Click on a photo to enlarge it.
Helen flew over to Edinburgh in Scotland and then walked 300 miles from Scotland down to the central part of England along the ridge of mountains
that are the "backbone" of England called the Pennines.
England had a heatwave at the time but it was only 14° C in Edinburgh when she flew in. All she had with her was a small backpack with minimal
clothing and everything else reduced to the absolute bare minimum to cut down on the weight that she had to carry.
The first two days of the walk were over the Cheviot Mountains and she was fortunate to only have a few minutes of rain on those days. She had 20
walking days with 4 built-in rest days along the way. She was walking the path from North to South whereas most people walk in the other direction
because then the weather is behind you.
As it happened, it didn't really matter because England broke all the previous temperature records for the whole of July and she had real problems
battling with the heat which meant she had to carry a lot more water than planned - which is very heavy!
Kirsten didn't want to do the walk - she'd had enough doing the Coast to Coast walk (190 miles from England's East coast to the West coast) in 2003!
So she was more than happy to sell her strawberries in Hamburg.
On the 8th day of the walk, the heat got too much for Helen's feet and she got blisters! It was so hot that even the best boots in the world could
not have kept your feet dry. She had already met so many people walking the path in the opposite direction who told tales of people having to give
up because of blisters. Most of the people Helen met were doing the walk in one week stages throughout the summer months so it wasn't too bad for
them.
Helen thought she would have to give up, but fortunately she had stopped to treat her feet the moment she felt a problem. Then with the help of
expensive blister kit, plasters and surgical spirit she managed to walk through the pain during the first few days and keep going.
The blisters never went away, in fact they got bigger, but the Pennine Way is such a wonderful walk that she couldn't give up!
The scenery was pure England - it says a lot that we have travelled around the world, doing lots of walks in different countries but Helen always
comes back to England to do the long-distance walks - you can't beat it!
Because Helen was walking in the opposite direction to all the others, she ended up becoming a messenger - "Oh, say hello to so-and-so at the youth
hostel," "Oh, you have to go to this Bed and Breakfast it's really good".
The best one was "If you see Pete with a beard, can you tell him that I (Dick) left early this morning and couldn't say goodbye!" It was amazing
how many men with beards Helen met that day who were not called Pete!!! Finally one bearded chap told her that she wouldn't meet Pete because he'd
got on a train to Kirkby Stephen!! So Helen said "If you see Dick can you tell him that!!!"
All in all it was a great walk and Helen ended up with bleached blond hair from the sun and a typical walkers sun tan - from the top of her socks
to her shorts and on her arms as far as her T-shirt!
Afterwards she took the train to visit her brother and family and her parents before flying back to Hamburg on the 4th August.
