So here we are… The big day. Months of Tricia talking about this, months of me saying ‘oh my gawd’.  Not such a good nights sleep, the mattress was lumpy, and only one pillow. But the breakfast more than made up for it, excellent. We got talking to the other couple, from Edinburgh, similar age, similar age children etc… And all of a sudden it was 9:30am, when we had intended to set off. So, we hastily made sure all was packed, and then set off…. Well nearly, Tricia felt obliged to talk to the owner for a bit. 10am we left, and we could hear the bells on the clock from the church. Weather was good. I pulled a miserable face of course, but corrected it. Here we are starting off.

A couple of miles in, and we needed a drink stop, and I needed to take my top layer off…. Lovely, t-shirt weather. Around ‘green humbleton’, and up ‘whitelaw’, down the other side, and walked the edge of the English / Scottish border. Might need passports in future. Beautiful of views fields with cotton grass – fantastic. Then we were up again, and hard work up ‘Schil’… A rock pile at the top (605m), Tricia felt obliged to stand up on the top of the rock pile. Then it was onto the ‘mountain refuge hut’, where we stopped for lunch. Lovely spot with views  of ‘mounthooly’, a lovely valley, and across to ‘hen hole’ with a waterfall. Tricia had a lovely bug on her trousers which she talked to, ‘billy the bug’ :-). We meet a walker coming the other way who had diverted to go up ‘cheviot’ but fallen in a bog to his waist, so we resolved not to do that! It was enough going up the hill near it, no name we can see, but 743m. Phew… I struggled up that. Lack of hill walking fitness! Tricia pretty much skipped up it though, going ‘tra la la la’ and enjoying the flowers. Then up to a three way post, which send Windy Gyle was 4 miles away. Mostly down hill, and we walked at a brisk pace… But it seemed like a long 4 miles. The weather started to close in, and the rain forecast for 4:30 arrived. So, rain coats on, and it was all very different from earlier in the day. We eventually found the path to the left we needed, and had a 2 mile trek off the pennine way to the frame where we being picked up. All in all, we had walked abou 15 miles in the day, and the Fitbit said we had climbed 429 floors… Not surprisingly a ‘pb’… And more floors climbed than I had done in the previous two weeks combined. Here we have a picture of the lovely cotton that was growing. Tricia atop the Schill, a view from where we lunched, then ‘billy the bug’, Tricia’s new friend… And one of Tricia trying to keep her hat on in the wind.

Eventually we were picked up at about 6:30, and got to the Forest View Inn. Tea and coffee to welcome us :-). Boots into the ‘drying room’, and then showers and changed. A pint of cider each, and we enjoyed some home cooked food, along with about twenty other guests. We shared a table with two other walkers, good company.About 10pm we were both yawning and feeling effects of the fresh air and long walk…. And so to bed. A smallish, but comfortable room. Limited wifi, hence this blog is going up a little later than planned. Pictures will follow when the pictures on my iPhone load up onto the iPad.