26.7 km (417.12 km) – Wednesday 20th July.
As we were leaving The Cheviot Hotel the rain began, I had been hoping to awake to a fresh day with clear blue skies, unfortunately the rain had yet to come in earnest. We could hear thunder in the distance but thought we’d be fine…6km into our walk we were caught in the middle of several thunder and lightening storms. We cowered for a while on the edge of a forest, then beneath a large clump of moss and then a ditch, where I lay flat with the torrential rain and lightening seemingly directly above . Eventually the storms subsided and we continued on our way through bog land, this gave way to a gravel track which we followed for 8 km to reach our accommodation for the night, The Forest View, Byrness. I arrived tired and very grumpy, bitten and quite shocked by our day in the storms. The accommodation was basic but perfect, the hosts couldn’t do enough for us all – the took our boots from us as we arrived, brushed them off and put them in the drying room and then made us some tea. All the walkers were equally shocked by the day (one lady had even given up and hitched a lift to the nearest town because she was so scared), most saying they had never had a day like it before…I have to agree that it may have been my least favourite say in the hills ever! The end of the day made up for it thought, with great home cooked food and lots of other walkers swapping stories about varies trips etc. We met up with a couple that I had stayed with in Dufton who were in their late 70s and were ’embarrassed’ that they weren’t carrying their gear…everyone around was impressed that they had walked so far, it gives me hope for the future 😊.

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