LEJOG day 40: Langdon Beck to Alston

In case there was any doubt in any of your minds, I can now reliably inform you that walking 17 miles in the rain and wind with a heavy cold is not exactly fun.

So as we know, I did not walk to Dufton yesterday and instead I hung out in the Youth Hostel doing as much as I could of a 1,000-piece jigsaw (originally: now rather less than that) and generally becoming viraemic. I tested the unlikely theory that it could be hayfever (on a day I didn't set foot outside) with antihistamines before settling for the diagnosis of "stinking cold".

Today, after a night spent trying to breathe without coughing, I wrapped myself up in all my waterproofs and set off into the rain and the wind (sound familiar?) feeling unspeakably glad I only had 17 miles of relatively flat road-walking to do, rather than the hardest day of the Pennine Way and a climb onto Cross Fell, which I think used to be called "Fiend's Fell" and apparently has its own near-constant wind.

Most of the photos I took today were to prove that I was only just below the cloud line as it was, and looking out of the window now I can confirm that the summit of Cross Fell is still hidden by a very ominous-looking dark grey cloud. "Smug" doesn't begin to cover how I'm currently feeling underneath all the lurgy.

Best of all, tomorrow is another rest day, so hopefully the next time I put my boots they'll no longer be waterlogged...

Distance walked: 17.21 miles
Time taken: 5h27
Percentage completed: 55.3%
Days since I was last rained on: 0
Miles per £1 of boot: 4.83
Lunch: cheese and ham sandwiches, a bag of crisps and shortbread, eaten in a conveniently unlocked hut just off the B-road
Last night's B&B: Langdon Beck YHA: the highest youth hostel in England! It was fine, like most youth hostels




SUCH POOR VISIBILITY UP THERE

Comments

  1. Latti11 June 2017 at 20:33

    Hope you will get well soon my dear. Sending recovery wishes from Fort William at the End of the West Highland Way.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LEJOG day 65: Alness to Dornoch

Image
Today I had my first experience with the A9, and I'm afraid it looks unlikely we can be friends. Unless the road is closed to South-bound traffic from tomorrow until I get to John O'Groats next Wednesday, I predict that walking along the A9 is going to feel a lot like taking my life into my hands. There are a few problems I've already identified with the A9, and I'm sure I'll find more. To start with, as soon as the cycle route I was on yesterday hit the A9, its attitude to walker- and cyclist-safety became frankly lackadaisical. The same cycle route which provided me with an off-road tarmac path to protect me from the horrors of a mostly-deserted single-track road yesterday today decided that a painted white line along the edge of a thundering A-road frequented by HGVs carrying literal actual trees was sufficient protection. It did not change its mind as we crossed Dornoch Firth, with the exception of the actual bridge, where I was gifted a whole eighteen inches ...
Read more

LEJOG day 70: Wick to John O'Groats

Image
I'm writing this post a day late, still in a state of mild disbelief mixed with euphoria, because after I finished walking at the signpost yesterday I was too busy celebrating with my parents. To be clear, the last 40 miles of Scotland made for really quite rubbish walking; the John O'Groats trail can't come soon enough. I'm sure along the cliffs and away from the noise of the road you could forget and forgive Caithness for being pretty flat, but on the A99 you can't help but notice. Also, the tarmac meant I was still developing blisters. All that being said, there was a long stretch where the road was almost empty and within view of the sea, which was nice, but was immediately followed by a tedious meandering climb over a moderately pathetic hill surrounded by moorland, after which John O'Groats came into view, still distressingly far away and not in the same direction as the road. I think my heart broke a little bit- or was it just my feet? - at the poin...
Read more

LEJOG day 55: Ardlui to Tyndrum

Image
Today feels like such a victory. When I woke up this morning I was limping like nobody's business, and nothing about my ankle looked any more promising than it had the night before. But I got myself on the 9am ferry back across Loch Lomond with the logic that as I'd walked 2.5 miles on the thing yesterday, I could at least make it to the campsite at Beinglas farm 2 miles further on, and if I couldn't take any more there's a bus from there to Tyndrum. Most of the limping appears to have been down to everything stiffening overnight, because it got persistently better and although I'm not cranking out the miles at my usual pace I'm no worse than Naismith thinks I should be, overall. I was offered a very fancy support bandage by a Kiwi called Sue (who coincidentally grew up in the same town I worked in on my elective), which sadly didn't fit in my boot with my foot, but I bought a smaller, less effective one at the campsite shop for hobbling around in in the...
Read more