Walk 51 (C2C 2) - 15.1 miles - Total 709.1 - To Go 290.9

A Walk for Patsy, Sarah and everyone with MS.
Ennerdale Bridge, Ennerdale Water, High Gillerthwaite, Black Sail Youth Hostel, Honister Pass, Honister, Seatoller and Rosthwaite.

Wainwright
'The Lake District is the loveliest part of England and Borrowdale is the fairest of its valleys. Its appeal lies in the rich tangle of tree and rock - the hanging gardens of birch and rowan, the grey cliffs, that bound its green fields; in its odd configuration narrowing at mid valley to the width of road and river but widening at its extremities to form a steep sided basin for Derwentwater at its foot and a flat strath at its head; in its intriguing side openings and recesses watered by transluscent streams, all beautiful; in its sinuous approachto the highest and finest mountains in the country.'


What can I add to such fine writing. He captures in words some of the sights we have seen. I am confident Rob will do justice to our trek today so I hand over to him to share with you some of the pictures along the way.



Ennerdale Water was a fabulous start. Around Robin Hood's Chair I take a slightly wrong turn that takes me down a path that would give me nightmares as I clamber down backwards vertically clinging on to rocks on the way down. In a strange way I enjoyed it.


We then go through the Forest and stop for a cup of tea at the Ennerdale Youth Hostel. Quite a place. Rated four star and a very smart place notable for the wine lists on all the tables in the dining room. Rob shows great interest and asks what age you can be a 'youth' up to use the place. Actually there is no upper limit. Anyone can use them.


We cross 700 miles with Pillar in the background. Rob holding up 7 fingers for the 700 and me 3 fingers for the 300 miles to go. Locals Chris and Jo out for a pleasant walk in the sun are accosted by us to take a snap on yet one more milestone.





Further along we stop at Blacksail Youth Hostel to fill our water bottles. This is a one star but wow what a location. It must be a wonderful place to just let the world go to sleep around you.





We head up Honiston Pass taking about 1000 steps up to 1600 feet and then down to a few hundred feet over three miles the other side. The views in every direction are amazing. Rob keeps snapping away and then a few feet further says 'wow just look at that' and is taking another snap. At the top of Honiston Pass we meet Craig and Mary Turner from Perth. Absolutely loving the walk and wanting to know how many people in England know of this treasure. Craig went to Medical School with Jelinek who is doing such great work as a medic with MS trying to find ways of coping with the disease and modelling how to live a life with it.





The final five miles are tough on some new muscles we have discovered today. Going vertically up 1000 feet and then gently down for three miles after you have walked for 9 miles is a challenge and we are feeling it in our legs. By the time we get to Rosthwaite we are finished and ready to drop. No phone reception for five miles around the bell goes for dinner, we eat our four courses and now write and publish photos in autopilot until we crash out for a deep deep sleep.




A tough day where we met some wonderful people who contributed to the cause (big thanks to all) and we hope the steps we are taking and the money we are raising will accelerate the day a treatment is available for Patsy, Sarah and everyone with MS.

Walk 50 (C2C 1) - 15.5 miles - Total 694.0 - To Go 306.0

A walk for Patsy, Sarah and everyone with MS
Coast to Coast - St Bees Head, Sandwith, Moor Row, Cleator, Dent and Ennerdale Bridge






Wainwright

'The walk to Robin Hood's Bay starts with an ascent and traverse of St Bees Head, a massive promontory three miles in length with cliffs that tower precipitously to a height of 300 feet above the pounding waters of the sea.'

I could not have put it better myself and what a great start and an early challenge for my head for heights. The views around are stunning already with cliffs and vast seascape all around us.





. We start with Rob lifting a boulder he claimed he was going to carry from this Irish Sea side over to the North Sea. After a few paces he thinks about this, drops the boulder and collects a very small pebble for his back pack.

Along the head there are only 300 foot drops but they are vertical and scary. With a fence between me and the drop I am ok but on the sections turning corners with just a couple of feet between me and the drop I am seriously uncomfortable. I race ahead of Rob by about half a mile so he is nowhere near me to point out the sheer drops I should not look down at. I try to overcome the fears by yoga breathing and calming thoughts but my heart is racing.



Bill has joined us at the start and spent much of the day with us on our walk. Bill is from Sioux City on the Missouri in Iowa. Once Rob finds out that Bill is interested in the American Civil War, one of Rob's great loves, long debates about General Lee, Jeb Stewart and Picket's charge ensue. Sounds like a foreign language to me but they clearly know a lot about this subject and could win Mastermind with their knowledge. Also Sioux City is famous for another Coast to Coast back in 1802 when Lewis and Clarke took three years to travel from Washington to Portland in search of a water crossing that could be used for freight. They stopped there on this track and were presumably delighted with the Missouri River. They found what they wanted and as we start out on this walk we hope the money we raise will help accelerate a treatment for Patsy, Sarah and everyone with MS.
In the distance we see a glow. Or maybe we imagine it. Sellafield Nuclear reprocessing plant is at work and casts its worrying presence on the horizon.

We pass through Sandwith and stop at Moor Row at Walkers Cafe at Sparra Castle for tea and a sandwich. We are met with the biggest welcome and a lovely smile and say hellow to Mrs Walker. She says 'no, you are the walkers and this is your cafe'. Her name was actually far more interesting......Marjorie Drinkall. Mega baguettes and a great cup of tea for £3.50 a head and a welcome break along the walk. Even though Marjorie has thoughtfully put up signs at all the tables saying MIND YOUR HEAD, Rob lets out a yelp and there is a loud crack as his head hits the shelter over the table. Sounded remarkably like wood on wood!


As with many parts of England the pubs are shutting, no village shops and business is bleak in all the places we pass. They were mining towns or intersection points but now all that work has gone.
We now start up Dent Fell which is a gentle climb for the first day at a mere 1000 feet. The views at the top are breathtaking all around. Out to sea, over to Sellafield behind us, across to Whitehaven and Workington and along the Cumbrian range and the Lake District ahead. The sun is shining, a strong but pleasant wind is blowing, seagulls soaring, swallows swooping and we look around, breathe in and just feel amazing.

We go down a sharp descent the other side of Dent Fell which is the steepest on the whole walk and is a real test of our knees. The walk along the stream by Nannycatch is just delightful. High fells both sides and a gently gurgling stream, the wind has dropped and you can imagine being a pioneer carving out a path for some future trade. We are following this path to raise hope and want to make a difference with every step and every pound we raise.
And only ten drops of rain all day when the forecast was for rain all day. What could be better than that?

Ceilidh and dance, Samlesbury Hall, 4th September

"But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles"

The Procliamers - I am Gonna Be





We are on our way to St Bees on the Irish Sea coast for the 'Big One' - Wainwright's 200 mile Coast to Coast walk, starting on Tuesday and finishing 2 weeks later at Robin Hood's Bay on the North Sea coast. Robert has gone ahead to spend a weekend with his sister Teresa who has organised a Ceilidh for her friends and family to raise funds for 1000miles4hope.

Teresa and her husband Nick live in the sprawling village of Balderstone in the Ribble valley. It lies just off the A59 between Preston and Clitheroe and it is at the same time one of the largest and smallest villages in this beautiful part of Lancashire. Large because it is comprised of single homes or farmhouses which sprawl along country lanes and farm tracks over a wide area of gently undulating slopes, and small because,despite the 'yuppie' influx into new stone cottages, it comprises only around 500 people, who on most afternoons and evenings can be found in or passing through Teresa and Nick's house. Not big enough to have a pub - the locals have found 'workarounds' - it does have an Anglican church, a small primary school and a community centre located together at what can be estimated to be roughly the geographical centre of this meandering settlement.

Coming from the 'Big Smoke' Robert has always been struck by the strong sense of community and friendship that can be found in communities like this and so is not surprised to hear that when Teresa suggested to her friends and neighbours that she wanted to do something to help 1000miles4hope that they sprang into action. They quickly set about identifying who in their network of friends has what it needs to help put on an 'event'. As Robert has come to learn over the years of visiting his sister and her family, an event in this part of the world has to involve not only people but music, dance and liberal supplies of 'refreshment' to oil the activities, lubricate the body and refresh the mind. And so the idea of a Ceilidh is born!


So, with Teresa in overall command as Head of Combined Forces with headquarters in the war room at the Old Barn, and Nick, Teresa's husband, providing logistical support and muscle power (sic), the Balderstone forces were off. First to fall was the War Memorial and Village Hall in the nearby village of Samlesbury which was secured and held as the site for the 'event' following undercover intelligence gathering by Ruth, Teresa's 18 year old, soon to depart for St Andrews, daughter.
Next Seb, an 18 year old boy and life long friend of Ruth from Green House Farm was encircled along with his disco equipment and precious record supplies and was commandered for the cause - poor boy, he didn't stand a chance.
Victory here was quickly followed up by commissioning Pat, a retired teacher from Clitheroe, to call the Ceilidh dancing - apparently poor Pat has only ever done this once before but, in the spirit of Dunkerque, responded to the call to arms.
Anne, Teresa and Nick's neighbour - 'she's the sister I never had' Teresa always reminds Robert as if it was his fault in some way for this sibling deficiency - commissioned her wonderful family from nearby Oswaldtwistel (no - it's not a spelling mistake) to attend, and provided storage facilities for the 'refreshment'. Doug and Matt, from Fairfield farm - originally a pig farm and now a thriving butcher's and farmers shop in Clayton-le-Dale - stepped forward to offer ample helpings of Lancashire style, freshly prepared meat and potato pie (with the crust served separately), mushy peas, red cabbage and beetroot - yummy!!!


Only in this part of the world would the village hall be looked after by the local brewery - InBev where Stella Artois, Becks and Budweiser are caringly brewed. The key to the village hall is held for safekeeping at the security gate where the security guards provide not only round-the-clock custodian services but humour as well - when Teresa asks the duty guard for the key, wearing her figure hugging bright red t-shirt and her blue shorts which display her still holiday sun-tanned legs, she is greeted with a smile and a "my name's Dave what is yours" chatline as he looked her up and down. After some coy girlie giggling, the key was finally secured. With Nick and Robert, Teresa quickly organised the setting up of the venue.


A Cielidh is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated in Ireland and Scotland and before discos and nightclubs there were céilidhs in most town and village halls on Friday or Saturday nights and they are still common today 'oop north'. The term is derived from the Old Irish céle meaning "companion". Céilidhs facilitated courting and prospects of marriage for young (and now the not so young) people. Céilidh music may be provided by an assortment of fiddle, flute, tin whistle, accordion, bodhran and in more recent times also drums and electric bass guitar - we had Seb. The dancing, ably led by Pat, involves what looks to the uninitiated as a combination of reels, line dancing and Morris dancing, is infact a carefully choreographed and highly structured series of manoeuvres involving a group or 'set' of couples who fling each other round and down and along the dance floor, changing partners as they go and ducking man-made arches. Wonderful, energetic and uninhibitating.

They came from far and wide - Langho, Mellor, Osbaldeston, Mellor Brook, Wilpshire, Whalley. First to arrive and last to leave were the lovely ladies form the Ribble Valley Homes Association in Mellor - Chystalla (Teresa and Robert's mother), Anne, the former mayoress of the Ribble Valley, Margaret (mum's lovely next door neighbour),
Vera, Joan and her sister Marianne, Annie and Susan, warden of the housing estate where the ladies live, with her husband Peter. They threw themselves into the 'refreshments', meat pie and the dancing!

The party goes on late through the night. Like perfect guests, the last people do not leave until the 'refreshments' are fully consumed. Robert reflects how naturally friendly and generous people in communities like the Ribble valley are. We have had fun and raised £1000 for the cause. On behalf of Patsy and Sarah, for whom we have dedicated our Coast to Coast walk, and all people with MS - thank you for bringing hope of a treatment a little nearer.


Please donate now at http://www.justgiving.com/1000miles4hope

Walk 49 - 21.0 miles - Total 678.5 miles - To Go 321.5 miles

Thames Path: Tower Bridge, Westminster, Hammersmith, Barnes, Mortlake, Kew, Richmond.








A flood of memories this morning. First the early wake up call at 6am reminding me of walks around the London Loop in darkest winter. Then the 7.14 train in to London with flashbacks of all those years commuting down to the office. Not so crowded this morning as Friday before a bank holiday at the end of 'summer'. So many drab outfits as people protect themselves against torrential rain and an unseasonably cold day.

We start at Tower Bridge and it is raining hard. The image of workers trekking over London Bridge with umbrellas aloft is quite a sight. Most minds connected with getting this day over and done with and hoping all the weathermen are wrong and a glorious bank holiday weekend follows.

We meet up with two of the stars of our team Tracy and Charlotte and Cafe Nero near their office. We have ideas to talk over and Rob starts laying out what we are thinking. Wonderfully Tracy and Charlotte take over and run the meeting the way it should be run and we sit back in awe and ask for further instructions. Fantastic. We are arranging a dinner at the House of Commons in November and Tracy and Charlotte simply and powerfully show us how to look at the idea in a completely new and far more compelling way.

We fill our time predicting football results this weekend. We agree to talk over hands of bridge we played last night online when we can see the hands but still dip in to analysis of partially remembered hands and half finished thoughts. We stop for a moment by Parliament where we have secured a finishing dinner for November 5th. It is always worth a stop to take it in.


We stop by the London Peace Pagoda dedicated to universal peace. Built in memory of Nichidatsu Fujii who died 100 years old in 1985 it is a wonderful spot and an admirable aspiration. There are so many wonderful attributes to Buddhist thought inaccessible to a Western material viewpoint. I stop for a moment and hope their quest for universal peace can have some space in the world.


After about 11 miles it is time for a break. We have reached Chelsea Harbour and drop in to the London Design Centre. A centre for designers to show off their talent and a funky place. I took photographs while Robert was having his meetings with the City.
After collecting my portfolio of shots I was told photography was not allowed and security would be over to deal with me soon if I continued. I had my photos so I was ok and Rob took some more as he had not been told off yet. Rob's photos are fantastic (so my friends tell me) so I don't expect to see any of my efforts displayed here.

As we leave Chelsea Harbour we pass Imperial Wharf where properties go for around £1700 per square foot. Think about that. A small room 10 feet by 10 feet will cost £170,000 and a one bedroom flat is going to come in around £900,000. There are properties at just under £3 million pounds here but they do have three bedrooms. Does look like an amazing complex though.

We walk on and the tide is now coming in. It is still interesting to watch the water flowing the 'wrong' way up the river. We stop at Hendersons Brasserie at Barnes. I ask the owner what his first name is and he tells me Henderson. I know he is not called Henderson Henderson so then we discover he is Henderson Cisc originally from Brazil. He is a talented artist with many impressive pictures around his restaurant and he has a lovely location a few yards from the Thames Path.


We walk on and stop by the Old Stables. Rob is delighted that he now recognises the cow in the front garden is not a real cow. A year ago he would have city boy style seen this as a real cow but after so much walking in the countryside he immediately recognises this as a substitute for a garden gnome.



Further on we have decisions to take as the river starts to cover the path. Makes you realise how finely balanced the level of the Thames is with the lives of those living by it. We get wet feet which is cooling at this stage of the walk.



Just after near to Isleworth we meet Sabine, Martina, Alexander and Milo out on a family bike ride from Hammersmith where they live to Richmond where we are heading. Alexander puts us to shame having completed Hadrian's Wall in four days to our six. That is impressive. Alexander is twelve and very articulate about what he did and what he is going to do.
A really enjoyable days walking. A new record of 21 miles exactly and although it looked ominous at the start we only got 20 minutes of rain all day.

Walk 48 - 20.5 miles - Total 657.5 miles - To Go 342.5 miles

Greensand Ridge Walk: Woburn, Eversholt, Millbrook, Ampthill, Maulden, Clophill and Haynes




Rob is back from Cyprus and 40 deg plus heat and 90 pct humidity and turns up this morning looking forward to rain and a cool English summers day. The weather men promised it but it was a beautiful English summers day full of blue sky, sunshine and warmth. We chose the Greensand Ridge expecting some hills to prepare us for Coast to Coast starting on September 6th. We had a lovely walk but Bedfordshire is as flat as flat can be. Instead our challenge was all wrapped up in completing our longest walk so far as we covered 20.5 miles.

We started in Woburn Park and what a stunning start that is. 9am Sunday morning and nobody around, surrounded by stunning views across parkland and soon stalking deer to see if Rob can get a great shot of a stag. We saw one but he was quickly off at the first whiff of Rob. As Rob is looking for new angles we are approached by Tim Dicks a ranger at Woburn. Previously a gamekeeper at Belvoir Castle for 22 years he has recently moved to Woburn and now is regularly required to herd humans instead of partridge and wildlife. He tells us we have gone astray and should not be where we are and leads us back to our path.

Not much further on we take a turn along a lane and step in to water over our boots and looking more like a stream. Fortunately we meet Brian and Chris from Ampthill out on their bikes who tell us we are going the wrong way and save us from wet feet and a big detour. Brian and Chris ride regularly as part of bikesbeerbanter.com which from the web site is clear about the fun they have together.

We notice we have now been walking for over a year as we see the farmers working their fields following a cycle we saw a year ago. We meet Mark Gordon down from Northfield Farm in Scotland carrying out work on the Duke of Bedfords land. Mark is studying Construction Management at Oxford Brookes and over the past two days has worked with a combine harvestor covering 200 acres yesterday starting at 9 in the morning and finishing at midnight before the rain comes. Today he is subsoiling 100 acres to avoid surface water gathering on the fields. Rob looks on enviously at the big machine Mark uses and imagines himself at the wheel shaping the land.
We meet a large group of cyclists from the rough stuff fellowship (rsf.org.uk) a group of people from all over the country that get together and bike. Rob also looks enviously on as the feet start to complain. The idea of a seat and some freewheeling looks rather appealing.

The blackberries are ready with a huge early harvest and lots of people are out collecting for apple and blackberry or even blackberry brandy. The bushes by Millbrook are covered with ripe blackberries ready for picking now.

We stop at The Prince of Wales for lime soda and a sit down. Rob gets in to conversation with Zbigmiew and Kamila about their Nikon and is talking the detail of lenses and the pros and cons of Nikon v Canon. I then hear Rob telling them there are no hills in Holland so it must be great to do the walking Zbigmiew and Kamila are doing in the UK. I am confused and so are they as they come from Poland and that is what I heard them tell Rob. They are very polite and listen with interest to Robs revelations about Holland!

We are now in autopilot and marching on. Only 5 miles to go seems such a simple challenge now. We pass through the churchyard of St Mary's at Maulden. It has an interesting mausoleum in the churchyard. There was also a sign offering tea and cakes so we go in for a second sit down. The church is a real delight inside and we meet Jenny Tim and John who brew a fantastic cup of tea and put on the most amazing offering of scones with clotted cream and jams and tea cakes. Jenny's daughter has just completed Coast to Coast and loved it and we are so looking forward to following in her footsteps and telling our tales from there.

On we trek to the end and our longest walk. A great day out with talk of football, writing, bridge, family, summer holidays and enjoying every moment. Can't wait for Coast to Coast to start.