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Step 6 - Haltwhistle to Dufton

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28th March 2024.   Live blogging? Let’s see how this goes.  Currently on our way to Carlisle in the car (2 hours) to catch the train to Haltwhistle (half an hour) where we’ll stay the night before beginning the Pennine Way early tomorrow morning. Weather looking uncertain this Easter weekend but looking forward to it nonetheless. Day 2 has us walking from Alston and wild camping somewhere before the first peak, or we may take advantage of a bothy known as Greg’s Hut before we do a long walk on day 3, ending our journey in Dufton.  Friday 29th March. The sun is shining. 8.30am. About to head off fuelled by a full English! Concerned by the fact that Robert is walking on an ankle that he twisted, running, last weekend. He insists he will be okay, as per. Let’s hope so. (Retrospectively, he was! Except for the worst blisters ever, caused by replacing the insoles of his boots). Beautiful sunny walk along the South Tyne trail including crossing the Lambley Viaduct. Such a...
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Step 5 - Hawick to Haltwhistle

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Our longest walk to date; 5 days. Reaching England felt like a significant milestone, our first border crossed. We had planned to walk for 6 days in a relaxed fashion but with the advance of Storm Agnes we spent our first night holed up in a basement hotel room in Hawick, waiting out the weather.  Next day we set off early. It was a relief to get out of town and into the hills and the expansive green. The sun was trying to shine and we made good progress until our path was barred by a locked, barbed wire-covered gate. Having hurled our packs, the dog and ourselves over an adjacent bit of spiky fencing, we had to pick our way over a 10ft deep heap of rotting hay bales which, disconcertingly, gave way with every step. Might have made a good scene in an Indiana Jones film (or not!) The path had been commandeered by local stables and we saw a horse going round and round in a horse walker (weird concept) and further on gave up trying to get through their gates, piles of asbestos and ele...
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Step 4 - Selkirk to Hawick

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This was a relatively straightforward leg, a sunny day's walk in June with our pals, Mitch and Jo, and RubyDog, MacDog and DuffyDog, taking in the wildflowers, lunching in the shade of a tree and inspecting ourselves thoroughly for ticks afterwards. This is one of the nasty hazards of our walking trips though I do take some pleasure from picking them off Duffy in the days following our journeys.                                                                           Final destination - Hawick town centre. Next leg will be Hawick to Haltwhistle and crossing the border into England!
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