Day 51: Byrness

Distance: 14.9 miles
Dips in the bog: zero

English walkers have a weird relationship with bogs. They all profess to hate walking through them, yet the crown jewel of English footpaths, the Pennine Way, runs smack through some of the boggiest terrain in the country. Ask them about bogs, and many will tell you about terrible experiences going in up to their waist, smiling all the time. Today we heard a story about a midget who fell face first into a boggy pool, and survived only when a nearby walker spotted a floating rucksack and pulled him to safety. "Bogs are dangerous - you can get trapped in quicksand and die", they tell you gleefully.


We don't share this peculiar fascination with bog walking. We'd gotten a taste of it on Friday the thirteenth, and since then we've had nothing but rain, so id guess the bogs have gone from bad to worse. We owe many thanks to commenter Ken Klug for pointing out that the most boggy paths he encountered on his lejog were on the Pennine Way north of Hadrian's Wall - the same route we have planned. As a result of his comment, I spent part of our rest day going over the maps of our route. Sure enough, the highlighted path from Bellingham (yesterday) to Jedburgh (tomorrow) had long stretches surrounded by the little reed symbols that mean "this might suck". With help from Ken and our Bellingham host, Mr Gaskin, we worked out an alternate route for today that stuck to lanes and forest tracks - no bogs.


Around 11:00 we came across a walker going the other way. He looked a little like a younger, less pale, more fit, Ron Paul with a substantial rucksack, and well worn boots. He was another end to ender, but walking in the other direction. He'd been on the Pennine Way yesterday, the part currently in our plan for tomorrow, and said it was very wet, slow, and unpleasant. He lost the track at times, and the whole thing added hours to his time.

Unfortunately, tomorrow we have only two choices. One is the route we'd planned, through the bogs. We really don't want that. But the only other way out of Byrness is a busy road, the A68, which we'll need to walk for about 6 miles before we can duck onto smaller roads and paths. We've walked along A roads before, but never for more than a few hundred yards. Always it's been terrifying: loads of traffic, right up close, on the wrong side of the road, moving at a million miles an hour. So we've decided that to minimize our chance of death, we will wake up super early and try to get our A road miles in at sunrise, hopefully before the traffic gets heavy. It's Saturday tomorrow so hopefully traffic at six a.m. will be light.


When we woke up this morning, it was grey and raining. It stayed that way through a delicious breakfast (Dawn: scrambled egg on toast; Al: fried egg, sausage, bacon, fried mushrooms, fried tomato, beans, and toast). We loitered a while, hoping for improvement, but, seeing none, ventured out into the cold dreary rain. After an hour or so, we didn't talk, just walk along, Dawn in front, me listening to the rat-a-tat-tat on my hat getting louder as the rain got heavier. Then Dawn turns around and says, with complete sincerity, "It's so nice being here walking with you". I'm not sure if she was rain-mad or what, but it was really nice and I'll take it.


The rain finally eased up around noon, and stopped altogether just as we got to the threshold of the Keidler forest. We celebrated by eating the cheese, buns, and posh crisps we'd bought on our way out of Bellingham. Dawn, a student of Liz Lemon's guide to life, put her chips directly into the sandwich.


The last six miles to Byrness were along a dirt and sometimes gravel track through a pine forest. There were times when it felt a lot like walking along a logging road through a second or third growth forest in the Oregon coastal range.


Today was our last full day in England. At the end of our six miles on the A road, we will cross the border fence, and we'll be in Scotland!


And one more thing: Happy Birthday, Finn!!!

Location:Byrness, Northumberland, UK