steveandlynnwalkdotcom

Distance 24.47 miles, cumulative 548.41 miles, time 8 hrs 50 mins, walking time 7 hrs 50 mins, pace 3.1 mph. Camped Grandie Caravan park.
We have had some outstanding breakfasts in B&Bs along the way but Celia put out the largest spread yet. We ate so much that Lynn wanted to return her lunch to the Coop to save carrying it. Even Steve, who usually wants biscuits after an hour of walking could not face food until well into the afternoon.

Fortunately for our digestive systems the first 5 miles to the pretty village of Garrigill were flat. After that we had 8 miles of steady climbing to Cross Fell accompanied by Curlews,  Lapwings, Plovers and Red Grouse. The fells we walked through were being managed for game shooting. At the summit the views were fantastic in particular towards The Lake District.

Today the clouds had lifted, the rain has stopped and we had scenery back. There was a rather elaborate stone shelter on Cross Fell and a large golf ball on another summit (Great Dun Fell) further along the ridge. We had a steady descent to the small village of Dufton. 

We met a few other walkers today, a pair of Australians who lived 4 hours west of Sydney but we did not clarify if that meant on foot, by car or flying. They were visiting for five and a half weeks to walk the Pennine and West Highland Ways.

We also bumped into two teachers by the golf ball who were planning to bring 75 kids from the nearest primary school up to visit it. It was at over 800 metres altitude, surrounded by sink holes, scree slopes and steep gullies – we wished them luck. They appeared to be heavily laden with Health and Safety assessment forms. 

Thanks to the latest solution to Steve’s load carrying conundrum suggested by Nikki. Steve spent most of the day pondering where he could obtain a llama. As it was his birthday Lynn decided not to point out the disadvantages (not many B&Bs or campsites would accommodate us all), she will save the bad news until tomorrow.

While we were walking today we received an email from our friend Al: 

Great offer Euro 2016 Final

Dear all,

A friend of mine has managed to obtain 2 tickets for the Euro 2016 final in Paris next month. Unfortunately, the date coincides with with his wedding, so he is unable to go. 

If you would like to go in his place, it is at St Luke’s church, Exeter and her name is Sarah. 

Cheers 

Al

Made us chuckle and unusually for Al, an email we felt able to share.



Distance 18.71 miles, cumulative 523.94 miles, time 8 hrs 5 mins, walking time 6 hrs 50 mins, pace 2.7 mph. B&B Highfields.
Alan and Judy provided an excellent breakfast to set us up for the day. We initially took the Pennine Way over the fells were we bumped into Steve from Bristol who had completed JOGLE twice on road for charity. He advised us that Conal and Linda together with Bob the Barrow were a mile ahead of us. We first spotted their kettle and gas stove which they had left on a stile. We retrieved the stove and found them a a few yards further on sheltering behind an abandoned house, enjoying their brew.

After a brief chat we carried on and the weather took a turn for the worse. We decided to drop of the fells and we followed the South Tyne Trail into Alston an option which our hosts of the night before had suggested. 

The trail follows the route of an old railway which is gradually been restored as a narrow gauge track. We joined it at a large viaduct near Lambley and followed it to Slaggyford where we had to find a diversion around the latest section being restored. 

We rejoined a mile or so later and had a flat walk into Alston which was made interesting by the sights of the restored track and stations.

We arrived at our B&B and were welcomed by Celia, her homemade scones and a lot of tea – perfect. We remarked to Celia about the cobbled A road which forms part of Alston’s High Street. The street is often used by film makers for period dramas and Celia and her grandson had been extras in Oliver Twist when Julie Walters was one of the stars. 

Thanks to Ivor a former resident of Dunsford where Lynn grew up who now lives in Carlisle for informing us about the Ginger Nut shortage in Scotland. The McVities factory in Carlisle was flooded last December and production resumed last month. Our thoughts are with those communities still recovering from those terrible floods. 

Distance 7.75 miles, cumulative distance 505.23 miles, time 6 hrs 5 mins, walking and talking time 3 hrs, pace 2.5  mph, B&B Holmhead.
More talkin, less walkin -sums our day up. We did not build any rest days into our plan but we have built in some much shorter days to provide a little respite and give our bodies a break. Today was a planned 8 miles, so we took our time at the campsite which also had a bunkhouse were breakfasts were supplied.

We made the most of a leisurely cooked breakfast and our first chat of the day was with Len. We had passed Len on the trail the previous afternoon and he was struggling, it turned out he had blisters. Len was 74 and we had his life story from being a ‘craps’ croupier in 60’s London and Athens to being a builder. He now lives in Bulgaria but spends most of the year walking. He showed us his passport which was full of stamps from all over the world and included a 10 year US visa enabling him to spend 6 months each year walking in the States. He had walked the complete length of the Appalachian Trail, which is over 2,000 miles. He had never married but he shared his colourful love life history with us. One of the funniest episodes was a girlfriend he had in the States. They were getting along very well and the family friends he was staying with threw him a surprise birthday party. His girlfriend had not known his age, it had never come up or been an issue. When she saw what his age was she shrieked ‘your old enough to be my father’ and dumped him – it was his 69th birthday. We left Len at the campsite as he had decided to rest his feet for a day. 

We were also joined at breakfast by a pony which got Steve thinking about a packhorse, having being put off getting a donkey to carry his sack. Friendly as he was, when Steve learnt he was 40 years old he did not have the heart to enquire if he was available for the 700 miles we have left. 

After a misty wet start, the clouds lifted and the views became more far reaching. We even had the odd ray of sunshine. 

Our next chat on the trail was an American couple from Oregon who winter in Hawaii and they recommended the big island when we visit. Their original home was Hawaii so we logged that advice away. 

Having all but given up any hope of finding a solution to the load carrying dilemma Lynn was really exasperated when we came across Conal and Linda and……’Bob the Barrow’. Conal and Linda had planned to walk the Pennine Way, when Conal had first put his rucksack on he had said ‘forget this’ well he actually said something else a bit more Yorkshire. He came up with Bob a three wheeled collapsable barrow to carry all their kit. In addition to Bob they walked wearing steel toecapped wellies. We spent a good while discussing the advantages and disadvantages of Bob, for example negotiating stiles. Bob was fully equipped with two spare wheels. Conal and Linda would start walking each day at 5am, break midday to avoid the worst of the midday sun (if only) and then walk on until 10 pm and wild camp. We found them at a national park toilets making the most of all the amenities. Much to Lynn’s disgust it started Steve off thinking about his trolley design. 

Paula requested a cute picture of a dog so hopefully the picture of Jaxs an 18 weeks old German Shepherd hits the mark. Jaxs proved not to be the first cute dog of the day. We stopped for an extended tea break at a National Park information centre, brilliant helpful staff, and we ended up in stitches for a good 45 minutes whilst a 6 month old shitsu poodle cross called Sally was let of the lead for the first time and escaped under a gate and then just refused to be caught. Everyone had a go at trying to catch her including the Park staff trying to lure her with food but she was so quick and was obviously enjoying her first outing off the lead. She was eventually caught by mum and the picture is taken shortly after the rascals recapture. Paula – do not expect this everyday. 

The whole day was spent walking along Hadrian’s Wall and in a twist we were not expecting we slept directly on top of the wall. Our farmhouse B&B was built on the wall with stone pillaged from the wall and nearby castle which had also been built from pinched wall stones. So our bedroom was actually turret 46a of Hadrian’s Wall. Even better the farmhouse had some original roman graffiti which reads ‘CIVITAS DUMNONI’. The Dumnoni were the people who inhabited the south west of England during the Roman occupation and who were conscripted to make wall repairs. The B&B owner therefore translates the graffiti as ‘EXETER BOYS WERE HERE’.

After a few too many cute pictures we thought something to balance them out was required so we have included some dead moles …..sorry Paula. 

Distance 17.38 miles, cumulative 497.48 miles, time 8 hrs 15 mins, walking time 6 hrs 40 mins, pace 2.8 mph, camped and Winshields Farm – Once Brewed.

A wet and misty day on the trail but a good variety of terrain ending with a walk along Hadrian’s Wall.
Not to be outdone by the Scottish Airforce the English Airforce attacked covertly the previous night and left Lynn with more bites than she has had birthdays. The pharmacist provided cortisone cream to supplement the anti histamine tablets and Steve prescribed alcohol to aid a less itchy night.
The path was busier today including a group of 9 adolescent Americans with two adults who stopped us and asked if they were on the PW as they ‘had gotten kinda lost’. Then later we passed two older American ladies from update New York who seemed very able and experienced walkers.
Highlight of the day was meeting walking royalty in the form of Paddy Dillon who is one of Britain’s foremost outdoor writers and photographers. He is the author of the Cicerone guide to the Pennine Way and walking guides to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, amongst others. Check out the Cicerone blog our photo might be in it. We had a long chat with him and Steve embarrassed himself by discussing his plan to get a donkey. Paddy suggested he look up Hannah Engelkamp who walked 1000 miles around Wales with a donkey called Chico. Look up her website seasidedonkey.co.uk It is not as easy as Steve thought – you cannot lift a donkey over a stile and they only walk when they want to walk. Back to the drawing board. Paddy took our photo for his blog but we did not have the presence of mind to take his. We promised to plug his Pennine Way guide, an updated version of which is due out next March.
We finished the day walking along Hadrian’s Wall which was busy with visitors. As we approached from the northern side it did look impregnable perched as it is on top of the Whin Sill escarpment which drops like a cliff. The wall took 3 legions and 6 years to build and it actually came in on budget, not a PFI project then.
We camped at Once Brewed and used the Twice Brewed pub for our evening feed. The best story to explain the name is that on the eve of the battle of Hexham in 1464 the Yorkist soldiers demanded the beer be brewed again as it lacked fighting strength. It worked, they won and the Lancastrian Army fled.

Distance 15.66 miles, cumulative 479.48 miles, time 6 hrs 15 mins, walking time 5hrs 15 mins, Pace 3 mph. Camped Demesne Farm.
A shorter day today through part of Kielder Forest and over moorland to Bellingham, the ‘capital of North Tyne’.

Kielder forest is the largest forest in Britain and one of the largest manmade forests in Northern Europe. The moorland was similar to Dartmoor with occasional granite outcrops. We did not get the best views as it remained misty all day.

We passed a total of seven walkers and we had a chat with some of them which explains our slower pace today. The walkers we chatted to were all walking the Pennine Way south to north. We expected a heavier footfall once we were on the PW but so far it has been very quiet.

We saw several deer.

Most importantly of all the coop in Bellingham stocked Ginger Nuts (see yesterday).

No mobile signal meant Steve had to get reacquainted with the frustrations of using a public phone box to book forward accommodation. No wonder so many phone boxes are vandalised.

Distance 24.73 miles, cumulative 463.82 miles, 9 hrs 20 mins, walking time 8 hrs, pace 3.1 mph, pod Border Forest Caravan Park.
We climbed out of Jedburgh to re join Dere Street, the Roman Road which took us all the way to join the Pennine Way north of Byrness. The purests will know that the northern most end of the Pennine Way is actually Kirk Yetholm but we cut the corner to join a little further south. We will now be following the Pennine Way to its southern most point at Edale.

Dere Street was more like a Roman Road today – good underfoot and straight, apart from a short section which had not been strimmed – they obviously had not been expecting us. Today’s culture section is provided by Dere Street which was built between 71 and 81AD by Governor Julius Agricola. It runs 130 miles from York to Inchtuthill near Perth. 

We met one other walker who was doing LEJOG and we wished him well, he had started in mid March and was hoping to finish in mid July. We only met another two couples en route all day.

The highlight of the day was crossing the border into England. A typical English welcome greeted us in the form of a sign which told us we could not walk where we liked, when we liked and if we strayed off the path or touched any strange objects we would be blown up. The Scottish right to roam laws were definitely not in play.

Steve was particularly pleased to be in England as his favoured trail snack is usually ginger nut biscuits but for some unknown reason we could not find them anywhere to buy in Scotland. Steve suspects political correctness gone mad, the irony being they are made by McVities! Conversely Hobnobs, principle ingredient oats, had been available everywhere – plain, single sided chocolate, double sided chocolate and all combinations in between but not a ginger nut in sight. He hopes matters will improve and has high hopes of our first English shops tomorrow in Bellingham.

The Pennine Way was, as expected, a little soft underfoot but some sections had boardwalks or flagstones which made the going easier. In addition to the birdsong we had a soundtrack of artillery fire and military jets from the Otterburn ranges immediately to our east, and we mean immediately, as we ducked a few times.

Our day ended in Byrness which used to have; a hotel – now closed, a petrol station – now abandoned, a cafe – now derelict but does have a campsite and the amazing Forest Inn run for the very small local community and walkers, which occupies the premises of what used to be the Youth Hostel (gone). The hospitable couple running it offer B&B, meals for walkers and camping in their garden and a bar. We spent a very convivial (Steve got more convivial than Lynn) evening discussing walking with the guests including a couple from Devon in their late sixties who are walking LEJOG in one and two week sections – inspirational. We meandered back to our campsite a mile down the road with full bellies.

Spot the similarities between the first two photos.

Steve keeps taking photos of Lynn walking off into the distance. Lynn thinks it is just wishful thinking on his part.

Distance 17.58 miles, cumulative 456.67 miles, time 6 hrs 25 mins, walking time 5 hrs 40 mins, pace 3.1 mph, Camped Jedburgh Camping and Caravan Club Site
The route today followed 2 rivers, a Roman Road named Dere Street and crossed a wobbly bridge. 

We followed national cycle route one and the St Cuthbert’s Way footpath from Melrose to Jedburgh. St. Cuthbert’s Way carries on to Holy Island on the East Coast and we met a few groups of walkers doing that route on the trail today. 

We left the River Tweed having followed it on and off for two days and then spent most of the day on Dere Street which contrary to our expectation was a meandering path through a tree line albeit along the route of the old Roman Road. We passed a monument to Wellington which Steve was keen to point out- little things🙄.

We passed through Boswells and the extensive grounds and land around Monteviot House. A crossing of the River Teviot was made on a suspension bridge which had a bit of a wobble to it. We reached the campsite only to find that we could not access it from the road we were on and so had a further mile or so to go crossing the same River Jed twice to get to it’s entrance. A mile is not far but it seem longer at the end of the day. 

Jedburgh, like many of the border towns has an interesting history. The ruined Abbey is pretty spectacular and it has an old Courthouse oft visited by Sir Walter Scott which still functions today. 

We had a pack of maps waiting for us at the campsite which cover the first half of the Pennine Way, which we will join tomorrow shortly after crossing the border into England.

We spent the early evening doing our planning for the next week in the glorious sunshine we had had all day. 

Distance 19.4 miles, cumulative 439.09 miles, time 7 hrs 55 mins, waking time 6 hrs 5 mins, pace 3.2 mph, camped Melrose Gibson Park Caravan Club Site.
After leaving our cosy cabin the route followed a combination of the national cycle network route 1 and Southern Upland Way. We had a fine start which turned overcast with thunder rumbling all around us which made for a humid sticky walk. Fortunately, we only had a few spots of rain even though the A road we crossed had a message for us. Very quiet on the trail with only one other walker we spied in the distance.

Melrose is a lovely small town ‘geared up for tourists but not in a naff way’. Today’s cultural highlight was provided by Melrose Abbey which is where Robert the Bruce’s heart is buried. We failed to establish where the rest of him is but Melrose had a couple of fine butchers at least one of which has a sense of humour (see picture). 

The rugby fans reading this will of course know that Melrose Rugby club is famous for inventing the game of Rugby Sevens in 1883 and there is a rugby heritage museum at the ground. The ground is not quite in the same league as Exeter Chief’s but it has a real charm all of it’s own and is right in the middle of the town. 

We noted that we have blog follower/s in Sweden, please let us know who you are, if you are struggling to find a good read in English we can recommend some far more interesting authors but please do say hello. Our Swedish is on a par with Lynn’s dancing and Steve’s singing so probably best to use English.

Distance 24.64miles, cumulative 419.69, time 9 hrs 15 mins, walking time 8 hrs, pace 3.1 mph, timber pod at Tweedside Caravan Park.
A day of two halves.

The first half was back on the Cross Borders Drovers Route and once again in glorious sunshine we had the beautiful countryside of the Southern Uplands. We did not see a soul the whole morning. We reached a bustling Peebles at lunchtime and dallied over a feed and drink.

The second half of the day was following the River Tweed along a quiet road which the cycle route board had said would be 13 miles to our destination at Innerleithen. This did not seem right looking at the map but nevertheless, we thought we better get a move on. We think the 13 miles must have meant there and back as six and a half miles later we had reached the outskirts of Innerleithen, having passed our cultural highlight of the day Traquir House, Scotland’s oldest inhabited house. It’s claim to fame being that it has been visited by 26 kings. The front gates were closed when Bonny Prince Charles died and will not be opened again until a Catholic monarch reigns in Scotland. No point sending for a locksmith yet then.

We often get offered lifts and today was no exception even having explained that we are walking from JOG to LE they still try and entice us into the car and look bemused when we politely decline. It always seems harder for Steve to refuse the lift than Lynn. 

Having nearly reached our destination, on what had been a very hot and humid day we were looking forward to a long cold drink when it suddenly went very dark, the heavens opened and the thunder echoed round the valley. We sat it out under trees for a while and then donned waterproofs and carried on. When we reached Innerleithen the scene that met us was a flooded High Street with running water half way up the wheels of cars. We splashed our way towards the campsite looking desperately for a B&B as it was still raining very heavily. Nothing appealed and we arrived at the campsite mentally rehearsing our ‘get the tent up in the pouring rain routine’. Fortunately Lynn had the good sense to ask if they had any pods and joy of joys they had one available and due to Lynn’s charm and Steve’s good looks we got a discount (or maybe the proprietor just took pity on the drowned rats making a puddle on the carpet in the site reception). Before we get accused of being soft the pod on this occasion is very basic it is just a timber tent with no beds or other furniture or fittings – but it is warm and dry. 

We passed the 400 mile mark and we are over a third of the way now and we are still talking to each other, but maybe not always listening. 

Distance 16.48 miles, cumulative 395.05 miles, time 6 hours, walking time 5 hrs 5 mins, pace 3.2 mph, B&B The Meadows, West Linton

Today were glad to leave the canals behind us and get into the Pentland Hills. Our route now heads broadly south east for the next few days and will see us leave Scotland and join the Pennine Way at Byrness in Northumberland. We should be crossing the border on Thursday. Our route uses the Cross Border Drovers Trail and St. Cuthbert’s Way and takes us through Peebles and Jedburgh. The Cross Borders Drovers Trail was the route cattle were taken from the borders to Peebles and beyond for sale. The route is also known as the Thieves Way as thieves would often ambush the drovers to steal their cattle. The terrain is similar to Dartmoor so we felt at home and it was good to be heading south again after our zig east from Glasgow to Edinburgh. 

Today was walking over moorland primarily managed for red grouse, we only saw two dog walkers and 2 fell runners the whole morning. Lynn was befriended by a very cute scotty dog. We cannot believe our luck with the weather, today has been another glorious day, the fells we walked over would be very bleak in poorer weather.

We arrived in West Linton earlier than anticipated having made good time and rewarded ourselves with a Sunday roast, pudding and pint at the pub. West Linton is busy with a funfair and village fete. Lynn entered Steve in the dog show and he won a commended in the hairiest legs class. We found a spot on the village green to while away an hour in the sunshine, it felt like being on holiday.