Day 33: Jedburgh to Forest View
? 33km
?974m
Today’s the day we enter England and leave beautiful Scotland behind us. We woke at 04:00 with the crows, as Spence the campsite manager had told us we would, but did manage to snooze until 05:30. It had rained at various points throughout the night, the tent was wet, and it felt cold so it was a bit of struggle to get out the sleeping bag.
We started the day by re-joining the Roman Road which was a lot more like we had expected it to be the day before, a little wider and more gravel under foot.
We descended into a valley by some farm buildings and an old outdoor centre, then ascended up a lush green hill side. When we got to the top we followed the path around the edge of a bowl like valley with grasses, summer meadow flowers and the famous Scottish thistle not quite in full flower. We crossed a short piece of moorland and then clambered over a tatty piece of fence work to enter England.
We turn right onto the Pennine Way and almost immediately started passing people. The Pennine Way is a National Trail that stretches for 268 miles from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kirk Yetholm, just inside the Scottish border. Most people hike it in that direction (northbound) and therefore the people we were approaching were on their last day. We had some great conversations, noting down places to eat and camp. The last few km of the day was a sharp descent through the forest into Byrness towards The Forest View Walkers Inn.
Located in a small cul-de-sac of houses and recently taken over by Oliver and Laura, Forest View is the ultimate hiker haven, a home from home, and a pure delight.
We camped in the garden for free with access to a shower, toilet and drying room. We drank and chatted in the conservatory with the other guests, Oliver bringing out drinks just as if he was hosting a party. We all ate Laura’s home cooked menu in the dining room at our allocated tables and everyone was in bed by 10pm.
Day 34: Forest View to Bellingham
? 25km
?495m
It was raining when woke so we snoozed until it passed, then packed up our stuff, ate breakfast with a cup of tea in the conservatory, and then put the tent down in record time. We left, after having our photo taken for the Facebook page, a bit later than planned but with huge smiles on our faces. What a place run by such wonderful people!
We re-joined the Pennine Way and walked up and through the forest tracks, meaning we made decent time. Things slowed down a bit as we met the moorland to head up Padon Hill and over Lough Shaw. There was the very occasional boggy bit but compared to the terrain we had to cross at the start of our trip it was incredible how much it had dried out. We camped that night at a farm in Bellingham, arriving in the sunshine with plenty of time to get the tent up and dried. There were some basic facilities but we didn’t bother showering and instead walked the 3 minutes to the centre of the beautiful little town.
First stop was the Post Office where we had had some maps sent to but unfortunately they had not arrived and apparently it was something that the sorting office would not have delivered even though we got maps sent exactly the same way to the Post Office in Fort William. We then headed to the pub, a pint for Tom and a tea for me to do some planning and then finally the Co-op to stock up on supplies. We ate a noodle and couscous combination for dinner and caught up on the weekend’s exciting F1 as we had managed to avoid the result.
Day 35: Bellingham to Greenhead
? 38km
?1164m
We both woke in the early hours freezing, so had to put extra layers on. When the alarm did go off at 05:30 there was a thin layer of ground frost. We did a decent job of getting up and out considering it was so cold and I ate a massive breakfast of both the pastries I had bought the day before.
The first half of the day was a little boring weaving through fields and farms The highlights being a beautiful garden in a gorgeous location complete with veg patch, orchard and ice water in a flask for hikers, and also The Pit Stop, a small area of a farm barn kept by PCT hikers that contained a toilet, shower, sofa and treats for anyone passing through to help themselves.
We then passed the first male and female runners of The Spine Race before we avoided a couple of rather scary looking bulls to hike up to Hadrian’s wall. Here we joined the crowds, and after stopping to eat sandwiches, made our way a few km along the trail that follows the wall, before temporarily leaving the trail to visit the Twice Brewed Tap Room and Pub in Once Brewed.
After a pint of Twice Brewed Lares (a double dry-hopped Pale Ale) for Tom and a Coke for me we re-joined the wall and navigated its ups and downs. It was slow and much tougher going than we had anticipated, the last 5km were slow and painful, something that is becoming quite common on our longer days walking, and we finally made it to Greenhead and the honesty box camping next door to the guest house by 18:30. There was a basic toilet and shower in the same little hut which we took advantage of as the day had heated up and we were rather sweaty. We prepped and boiled water on the picnic bench but the midges got the better of us and we ate inside the tent with the football. We were joined about 21:00 by 3 other tents but never got to see the faces that they belonged to. We slept well after our biggest day of ascent so far.
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