pw day 14: thank you magical tea lady

the 15 miles from bellingham to byrness passed with relative ease.

oh wait. no, not quite.

we managed to make the first serious detour from the route, heading straight down of a hill (as shown in the trailblazer guide) rather than bearing left (as shown on maps).

we also had another incredibly frustrating bog hopping session before the final descent through the forest to byrness. if i never see another bog again it'll be too soon.

we also got swarmed by midges and rained on at our lunch stop. once again i was forced to dwell on how much the midges love me and how much i hate them.

then when we got to byrness the place that was proclaimed to serve drinks and light bites daily in the summer was closed.

luckily said place was run by a magical tea lady who welcomed us in regardless, made us tea and sat us in front of a warm fire, made us wonderful sandwiches (in fact, sandwiches like you'd make at home, it's amazing the perspective that >200 miles gives you on the simplest things) and then followed it all up with cake. i had a piece of a 'herman' cake. google it. very tasty.

well rested we headed off to chew green, an historic roman camp about 5 miles on from byrness to wild camp. this meant that the final 27 miler was reduced to 22. it also meant we just pitched in a pouring rain shower despite being teased (once again) with the beginnings of a second awesome sunset:

oh well, one day to go!

jin x

137.5 miles down...

pw day 13: now this is more like it!

the steep ups and downs of last night's and this morning's (are those apostrophes correct?) wall walking were much more up my street.

i don't think it's just the familiarity with the fond memories of the coast path either.

i've said, more than once so far i think, that i'm finding this a bit more of a struggle. i think it's starting to really sink in why that is.

every day of last year's walk brought a massive variety. terrains, views, places. there were very few days that seemed like hard work because it was always changing. even the gradients of the hills.

this walk seems to be made up of many mindless slogs. 5 miles up a hill. 7 miles down one. 4 miles on forestry track. 6 miles through bogs.

far too much head down, staring at the feet to make sure they find firm ground, not being able to take in views due to afford mentioned feet watching or being in cloud for my liking.

i can certainly see why it has a reputation for being the toughest and most miserable of the national trails.

still, 2 more days and it'll be over.

jin x

217.5

pw day 12: the ~200 miles so far...justified.

this photo in no way does the sunset over hadrians wall justice.

the sunset did, however, do the nearly 200 miles walked so far justice.

it had me in raptures.

well worth the extra few miles we added on from greenhead to pitch wild in a visitor centre carpark. (complete with toilet facilities, win!)

other notable events of the day included following the official route, rather than the often used south tyne trail which follows the flat path of a disused railway line.

the official route included this section:

can you spot the path? no? we weren't sure we could either.

jin x

199.5 miles down...

pw day 11: mother nature is a tease...

so it turns out that some combination of ibruprofen, a knee support, and it's being a gradual ascent meant that my knee behaved itself today.

what didn't behave itself was the weather. we woke early and got packed up and then the rain started. it didn't really stop so packing down tents we set off into the cloud that was enveloping cross fell. from it's summit you can see both coasts. except in the cloud. in the cloud you see this...

every now and then mother nature would tease us by revealing a snippet of blue sky and giving us shadows!

then it would rain a bit more.

we did get a little sun in the end though. 21 miles later as we headed into alston to pitch up.

jin x

180.5 miles down...

pw day 10: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

today was great for many reasons:

it was also rubbish though because we were waking into a ridiculous headwind all day.

also, one of the ligaments in the back of my knee has started playing up. i thought it'd snapped at one point, but the fact that it made the same pain a few minutes later suggested i was ok in the grand scheme of things. it just made me cry a little. turns out i'm not so great at dealing with pain.

the upside is it only seems really bad on the uphills. the downside is we have 1100m of ascent tomorrow to get onto cross fell. oh well.

jin x

159.5 miles down...

pw day 9: not a lot to say...

today was alright by me, no so much by emma. turns out she's not a fan of agricultural tracks, and that's what we had all round the bowes loop detour that i insisted on taking. when em doesn't like a path she doesn't say much.

i'm writing this on day 10 because i couldn't find the energy to say much yesterday after our 22.5 miles. to be honest, i'm struggling tonight. this walk is hard. very hard.

on the plus side we have wayfarer friends who we're camping with now, and will be waking with at times too. I like making walking friends.

i'll leave you with one of the sources of emma's frustration with agricultural tracks:

because sheep can climb stiles?

(we also had a bull do its feet stomping thing at us. not fun.)

jin x

141 miles down...

pw day 8: picking up the pace

em and i are definately getting into our stride now, we had a speedy walk over great shunner fell in the cloud and pouring rain this morning. spirits weren't dampened, despite every part of us being soaked through.

we stopped for a few hours to dry out in thwaite, hoping for cloud to clear enough for us to see the foretold paradise of swaledale.

we were in luck and after a quick chat with four other pennine walkers, two that left friday, two that left saturday(!), we set off for tan hill in great conditions for an afternoon walk:

pictures just don't do it justice.

a short time later and the highest pub in the country, tan hill inn, popped into view:

(it's there in the distance, and felt much pleasanter than it looked in the photo.)

we'll hopefully be chatting with the other wayfarers when they get in so i'm posting early so as not to be rude.

i'll leave you with my favourite picture of today, the moody light over hardraw as we set off. I really love clouds!

jin x

118.5 miles down...

pw day 7: ain't northerners brilliant!

so today we walked from horton to hardraw. 15.5 miles in clouds. less views than yesterday if that's possible. as a result we had an absolute stonker. we got to hawes for lunch and did a bit of shopping and touristing. we saw some rope being made which is cooler than it sounds.

then we wandered the extra mile and a half to where we were planning on camping. pitched up. and headed to the pub.

that's when today really started. i've lost count of the number of people we've chatted with. people like jerry who've walked the way three times to those who are walking at about the same rate as us, some walking it in circular loops, some locals, some scout leaders. in short, a good afternoon/evening in good company. probably the best day so far and i'm gonna stop beig rude now
and get back to it. excuse the poor quality pic of the wonderful pub that we're in:

jin x

103.5 miles down...

pw day 6: such wonderful views?

today found us mostly in cloud. being very much rained on. i imagine there were spectacular view to be had from the top of pen-y-ghent. only once again i had to miss out. i always seem to have cloud for that walk!

saying that, i've just remembered we did get one nice look back at the tarn as we climbed the next fell:

the afternoon found me in a grump. despite us having the sanctuary of a caving hut to spend the afternoon in. we got our kit dry. made some sort of plan forte rest of the walk. had heaters to keep us warm. and still somehow, grump. absolutely no idea why. ah well.

off to a proper bed now, so that's good.

jin x

88 miles down...

pw day 5: i saw a peregrine!

i saw a peregrine today! probably three actually, but unfortunately I can't show you as I was too busy staring in awe and clapping like a small child to get my camera out. even if I had done they would have been rubbish shots though so i'm assuming you'll forgive me?

what else happened today? we started of packing down out tents in the most amazing campsite ever. manicured lawns make for good pitching. (we had permission, janette runs an informal campsite on her back lawn)

we walked along a canal with two tier bridges:

through a village with the first 'total distance sign'. cue obligatory cheesy photo:

yes. I know that adds up to only 256 miles. turns out that's the distance without the extras. seems we're gonna have to walk the extras after all.

then through some fields, and by a pretty river. the going was mostly good and we made good time. we stopped at malham cove for a tea. that's we're the peregrines came in.

we met a group of people who are one ther way to john o'groats. they're walking in stages. this is their fifth year. one of them may or may not have been my supply teacher in primary school. small world.

we wild camped for the first time this trip (at last!) a great little spot by the edge of malham tarn. all in all a pretty good days walking which found us mostly cheerful. it probably helped that it didn't rain on us or sun on us too much.

jin x

76 miles down (i think!)

pw day 4: do i prefer rain?

i'm starting to remember how difficult i am to please, weather wise. today was definately too hot. i think i still prefer sun to rain, but i'm almost not sure.

it's been a day of ups and downs today, geographically, physically and mentally.

niggles have become aches and pains and spirits were much depressed, despite the more cheerful weather.

it seems as if em has developed itb pain, check the archives for more on that issue. if i was her i'd already be on a bus home, but she's been soldiering on, amazing.

meanwhile i'm still feeling my bag much more than would be ideal and my ankle started playing up.

the miles aren't ticking by quite as fast as i'd imagined, and I think we may be heading towards a few days over the target of 14. but as i reminded myself earlier, the point of these walks are to challenge myself, and this is certainly doing that so far.

on the brighter side, the monument on the horizon in the first picture was our midpoint yesterday, stoodley pike, and the stepped shoulder of a hill in the distance of the second is, we think, pen-y-ghent. we'll be there in two days. that adds up to some pretty awesome views today.

jin x

60 miles down...

pw day 3: the sun came out to play!

clear skies over the valleys
an unclaimed foal on the bridleway
a footbridge over the m62
moody skies over valleys
...and cities
a poem about rain
steep overgrown paths
with views back to stoodley pike
and an almost hidden grave yard.

that about sums it up.

jin x

44 miles down...

pw day 2: i'd definitely prefer it if the streams were streams, not rivers.

so we set out today with a plan of 19 miles, and a back up plan of 11 miles. the back up plan won.

annoyingly there seem to be many stretches over which there are very few wild camping opportunities, particularly in the very wet conditions present at the moment.

the wet conditions have also lead to excessive run off. as I said yesterday, it's really annoying when the stream steals your path. however it turns out it is even more annoying when a stream you are supposed to be 'fording' turns into a river, meaning you have to significantly detour to find somewhere you only slightly feel you will fall into while crossing. even more annoying still when that happens many times in one day. needless to say, I think, that the feet were once again sodden.

however, refreshed after the night in the yha, and with the sky rapidly ceasing to ruin our day with rain, we had a really quite nice day. we called it a day at option one as, with wearying soggy feet and second day aches, we were not confident in continuing for another eight miles with no guarantee of a good camping spot.

option one also happened to consist of hanging about in a pub all afternoon as we were camping in their back garden.

the great western in the a62 made us feel completely at home, assuring us that a donation in their charity pot was sufficient to secure ourselves a pitch, providing us with awesomely large hot chocolates complete with little cake bites, and feeding us and our friend benji who drove out to join us for tea. the even gave us milk for breakfast for no charge. so far i'm impressed with the milk charges in the north.

jin x

27 miles down...oops!

pw day 1: i'd prefer it if the paths were paths, not streams

we decided on a later than normal start for the first day. with 16 miles to crowdon planned, we didn't want hours to hang around in tents in the rain. also there was the small matter of packing which we entirely left til that morning:

a 12.35 start saw us bounding along the flagged path above edale, enthusiastic (at that point) for a good day's walking. the weather was holding off and we even got some beautiful views back down 'jacob's ladder' to edale.

it wasn't til bleaklow that things started to turn...

as the name suggests, it was a bit bleak, but more than that was the issue that a stream seemed to have decided that our path was exactly where it wanted to flow.

added to the fact that we'd both managed to find holes between the lovely slabs of stone that have been placed along much of the path, inundating our boots with bog water, this stretch of path made for pretty miserable walking.

add to that the fact that is then started to rain family heavily and persistently, providing a large chill factor once our waterproofs gave up and very little visibility, and you can probably see why we decided to treat ourselves to a night in the crowdon yha.

at £15 for the night it was a bargain that came complete with an amazingly good drying room, comfy beds, and a lovely lady by the name of jill who sold us a pint of milk for only 50p. spirits much raised we promptly planned a 19 miler for the next day (despite aching almost head to toe).

jin x

16 miles down...

give us your money - take two

so...the money post.

last year i walked for oxfam. a decision i was very happy with, and that you can read about here.

this year however i have been inspired to walk for mind by two incredible gentlemen that set off in june to run the whole of the south west coast path in just two weeks!

you can see their reasons here. it was an astounding feet, though it took a little longer than planned for mal, and tom had to break early due to serious leg issues.

so my first reason for following their lead is as a simple recognition of their effort.

however along side this, mind supports issues close to my heart. i have known many people in my relatively short time so far that have struggled with anything from mild depression to more serious mental health problems. as with tom and mal i believe that there is a stigma that must be fought. as it was explained to me recently: it's not as if you can call in sick to work because your brain just won't seem to function properly one day, yet it's more debilitating than any case of man flu.

so for everyone i know that struggles sometimes, and everyone that i don't for that matter, this one's for you.

to donate head over to my virginmoneygiving.com page. as they say, every little helps!

anyway, i should probably get to bed now cos em and i still have to pack out bags tomorrow before we head off!

jin x

ps. i'm using a bag cover from the start this year...not too bad for ten minutes work eh?

here we go again...

yep. it's walking time again. so welcome back to old readers and hello to new ones.

time for an update? in the last year i have trained to become a science teacher. i wanted to blog about it, but quite frankly, there just wasn't time! i think this blog will be reserved for my summer adventures after all.

in terms of those...the plan this year is to walk the pennine way. and in terms of planning, that's about it.

yes. after the military precision of last year's planning, my friend em and i have decided to 'wing it' despite bothbeing incredibly unfit. my excuse is the combination of teacher training and boyfriend steeling all my exercise time (i never said it was a good excuse). her excuse is, well, i'm not sure to be honest. am i worried? not in the slightest.

why? two reasons:

firstly, my friend em and i have this odd way of egging each other on that just kind of works. it worked for the half marathon we ran last year, and the overnight walk through teignmouth last year. so we're planning on it working this year. flawless logic. right?

secondly, i went out on an attempt at the devon coast to coast last week. the purpose of this trip was to reacquaint myself with my fully loaded up pack and to test out the legs in light of the unfitness (no, you're right, that's probably not a word, but it's got a good ring to it so i'm overlooking it). long story short...i bailed - i'm getting better at that! the met office put out a 'red warning' for rain. and since i'd been up to my knees in mud, and soaked to the skin for most of the day, i decided it would be prudent to take a day off while the worst passed. then my laziness, along with the realisation that just cos the rain had stopped it didn't mean that the ground would have stopped being a bog overnight, making camping a nightmare, meant i called it off completely. the plus side? it turns out i still really love my bag. even after almost a year it's incredibly comfortable when loaded up with all my walking gear*. and despite some mild leg ache that night, i managed to complete the 15 miles of the erme-plym trail in good time and with little difficulty.

i'll write a post soon about who i'm walking for this summer**, but apart from that it'll essentially be a case of 'off for a 268 mile walk, back in 14 or so days...'

jin x

*oddly it's less comfortable with less in, perhaps cos i know how to set it up when it's loaded up?!


**i'd have walked for oxfam again, gladly. but i've been moved to change my cause this year...more on that to come.