Before getting onto today’s blog there are a couple of things I need to catch up on from the weekend. First, it was the Keswick Jazz Festival all weekend which was great. Live jazz (the traditional stuff) everywhere you went. Brilliant. Second is a “wow” for Nicky Spinks. If you think I am mad just check out what this remarkable lady achieved by completing a Double Bob Graham (follow the link below). Nicky had just finished when we came out from dinner. We had no idea who she was or what all the people and press were doing in the square until this morning.
As for today, I was joined by Richard Turnbull, a director of Cure Leukaemia, for the walk from Milnthorpe to High Salter (near Hornby). A nice day for walking and the miles seem to pass much quicker with someone to chat to. Nothing really to report other than a very pleasant day. I think everyone is probably bored with pictures of lambs and cows, so I will spare you yet more of them.
Tomorrow is up and over Forest of Bowland so let’s hope the forecast weather holds good.
Cool dudes; Richard & Chris after the walk. Thanks Richard.
Mostly pictures today. Scafell successfully climbed with the help of Graham and Mary Hodge who joined me for some company. Special thanks to Matt Le Voi of Lakeland Mountain Guides for guiding us safely and educating us on the geography and the geology (although we know more about sheep than he does!) If you need a guide in these parts we can thoroughly recommend Matt. Excellent. www.lakelandmountainguides.co.uk
Graham, Mary and me at the top of Scafell Pike. I’m not that tall, just standing on a rock.
Short today ahead of the day off tomorrow and then Scafell Pike on Sunday.
Weather was a bit cooler today which was nice, but still warm enough to walk in just a t-shirt. 20 miles done from Ambleside to Milnthorpe. Lovely to walk alongside Windermere and then along leafy lanes, only spoiled by being buzzed by a couple of planes.
Hazel had another great day with the ultimate literary talent. How do you trump Robert Burns and William Wordsworth?
Sometimes what you think is going to be horrible turns out to be brilliant
Let me explain. In yesterday’s blog I was preparing to go up-and-over from Rosthwaite to Grasmere. Just before we went to bed we caught a news item on the Lakeland Mountain Rescue. One of their tenets was not to travel high fells on your own unless you know the route well. Guess who didn’t sleep well, endlessly weighing up the odds; good weather, not too far, route not familiar, walking alone, phone coverage not known, what if Hazel doesn’t have a phone signal, boring and dangerous main road!
10km of this…..gorgeous
In the end I woke up with a clear decision that safety has to be top priority so the road option, although unappealing, was the choice. Feeling a bit miserable over breakfast (was I being a wimp?), I mentioned my dilemma to the guest house owner. A short conversation later and my spirits were lifted. The first 1.5 miles was indeed down the A591, but there was a pavement, so quite safe and not too much traffic. Then came a footpath that followed the road but set back a bit. Better. The path led to a minor road that took me down the west bank of Thirlmere (the opposite side to the main road). Almost no traffic and beautiful scenery in great weather. Walking doesn’t get much better.
When the road ended at the far end of Thirlmere I had to do a couple of miles on the A591 but it was wide with plenty of room to walk on the verge. I met Hazel in Grasmere for a late lunch then onto more footpaths around Grasmere and Rydal Water, finally emerging into Ambleside. So, I was expecting a bad day and got a great one because I changed my mind.
As for the devil in the detail, I am embarrassed to say that I skimped on my planning. When I considered the A591 option I simply tracked it from Keswick to Ambleside, which cut across 2 maps. Unfortunately these 2 maps did not share a border. There was 11k missing; in fact I missed the whole Thirlmere area, hence my wrong assumption that it was 16 miles of road, road, road.
I should also say that I wandered lonely as a cloud today. Yes, we are in Wordsworth country. Hazel spent a short while at Dove cottage but intends to go back for a longer visit.
Final thoughts for the day:
The weather looks like it might cool down a bit over the next few days.
Good luck to the couple we chatted to over dinner. Get that next sky dive booked 🙂
Those who are following the daily blog will know we left yesterday on a knife edge……..along the road or up-and-over. In the end I compromised by following some very quiet roads and tracks through the foothills of Skiddaw, and then down the A591 into Keswick. The 5 miles down the main road wasn’t great but the route gave my legs a bit of a break after 2 full-on days of catch up. Just over 15 miles done and a nice early finish.
Before going any further we must mention Tim and Anne at The Old Rectory in Caldbeck where we stayed last night. A superb place to relax in great comfort with wonderful hosts and a marvellous old building. Significant entry vestibule, a grand staircase, and floors that slope in all directions. Fantastic. Thanks to Tim and Anne and the other lovely couple who were also guests for the generous donations. Very much appreciated.
Hazel had a good day too. We are laundered again 🙂
Tomorrow is an up-and-over day to Ambleside. The only option would be to walk down the A591 (reopened today since flood damage in December), but 16 miles down the main through road in the Lakes sounds like a nightmare.
A few photos of typical Lakeland scenes (the mountain is Skiddaw) to close today.
Another beautiful day and another record mileage. Just over 24 miles today from Gretna to Caldbeck. Even better we are exactly back on plan with the route.
A little bit of everything today. We started with a road parallel to the M6, then through Carlisle, then the Cumbrian Way following a river and crossing open fields.
A big nature day. I saw an eagle and had a Mexican Standoff with a group of young bulls. They were gathered around the gate I wanted to go through. If they had been cows I would have just waved my arms a bit and I’m sure they would have moved. As they were bulls I advanced very slowly and said calming things like “Who’s a nice boy then”, and “Look at that field full of nice cows”. Complete gibberish seemed to help. They actually had me surrounded at one point but eventually the gate was reached and I eased through unscathed. Phew!
A couple of other things of note. The first was stumbling across the rather splendid Lime House School. A slightly different setting to The Holt. The second was seeing first-hand the aftermath of the awful floods; in this case the bridge I should have crossed was simply gone.
I have a decision to make tonight. Tomorrow’s destination is Keswick, but round the road or over the hill. Exciting.
What a day. We made it to England after 23 days, 400 miles, and over ¾ million steps, with the climb of Ben Nevis still very fresh in the memory. Beautiful weather again today apart from a 15mph warm wind right into my face most of the day. 15mph doesn’t sound much but when it blows against you all day it gets tiring. It didn’t prevent another record mileage day at just under 23 miles.
Where’s our lunch ???
A few interesting things from the day. We drew a crowd of bulls when I met up with Hazel for lunch. They are clearly used to the farmer pulling up where we stopped and then giving them their food. Sorry boys. Hazel bravely jumped in the car and told me I could deal with them. Thanks!
One of the places we passed through is Eastriggs. There is a museum celebrating the greatest munitions factory on earth. Started in 1915 the HM Gretna Factory stretched for 9 miles and employed 30,000 workers. By 1917 the factory was producing 1,100 tons of cordite every week, more than all the other munitions plants in Britain combined. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote:
“There the nitro-glycerine on the one side and the gun cotton on the other are kneaded together into a sort of Devil’s Porridge. This is where the danger comes in. The least generation of heat may cause an explosion. Those smiling, khaki-clad girls who are swirling the stuff round in their hands would be blown to atoms in an instant if certain very small changes occurred.”
Also interesting were these memorials to animals at war.
Another nice day forecast tomorrow but not quite as warm as we head towards the Lake District and Scafell Pike on Sunday.
Not much to report today. A good 20 miles from Carronbridge to Collin. The biggest story was the weather. 1 week ago I was plodding through deep snow at the top of Ben Nevis. Today the temperature hit 26 degrees. I have an excellent body temperature regulator so have been quite happy wearing my hiking jacket even on warm days, but 26 degrees needed a change of attire. My legs made their first public appearance of the year, and the coat rode in the car.
This change of clothing brought its own challenges. The beauty of a jacket is you can put all the essentials in pockets. With jacket I kitted out something like this:
Garmin in left pocket, phone in right pocket, compass and penknife and whistle in inside pocket, map tucked in jacket, water and snacks and spare batteries in bum bag, tracker on bum bag belt.
Without the jacket I needed to dig out the map case and re-kitted as:
Garmin and water and snacks and spare batteries in bum bag, tracker on bum bag belt, map and compass and penknife and whistle in map case, phone in shorts pocket.
All sounds great until we talk about Velcro. The tracker has lots of Velcro straps so you can attach it securely to just about anything. My visi-vest has Velcro all over it, and the map case can be reconfigured in many ways using…………………Velcro. I spent half the afternoon trying to un-attach bits of myself that had become firmly attached to other bits of me. I need a better plan for tomorrow 🙂
So hot even the sheep are seeking shade.
Lastly, we had a spontaneous donation from a lovely lady in Kirkton where we stopped for a bit of lunch. With spirits suitably uplifted we are ready for England tomorrow.
Back to normal today. No mention of feet I promise. A new record for the day at just under 22 miles, from New Cumnock to Carronbridge. Technically I am 8 miles behind the original plan but I have actually walked 26 miles further to this point than planned. 5 extra miles were from the snow, and 3 more from changing the route through Glasgow. We had another couple of extra miles today (more on that below) making a total of 10 extra miles accounted for. The missing 16 miles just means my original plan wasn’t particularly accurate. Given it was done literally by measuring on the map with a piece of bendy wire this isn’t really a surprise.
All of today’s route was down the A76. Much quieter today compared to a working weekday. Good progress until Hazel drove back to me with these words………
A rare thing. The A76 without traffic.
“You’re not going to believe this but the road ahead is closed. No cars and no pedestrians.”
The council had apparently forgotten to tell anyone and also forgotten to put out any diversion signs. Chaos. People were having to turn round and a make 50 mile diversion!!! Fortunately, after a consultation of the detailed map, we were able to sneak around some back roads for a few miles and re-join the main road just after the roadworks. A 2 mile detour but we made it.
Oops. Should we have told someone?
Not much else to report. The weather was perfect for walking but I think we are in for some higher temperatures for the next couple of days; which raises the terrifying prospect of shorts.
To celebrate passing one third of the total distance, a weekend special blog today featuring bruises and blisters. For the young or squeamish I’ll cover the day’s events first and then move onto the gruesome truth covering “what happens to feet when you hammer them with excessive walking for days on end”.
Today continued much in the same vein as yesterday. I managed to hammer out 19 miles down the A76 to just the other side of New Cumnock, while Hazel found us a wonderful overnight spot, got the washing done, and engaged in cultural activity. Surprise; a certain Robert Burns lived in Mauchline (we passed through today) so Hazel popped into the museum. I also managed a bit of history by spotting the family home of Keir Hardie as I wandered along. A selection of photos from today:
The amazing furniture at yesterday’s stop: The Stair InnOur magnificent room this evening at The Old School, Dalleagles
Robert Burns house is now a museum
The Burn’s dining room
Where the great man did his writing
England is close now. Another 3 days should see us at the border.
Stop reading here if you have a weak stomach 🙂
After almost 3 weeks of walking I can report that my legs are fine and my feet are holding up quite well. I have suffered bruising to 2 of my toes (see photo) and the offending little toe I mentioned at the start of the walk developed a blood blister right on the end. Delightfully it ‘popped’ yesterday while I was walking and stained my right trainer a delicate shade of pink 😦
Mike is recovering well and sent me this picture to demonstrate that you can hurt your feet in all kinds of ways.
I’m singing “Things, can only get better” as loud as I can and hoping it is true.
Chris's Big JOGLE 