Jenny was also very excited by shop that she thought suited her down to the ground but sadly found out that it only sold soap and not booze!

Also this morning, we visited the Cathedral. It was here that we lit candles for Carole’s Dad and Christina, who were the motivation behind the walk.  We also lit a candle for a pupil at Jenny’s son’s school.  She passed away this week . Many of the children at the school have life limiting conditions and Jenny has wanted to also raise money towards the new outdoor learning zone, specifically for these children whose time with us can often be too short.

As a result of shops and cathedral visits, we didn’t hit the road until 10am.  We followed the River Eden through the park, in the rain.  we then passed through some fields and over Sour Milk Bridge. We don’t know why it was called that, as it smelt fine to us!

As we marched on with the destination of Bowness on Solway in our minds, nothing was to get in our way. However, we did enter one of many cow fields in this section and were greeted with the sight of a bull close to our pathway. As you can see from the preceeding picture, Carole’s new coat is bright red! “Oh ,” thought Mrs Doolittle,” time to remove the offending garment, so as not to offend Barry the Bull. ” Thankfully Barry was more interested in the grass and a nearby cow. So all is well.

Due to the inclemental weather, the sauna trousers were out in force today.  Jenny captured it on camera, outside lunchtimes pub!

After lunch at Burgh By Sands, we had to take the very long straight road, along the side of the estuary, all the way to Drumburgh.

Before we knew it, we entered Bowness On Solway.  The end of the Wall and so the end of our adventure.

We are staying in the best B & B this holiday. The landlady at The Old Rectory greeted us with the words”Congratulations on completing the walk”  We have also received a certificate of achievement from the local pub,  we had to go and celebrate, of course!

We do not want this to sound like an Oscar winning acceptance speech, but Jenny wishes to thank David and Chloe for holding the fort back home and Carole wishes to thank Jon and his parents Janet and John (yes really!!!) for all their support.  We wouldn’t have been able to make this trip if we hadn’t known that Sam and Will were being cared for so expertly.

Final summation of reports:

FEET: Jenny - all blisters gone  but did experience pains in foot during last 30 mins.

Carole - ok but achy metatarsals in her left foot!

Alcohol - mind your own business!!

Cowpat- nothing to report except Carole did try to push Jenny into a dry one!!!

Animal Report: We estimate we have seen the following over the last 6 days:

1 goat

3 donkeys

4 bulls - including Barry

5 chickens including a cockerel

5 pigs

6 cats including a very cute kitten

20 wild bunnies and 2 in a hutch

15 horses

52 dogs - all friendly ones Jen…

690.5 cows

1369 sheep

2million flies on the cow pats!!

And finally, a partridge in a pear tree.

Thank you for your  sponsorship and kind words of support .

love

Carole and Jenny

We are not having to struggle with Carole’s sauna trousers.  More of that later!!!

We have had some very supportive messages from our relatives in Scotland who are experienced walkers.  They tell us that our alcohol consumption is not only adequate but medicinal and so with this wave of support we are willing to give details of  our alcohol report for last night!!

Jenny - became a real local, ditched the gin and white wine  and enjoyed some cider - the odd half!!!!

Carole, had a diet coke and a coffee, honest Mum.

We met an Anglo French walking group made up of a slightly eccentric, but really lovely Englishman, who now lives in Berwick, his French son-in-law from Normandy ( who works for Airbus, Pete) and his bilingual grandson.  They also had a black labrador called Poppy, who reminded Carole of Monty.   We had a great evening.

This morning after a slap up breakfast, we left at our latest start time of 9.10am. Our boots had been warming overnight by the open fire, what service!

We walked out of Walton into fields of sheep and cows and the odd bull!!  Carole loved to see how fast Jenny could walk with her eyes on the bull at the sametime - saying “is it a cow or is it a bull??”

We then walked through people’s back gardens and into a lovely village called Newtown.  This village was celebrating its annual festival which involved each house creating a scarecrow.  It made Jenny wonder whether Upper Stanley Road might consider changing its Wheelybin competition next year!!!

At this time Jenny had to stop and put on two blister plasters.  The first of the walk for her.  It was also here that Jenny found her perfect retirement home and not to worry David but she has put in an offer!!!

We walked on from here through Oldwall and into the outskirts of Carlisle.  A place called Crosby.  Carole was in dire need of a toilet and we saw the Crosby Lodge Hotel on the map.  We located it and even though it turned out to be a rather splendid Johansson Hotel, Carole still used the facilities.  She sneaked into reception after removing her boots, whilst  Jenny covered the entrance.  We made a fast getaway noticing the CCTV cameras on the way out.  We expect to be on Crimewatch next month.

5 minutes later we found the Stag Inn and stopped for a non alcoholic beverage - honest!!!

We then walked down to the River Eden and followed the path on the river.  We eventually crossed the M6 and headed into Carlisle.  We arrived at our B&B at 2pm ready for a bath and rest, however we were turned away by rather a glum landlord, who refused us entry until 4pm.

We were very hot and tired, as the sun had been shining all day, so Carole set her shopping radar on and we found the shopping area. Carlisle is a very clean and pretty city with lots of flowering bedding plants.  We enjoyed wandering around and made our way back to the B&B for 4pm.

To our annoyance our room had no bath.  The B&B had no baths at all and we were not going to stand for that!! Jenny was on the phone and found another hotel with a bath and bar close by.

We have since relocated and are bathed and barred!!!

We have enjoyed a Mexican meal and are ready for Bedfordshire.

Alcohol Report

We pushed the boat out and enjoyed a few glasses of Sangria.

Foot report

Jenny - she is finally plastered!!!

Carole - perfect.

Cowpat Report

Clear today, but have stepped in enough pig muck on a particular lane en route, which will last us for weeks.  Boots are ponging.

Cream Report

We must say a big thanks to Ailsa who supplied some muscle rub from Body Shop and Janet and Dave for the “LUSH” pied de pepper for our feet.  All have worked wonders.

Sauna Trousers

As mentioned earlier.

We have both purchased waterproof overtrousers, which have proved essential kit.  However Carole has found that sometimes when wearing them she has become a little too steamy and has been forced to remove them mid walk.  Friendship has no greater love than Jenny helping her friend out of her overtrousers in the middle of a cow field, after her friend has trodden in a huge cowpat!!!  Thanks Jen

And finally ……………………..

Once again we have been mightily cheered by all your messages and we approach our final day’s walk in good spirits.  Thank you everyone.

Last night we stayed in our fav. B & B so far.  It’s motto is ” A little bit of luxury on the wall” and it was. Carole can’t remember how long she was soaking in the bath but Jenny disappeared to watch a film!!! It was called Vallum Lodge , the only negative was no wifi!

We started before 9am this morning and so panicked an alpha male guest that he rushed out to put his boots on when we were leaving.  The walk started with a steep climb up to the wall’s highest point.  The scenery was spectacular here at Windshield Crags.

The path at this point went up and down steeply and we are not mountain goats and some teenagers even laughed at us as we tentatively climbed down. We must say at this point, that it was very blustery and raining.  We had to save the nails (Jenny) and the hair!!!!

This part of the walk has been most dramatic, up on the crags.  We came down off this section into the now disused Cawfields Quarry.  Here was the best public loo we have visited so far.  Jenny was so excited she ran to it in joy!!

The next section of walk, some of the path was under repair so we were detoured and some parts were very steep.  We eventually came to a cafe near Walltown.  Here we bought postcards for the families and had a hot coffee and a snack.  It was here that we were buzzed by the RAF.

Some of you might have been a little concerned re our map reading skills.  However we would like to assure you that it is pretty hard to get lost.  You just follow the acorn.  As mothers’ of boys with autism, pictorial references are like a second language to us and we thrive on the visual stimuli.

We knew that this was going to be our longest day and so our mission was to plod on.  We did so in sun, rain and gales and did not stop until we reached Birdoswald.  Another Roman fort and museum.  We only stayed for a cup of tea as we knew that we had another 2 1/2  hours of walking from here and we had already walked 5 hours by then.

As previously stated Carole is a bit of a Mrs Doolittle.  She has to “talk” to every dog and dog owner and has now “adopted” this sheep.  John you will be glad to know the farmer refused to sell!!

Even with the weather we were able to enjoy some spectacular scenery.

We continued down into Banks avoiding the field with the angry bull.  This was where Stage 4 of our walk should have finished for the day, but our hotel was located in another village on from this.  Another 2-3 miles away.  Jenny, not pleased, went into Banks’ Bore mode and kept pointing to every B&B in the village and demanding - “Surely, there must be room in this inn???”  Even Jenny’s husband got short shrift as he rang for directions to her daughter’s ballet lesson.  If this wasn’t bad enough it was also about now that Jenny stepped her right foot into a very ripe cowpat.  She is now cowpat queen - heehee.

As we slowly walked into Walton, Carole commented that with all this walking, we were both surely at our physical peak or as athletes would say “in the zone”.  Jenny did not answer - she had reached our next B&B!!!

Feet report
jenny  all well
Carole amazingly no plasters

alcohol report

CENSORED _ DUE TO TOO MUCH CRITICISM ON THIS BLOG SITE

stile report
we climbed 32 stiles today - owwwww

Thanks for all your comments. please keep them coming as we have now walked over 60miles and we know it!!

We are posting this blog, tonight, from a computer at the pub.  Our Guest House does not have wireless internet, so we cannot upload any photos.  These will be posted tomorrow, hopefully.

We started today with a dry spell as we walked to Chollerford.  We saw a stud farm, with the stud farmer, who gave us a look which said - “I know fillies and you two look like a pair of old nags!!”  Charming.  We didn’t stay.

Then we had our first long drizzly spell as we approached a field with wall within it and cows guarding it.  Carole did her best Mrs Doolittle impression and we got some photos of Buttercup and Daisy.

We then walked a series of fields which followed the wall to the northernmost point of the Roman Empire, which was not as impressive as we had hoped as the path was being used as the sheep’s latrine and so we had to tread carefully.

The scenery would have been spectacular, if it had not been raining so much.  We went passed a Roman fort called Brocolitia, which had a temple dedicated to Mithras - the Eastern Sun God.  Jenny commented that it was not surprising that the Romans had chosen this God to worship since the weather at this point was *******!

We continued along climbing gradually until we got to Sewing Shields.  We came out at a crag with a long area of wall with many turrets.

At this point, with amazing views, the sun came out and we felt that Christina was smiling upon us.

We climbed along this stunning pathway, right next to excavated wall all the way to Housestead, which is the most impressive Roman fort along the wall.  It did not fail to impress.  There was even a Roman Centurion whipping up a class of school children into a battle frenzy.

We had our sandwich lunch and then moved on.

This part of the walk was very tiring as we climbed up and down undulating crags, close to the wall but the views were breathtaking and worth every step.

We came into Once Brewed in beautiful sunshine, the hamlet, where we rest our weary bones for the night.

We had anticipated a day with dreadful weather, but felt we have been lucky today.  Tomorrow is a big one!!  Atleast 15 - 18 miles of undulations!!

Feet Report

Jenny - healthy but smelly.

Carole - 1 plaster now, but a few aching bones.

Alcohol report

Carole - 1 gin and tonic.

Jenny - the old lush - 1 gin, 1 large glass of wine.

Cowpat Report

Carole has wrestled the crown from Jenny and is now Cowpat Queen.  She trod in a big one today.  Oh dear!!

Our day was one of exploration.

 Vallum excavated

 and vallum unexcavated.

We were very conscious that this day was at least 17 miles long and the weather forecast was poor.  So we strode it out along the trail , losing track of the number of stiles we crossed.

Key highlights included the pigs at Harlow Hill, a much needed toilet stop at The Great Northern Lake ( not in the lake !) and sunshine and blue sky for the 1st time.

Today we covered a large part of the trail, where the wall was unexcavated. We walked on top of it and within it ie in a ditch and so got a real sense of the scale of it.  This part of Northumberland is really beautiful, even with low, grey cloud and spots of rain.

Jenny, on a downward slope, has had a confrontation with a cow pat and is currently washing her waterproof trousers!!

Tonights B & B is The Hadrian Hotel in the aptly named village, Wall! 

Foot report for day 2:

Jenny still no blisters ( Mrs Smug)

Carole still with the same 3 plasters - result!!

Alcohol report:

Jenny - 1 gin and 2 white wines (Dry)

Carole - sneaked a sly cider in the afternoon and 1 gin and 1 wine with evening meal!!

Thanks for reading this. Please leave a comment, as we need lots of motivation to keep going!!!!

We headed through the city and as we did the rain started, lightly at first but then a downpour!!!  The trail continues along the Tyne for quite along way and this part of Newcastle is quite up and coming with lots of waterside flats.

We followed the Wylam Wagon Way past Stephenson’s Cottage to Bistro En Glaze.Here we arrived completely soaked but was greeted by a comfy room to put our feet up in .

Today’s walk has been on tarmac and we only saw Hadrian’s Wall at the beginning at Segedunum Fort. Unfortunately this wasn’t open when we passed, as we had started at 8.30am and we were too early!

Daily report of the feet : Jenny wet but not worn!

Carole - right foot is being held together by 3 blister plasters! A G&T later should help with the recovery process especially after an episode of Dr Who.

Tomorrow is a biggy ie, at least 17 miles which after todays 13.5 miles ,well we’re trying not to think about it yet!!!

Our First Day

The adventure begins…… we arrived at Terminal 5 at Heathrow ,courtesy of our friend Tanveer. The building is truly awesome. We checked in and had our photos taken in security and then went off to find the shops, don’t tell the husband’s! The flight was delayed but a strong tail wind meant we arrived before we knew it.

 Jenny had a moment of panic when she thought her suitcase was still in Terminal 5 aka Bermuda Triangle. But it made a welcome appearance on the carousel- phew.

We jumped on the Metro and found our hotel .

It is a mixture of Fawlty Towers and the Crossroads Motel ! Flock wallpaper is de rigeur. The chef doesn’t work weekends so we were offered takeaway menus !!! We decided to walk up the road to Soprano’s, a little Italian trattoria. Much to Jenny’s dismay it was unlicenced but she swiftly found the nearest off licence for a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

Carole chose to set off from Stony Dean School and cross the fields down to Tesco with Jenny and Monty.  After a brief cash point stop, we crossed the road near Fox’s and entered Bury Farm yard.  We went under the bypass and then headed up the hill, across fields, to the woods.

We eventually came out on a lane.  We met a few dogs along here.  Jenny was not too sure but Monty chose to ignore them so everything was ok.  We crossed into more fields where this branch came out of nowhere and tripped Jenny up!!! Luckily she was ok,after falling flat on her face ! After crossing some more fields we could see the Coleshill windmill in the distance.

We then crossed a field of sheep that Monty was not sure about, as they were a similar size to him!  The stile to exit this field was not dog friendly and after alot of coaxing gave up. Fortunately, I found the gate was unlocked.

We then followed the path through another field before crossing the busy Beaconsfield to Amersham road A355. After that we walked into Coleshill,a pretty village, with a pub (we were too early) and a church. We went on along some very muddy paths into woods and eventually Winchmore Hill.  Here we found a pub and we both enjoyed a diet Coke.

After the  much needed refreshment, we found the path to Penn Street and eventually found ourselves in Penn Wood. After about a mile, we crossed the A404 and followed the road towards Little Missenden.  We went right and again found paths were very muddy and waterlogged.  We made our way down to the Misbourne Valley and followed the river ,past Shardeloes , a lovely old house that is now private flats, back to Old Amersham.

This walk was a combination of 5 Mile Walk up to the hills behind Old Amersham and 8 Mile Walk to four Chiltern Villagesand totalled 12 miles approx.  In Old Amersham we enjoyed a late lunch in The Swan and then marched up the hill to collect Carole’s son from school just as the bell went!

Jenny’s husband David took us to close to the Sculpture Trail in Cowleaze Wood.  Going passed the entrance to the Scupture Trail there is a house of the left called Field House.  Opposite the house there is a footpath.  This was the start of our walk.  We walked into Shirburn Wood, following the footpath round, skirting Pyrton Hill.  We took the path passed Pyrton Hill House and up onto the Oxfordshire Way Footpath.  This led up back to the road we had been dropped off at and we headed into the village Christmas Common.  We walked through the village and at the fork took the left hand road.  We then took a footpath off that road as the road bent to the right.  This footpath took us to the start of Queen Wood.  We took at right path into Queen Wood.  This path came to a T junction and we took a left turn into the road.  We walked all the way down this road until we came to Greenfield.  In the centre of this small village we took a left footpath, which led through fields and then into Greenfield Wood.  We walked along this footpath within the Beech Wood, which was simply stunning until we headed into College Wood.  We walked through college Wood until the footpath came to a T junction.  We crossed over into Hollandridge Farm and took the footpath through Fire Wood and onto Launder’s Farm.  Launder’s Farm comes out at the road leading into North End Village.  We went through the village until we came to the sign for North End Farm.  We took the footpath to the right of the Farm.  This path goes through farmland and into Hale Wood.  The path then leads into Great Wood.  It then goes up quite an incline and leads passed Helicopter Farm and onto the Ibstone.  We walked along the road into Ibstone and took a short toilet stop at Ibstone Primary School!!  We then took the footpath close to the school which led down to Twigside Farm.  This path leads through the bottom of Twigside Bottom Woods.  We then took the left turn off onto a footpath passed Harecramp Cottages.  We took a path through a field of cows which led to Hanger Wood.  The path we took skirts Hanger Wood and leads all the way into Cadmore End. We walked through the village and took the footpath over the M40 going passed Kensham Farm.  We then took the footpath through Cadmore End Common and round passed Huckenden Farm.  We continued along this path until we came out a Wheeler End  opposite the war memorial.

We then retraced our steps back to Jenny’s house.  This was following the route we first took from Jenny’s house on our second walk.

We went through the common and then took a footpath through a field which leads into the Great Wood. We took the footpath straight through Great Wood and at a crossorads took the left turn which leads upto Towerage, which is at the top of the West Wycombe Estate.  We walked along Toweridge Lane and headed into Sands Wood.  From there we carried on walking and made our way back to Jenny’s home.

The walk was 15 miles in total.

The day, which had started off quite grey and threatening to rain actually turned into a beautifully sunny day, which was not too hot.  There was not really anywhere that we could stop for a pub lunch as by the time we got to Cadmore End all the pubs had finished serving food.  We would strongly recommend taking a packed lunch if you want to attempt this walk!!

We used the Ordnance Survey Map Explorer 3 Chiltern Hill South as our guide.

After lunch, we crossed Cookham Bridge and then entered a field to our right. Here, Monty found a very ripe cow pat and proceeded to roll in it.  Needless to say there was now a very strong aroma where ever he went.  We were now heading towards Hedsor and walked very close to the little church.  We climbed the hill past the rectory and at the top came out on a small lane.  We turned right and walked to the wood above Wooburn Town.  We walked down the hill, through the wood and a field ,into the park . Here Monty was encouraged to swim in the river and some big leaves were used to try and clean him.

We crossed the road and went up the hill to Flackwell Heath and home again.  We reckon that was around 8 miles although we felt it seemed longer!  We weren’t sure how accurate my pedometer was/is but reckon 8 miles seems about right.  There were no blisters so for the first walk, we were quite pleased.

Thursday 22nd May

Going from Jenny’s house we walked into Sands Wood, which is National Trust land and backs onto West Wycombe Park Estates. We continued along through the woods and along a path, which though is very overgrown, has Wycombe Wanderers Football Ground on the left.

We came out at Totteridge Lane and walked along this road. You get an amazing view of West Wycombe House along this road.

We passed the Druid’s Hutt and Towerage Farm and then walked into the Great Wood. Through the Great Wood and onto Wheeler End.

At Wheeler End we walked through the Common to the Brickmakers Arms.

We took the road opposite the war memorial and went down the road to Watercroft Farm. We then took the path to the left of the farm through the fields and into Leygrove’s Wood. We walked along a field into Barn Wood. At the end of Barn Wood we took the left footpath into Watercroft Wood and then into Pillington Wood. This wood goes straight into Thirds Wood which then come out at the A40 at Studley Green.

We stopped at the café for drinks all round!!

We then took the footpath to the right of the Café, which leads passed Studley Green Farm. We then took the footpath leading into Bottom Wood. Once inside Bottom Wood we took a left turn and headed out until we got to the road at Radnage.

We walked along the road at Radnage, through Green End until the road turned left. On the bend we we took the footpath passed Green End Farm and carried on along this footpath which circles the outside of Chawley Wood. This footpath then carries on down and ends at Chorley Road. Chorley Road leads into West Wycombe Village.

At the Garden Centre we stopped and treated ourselves to a iced lolly!!

We then walked through the village and taking the A40 into High Wycombe we headed back to Jenny’s house in Sands.

The weather was beautiful all day and we were treated to some gorgeous views.

We believe the total walk was 10-11 miles.