I had my first taste of the Pennine Way today. I’d love to say the views from the top were stunning but to be honest I couldn’t see further than a few metres in any direction. The heavy fog persisted but we only had the morning to cover in it, before dropping down. The winds [...]
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Day Twenty-Eight: Haworth to Littleborough
July 3, 2010 – 11:03 pm
I can’t believe I’m saying this after four weeks of hiking but it was so good to get back on it today after two days of feeling icky. There does turn out to be one happy upside to getting food poisoning: after all that rest my legs were all springy and non-hurty again. I didn’t [...]
Day Twenty-Seven: Malham to Haworth
July 3, 2010 – 11:01 pm
I’ve met quite a range of people in the last few weeks – some endearingly strange, very few not-so-nice but overwhelmingly in the main the people we have met have been absolutely great. Today, however, I met my first bona fide weirdo. The guys had set off on their hike and I thought I’d take [...]
Day Twenty-Six: Dent to Malham
July 3, 2010 – 10:25 pm
Just to keep things interesting, I decided last night to buy a big bowl of food poisoning. I’d had this nagging feeling that perhaps fifty-four days of hiking wasn’t challenging enough so I thought, what the hey, let’s spice things up a bit. Actually, all I thought was, ‘Ooh I fancy some pasta tonight. Ooh [...]
Day Twenty-Five: Kendal to Dent
July 3, 2010 – 10:24 pm
Today we left the Lake District and made our way into the start of the Yorkshire Dales. The route was nice and simple to follow – a few more minor roads that took us past some of the most enormous wind turbines I have ever seen. The change in scenery is a bit more distinct [...]
Day Twenty-Four: Grasmere to Kendal
June 25, 2010 – 10:35 pm
Good news! After a couple of weeks of being really ragged, my feet are now finally healing well. I don’t want to speak too soon but I seem to be developing a layer of leather a scud missile would find difficult to penetrate. For the moment my second purple toenail is still attached too. Long [...]
Day Twenty-Three: Keswick to Grasmere
June 15, 2010 – 1:46 pm
After over three weeks of this insanity something has become very clear: it’s absolutely fatal to hope your day will be shorter just because the mileage is relatively low. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but it really does all come down to the hills. It was due to be about 19 miles today so I [...]
Day Twenty-Two: Heston Newmarket to Keswick
June 15, 2010 – 1:12 pm
So far on this trip I have heard a few people say that the Lake District doesn’t compare to the Scottish Highlands and, of course, in terms of scale they are right – but there is nevertheless something about the Lake District that really, really does it for me. The only downside I can think [...]
Day Twenty-One: Longtown to Heston Newmarket
June 15, 2010 – 12:40 pm
If I never see another cow again it will be too soon. I know they taste good and I know I can’t make a good cup of tea without their moo juice (which annoyingly makes them pretty much fundamental to my survival) but they have not left us alone today. Or, to be precise they [...]
Day Twenty: Lockmaben to Longtown
June 9, 2010 – 2:15 pm
Today was a big day. A whopper of day. In fact I’d go so far as to say an almost pant-wettingly exciting day. Today we crossed over the border into England. Or to put it another way: today we finished hiking across Scotland. Scotland! An entire flippin’ country. My mind hasn’t stopped boggling since we [...]
