The Blisters are Back

The highlight of today came after 3 minutes of walking when we crossed over the English border into Cumbria.  This was quite a psychological boost and lasted for about half an hour before our feet started hurting again.

Today we started walking at Gretna Green which Charlotte is pleased to report has a big Outlet Village.  We then walked alongside the newly constructed M74 through to Carlisle which a bit like the Curate's Egg (good in parts).  Some of the houses were very nice and the centre of the town was good but the south side had several distinctive odours.  Having left Carlisle we followed the A6 crossing the M6 at junction 42 and continued towards Penrith finishing 5 miles north of the town.

Today we racked up another 23 miles bringing the total to 380 miles and we are now about 5 miles ahead of schedule. 

Today's discussion points began with ‘P' so we discussed pygmies (does anyone know in which country most pygmy tribes are?), the Police (the kind in uniforms not the one with Sting as the lead singer), plastic surgery (generally not in favour) and poltergeists.

Mike has calculated that we have so far walked 1.3 million steps, we have drunk 130 bottles of water and walked 380 miles so wants to know how much is a pint of McEwans 70/-?

Tomorrow is the last day of the second quarter of our walk and we will finish off by walking into Shap in the north of the Lake District.  By the end of tomorrow we will have clocked up nearly 400 miles and will be almost half way through our journey. 

Thanks again for all your messages, please keep them coming.  We hit the road again on Tuesday next week, see you then.

Nick & Mike