23.0 miles – Still-brooding, English-summer-grey skies, warm, close GRAND UNION CANAL Kingswood Junction The Grand Union and Stratford-upon-Avon Canals come within a quarter of a mile of each other. The two are connected with a… Day 59: Catherine-de-Barnes – Grand Union Canal( – Knowle – Kingswood Junction) – Stratford Canal ( -Lowsonford – Wooten Wawen – Wilmcote – Stratford-upon-Avon) – Alveston

27.4 miles – ponderous skies, which having considered things, deposited their rain, and then returned to self-contemplation I had camped in a patch of woodland, well away from the main path. I was awakened in… Day 58: Hopwas – Birmingham & Fazeley Canal – Fazeley Junction – Curdworth – Birmingham ( – Erdington – Salford Junction – Aston Junction – Grand Union Canal – Yardley – Orton) – Solihull – Catherine-de-Barnes

18.7 miles – turbulent clouds which might have gone either way, but finally did the decent thing, and resolved into middle-age grey with a little mothball sunshine Burton is, above all else, a brewing town,… Day 57: Burton-upon-Trent – Trent and Mersey Canal – (Alrewas – Fradley Junction) – Coventry Canal – (Whittington – Hopwas)

On which a young man from the hotel burst into my room without knocking with a package for me, and thus found me completely naked in an attempt to keep cool!

On which I did my laundry and then ventured out (briefly) into 38 Centigrade. Staying here was a good decision: walking along a shade-less canal would have been suicide. The wind was actually hot. I… Day 55: Burton-upon-Trent (rest day)

27.2 miles – dusty, turbid heat, stale, murky sunshine I had three pieces of good luck to help me on my way: The man preparing W.H.Smiths in Ashbourne to open at 10:30 actually let me… Day 54: Alsop (nearly) – Alsop Station – Tissington Station – Ashbourne – Wyaston – Yeakley – Alkmonton – Church Broughton – Marston-inDove – Rolleston-in-Dove – Burton-upon-Trent

23.2 miles – clear sunshine all day, becoming baking hot later I left at 6:15. It was one of those mornings to rejoice in: crisp, clean air, my breath still visible in billows, the sun… Day 53: Perry Dale – Peak Forrest – Hay Dale, Peter Dale, Monk’s Dale – Miller’s Dale Station – Chee Tor Tunnels – Sparklow – Hartington Station – Alsop (nearly)

17.0 miles – Tearful grey skies which speak of failed endeavours and hopeless futures, windy, wet, cold Did I mention in any of my previous posts that I had had enough of flattish, eventless moorland?… Day 52: Clough Edge – Bleaklow – Featherbed Moss – Mill Hill – William Clough – Hayfield – South Head – Perry Dale

16.8 miles – Classic sun and clouds I awoke at 4:20, teaed, breakfasted, and set off at five past six. I find it extraordinary, always having been a night owl, to be getting up at… Day 51: Marsden Moor (Eastergate) – Marsden – Butterfly, Blakeley, Wessenden, and Wessenden Head Reservoirs – Black Hill – Torside Reservoir – Clough Edge

Warm and sunny with a lovely, cooling breeze – idyllic walking weather I bought the maps I needed in Hebden bridge – at last! I have avoided peaks recently, as you may have noticed if… Day 50: Hebden Bridge – Stoodley Pike – Blackstone Edge Moor – White Hill – Marsden Moor (Eastergate)

22.0 miles – sultry skies, but the air still gluey ‘I need a shower!’ ‘I must buy a map!’ These priorities were uppermost in my mind all day. To achieve the latter required a town,… Day 49: Lothersdale – Lane Ends – Slippery Ford – Oakworth – Haworth – Hebden Bridge

15.5 miles – floury-blue sky, molten steel sunshine, oozing, viscous heat (27 Centigrade) It was already soldering hot before 9:00. I melted along, the clammy, humid day clinging to my clothes. The cafe at Gargrave… Day 48: Marsden – Airton – Gargrave – East Marton – Thornton-in-Craven – Lothersdale

22.3 miles – Searing blue sky, honey-of-the-gods sunshine I awoke at five. the air was still as the moment, alive with silence. The distant hills were already golden-rimmed in the morning sunshine. The perfection was… Day 47: Cragdale – Wharfdale (Buckden – Kettlewell – Conistone) – Malham

16.9 miles – Daisy-blue sky, pale ale sunshine Having fussed so much about moorland yesterday, it was high time I followed my conviction. So instead of following the Pennine way I bounced my way along… Day 46: Keld – Angram – Thwaite – Hawes – Burtersett – Countersett – Stalling Busk – Cragdale

14.9 miles – Milky-blue skies, lemon-blancmange sunshine, breezy, overcast later I spent almost all the day on moorland; it’s wild and beautiful… perhaps it’s that I’ve had so much of it on my walk, perhaps… Day 45: Baldersdale – Stainmore Forest – Bowes Moor – Tan Hill – Keld

15.5 miles – warm, sunny, a gentle breeze I rejoined the Pennine Way, to which I have been paying scant attention for two days, soon after leaving the youth hostel. The sun shone, the birds… Day 44: Langdon Beck – Middleton-in-Teesdale – Lunedale – Baldersdale

16.3 miles – Greyed out skies and hills, rain, often heavy, strong winds in the afternoon It’s not just that I’m soft; I feel I’ve already done peat bogs, done big ascents, done wind and… Day 43: Alston – Garrigill – Upper Tyne Valley – Teesdale – Langdon Beck

19.7 miles – DRY AT LAST, cloudy, sunshine later Haltwhistle is an unassuming little town, with the same quality of charm that you see sometimes in men and women of all ages who don’t realise… Day 42: Twice Brewed – Haltwhistle – Lambly – Slaggyford – Alston

23.4 miles – Mostly overcast, strong winds, completely superfluous rain, some sunshine later In deference to my readers, I have tried keep these posts fairly upbeat; however there comes a point at which the historian… Day 41: Whitley Pike – Bellingham – Shitlington – Kielder Forrest (another bit) – Hadrian’s Wall – Twice Brewed

19.5 miles – Mostly overcast, breezy I awoke at 4:30, got up at 5:30, and left before 7:00. Condensation had soaked my sleeping bag: I was cold and damp. The landscape was yet more moorland.… Day 40 – Cheviot Hills (Beefsand Hill – Chew Green) – Byrness – Kielder Forrest – Whitley Pike