A Penny Wine

By Bikes Moron & Wild One

I can't say that I was particularly surprised when Dil told me at the beginning of the year (2000) that he was going to give up his teaching post at the end of this school year. It was at this same time that he told me of his wish to walk the Pennine Way when he retired and as this was to be a kind of retirement this would be an ideal time to do it. He continued to tell me that he wanted to be walking as all his colleagues returned to school at the start of September.

This conversation had taken place in the Three Pickerels at Mepal and while Dil unraveled his plans I continued to drink steadily. It was in this weakened and inebriated state that I opened my mouth. "What a great idea do you want a companion on the walk?" Dil said that he didn't mind and I instantly agreed to accompany him.

No more was said for a couple of months. Dil had gone ahead and put in his notice at school. The subject came up again and Dil was still keen to go ahead. He especially wanted to be on the walk at the start of school in September and he also wanted to be walking South, so that he could put two fingers up at the powers that be at the allotted hour. So the plan is to walk the route North to South starting at Kirk Yetholm just over the border in Scotland and finishing at Edale in Derbyshire. This is the opposite direction to which the route is normally walked and would cause us problems on more than one occasion. Over the next few months we would join the Youth Hostel Association and find what books and articles we could about walking the Pennine Way.

I am wearing a light fleece, that is to become one of my most important items of clothing over the coming weeks, a pair of combat trousers, a T-shirt my walking boots and a pair of thick walking socks and my waxed hat that can be seen throughout this book.

Our aim was to walk the 270 mile journey in 17 days with walks ranging from 10 miles to 23 miles depending on the accommodation. The initial plan was that 3 of us would do the first weeks walk - Dil, his friend Danny and myself - and then Danny would drop out leaving Dil and myself to complete the walk.

It was imperative to get in some training walks prior to the start of this long distance walk, although training around the Fens is of little help when hill walking. With just 3 weeks to go all we have managed to do is a six mile walk back from Chatteris, a couple of five mile walks and lots of shorter walks (mainly to the pubs). None of these were undertaken with a full backpack (or for that matter even an empty one). That said I felt that it would not present too much of a problem to either of us, although the first few days may prove difficult as we got used to our loads.

All the accommodation had been booked. I used the YHA booking service for the Youth Hostels which seems to have worked very efficiently. There were six overnight stops that would not be at Youth Hostels. Two overnight stops would be at Dil's brother George's House in Reeth, two at Bed and Breakfast Accommodation, one at a Hotel (with a brewery on site); our second night was to be in a Mountain Rescue Hut on the Cheviot Hills as the B & B accommodation off route was fully booked.

The next thing to organise was how to get to the start. Our initial plan was to get a train to Berwick-on-Tweed, then a bus from there to Kelso and then a further bus from Kelso to Kirk Yetholm. We then thought about hiring a car and having it picked up from Kirk Yetholm. Both of these options would have cost over £100 between the three of us. When Dil's brother paid him a visit shortly before we were due to leave he offered to drive us the final leg into Scotland if we could drive up to his house in North Yorkshire. Then he would be driving Dil's car to Otley, where we were attending a folk festival after the walk was completed. This being the cheapest option, it was the one we eventually settled on.

With ten days to go we had managed to get in a 13 mile Trek around our local area. As the area is almost flat it was hardly a strain on our stamina. To accustom myself to the climb ahead I sat and watched a TV program about Mallory and Irvings disastrous quest to climb Everest, I felt no better afterwards! A final shopping trip - the weekend before we were due to go - to pick up the last few items of clothing and waterproofs.

Late news that our third man had unexpectedly dropped out at the last minute. Dil phoned round and cancelled his YHA bookings.

With only a day to go I had my Backpack packed and it feels quite heavy. I don't really want to put an awful lot else in there. I thought it might be worthwhile listing the final contents of my backpack, so here it is:

I am wearing a light fleece, that is to become one of my most important items of clothing over the coming weeks, a pair of combat trousers, a T-shirt my walking boots and a pair of thick walking socks and my waxed hat that can be seen throughout this book.