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

Finally, we've done it. We have walked 1200 miles, the length of Britain! Yesterday we left Wick at about 0800 for the final 17 mile walk to John O'Groats. Shortly after 1200 we were walking down the A99 in beautiful sunshine the coast and islands off North Scotland stretched out before us. We were there, the John O'Groats sign welcoming us to the 'end of the road'. Strickly speaking John O'Groats isn't the end of the road, but Dunscaby Head (2 miles Northwest) is, so I ran down the road to the lighthouse there just to be sure!

However you look at it, we've done it. We've walked an unbroken line from Land's End all the way to John O'Groats. It's been 2 gruelling months since we set out, and we've had a lot of problems, successes, enjoyment, hardship and fun along the way. We are both very glad indeed to have finished now. It was particularly nice to know that we've done it carrying all our own kit on our backs. There were streams of cyclists coming in, carrying nothing with backup teams and campervans! I'm glad we did it the hard way!

It was particularly good that once we got to the official sign the man taking the pictures recognised us. Back on the 14th July when we set out, there was a man at Land's End that we spoke to, he was on holiday from John O'Groats...the official photographer from the John O'Groats end. Yesterday as we arrived he recognised us, which was a great feeling to have someone we semi-knew to congratulate us.

I must thank everyone who has helped us on our way, I would like to name everyone...and maybe I will in another blog entry (the time's running out) but to all of you who helpped, to all of you who gave support and to all of you who donated thank you so much. Thank you.

So now what for us? Well we are off to Edinburgh...to have a steak that we've been promising ourselves from the start! Staying at my cousin Lissie's place for a few nights before we fly home. We will soon be putting up the rest of the pictures. Thank you once again.

YAY WE'VE FINISHED!!!!!!

Check out the new photos I've added onto the page above, only the Scotish ones for the time being I'm afraid, as we left the rest of our photos with Andy back in East Kilbride. Hope you like them

Well here we are, North, North Scotland finally! Guess what we saw today? ...Our first signpost to John O'Groats since Cornwall on the first day!!! What an amazing feeling it was to see it too. We are now less than 100 miles from the finishing post. I really am very happy indeed, currently we are sat at John's house just outside Tain. John is a good friend of Ian's from University who has very kindly agreed to look after us for a couple of nights, and what an amazing day to come here. The sun is shining so strong that if I'd spent any more time outside I would have got very burnt. It's odd to think that having been walking throughout the summer today has been the first time I've actually seen a combine working! A sign of the bad weather of the summer that it's taken till mid September to see that.

So here we are only days away from the end (yes Dad we were days from the end at the start - only a few less now!) I estimate that we'll be finished by the 18th. Which is just as well, as those of you who have read Carlie's blog yesterday will have seen that she starts her PhD on 22nd September, so we've needed to get a shake on to get back in time. We've managed to rearrange our flights, and by averaging about 24 miles in the last 5 days we will make it. But of course we are VERY far North, so getting back to Cardiff will take us 3 days! A bus to Wick, then train to Inverness, then to Edinburgh (thank you Lissie in advance!!) before a flight back to Cardiff and a bus from Cardiff airport to ours! Thank goodness we've got time in hand to make it back.

So what have we been up to since our last update? Well the West Highland Way as I wrote previously, was amazing. Such spectacular scenary. It really was the highlight of the trip. I'd recommend anyone doing it. It's not a hard walk, with not many possibilities to get lost, but the rewards are spectacular. So unfortunately for the Great Glen Way, it's been a hard act to follow. The Great Glen Way was, well...a little tame in comparison. Following forest paths and canalside tracks wasn't quite the same as the grand vistas and amazing scenes of the Highland Way. Having said that, it was a whole lot better than the A9 which is our route to our end point! Loch Ness was exciting to walk past, but due to the heavily forested slopes, was hard to actually see anything - let alone spot Nessie! We met, and kept meeting (the daily stops are the same for most walkers) a very friendly couple who were also walkinig the Great Glen Way, thank you for your company and your pledged donation.

All in all though spirits are high and we can at last see the light at the end of the tunnel. We are so nearly there...thank goodness!

WOW! What an amazing few days, if ever any of you want to do a long distance path go with the West Highland Way! What an amazing trail it is. The views are amazing, the path itself it never too hard, and the reward for it is just well, spectacular. I am so glad that we had a chance to walk the West Highland Way.

From East Kilbride we headed out to the start of the West Higland Way, a 95 mile trek that takes you along the shore of Loch Lomand (yes Dad I sang the song while on the banks!!) Up and over into Glencoe across the vast expanse that is Rannoch Moor and then finally down to the foot of the highest mountain in Britain!

I must admit we've been very lucky indeed, the weather has been really very kind to us, considering the forcast. It's been showery but never really totally wet all day, so even when we've got soaked we've managed to dry out. The route out along the banks of Loch Lomand was quite strenuous, the way goes up and down and for the top end of the loch there is a bit of a scramble over rocks as the way hugs the shore.

The day over Rannoch Moor was one of the most spectaular and possibly my favourate of the whole walk so far. It is just so vast and empty but with huge mountains all around, WOW. Ah noooo I'll have to cut this short, we've only been given a few mins on here and my time is running out.

Well thank you all for your support I shall be on again soon I'm sure.