Day 6
Greenhead to Byrness, approx 38 miles. 8.00am start.
8 am and Chris Armour arrived for his second day of
adventure, I had woken feeling fresh and ready to go. Both Chris R and I get on
very well with Chris A and we were both happy to see him again, somehow he
always seems to have a smile on his face and a pleasant mood about him, which
can be quite infectious.
Today we were to spend the first part of the day running
along Hadrians wall, I had done a little research and new we were in for a
cracking day with some pretty spectacular views in an area steeped in
history. Unfortunately it was raining
and the whole area was covered in low, heavy cloud, which reduced the view to
less than 100 yards. To make matters worse, the path followed the wall and
consisted of short sharp ascents followed by….. short sharp descents. Just what
you need with 200 miles already in your legs. OMG I was struggling to keep up
and was starting to feel very fed up indeed. Its times like this when you know
who your friends are, Chris and Chris were great, taking the piss relentlessly
and cheering me up in the end. As usual my mood got better as the day got
longer.
Lunch was after 23 miles outside the Rose and Crown Pub in
Bellingham. The landlord was very friendly and accommodating allowing us to use
the tables outside the pub even though we weren't customers. The rain had
stopped and the cloud lifted.
After a good feed we were on our way again, only 15 miles
left for the day and our mood reflected this, we waved goodbye to Debbie, all
smiles and full tummies, refueled and ready for action.
The afternoon was fairly straight forward, gentle rolling
hills, which turned into boggy fields and a slippery mess but we made
reasonable progress and stumbled on towards Kielder Forest for the final couple
of miles.
Kielder forest is beautiful and at 250 square miles the scale
of it is enough to take your breath away, it is England’s largest forest.
By the time we arrived here it was getting quite late in the
day and starting to get dark, luckily the trails are well mapped and easy to
follow so we settled into a fast walk and got on with it. Wide easy to follow
trails soon lead you into a false sense of security and one wrong turn leads to
another. So with only 2 miles left to go we were heading uphill fast, 4.2 mph
according to Chris A’s GPS,but the compass doesn't lie and I was pretty sure we
should be heading north and not west. Unfortunately we had covered at least 2
miles buy the time we managed to agree on this and began trying to navigate our
way back on track.
At this point I have to say, a compass can be really handy
for navigation and an ideal companion to your map. I would highly recommend
carrying one on days out where route finding is important. It was turning out
to be the longest day so far and I was struggling to contain my irritation, the
cracks were beginning to appear and quietness settled over us.
Eventually we found our way back to the main path and
decided our best option was to head out of the forest and onto the A68, it had
been a very long day.We found Debbie waiting for us by Byrness service station,
although long since closed down it provided a good meeting point and after
nearly 15 hours on the move I was ready for my bed. Total miles for the day –
43.
Our accommodation for the night was Demesne Farm Bunkhouse,
which i can highly recommend. Take a look at the web site, it does not even
begin to reflect the extremely high standard of accommodation.
As usual Debbie really came through with the food, feeding
us massive portions of pasta to refuel us for the final day.
I had 6 Ibuprofen during the day, 2 at night plus 2 paracetamol.
My knees and ankles were still swollen but the drugs were keeping it all
manageable. I suppose this is one of the problems with putting so many miles
into 49 year old legs. The Hoka’s were doing their stuff and although blistered
a little my feet felt surprisingly ok.
Day 7
Byrness to Kirk Yetholm, approx 26miles. 8.00am start.
The final day was upon us, as you can imagine Chris R and I
were really quite excited and taking the piss out of Chris A was definitely the
way to show this. The weather had staying good, although there was a little low
cloud it did not affect navigation (fortunately).
The Cheviot Hills are beautiful, situated in the north of the National Park less than an hour from Newcastle, the Cheviot Hills mark the border with Scotland; a wild, romantic landscape of rounded hills and valleys (Apparently), and it was morning so my mood needed a lift. The absolute beauty of the location did just this and perhaps setting out on the last day may have also had something to do with it. The Pennine Way follows the border for some time before eventually dropping into Kirk Yetholm and the end of our 7 day adventure.
The Cheviot Hills are beautiful, situated in the north of the National Park less than an hour from Newcastle, the Cheviot Hills mark the border with Scotland; a wild, romantic landscape of rounded hills and valleys (Apparently), and it was morning so my mood needed a lift. The absolute beauty of the location did just this and perhaps setting out on the last day may have also had something to do with it. The Pennine Way follows the border for some time before eventually dropping into Kirk Yetholm and the end of our 7 day adventure.
264 miles and approx, 36,000 of ascent.
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