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

Day 31 - Football and cars

After yesterday's sad effort to include swans in the photo I thought that I should try again. Much better!

Seen in the gents at the Barton Grange Garden Centre. Please add your own captions!

The flags are out in Garstang to welcome the long distance walker. Or perhaps it is because of the fete tomorrow?

I hope that the heading for today's blog didn't give the impression that it is about a lads night out. The car part is that our car has been making a strange noise for the last few days. Early in today's walk I saw a Jag garage and popped in to see if they could help. I explained the situation (ie on the walk and need assistance promptly) and they immediately looked at the car including taking it for a test drive. They concluded that there was no serious problem and did not charge us for their efforts. If you have a Jag and have problems in Lancashire I would highly recommend the Preston Jag Centre in Barton.

The football part is a reference to the amount of World Cup hype that is already going on - flags on cars, adverts in pubs etc. I imagine that this will be happening throughout the country but it is very noticeable when you spend a few hours each day walking along roads.

Yesterday I said that I would report on our unusual accommodation. It turned out to be somewhat of a Butlins throwback and was not really to our taste. The food was good but we had to wait the best part of an hour for our table despite having booked a table. Not as recommended as the Jag Centre!

Allowing for errors with the shoe lace that I use to measure the walk I have just about reached half way in the expedition. I reached Lancaster today and I calculate that I have now walked a total of 471.7 miles out of 945 miles. Today was again very hot in the afternoon - and the heat does make it more tiring to complete the daily walk. Luckily (for me ) they are predicting that tomorrow will be the last day of the current hot spell. I am off towards Kendal tomorrow, but will not reach it until Monday after a rest day on Sunday. The shins are again much improved and I hope not to have to mention them again - if I don't take it that they are no longer causing me a problem.

Thanks for the comments on the blog - please keep them coming. Does anyone have any questions about the walk?

I forgot to mention yesterday a slightly surreal event as I was leaving Preston along the A6. Coming along the road towards Preston was a National Express coach, number 583, with it's destination showing as "Coventry". Furthermore it looked full!

Today's KBW goes to the Preston Jag Centre for being so helpful to a needy traveller.

"If you pick 'em up, Lord, I'll put them down" - Prayer of the Tired Walker

Cheers

Keith

Day 30 - Sun and motorways

A candidate for the prettiest village sign.

The river Ribble at Preston. The white dots on the river are swans - I thought that I had zoomed in far enough!

The weather today was hot and sunny reaching 26 degrees by mid afternoon. However I made sure that I drank plenty of water and energy drink and used ample sun cream so I survived without any problems. My shins continue to improve and I walked 18 miles today without any pain (perhaps due to the Ibuprofen) - which I put down mainly to a slightly slower pace which is putting less strain on the legs.

I passed another landmark today when I passed the 446 mile mark which means that I now have less than 500 still to do. By the end of the day this was down to an almost negligible 495 miles!

I found it difficult to navigate my way through Preston, but received help from John Wild whose job appeared to be parking supervisor at Sainsburys (however having previously promoted a barman to landlord I should be careful about making assumptions). John gave me wonderful directions coupled with his excellent historical knowledge of the area - he explained that he has a degree in history. He also had a genuine interest in the BHF. He also told me that (continuing my obsession with counties) Greater Manchester has been partly disbanded and in his view Wigan is in Lancashire - which is what I had concluded yesterday. Obviously some officials do not agree as I passed the "Welcome to Lancashire" sign as I entered Chorley today!

I think today was a record for encountering motorways. A lot of the walk was within half a mile of the M6, which was however remarkably unobtrusive, and I was also close to the M61. I also crossed the M55 and M65.

My walk today finished in the village of Broughton which is where Pat Cooper (remember? she was co-support driver with husband Bryan in Somerset) was brought up. However as much as I tried I could not find a blue plaque celebrating her time in the village. Pat and Bryan were married in the village church, well over 50 years ago, - bad news Bryan the vicar told me that it is now too late to change your mind!

Tomorrow I plan to walk to Lancaster which will mark the half way point of the walk. I will probably change my rest day to Sunday to fit in with our accommodation plans and the arrival of my aunt and uncle on Sunday to join in with the expedition.

Tonight we are staying in an unusual hotel/holiday camp/theme park/marina/sports complex called Guys Thatched Hamlet. I will let you know how we get on tomorrow.

Thanks for the reply to my question about the Roman connections to the A49. Interestingly today I passed a road in Preston called Watling Street Road - the strange thing is that it went from west to east, whereas the A49 goes fron north to south. This raod is marked on the OS mapr as being an old Roman road.

Today's KBW goes to John Wild for services to navigation and public relations.

"Walking isn't a lost art- one must, by some means, get to the garage." - Evan Esar

Cheers

Keith

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