Fully arranged

 It takes some sorting out as dog friendly but we have our itinerary fully completed well in advance and are looking forward to this challenging schedule. 

We have managed to book a Pod for the night of Steve’s 60th  

Our itinerary is now confirmed as follows 

Day 1 Edale - Crowden 

2 Crowden - Diggle 

3 Diggle - Hebden Bridge 

4 Hebden Bridge - Cowling 

5 Cowling - Kirkby Malham 

6 Kirkby Malham - Horton in Ribblesdale 

7 Ribblesdale - Hawes 

8 Hawes to Keld 

9 Keld - Cotherstone via Baldersdale  

10 Baldersdale - High Force 

11 High Force - Dufton - Appleby 

12 back Dufton- Alston 

13 Alston - Greenhead 

14 Greenhead - Bellingham 

15 Bellingham - Byrness 

16 Byrness - Trows 

17 Trows - Kirk Yetholm

Elm Burr clock to be won

 All our supporters who donate whatever method or amount will go into the draw for an Elm Burr clock. 

If our total goes over £5,000 I will make a second price for the draw  

If you want to see a video of it being made it’s on my YouTube page here. 

Click here for video

An amazing start to our fundraising

We have already started to raise money for Mind via sponsorship forms and justgiving.
We have been overwhelmed by the response of our family and friends worldwide and can report that we have already reached over £1700 

You can follow our progress, OR DONATE, with the fund raising on

Just Giving Page .

Or scan the QR code

The Pennine Way

 Well we’ve  managed to plan it finally and 2024 Charity walk is on. After some very stressful times over the recent years with Mental Illness causing a huge upheaval to our families lives and also losing some close friends to it we have decided to support MIND. 

To make it dog friendly we will have to go off route a few times but return each day so the complete Pennine way along the central mountains of England, the Pennines and the Cheviots is done. The extra miles will mean we are walking  about 450km (280miles) From Edale in Derbyshire Peak District to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland borders. 

12,000 meters of ascent which is approx 9 x Ben Nevis. 🙈

Training begins now I just hope we’ve  not bitten of more than I can do as we are not getting any younger and a have few old injuries but doing it in 17 days 

As you can see Jane, Kirsty and I have done 2 long walks for Charity before and had incredible support hopefully we can go somewhere close to matching that support. We’ve done nothing this challenging before. 

We will personally fund the challenge so 100% of monies raised will go to charity. 

All details will be circulated later in the  year it’s too soon to worry about now. ❤️

Totals

I am Very Sorry for the late posting of this.
I am proud so of Jane and Kirsty 
After collecting almost all sponsor money,  I have posted a final cheque to Cancer Research UK. 
Our total is an amazing £4,701.14 this means our two walks have raised the astonishing total of £10,316.14
The Winner of the draw for the clock was Steve Stanyer in Birmingham. 
We can only thank everyone for their unbelievable support and while we have seen some incredible scenery, met some fabulous people and our belief that most people are good people has been proved. the sense of achievement has helped the family cope with the trauma of the loss of loved ones and for this we are most grateful to you all. And to top it all we have raised loads towards beating this cruel illness.
We have found a new love of long distance walking and while we shall not be taking on more sponsored walks for sometime we will continue to explore this glorious country we live in, so thanks again to our friends and family for your help.

The final day of our challenge - Ben Nevis

Ben Nevis Summit and back 

GPS 114.8 miles

Well the last day has arrived and we must concour the mighty Ben Nevis to compete our challenge for Cancer Research.

We start the day by meeting our friends Andy and Jannine. We were so greatful  for their company it made the climb bearable after 104 miles our legs were tired and they helped raise our spirts to finish.

We started out at the Ben Nevis carpark  with the weather dry but we could see that the top of the mountain was shrouded in cloud and there was no hope of a clear day. At low level we had some views.

 It was not long before it started to rain and the waterproof coats were in action. This of course made us sweat as the only way is up.

The pathways still very busy even though the weather was not brilliant.

We reached a water fall approx halfway up and already we were feeling the effects of the long walk over the last week and it was becoming hard work. 

This was not helped by the fact we are only half way and we reach the cloud base. From here it is a hard relentless slog. But we did have a small window of opportunity just before we hit the clouds for a photo.

Yes only halfway and we are pretty high.

We just keep climbing with little visability.

The temperature was dropping rapidly and the walkers coming down all looked very cold. We eventually saw a snow drift -it's almost August!.

And soon reached the highest War memorial in Britain

We know it's not far now and the summit is soon to appear in the mist out of nowhere.  We Have Done It!!

At this point there is no one in Britain above us. We are at 4,406 ft.

With a wind chill of -5 pouring rain and strong gusts it was not a place to linger so after only 10 mins at the summit  we start our descent.

Now if anyone tells you it's easier coming down please slap them, as we descended our knees  (not Kirsty's) really started to complain and we knew this challenge had taken a lot out of us. Every step seemed a tough one by the time we were halfway down but the clouds had lifted slightly since our ascent and some good views were to be had so a few pics were taken.

 As we dropped down Kirsty eventually removed her bobble hat that made an appearance as we left the summit dueto the   cold.

The sun was now shining and we made our way to the end made better with some stunning scenery.

It's was with relief that the walk was almost finished and we were ready for our complimentary  drinks from one of our most generous sponsors Andy Griffin. Cheers Andy.

All that was left was the short walk along the river to the visitor center and it was a pleasant change to walk on the flat.

We must thank Andy and Jannine for making the end of our challenge so enjoyable 

We have finished tired and worn out but this has been an amazing journey- lots of fun and laughter along the way with some highs and no low to speak off. We have got very wet at times. But the sense of achievement is incredible Also spending time together as a family can not be beaten. But most of all we have raised a huge amount of money for Cancer Research, thanks to all our fantastic supporters. I shall post the totally when all money is in but it's over £4,000 pounds THANK YOU EVERYONE.

West Highland Way day 7

Kinlockleven to Fort William 

GPS 104.8 miles

We leave our B&B it may be the furthest away from the way in the village but was worth it, a fabulous stay and the most incredible selection for breakfast. We cross the river to get back to the trail.

 Once back to the route it's almost instantly uphill through a forest but more like midge central. The weather is light rain and wearing coats up steep gradients makes you sweat! Wiping the perspiration from my brow and I get a hand full of midges yuk!!!. Towards the top and the gradient eases.

There are a few clearings and we can look down the valley as the weather begins to improve.

We leave the forest and head across Lairigmoor, an old military road. 

After very heavy rain last night there was lots of water around with many waterfalls in full flow.

Also lots of streams flowing across the path.

The rain is on and off but the cloud lifted enough to make this a pleasant walk as we walked for miles along the old road.

The path for the last few miles offers fine views to Ben Nevis but the top section, no idea how much, was shrouded in cloud. It still looked a tough challenge for tomorrow.. 

Once we descend a long track we hit the road at Glen Nevis, we know we only have 4.5 miles to go. We pass tonight's accommodation and think, boy we have to walk back.

Now some bright spark had the idea of moving the end of the West Highland Way to the other end of town - this was the original end.

Here we popped into the visitor centre and collected our completion certificates 

To reach the new end of the way you now have to walk another mile along the high street to the sculpture at Gordon Square.

Yes we made it!

We had an amazing end to our West Highland Way when we were greeted by our friends, that we met on our previous charity walk the C2C, Andy and Jannine with the poster they made.Thanks Andy and Janine for making the end special.

We had generous donations from other walkers plus Andy and Janine, who we shall join for a drink and food later.

We are celebrating completing the WHW and it's been another amazing walk but unlike most walkers where this is the end we have the daunting prospect of climbing Ben Nevis tomorrow. Ben Nevis the highest mountain in GB is a long climb and a good challenge normally but the 100 miles walking has left our legs tired and just adds to the difficulty tomorrow..

Thanks for reading and we are now confident with donations we have collected on route and sponsorship yet to be paid we shall pass the £4,000 we are incredibly honoured to have so many generous supporters thank you.