Day 29 - The A49

Warrington Wolves Rugby League stadium. This is really Rugby League territory - the road signs all day have read like the RL fixtures - Warrington 15 Wigan 6, St Helens 10 Leigh 12.

The Manchester Ship Canal at Warrington.

I again managed to reach the target for today - the village of Standish which is just north of Wigan. This means that I have chalked up another county. However there is some controversy about whether I am in Lancashire or Greater Manchester (or perhaps both). After some Wikipedia research I have decided that I am in Lancashire. By the same logic I will also retrospectively delete the West Midlands from my list of counties. The total number of counties therefore remains at 11.

Despite yesterday's misgivings Warrington was quite a pleasant town. It did however a seemingly endless "out of town area" to the north of the town. What seemed to be miles of car showrooms, burger bars, retail parks etc - it was almost like travelling through a town in the US. The parts of Wigan that I saw were more like I expected it to be - but it was brightened up by the bright sunshine this afternoon after the morning mist had burned off.

Most of the walk today was along the A49 which in large is marked as a Roman road - which brings echos of Bath and Cirencester (which seems a very long time ago!). I have however not been able to find a name for this road - any ideas?

Tomorrow I hope to reach a few miles north of Preston. Talking about "north" I looked at an atlas today and was very pleased to see that I am now further north than,for example, Manchester,Liverpool, Wales and Sheffield. This sounds impressive to me, not that a total of 435 miles doesn't sound a long way. If things go to plan I hope to reach the symbolic half way mark on Friday or possibly early on Sunday. Everything will be downhill from then on (except the hills of course)!

Today's KBW is to Ceidiog Hughes who has emailed me the pictures from the celebration on Sunday. I will include some of these on the blog on the next rest day which is scheduled for Saturday.

"If I could not walk far and fast, I think that I should just explode and perish." - Charles Dickens

Cheers

Keith

Day 28 - 2 Motorways and 3 Playgirls

See - it is not all beautiful countryside! The M6 between at rush hour. Why don't they walk?

The squad today- the walkers the Pendine Park Playgirls (Gerry,Cindy and Mildred) with their driver Don. Happy Birthday for Saturday Mildred!

Another successful day, reaching my target of Warrington - which from what I have seen so far is quite a pleasant town. I will let you know more tomorrow when I have completed my journey through the town. I was joined for about half of the walk today by the Pendine Park Playgirls who travelled all the way from Wrexham to walk with me. They were accompanied by Mildred's husband Don who was also one of the choir that sang to me on Sunday. Thanks for joining me girls - it is a morale booster to know that so many people are supportive of both the charity and of my adventure.

Tomorrow I continue my sojourn up the A49 through Warrington and hopefully through Wigan as well. I am now following the A49 in the corridor between Liverpool and Manchester as far as Preston. Today I crossed 2 motorways (M6 and M56). Looking at tomorrow's map I will recross the M6 and also cross the M62. When walking it is amazing how noisy motorways are - they can be heard from miles away.

Each county that I have walked in has had its own distinctive character. Cheshire does seem to live up to its reputation of being a wealthy county. Even the farm fields are somehow neater; the roads are in better condition; there are more expensive looking houses etc than in the other counties that I have seen so far. Let's see if this opinion survives the more urban areas tomorrow.

When talking about Warrington and Wigan I cannot avoid thinking about the way that Eddie Wareing and the way that he pronounced them (Er Wiggun and Er Warringgtun). I will have to be careful when speaking to any locals!

My shins continue to improve presumably due to the less intensive regime. Fingers crossed that this continues. Certainly I am much more optimistic than I was at this time last week.

Today's KBW's are - Cindy, Gerry and Mildred for services to walking.

Don - transport services for the Pendine Park Playgirls

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." - Frank A Clark

Cheers

Keith

Day 27 - Numbers

Still smiling after 18 miles - Ian, Keith and Ken.

Yesterday at the care home. Me with the Cymau Male Voice Choir and walk supporters.

400 miles up! If you look very carefully you can see Jodrell Bank to the right of the stand of trees.

Yesterday was something of a special day! Gill and Mario had arranged a celebration for my walk at one of their care homes. When I entered the Cymau Male Voice Choir was singing "You'll never walk alone" - which was a wonderful experience. After a few more songs there was a photo session with a professional photographer - I will put some of these on the blog once they are emailed to me and I have had the opportunity to censor them. Enough to say that one shows3 nurses tending to me! That certainly made me feel better! Thanks to all the staff at Pendine Park and Coxeys who joined in with the fun.

Today I reached just west of Northwich, Cheshire. Tomorrow I hope to reach Warrington - this doesn't sound too romantic especially as the forecast is for rain. Still, I have got Wigan to look forward to on Wednesday!

To celebrate reaching 400 miles today I thought that you might like some other numbers, mainly to do with the adventure so far:-

11 Counties

78 Bird species

6 Wild mammal species

10 Different beds slept in

9 People walked with me

401 Miles walked

42 Percentage of journey completed

4,265 Cash raised for the BHF so far

10 Number of support cars which have assisted

24 Ordnance Survey maps used

1,156 Miles travelled by our car

1 Penalties missed by England

1 New Coventry City FC manager

4 Other current end to enders that I have heard of

Today's KBW's -

Ian and Ken - Services to walking and map reading

Gill and Mario - For not doing anything by half

"Never criticise a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins." - Ancient Indian proverb

Cheers

Keith

Days 25 and 26 - Rain but no pain

I knew that the golf pro at Coventry Golf Club was from Staffs but I didn't know that there was a walk named after him!

Buttercups seem to be the most common crop in Staffs - there are meadows full of them.

The low cloud over the moors at the start of the day.

Saturday started with heavy rain which eventually subsided to a drizzle in the afternoon. This meant that I needed waterproofs all day. I was on the Staffs Way most of the day - navigation was fairly easy except for one place where a farmer luckily came to my rescue. He gave me a lift back to the place where I had gone wrong and explained the correct route. He couldn't understand my reluctance to accept a lift directly to the correct route.

Robina told me off on Friday for not mentioning that I was taking Ibuprofen as one of the reasons why my shins have improved. I now confess this! In any event the shins have continued to improve even though I was wearing heavier walking boots on Saturday rather than trainers. I must now try not to get too optimistic and return to the more intensive regime that caused the problem in the first place.

I have now walked a total of 383 miles. Tomorrow I walk through Congleton towards Warrington.

Today is a rest day - part of the new regime of a rest day every 6 days.

We stayed with Gill and Mario last night in Denbigh, which required a 1.75 hour drive from Rudyard where I finished the walk yesterday. I will not however be counting Denbighshire in my list of counties. Tonight we are staying in a pub in Northwich.

Today's KBW's are-

Gill and Mario - Services to food, accommodation and wonderful hospitality.

Hilary and Ceidiog - Services to communications (ie allowing me use of their wifi to send this blog)

"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger which in Texas is called walking." - George W Bush.

Cheers

Keith

Days 23 and 24 - Happy Days

Adrian and Robina take time out to feed the horses.

The Friday squad Robina and Adrian and guess who set to depart.

Trying out walking poles for the first time.

Having reached Lichfield you have to have a photo taken outside the cathedral!

After thinking that the pain in my shins could possibly mean the end of my adventure I have had 2 really encouraging days walking. The pain has almost gone - due to a combination of a lower daily mileage and walking a little more slowly, and taking longer breaks. I have also used walking poles for the first time on Norman's advice.

Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise when support driver Shayne parked the car at Lichfield railway station and said that he would walk with me a short way. This turned out to be about 5 miles into the Staffordshire countryside, which meant that he then had to walk back to Lichfield as he couldn't find a taxi! Thanks very much Shayne it was a good start to the day. Whilst walking we met a farmer, Jim Holcom, who asked us how far we were walking, and bearing in mind that Shayne was wearing his civvies rather than walking gear, he could not believe it when Shayne told him that I was walking to J O'G. It was not until I gave him one of my business cards with the British Heart Foundation logo etc that he knew that we were serious.

It seems as though everyone is walking LE to J O'G - in the pub last night the landlord said that I was the 4th person doing the walk in the last 3 weeks to have had a drink in the pub. You may remember the farmer who a few days ago said that an End to Ender had passed through his farm.

Today I walked with our latest hosts Adrian and Robina Seabridge - covering 15 to 16 miles to Alton (yes where the theme park is). Adrian in particular was a great help as he loves navigating and as we were using paths a lot of the day he undoubtedly saved me getting lost. Him carrying the map also gave me chance to master the art of walking with the poles.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants yesterday emailed a link to this blog to all members in the West Midlands. I may therefore have a new readership. Welcome to anyone who is new to the blog - I hope that you enjoy it.

I have now done 367 miles which means that I now have less than 600 to do! You may think this is still a lot but 578 sounds a lot less than 600 to me. Tomorrow I am walking on my own for the first time for a week. I am heading towards Congleton and hope to get about 7 miles south of it tomorrow.

Unexpectedly I chalked up another county today. I had not realised that I would enter Derbyshire which I did for a few miles today. That makes a total of 10 counties now ( try and count them up - there will be a test at the end!).

The KBW's for the last 2 days (for any newcomers KBW which stands for Keiths Big Walk is like an honours system or the oscars) are:-

Shayne - For transport services and walking beyond the call of duty

Peter and Sue - Great hosts at the meal last night

Adrian - Special award as Pathfinder General as well as walking services

Robina - Walking services and shielding me from electric fences to the extent of receiving an electric shock herself.

Adrian and Robina - Wonderful hosts for 2 nights

"Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's in walking distance" - Author unknown

Cheers

Keith

Cheers
Keith

Day 22 - Canal and fields

The intrepid squad set off Martin, me (with shins on display) and Shayne today's support driver.

Having a rest at the junction of the Coventry and Birmingham and Fazeley canals.

Another day another city! It is certainly the biggest town/city sign yet. I didn't meet Dr Johnson - perhaps I will see him tomorrow.

As mentioned yesterday Martin again joined me - this time in walking from Kingsbury Water Park to Lichfield. I was very pleasantly surprised that the walk was one of the best days so far. The day started by walking about 5 miles along the Birmingham and Fazeley canal towpath with the Water Park on one side. After a few miles on yet another Roman road (Watling Street) we walked on paths through pleasant fields until reaching Lichfield.

We had lunch in what we thought was a quiet part of a farm field on the Heart of England Way. Our peace was however broken by the farmer arriving on a tractor, stopping for a chat. It turned out that he was in fact waiting for a delivery of a lorry load of fertiliser, which duly arrived whilst we were eating lunch! In an amazing coincidence the farmer said that a chap had walked through the farm yesterday who was also walking from Lands End to John O'Groats. The farmer said that he was a younger chap (cheek!) who was walking 20 miles a day and was backpacking - some effort!

The shins are still sore but I took some pain killers/anti inflammatories this afternoon and this seemed to make things easier. I had a consultation with Norman and he was pleased with how my shins are progressing. I really do hope that he is correct and that the shins behave themselves from now on.

Tomorrow I leave Lichfield and head towards Uttoxeter. From now on I will not be returning home until the walk ends. I hope that the communication gremlins that I suffered from, before I returned home, have been rectified so that I will be able to update the blog together with photos.

Today's KBW's are -

Martin - Gold award for walking and photography.

Shayne - Most qualified support driver.

Martin and Shayne - Knowledge of the cast of Crossroads!

Norman - Comfort to my growing concerns

"Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticise them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes." - Jack Handey

Cheers

Keith

Day 21 - Golf and nature

I couldn't resist the photo of cows drinking in the river.

As well as claiming to be the centre of England Meriden can now claim to be the place where I completed one-third of the End to End walk.

Today's squad. Grace (Martin's mum) who accompanied support driver Gina to today's pick up point, Martin, Gina and me.

Today I started a less intense regime of 15 miles a day with a rest day every 6 days. I am also planning to walk slightly slower in an attempt to put less stress on the shins. The walk was from Knowle to Kingsbury Water Park. Martin was a great help especially in keeping my mind on things other than the process of walking. I was not however sure about the merits of his singing when he was explaining that I should have some Morrisey music on my ipod!

We made steady progress through some pleasant Warwickshire countryside, but which lacks the grandeur of many of the counties that I have already walked through. The theme of the day was golf courses as we passed next to a total of four (fore?) - North Warwickshire, Stonebridge, Forest of Arden and Maxstoke. I think that this is a record for one day on the walk.

In terms of wildlife- I have now seen a total of 75 bird species with Gadwall being added today. The wildlife highlight today was however seeing what I believe are Small Copper butterflies on some of the meadows that we crossed. They are really pretty little things. On a somewhat more morbid thought I saw the first dead hedgehog today - do you remember when you would see squashed hedgehogs on the roads all the time?

Tomorrow I hope to walk to Lichfield in Staffordshire, which will make a total of 9 counties if we include the imposter that I consider the West Midlands to be. Martin passed his own fitness test today and I am delighted that he will be joining me again tomorrow.

The KBW's for today are :-

Martin - For services to walking and conversation

Gina - For services to transport, coffee buying and owning a furry toy ginger cat (it can just be seen on my right shoulder in the team photo!).

"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." - Edmund Hillary

Cheers Keith