Here we go – why have I agreed to do this? Well I think it is a (not very) secret ambition of my father to complete the Pennine way and it isn’t something that would be a huge amount of fun on ones own. We tried before (in the month before going up to Cambridge 10 years ago) and failed.

Did I say this bag is heavy, really heavy (though probably not soldier heavy) weighing in at a whopping 22kg!

Of course if you are going to follow me over this trip you are likely to do it for 2 main reasons:

1. Awesome pictures of the Pennines (though I think almost any such picture is likely to look awesome)
2. Gruesome pictures of blister pain. I can promise these but you’ll have to wait until my just giving page is live it seems like a good opportunity to tap you up to donate to the Scout group I am doing this in aid of.

It probably won’t be to see pictures of Train stations like these:

I understand that to get people to read a blog its important to create suspense and surprise so here goes. While travelling on the above train in to York I checked my National Rail Enquiries App and it told me I only had 4 minutes to make my connection at York. With Dad also catching that connection and with us both having Advance tickets I began to get nervous. Would we get on the train, would we be able to use the later train, would he be able to use a later train if his train arrived on time, would we get to sit in First class and enjoy a complementary sandwich.

It turned out that the app shows departure and not arrival times! Can you believe it something about trains that I didn’t know!

Eventually we arrived in Berwick

After taking two buses (which between them went past 55 stops) we arrived in Kirk Yetholm were we stayed in a lovely guest house Blunty’s Mill which was run by a young man named Charles who I rather cringe-worthily kept referring to with the feminine pronoun (her) when speaking with a man who was either a father or neighbour despite having corresponded with him by e-mail several times and each of them having been signed off as Charles. It’s an example of everyday sexism and I am ashamed.

With an early start planned we were early to bed following dinner at the Border Hotel who very kindly moved our reservation from 8pm to 6pm. Though I should say I found it a little unusual the way we were asked to sit in the bar but I am sure no one came in to take our table in the Restaurant but the food was quite good and at £80 for 3 courses between 2 people with a bottle of wine made me Dinner at Gaucho with Mark and Hannah last week look very expensive.