Day 38 - Gretna to Lockerbie

When you are at Gretna Green you have got to have a photo outside the Blacksmith's shop - at least that was what I was told!

I just love that name!

The Thomas Carlyle statue in Ecclefechan - the only notable thing to come from the village.

Another good day walking 16 miles from Gretna to Lockerbie again in the company of Graham and John. Although the road shadowed the A46(M) the whole way the scenery was very pleasant and the motorway was not too obtrusive - as it was yesterday. There was also a cycle lane for most of the way. This bodes well as the route for the next 3/4 days also runs parallel to the motorway. I hope to reach Beattock, or just a little further, tomorrow - having decided to delay my rest day until Sunday.

Graham walked with me for the fourth day running, clocking up a total of 66 miles. He is returning home tomorrow to have a rest. He is pleased that he currently holds the support walker long distance record. I think however that he realises that walking LEJOG is actually quite a challenge. John walked with me for the second day and said that he has enjoyed the walking and memories. He has now returned to his caravan in the Lake District for the rest of his holiday. Tomorrow will therefore feel a little strange when I set out on my own.

The weather today was good and I needed to use sun cream this afternoon for the first time for a week.

Although I love the name of Ecclefechan it is in fact a fairly run down place. It has had the heart ripped out of it by the motorway being built next to it which means that it no longer benefits from any through traffic. I was told that it once had 50 shops but there are know only a handful.

Whilst talking to the owner of last night's B&B I said that this must be the most popular time of year for LEJOG'ers. She confirmed that it was and said that she called it the "silly season"- I guess that this put me in my place!

The walk nearly came to an unexpected end tonight. Whilst having a shower I managed to knock the glass soap dish into the bath, where it shattered into pieces. Luckily I managed to suffer only a small nick on my foot - it could have been much worse.

The KBW's for today are:-

Graham - Long service and distance award.

John - Walking and best hat winner

Linda (John's wife) - Services to the retail sector in Carlisle and Gretna, and allowing John to walk with me.

Today's thought for the day is not the usual quote about walking. I thought that it would be appropriate to use a quote from Thomas Carlyle in celebration of my visit to his birthplace in Ecclefechan. As I am sure that you know he lived 1795-1881 and was a historian, essayist and thinker!

"A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder." - Thomas Carlyle (from Ecclefechan)

Cheers

Keith

Day 37 - Scotland!

Graham and John help me celebrate walking the length of England and into Scotland.

A lot of today's walk was along a new road right next to the M6 motorway.

Father and son on the Eden Bridge, Carlisle over the river Eden.

Today's squad - John, Keith,Graham and driver Des.

After 37 days on the road I have at last reached Gretna Green in Scotland after 557 miles. Reaching the border was certainly the highlight of the walk today as we walked through Carlisle and then next to the M6 for about 9 miles. There was almost a queue to have photos taken by the "Welcome to Scotland" sign - there was a German tourist and 4 motor bikers in front of us, and as we were taking our photos a cyclist from Australia arrived for his turn! He took the photo of the 3 of us.

We were joined today by John Wellman who used to play in the same Sunday football team as me (Padmore Rovers). This led to us reliving our youth and our exploits - perhaps through rose tinted glasses!

Graham was again invaluable with his ability to spot animals. This time the highlight was a roe deer which was about 200 yards away. However the wildlife was not as numerous today because of the terrain that we were walking through.

Thanks to Bob for the info re Gretna Green, especially that it is in Dumfries and Galloway. Which makes a total of 15 counties. Talking of which the latest stats of the walk are:-

31 - Days walked

6 - Rest days

557 - Miles walked

388 - Miles to go (yes it is less than 400 now!)

17 - Average miles per walking day

17 - Beds slept in

1515 - Miles in our car

4837 - Money raised for BHF

19 - People who have walked with me (plus 2 dogs)

12 - Support drivers

85 - Bird species

6 - Mammal species

The KBW's for today;-

Graham - Walking (he has now walked the furthest of any support walkers - 50 miles, and animal charming)

John - Services to walking and reminiscing

Des - Even more support driving services

Bob - Services to research

"Of all exercises walking is the best." - Thomas Jefferson

Cheers

Keith

Day 36 - Approaching Scotland

Cumbria is red squirrel territory, although I haven't seen any yet. I have however seen a squirrel ranger!

The strangely named village of Unthank - see below for an explanation.

An unusual sign outside the University of Cumbria at Newton Rigg. I think that it was marking the coast to coast to cycle route which passes north of Penrith.

Today I was nearly fooled by the BBC weather forecast (not for the first time!) which was for a dry warm day. Armed with this information I was prepared to walk in shorts with my fleece instead of my waterproofs. As can be seen by the photos I luckily changed my plans because it started to rain just before Graham and I set off from Penrith town centre. The weather in fact turned out to be cold with occasional drizzle. One of these showers started just as we reached the village of Newton Reigny which we thought should be renamed Newton Rainy!

We wondered where the village of Unthank got its name from. Not only is it an unusual use of English it is a strange name. Our curiosity was aroused even further when we noticed that there are 3 villages called Unthank on the same OS map. I have researched this and the thought is that the name comes from the Old English "unthances" which means "without leave" so that the villages were founded by squatters. I have not been able to find out where the squatters are thought to be from and why all 3 of the Unthanks in England are so close together. There is apparently another Unthank in Lanarkshire.

We reached the village of Durdar which is 3 miles south of Carlisle. I have dusted down my passport ready to cross the border tomorrow afternoon. We are staying at Gretna Green tomorrow night. I need to research what county that it is in.

The walk today was interrupted for 10 - 15 minutes when I was interviewed over the phone by the Coventry Telegraph who are planning to include an article about the walk. I understand that thanks are due to Gill and Mario who arranged for their PR man to send a pres release to the Telegraph.

Graham displayed his Dr Doolittle talents when he had sheep, horses, cows and a donkey all running towards us as we walked past. We haven't yet worked out a way of making money out of this skill! He also is invaluable in helping me spot birds, with his keen eyesight - he found one tree which contained chaffinch, house sparrow, goldfinch and yellowhammer!

I am delighted that the blog has now had just over 2000 hits in the 3 weeks since the counter was put on to it. This averages almost 100 a day. There must be a lot of you who are interested in my exploits! I will update the stats of the walk in tomorrow's blog.

Today's KBW's are -

Des - Further transport services and keeping Jean from visiting too many craft shops.

Graham - Walking and bird watching services.

"The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk." - Jacqueline Schiff

Cheers

Keith

Day 35 - Clouds, but not too much rain

Just visible in the clouds on Shap are today's squad - Support driver Des with walkers Graham and myself.

In desperation for a photo opportunity we resorted to one of me with Penrith in the distance.

One of the heavy showers that we managed to avoid today - certainly not by judgement!

We started today at the top of the Shap incline which was covered in cloud. There was a slight drizzle which fortunately never became any heavier. We later found out that for the second day running that Penrith had had torrential rain which flooded some buildings and was lifting man hole covers.

We avoided the A6 as much as possible and found some very good footpaths. We rejoined the A6 just short of the village of Shap after passing through a quarry. At the quarry we met a worker and expected the usual "good morning" - instead he said in a jocular manner "watch out the lunatics are about" - considering the weather at the time he may well have had a point!

We reached our target of Penrith (17.5 miles) after a pleasant walk mainly on quiet country lanes or footpaths. It was quite a good birdwatching day in terms of the number of species seen rather than seeing lots of new species. I did however see a first for the trip - lesser whitethroat. Finding this took Graham and I some time as it is a secretive bird hiding away in the vegetation.

Tomorrow Graham and I hope to reach the outskirts of Carlisle - ready to cross the border on Wednesday. Graham is planning to walk for a total of 4 days with me. This was originally supposed to be along the West Highland Way, but due to my change in schedule he has joined me for a few days where the scenery will not be quite as attractive. I perhaps should not pre-judge this issue and certainly today the countryside was very attractive.

To answer Adrian's question my feet are still in excellent condition. My shins are still holding up but I am ensuring that I do not do too much. I am however optimistic that I will be able to nurse them to JOG. More questions and comments are welcome!

Today's KBW's are :-

Graham - Services to walking in the cloud and rain

Des - Support driver and wife minding

"If you want to forget all your other troubles - wear too tight shoes" - The Houghton Line

Cheers

Keith

Day 34 - The Proclaimers were right

Quietly celebrating reaching a total of 500 miles .

A view over Kendal from the hills to the east.

Bob Barnes and grandchildren Libby and Jacob. Sue was camera shy!

Yes, I can do 500 miles and I can do 500 more. In fact I have now done 514 and have only 431 more to do. Today I reached 5 miles short of the village of Shap - having got to the top of the Shap incline. Tomorrow I hope to reach Penrith. From there it is only about 30 miles to Scotland! I expect that I will see fewer England flags from then on.

Yeaterday with Des (do not call me uncle) and Margaret we had a car trip around the Lake District trying to avoid the rain and waiting until it was time to eat or drink.

The last 2 nights we stayed with Sue and Bob Barnes in their lovely house in Whinfell. Sue joined me for part of the walk today - about 5 miles near to their house. We were joined by their 2 border terriers Kelso and Tweed. This led to some interesting confrontations with livestock as we found that cows and horses are not overly fond of lively dogs. They also wanted to play as sheepdogs when we met a farmer herding some sheep down a lane.

Without wishing to set a precedent I did some work today when I spoke to a client on the phone whilst working through the hills near Kendal. This was OK until I tried to walk up hills when the difficulty in breathing made it hard to speak.

My son Graham joined us today and plans to walk with me for the next 4 days.

Today's KBW go to my fellow walkers Sue, Kelso and Tweed for making it such an exciting day.

"My grandmother started walking 5 miles a day when she was 60. She's 93 today and we don't know where the hell she is." - Ellen DeGeneres

Cheers

Keith

Day 33 - Rest day and photos

The "interesting" Thatched Hamlet at Billsborrow.

In my experience its the cars that cause the problems not the walkers!

Spot the imposter in the Male Voice Choir.

The Choir and the Pendine staff wave whilst Gill (one of the Pendine Park Playgirls) and Mario join me in the foreground.

The Pendine nurses tend to the tired walker - which for some reason raised his spirits!

Revived by the nurses its time for the hokey cokey.

Back on the road tomorrow - heading for the Shap incline which Sue and Bob have warned me about.

Cheers

Keith

Day 32 - Sun, sea and birds

A view of the castle at Lancaster, taken from the Skerton Bridge which was the official half way point of the walk.

The view of Morecambe Bay from Bolton Le Sands - the sea is just visible in the distance.

The RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss where we had a quick pit stop for lunch.

Warning - do not believe anything that you read on this blog. On day 2 I said that I would not see the sea again until I reached Scotland. However I had overlooked how close I would get to the coast near to Morecambe Bay. I was therefore a little surprised today when I saw the sea when walking along the Lancaster Canal through Bolton le Sands.

The weather today was still lovely for sunbathing but luckily it was not as hot as yesterday. This made walking the 18 miles to about 5 miles south of Kendal, Cumbria. This has only made my count of number of counties even more complicated. Having groped my way to ignoring the new fangled counties I now learn that Cumbria is itself a fairly new creation - being formed by the merger of Cumberland and Westmorland in the 1970's. As a consequence, and in view of the potential problems that I anticipate in Scotland, I have decided to accept what the bureaucrats say the current counties are. This therefore makes a new total of 14 - subject to me changing my mind again!

With the sun shining again today it made me pleased that I had decided to do the walk from south to north. This means that the sun is always behind me when walking. I therefore do not need quite so much sun cream, and it is easier to see when the sun is behind.

The number of bird species seen on the jaunt is now 85 helped by a very quick visit to the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss where I saw marsh harrier and wigeon. My very unscientific walking survey of the birds of England has proved to be interesting (at least to me) - there are several fairly common species that I have not yet seen despite being in the countryside, walking along rivers and canals etc for many hours - I am disappointed not to have seen birds such as kingfisher, tree sparrow, tree creeper and spotted flycatcher.I have however seen more goldfinch and bullfinch than I would have anticipated.

Tomorrow is a rest day. I will try to post a blog showing some of the photos that I have not yet been able to include - especially the one with the nurses!

Today's KBW's are to Sue and Bob Barnes who are hosting us for two nights at their lovely house in the Cumbrian fells 5 miles out of Kendal.

"Everywhere is within walking distance - you just need the time." - Tee shirt seen today at Leighton Moss

Cheers

Keith