A Land's End to John O'Groats Charity Walk

Once again, I start my blog with an apology that it has been so long since our last update. Well we come with good news...we are in Scotland!! And not just inside Scotland but we are in East Kilbride just south of Glasgow.

So what have the last few days given us, well rain for one! As I'm sure you've seen on the weather forcast the west side of Britain has been covered in rain clouds. Thankfully we've actually been quite lucky. Although we've seen quite a few showers, we've not really had many days where it has rained all day.

Our last blog was in Preston, as we left the library and headed up to Lancaster we walked past some cyclists who were also doing Land's End to John O'Groats (they were stationary hence how we managed to walk past them!) It was strange to think, they were on day 6 and already in Preston, with only 4 days left before John O'Groats! There we were on day 30 with well over another month to go of walking. No wonder most people cycle the route.

So Lancaster was our next target and from there we headed on to Kendal, the gateway to the Lake District. I was very glad to be getting back to some decent scenary again, the urban sprawl of Warrington, Manchester, Preston etc was not a fun place to walk. Now we were back in mountains and beautiful views as we headed out in bright sunshine out towards Penrith over Shap fell. Unfortunately, with mountains comes bad weather and as we crossed Shap fell the weather changed, black clouds were chasing behind us and soon dropped their load on us. Yet again though we were relatively lucky as after a couple of showers it stopped over us. Yet either side of us we could see it tipping it down. 

We were very glad to finally get into Penrith, it was a very long day, the B&B owners where we were staying were going out that night so wanted us to get there by 7pm, so we pushed on all day with barely any stops. It being a Sunday the shops closed early too, so we ended up only having a chocolate bar for lunch!

On from Penrith we headed off to Carlise and then on to Lockerbie and Moffat. Thank you Ian (my brother) for helping us to sort B&Bs along the way. It's been a great help to be able to ring you up and not only get a selection of B&Bs but for them to be well priced and decent places to stay. Thank you.

The Carlise to Lockerbie day was one of our best yet, not due to any particularly spectacular scenary but we crossed the border into Scotland. We'd made it to our last country. It was a good feeling to get into Gretna Green and be on Scottish soil!

In Moffat we stayed in the World famous Star hotel (no I'd never heard of it before we went there either!) It the worlds thinnest hotel at only 20ft wide - well it was in 1988 anyway and they are still living off it! We stayed an extra day in Moffat, having walked continuously for 6 days averaging 25 miles a day we thought we deserved it.

From Moffat we headed out towards East Kilbride stopping the night at Crawford and then being picked up by Andy, Gayle and baby Ben about 10 miles from East Kilbride at Strathaven. Yesterday we had a lovely day off with Andy and Gayle and Ben. It's great to see them again, especially to see Ben. He's now fully able to pull himself up, crawl properly (he used to drag his legs behind him) and now can even walk when you hold his hands for support!

Andy and Gayle have been great to us, giving us time to relax, feeding us very well and really making us feel welcome. It's been great to catch up with them. Today Gayle took Carlie and I back to Strathaven so we could walk back to their house for a nice easy 10 mile day.

Tomorrow will see us heading off to the other side of Glasgow, saying goodbye to B&Bs and the easy life with light backpacks and hello to the West Highland Way and full weight packs and tenting again - just as well the way the money's going!

I am really looking forward to the West Highland Way, it is dubbed as the best long distance path in Britain, with spectacular scenary through it's whole route. So providing we are still lucky with the weather and we get to see the mountains we are climbing over it looks set to be amazing, and even better it the thought that a week Wednesday we should be in Fort William - at the base of the highest mountain in the UK!

Lastly in this entry I'd like to thank some more people, those of you who have sponsored us since our last update, Judy and Andrew, Auntie Susan and Alan and Lynn. Thank you so much for your support it really does spur us on to know you are donating to these two great charities.

Thank you also for all your kind comments - I've just found a way of using the internet on my phone so Carlie and I can access these comments even when we are away from the computer - even if we can't reply. So thank you very much indeed.

I didn't mention in my last update the wonderful meal we were treated to by Ian and Val. Thank you so much, it was great to catch up with you and thank you for your comment too.

Once again it's been some time since we last updated this, sorry for that. On the plus side we're back on our way again, and catching up the days that we've had off! Which is a great feeling. Today we're in Preston, heading up to Lancaster by tonight. The next few days will see us in Scotland and with my brother in only a week. Glasgow here we come!

Spirits are high again, even though the scenary we are going though isn't great. Yesterday we had a day off, as we'd walked about 100 miles in the last four days, so we thought we were intitled to a day off. Tonight we will be at our half way mark with walking! It seems really strange that we are so far north in my view, but still only half way through the walking! Shows just how much of Scotland there is! Still once we are half way it's all down hill from there. Every step takes us nearer to the end. And I'll be very glad to get to the end too. Not saying I'm not enjoying it, but fatigue is starting to set in (hence the day off yesterday) A good nights sleep just isn't enough, we both feel so exhausted all the time. Having said that we do both feel very fit. Wednesday was our first 30 mile day, and although we were shattered by the end, walking the first 12 miles before lunch didn't seem hard at all.

Carlie's shin splints are a lot better, she's taking a lot of ibuprofen and with the extra weight of the tent etc taken off, we are really managing to get the mileage up. By the time we get to Andy and Gayle's we'll have caught up all the days off we've taken! Which will mean that we will have 11 days 'spare' again to do the final push with full kit again.

Thank you for all your support and concern. We really appreciate all the comments, texts and support from you all. There is a counter that we can see when we log on to this blog showing us how many of you look at this over the past week sometimes there are as many as 140 hits!! So it's great to know you are all looking out for us and thinking of us.

Next time we log on we may well be in Scotland, our path for now will take us to Lancaster tonight, then Kendal, Penrith and Carlisle....and then Scotland!!! Our final country! And once in Scotland we've only about 400 miles to go....only!!!

Well thank you once again for your comments, it's great to know you are reading this and thinking of us. Unfortunatly I've got some bad news though. Carlie has for the past few days been suffering with really bad shin splints. This is of course a real concern for us. We had another rest day yesterday in order to give us the chance to continue but unfortunatly that's not been enough.

So...what to do? Well firstly thank you very much indeed to Ed Riley (an old school friend of mine). He put us up for the past three nights, picking us up a days walk from his and then dropping us back so we could walk on. Thank you Ed for the food, hospitality and general kindness. We owe you and you really need to come to Cardiff!! It was great to see him after so long and to see his parents again too. It had been two years since I'd seen Ed and seven since I'd seen his parents!!

Our plan (for the moment) is to rest up for another two days in a B&B here in Church Stretton and re-think. Due to the nature of Carlie's injury, we think it best to try to get the weight off our backs for a little while. This will mean a eating into our budget, as we will have to ditch the tent, sleeping bag and stove etc. This will mean that we will have to stay at B&Bs and youth hostels - far from ideal but it's now all about getting to the end!

So in short our plan is to post on our excess kit to my brother's in Scotland and walk for the next two weeks or so with much less on our backs, therefore covering our milage more easily! We are also looking at our route and seeing where we can shave off milage with a more direct (but less scenic) route. Of course we'll keep you updated where we can with our progress.

Once again thank you for your support and thank you Ed for your huge help.

Well today was our final day with Nat and Parf and therefore our final day with daysacks! It will be hard to get back to trudging along with our big sacks on again, and sleeping in a tent every night...and eating army rations again!

Oh well, today was lovely. A really really enjoyable day. Ridge walking is always the best, but especially in good weather. Ok the weather wasn't great - not beach weather, but then we weren't on a beach. For the majority of the day it was perfect walking weather - overcast, slight breeze, a little sun and not much rain. It did rain, but not that much and the views from the top were amazing. Spectacular views all around, the Black Mountains and the Breacon Beacons to the West, the flat midlands to the east.

All in all today was one of the best so far, beautiful! So tomorrow we're off into Herefordshire and on towards Craven Arms.

Well, another nice easy day - relatively. Daysacks on Carlie, Parf and I, headed off from Monmouth on the Offa's Dyke Path once again. Carlie's Nan dropped us off and Nat picked us up at the end of the day, so thank you once again to you all for your help and support over the past few days.

The weather started out quite overcast, with a few drops of rain. Soon this totally changed to beautiful sunshine...out with the suncream again! The walk itself was fairly low level, lots of styles and certainly at the start of the walk lots of mud too! The rain overnight had left the path particularly wet in places.

Thankfully, yet another short day, only a 17 miler, which without pack we completed by about 1700.

Lovely weather, lovely views, great company....and back to a bed, food and shower! Lush!

Well, today was lovely! We really could enjoy walking as we only had daysacks on today. Being with Nat and Parf we didn't need to carry all our kit so we could enjoy the beautiful countryside from Chepstow to Monmouth.

Heading out this morning to Chepstow we set off on the Offa's Dyke Path to Monmouth. Nat came along with us today and Parf dropped us off and picked us up at the end of the day. The walk from Chepstow was a relatively easy one, and very picturesque, following the Wye Valley and the route of Offa's Dyke.

With only daysacks on the 18 miles flew by, and before long we were in Monmouth and now back with the Parfs for another night in a real bed! With a shower! And real food! Thank you very much Nat and Parf!