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Julie has decided to celebrate her 50th birthday in August '09 by walking the Pennine Way.  She has done all the planning, route selection, the whole lot, Martin just has to carry half the kit. 

The Pennine Way is arguably the finest long distance walk in the UK at a distance of approximately 268 miles.  Our route will start in the Derbyshire Peak District at Edale, through the Yorkshire Dales, over Hadrians Wall to the Cheviots and finally end at Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders.

We are planning on taking 16 days, starting on the 2nd September, carrying everything we need to camp for two nights with every third in a B&B (well, we have to have some luxury!).  We will also celebrate our 29th Wedding Anniversary while we are on the walk.
We will be travelling to and from the walk using public transport and will be completely self-funded, so all monies raised will go to St Margarets' Somerset Hospice and the Lymphoedema Clinic, based at St Margarets'.

Murphy (our springer spaniel) will be coming with us and is enjoying the training walks we have already started doing, the rucksack weight is steadily increasing, as is the distance we walk.  Our aim is to be carrying the equivalent weight by April/May and walking distances up to our daily maximum of 25 miles.

Latest News:

Julie held a Coffee morning at her sister Monica's in Loxhore, North Devon and raised an incredible £520.20!  Everyone enjoyed coffee and home made cakes, so look out for the date of the next one at our house.  A huge thank you to everyone who attended and supporting this event so generously.  The training walks are progressing and now with the spring arriving and with the weather improving we hope to start some 2-day walks, camping out overnight.
Martin managed to break his collarbone and crack a couple of ribs in the middle of March, so pack carrying was put on hold - Julie had to carry more! Our next long walk is the Hospice to Hospice walk on May 17th, we plan to walk all 32 miles (you have to feel sorry for Murphy sometimes!).

News- 29th June

The Hospice to Hospice walk is now a distance (painful) memory, with Martin determined to make Taunton Hospice by 7pm and Julie going through all sorts of hell with a couple of large blisters in the last few miles!  We made it by 7:05pm, both tired and slightly sore, but at least the first 25 miles (which is the maximum we will do in any one day on the Pennine Way) was not too hard to complete.

Julie held a second coffee morning last week, unfortunately clashing with a School Fayre, but still raising another £154 on the day and some more sponsors!

This week we are walking for 3 days with "full loads" or as near as possible, just in time for what the weathermen promise to be the hottest week since 1976 - could be in for rain then!

News - 22nd July

Starting a walk in the middle of the afternoon, on the hottest day of the year, with "full loads" is not recommended! We both really struggled on the walk, too much kit, badly fitting rucksacks and hot humid weather.  It was a good wake up call, we both had to seriously look at the amount of kit we need and the fact that we needed to spend yet more money on lightweight sleeping bags and new rucksacks - expensive job this walking lark!  We now have the kit that we think(?) will be light enough for us to carry and see us through the 16 days, but you may find us mugging other walkers for their mars bars and hanging around public houses for a pint or two of cider!

Moving house in the middle of August would not have been our first choice when we started preparing for the walk and we have lost valuable time doing the mundane things like looking for somewhere to live before the new owners claim the house and packing up 15 years worth of rubbish, sorry valuable heirlooms!  We still hope to get out with our new "full loads" this weekend as a well earned break from packing, but before we know it we will be at Cary railway Station and off on our adventure!

News - 21 August

A very busy time as the start date approaches!  After a good training walk carrying "full loads" around the hilly parts of Bruton, totalling just over 13 miles (when we got the chance to test out our waterproof kit and yes it worked), we got down to packing the house and moving into the flat at Wincanton.  With about 80% of our life now in storage we are settled in, but thoughts of finding a new home are on hold until we get back from the walk.  Hopefully Janet and John Flanagan and family will enjoy life in Elms Lane as much as we have.

This week saw two great bits of news, firstly the Western Gazette did a page 5, half page spread promoting the walk and quoting Julie extensively on St Margarets' and Lymphoedema, causes, effects and the work of the clinic.  It was a shame that the article was printed just before we received a cheque for £200 from CROWN PET FOODS!  One letter offering the services of Murphy to advertise the qualities of James Wellbeloved Dog Food was enough to send this fantastic donation in to the coffers.  Murphy is looking forward to the PR photos, but insists that he will need at least half a dozen "takes" before the cameraman gets the right shot of him eating a bowl of his favourite food!

This pushed the total raised so far to over £1,000!  Half way to our target!  If you haven't sponsored us yet there is still time!  If you know someone who would also like to sponsor us, please direct them to this website!

Finished!

We finally got to Kirk Yetholm after 16 hard days, Julie is writing a diary of the walk and that will be on her website www.gethappyfeet.co.uk soon, but as a taster for what it was like:

We had pouring rain for the first few days and Murphy caught a chill, not helped by nearly drowning as we crossed a stream, by then a raging torrent thanks to the rain!  We eventually had to make an SOS call (Save our Spaniel) to Bryony, who luckily was at a wedding in Leeds that weekend, so we were dog-less after 3 days!  The following day the weather improved and we had very little rain for the rest of the walk.

We met some lovely people, Andy & Gerry from Cornwall, a lovely couple who were also aiming to complete the walk in 16 days, we bumped in to them frequently along the way and enjoyed their company immensely, ending up together for a celebratory meal at the Border Inn.  We also met two chaps, Mark and Simon who were doing the walk in 18 days, opting to break the final day in to two, spending the night at the Mountain Rescue Hut so that they could meet up with Marks' girlfriend and family at a more civil time at the Border Inn, I hope they enjoyed the champagne - they deserved it!  We spent a couple of nights in the same B&Bs'  and again enjoyed their company, even though it did add to the bill!  We also met up with another two chaps at the Border Inn, we'd first met them at Dufton, they'd set off for the day at 0730, we'd waited and had a lovely full English breakfast at the Youth Hostel and thus fortified strode off to see some beautiful countryside and climb some very tough Fells!

We saw some beautiful countryside, climbed some very steep hills, scrambled up the side of a waterfall (Cauldrons Snout), fell in some horrible peat bogs and had some emotional moments, Julie facing a raging torrent knowing she had to jump across it, me sinking in peat bogs for what seemed like hours on end after leaving the Tan Hill Inn, but at then end of the walk we could truly look back and say WE DID IT!

The donations are still coming in and we are edging closer to the target of £2,000.  To all of you who have sponsored us (and all those lovely people who donated on the way) THANK YOU!

Julie is looking at her next challenge, it could be the Coast to Coast or the SW Coastal Path (in sections - I'm not doing the lot in one go, even though I'm sure Julie could!).

Money is still coming in, THANK YOU, we will hopefully make our target of £2,000!  A group of cyclists from HAYNES PUBLISHING do an annual ride raising money for local charities, this year they have donated the money to our fund, so our total has increased by another £115, many thanks to the group, despite some of the members spending most of their time chasing trains!!

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