THE manager of an Aberystwyth outdoor pursuits store has taken a busman’s holiday to the Lake District – completing all 214 of the Wainwright fells using only public transport.

Lewis Jevons hopes his feat will persuade more people to take a greener approach to visiting the Lake District.

The 29-year-old might be the first to do so since Alfred Wainwright wrote his Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells in the 1950s and 60s.

Unlike the author though, Lewis had to travel from his home in Ceredigion.

It’s taken him nearly five years but what he admits turned into an obsession started out almost by chance.

“I headed to the Lakes for a week’s holiday. I didn’t have a car so it was a case of get the train and then use the buses.

“It was there that I saw the word ‘Wainwrights’.

“The bug bit me. I do have a car now but once I started I thought, well, Wainwright himself did it all without a car. Then I saw just how overwhelmed the Lakes gets with cars, particularly in peak season - it’s absolutely horrific.

“I thought I don’t want to be part of that problem, I want to be a responsible tourist, because I’m from west Wales, we’ve had our own fair share of over-tourism over the years. I want to do it the right way and environmentally it’s the sensible thing to do."

Lewis, who manages a branch of outdoor clothing chain Trespass, settled into a routine - a train from Aberystwyth to Wolverhampton then the West Coast Mainline to Glasgow, getting off at either Oxenholme or Penrith, depending on which area of the Lakes he was heading to.

As the challenge took shape, he set himself certain rules - as well as sticking to public transport he would do each fell on his own.

But it took a while for the scale of the task to become clear.

“I didn’t really understand what I’d got myself into. The number 214 sounded big but I hadn’t really pored over the maps.

“So to begin with it was the central ones, where buses run every 20 minutes in the summer.

“When I got more serious after the first 50, it dawned on me that there were quite a few in the further reaches of the national park where the buses might not be so frequent or the winter timetable reduces where you can go.

“It was very much a case of planning areas to go and book into a campsite or a hostel somewhere. Then use the buses and do the surrounding 20 or 30 fells in a week.”

He adds: “My partner doesn’t like walking and none of my friends have time off at the same time as me.

“So [doing them all solo] was by necessity and then I realised just how much I love the quiet and time alone by myself."

He stayed true to his principles throughout and doing so only added to his enjoyment.

“Taking the car, you drive to the bottom of a hill, walk up it and drive home. You don’t really experience the other stuff that the park has to offer. Whereas if you’ve got a three-mile walk back to the bus stop you see all of that stuff.

“I don’t think you can complain about how good the public transport is in the Lakes for walkers. I can’t think of any other national park in the UK which is served as well as the Lake District for public transport."

Lewis’ Wainwrights marathon came to an end at the start of May and for the last walk he wasn’t alone.

His parents Susan and Alan and partner Cate accompanied him part of the way up the final fell, Rannerdale Knotts.

But he had mixed feelings at the end.

“It’s been something that I’ve sort of obsessed over in all of my free time and you’re left with a bit of a vacuum now.”