Land’s End to John O’Groats

Today we made it to John O’Groats a month earlier than we originally expected. The journey has had several twists and turns and we both got to the famous sign post with mixed emotions.

It was also incredibly foggy. On the drive up this morning there had been points where we couldn’t see the car 20 metres in front of us at all despite it having lights on. It was interesting to look out over the cliffs at Duncansby Head (the actual most north-easterly point on the British mainland) and not be able to see the sea. By the time we had made our way across 12 miles or so to Dunnet Head (the most northerly point) the fog had cleared a bit so now we have some sunshine.

We met some walkers heading south (they had started from the top of Shetland and were going all the way down to the Scilly Isles. We passed on our insect repellent and water purification tablets as we thought they may be in more need of them now than we are. That was nice.

We also stopped in Wick for lunch and had some amazing cakes.

So we have done it although it wasn’t exactly how we expected. We have enjoyed lots of the experience and have learnt a lot too. We’re still trying to work out exactly what though. Hopefully we will post soon when we have collected our thoughts on the matter.

Yesterday we went to an amazing church in Inverness. It is part of the Destiny church movement and has a fairly small but incredibly passionate young congregation. We were so welcomed and challenged by the teaching and hopefully will remain in contact with some of the people there.

Having spent 3 days in Bristol, mostly on the phone cancelling and making new accomodation bookings, we left on Sunday morning for Knighton to meet Chloe’s parents. While in Bristol, I had a bit of a cold. Chloe managed to catch it and was feeling generally a bit blocked up yesterday on our way here.

Unfortunately she hasn’t felt better today, in fact she has had a really high heart rate and been very shaky today. It was worrying enough that we went and saw a doctor this morning who agreed that her heart rate was high but since her temperature and blood pressure were normal couldn’t say much else. She has been in bed since and is now sleeping. Hopefully she will feel much better tomorrow and ready to continue our journey.

We really feel like this is more than physical though and are aware that there seems to be considerable spiritual opposition to our journey. Please pray for rest, healing and protection for us so that we can continue. We are determined to continue praying and praising God for the towns we will pass through whatever may try to stop us.

Thank you so much for all your messages of support, they really are a great encouragement to us.

If the state of our plans is not common knowledge amongst our close friends and the wider church, please feel free to make it so! Obviously there are a large number of people who knew we were walking who won’t read this blog. I have visions of us getting back in august and having to tell lots of people the whole story to explain why we are back so soon!

We’ve made it to Bristol (assuming you ignore our cheat). It is so good to be home and will be brilliant to have two consecutive days off.

Hopefully it will give our feet time to heal a bit more. We are hoping that it will mean Chloe’s foot will not continue to be painful when we start again. We will walk to Chepstow on Tuesday to start our Welsh leg. If we do find Chloe’s foot injury continues to be a problem then we will see what can be done.

As we are home I get to use my lovely computer and car which I have missed very much indeed.That means some more photos! (Yay!)

Yesterday we had a little crew of supporters who came and walked the whole 21 mile day with us. You will note that we are not wearing our big packs as they were kindly chauffered home for us in the morning (thanks mum). Jen and Simon actually walked 21 miles the day before with us as well. It was really good to have people with us.

We look forward to reading comments from anyone, esspecially from those who have joined us at some point. Generally we have found peoples’ comments on this blog are really good and we look forward to reading them whenever we get a chance.

Rather than write another 4000 words, here is its pictorial equivalent.

We have made it to Tiverton. 164.3 miles done, we don’t want to think about how many still to go.

The last stretch since our last rest day has actually gone really quickly. We were both quite surprised when we realised that we has a day off rather than desperately waiting for it. On Saturday we were joined by Jenny Sisley which was great for us. Somewhat unfortunately Jenny managed to pick a long day in the worst weather we’ve had yet. Our feet, which I thought were just getting tough enough to not cause too much trouble now, got very wet early on and so were not feeling great by the end of the day. 20 miles the next day were great and went quickly but left out feet slightly worse again. A final 16 miles with Lizzie yesterday finished of the stretch nicely.

Actually we thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days but our feet, esspecially Chloe’s were not on good terms with our shoes by yesterday evening. Hopefully the rest today will put us back in fine shape for the next bit.

We are surprised that we have made it this far with so little injury and thank God for providing practically and healing us every day. We are taking each day as it comes and not thinking too much about how far there is to go.

Thanks for all your comments, prayers and donations - they really mean a lot to us.

What a day!

It literally couldn’t have been better weather. Land’s End and the coast are beautiful and looked amazing in the bright sunlight, yet the gentle sea breeze and occasional cloud meant we didn’t get too hot even when scrambling up and down cliff path’s with 17 kg packs.

We both agreed it was the best day’s walk either of us has has ever had which is the perfect start to the next 3 months! We also enjoyed hacking our way through some very densly overgrown paths for a few miles and have plenty of nettle stings to prove it. Photo opportunities were rife when walking through the village of Paul (you can probably imagine).

Finally we arrived in Penzance at the most wonderful and friendly bed and breakfast you could imagine. It is called The Lynwood and we highly recommend it if you’re in Penzance. Perfect! God is good.

The next three days are all we have left to put our lives in order and get things sorted before we set off.

It seemed like a nice idea to start our own blog rather than just updating the site, so here it is.

This way you can leave us comments and make us feel a little more in-touch with humanity.

We’ll be setting off on Thursday morning and Friday will be the first day of the walk. Then we walk until the end of August. Easy.