Day 27 - Preston to Lancaster

Hello bloggers!

Yes, you read correctly - we are in Preston!

Apologies for taking a while to update you but this is the first real chance we've had to get to a computer since the rest day in Church Stretton. The rest day did my leg the world of good and I am pleased to report that with the help of my good friend Ibuprofen my shin splints are pretty much gone and I can walk well again. Phew!

We have had to alter our route slightly to catch up with the mileage but we are making good progress. From Church Stretton we walked to Wem - from Wem to Tarporley - from Tarporley to Warrington - from Warrington to Preston.

We have recently been out for two lovely meals. One with Ed's schoolfriend Steve Tong and his girlfriend Catherine in Church Stretton. The other was in Tarporley where we  met up with Ed's godfather Ian and his wife Val. I thoroughly enjoyed their company and the food was superb!

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Lynn and Allan from the Highlands B&B in Church Stretton Shropshire for their very generous donation to the Alzheimer's Society. Thank you so so much!

Yesterday we had another rest day as we'd covered 100 miles in 4 days and so were feeling rather sore and tired. We're raring to go again today and I am very excited about reaching the Lake District tomorrow.

Coming into Warrington we got absolutely drenched. We got caught right in the middle of a torrential rain storm with thunder and lightning and huge hailstones which really stung when they hit you. The roads and pavements were like rivers and our boots got completely filled with water. We couldn't have been more wet if we jumped into a swimming pool! We checked into an Express Holiday Inn that night and managed to dry all our clothes overnight thankgoodness, but that has been, easily, our worst day of weather. It can't get much worse than that!

Our plan is:

today Preston - Lancaster     tomorrow Lancaster - Kendal

17th Kendal - Penrith             18th Penrith - Carlisle

19th Carlisle - Lockerbie! Scotland!!! So in 5 days time we should be in Scotland and what a milestone achievement that will be.

We look forward to staying with Ed's brother and sister in law in Glasgow a few days after crossing the border. But I won't say too much more now or I'll just be describing the whole route to you.

Ed says he feels he is coming to the end of the walk now and I can understand what he means as we're just about to reach the halfway mark today and we do feel very north. Accents are sounding very northern indeed. We nearly have 600 miles behind us now. That feels very good!

Thank you to Nat and Parf for updating our blog on Day 23's comments - very much appreciated! Thank you to everyone who is reading our blogs and sponsoring us, it really does make all the aches and pains worthwhile!

Carlie.