoon stroll. Instead, work up to it. If you can comfortably walk three to four hours on a hilly local footpath, you are ready for a day of around 12 to 15 kilometres. Build over a few months towards back-to-back days of 20 kilometres, ideally with the pack you intend to carry.

Good first candidates are waymarked routes with plenty of accommodation and easy escape points: the Cotswold Way, Hadrian's Wall Path, the Dales Way or a gentle section of the South Downs Way. Waymarking takes away much of the navigation load, and villages mean you are never far from a bus stop if the weather turns or a knee complains.

Learn to read the ground before you walk it

Sit down with a paper map before you go and trace the route with your finger. Ordnance Survey Explorer maps at 1:25,000 show field boundaries, stiles, gates, woodland and contour lines in useful detail; Landranger at 1:50,000 is lighter to carry and fine for open hill country. Look for the things that slow you down: dense contour lines, dense woodland, the words "marsh" or "bog", and long stretches with no path marked at all.

Rights of way in England and Wales are shown as public footpaths, bridleways and byways, and they do not always follow the line you would choose. Expect to climb stiles, squeeze through kissing gates and occasionally wade through a field of curious cattle. In Scotland, access rights are broader and responsible wild camping is legal on most unenclosed land; in England and Wales, wild camping generally needs the landowner's permission. Carry a compass and know how to take a bearing, and take a phone with offline maps plus a spare battery — but treat the paper map as the one that never runs out.

Check the weather and set turning points

British weather decides the shape of a walk far more than the guidebook does. Check a mountain-area forecast the evening before and again in the morning, and read the wind as carefully as the rain: 50 mph gusts on an exposed ridge will end your day regardless of how good your waterproofs are. Low cloud on high ground removes your views and, more importantly, your landmarks.

Before you set off, write down two or three turning points in your head. Something like: "If we reach the col by 14:00, we continue; if not, we take the valley path down." A fixed turnaround time matters more than distance on a winter day, when daylight can vanish by half past four. Being willing to abandon a summit is a skill, not a failure, and it is the one that keeps experienced walkers experienced.

Tell someone your plan

Leave a route card with someone at home: your name, your car registration or the station you are starting from, the route, your intended overnight stops, your expected finish time, and who to ring if you are not back. Add what you are wearing and carrying, and remember to text when you finish. It takes two minutes and it is the single most useful thing anyone can do for a mountain rescue team.

If you are walking alone, that message becomes even more important. In an emergency, dial 999, ask for the police, and then for mountain rescue. If you can, give a grid reference from your map rather than "near a big tree".

Carry food, water and the essentials

Eat before you are hungry and drink before you are thirsty. For a full day, pack around 2 litres of water in cool weather and more in summer, and refill at cafés, pubs or village taps where you can. Water from streams and upland becks looks clean and is not: it can carry bugs that will ruin the following week. A filter bottle or purification tablets solve the problem cheaply.

Food should be easy to eat while walking, not a sit-down meal. Oatcakes with cheese, nuts, flapjack, malt loaf and a decent sandwich will carry you 20 kilometres. Beyond that, the standard kit list is short and worth obeying:

• Waterproof jacket and trousers, plus a warm mid-layer and hat and gloves
• Paper map, compass, and a phone with offline maps and a charged power bank
• Head torch, whistle, first aid kit and a foil emergency shelter
• Spare socks, blister plasters and a small repair kit for poles and boots
• Sun hat and sunscreen in summer; the UV on a breezy ridge is deceptive

Look after your feet, and the places you walk

Break your boots in long before the trip, and wear two thin layers of socks rather than one thick one. Stop every hour or so, take your boots and socks off, dry your feet and check for hot spots before they become blisters. Pace yourself to the slowest member of the group, allow an extra hour for every 300 metres of ascent, and aim to finish with energy still in the tank.

Finally, leave the countryside as you found it. Follow the path where it is wet and fragile, close gates behind you, keep dogs on leads near livestock, and take every wrapper home. The quiet pleasure of a long walk depends on the ground underfoot staying wild — and on you coming back to walk it again.