Hunnypot Hundred

This year Claire and I decided to do the hundred together. We finished the Speyside together having intended to run/walk independently. The Flower of Suffolk didn't go so swimmingly, and I think we both missed the support the other provides.

We started looking ahead at the Hunnypot while we were walking the St Cuthbert's Way a couple of weeks earlier (although I'd sorted out hotel bookings and looked at the kit list etc already). 

"Bloody hell, that's a lot more climb than I expected!"

Turns out the North Downs are quite up and down. In reality that plays to our strengths so we were quite happy about it.

We travelled down on the Friday and stayed in Gravesend, then drove to the start Saturday morning. We'd planned kit etc pretty thoroughly and made last minute adjustments for the forecast heatwave. Registration and kit check didn't take long for the 12 o'clock start, so we were sitting around drinking tea for a while. We said hi to Steve Jones, who we know from many Runfurther and Craggrunner events. 

It was getting properly hot by the time we set out. Just before 12 we were led out to the start in the housing estate across the road, then on the dot we set off.

Everyone immediately ran off. Not many walkers on the 12 o'clock.

We set off at a steadier pace, but still fairly brisk. We were aiming to stick to around 5-6kph for as long as possible. We know we can sustain that pace comfortably.

It was pretty warm, and I was glad I'd dressed lightly and not overloaded my pack. I was carrying mandatory kit plus a few bits I liked to have or 'needed' (watch charger, some snacks, sun shirt).

The first few miles took us through vineyards on the Weald Way, then up alongside a wood:

"Over a stile, up path to st above. so... what's a 'st'?"

"stream? no. street? obvs no. standpipe? stoat maybe? it's a stile, but it said 'stile to st'. Maybe there's a stoat on the stile".

This only got worse as the weekend wore on.

Just before Addington & CP1 we had the first motorway crossing, under the M20. A quick stop for water. I was carrying a litre for the first leg, and used it all.

We had barely got underway again, climbing up through some woodland, when Claire's GPS beeped a couple of times then switched itself off. This was particularly annoying, because we only had one spare set of batteries. 

Then we popped out onto the road and there was a petrol station directly opposite. Winning! Claire popped in for batteries and came back with bonus crisps.

Some suburban bits, some woodland, and we seemed to be at Ightham CP2 quite quickly. It. was. hot. There was an ice cream van outside, and bowls of water to dip hats in had been deployed. We didn't hang around long as we were making good progress.

At Sevenoaks Weald we had one of several level crossings, prompting dark jokes about football boots (for anyone who remembers 1970s Public Information Films).

At Weald Memorial Hall (CP3) we paused for a little while. I ate a few cheese wraps and an egg wrap, some crisps, filled up with water and then bumped into Kieran. Sadly Dianne had already retired after a few weeks of intermittent illness. Kieran had kept going though. Nick Ham was there too, he was also retiring.

We got going again, along the road to the busy dual carriageway.

Over the road bridge and along the lane into the woods. Oldbury Wood was absolutely beautiful, and we encountered the media team here. I was guzzling my now-cool-enough-to-drink tea from Weald as Simon Pipe popped up with his film camera.

TEA! (Photo courtesy of Simon Pipe)

Bitchett Green gave us some childish hilarity.

At Knole Park and the Chestnut Walk we had a couple of km of dead straight parkland avenue, which seemed to go on forever. The local dog walkers must have wondered what was going on as large numbers of walkers passed by. At this point first finisher Lisa Joanne Walbridge came past looking very relaxed.

Under the A20, playing around with the echoes. I expected the tunnel to be cooler, but no.

By Cowden we'd lost the daylight, although it was still warm. We followed the RD but couldn't see the GPS as we hadn't got torches out yet. I'd forgotten my small backup torch, which usually lives in an accessible pocket.

Kit check at Cowden. Once we found the CP. (Photo courtesy of Simon Pipe)

It turned out there was an ambiguous bit in the RD, which assumed you could see the road as you approached through a horse field. We couldn't, because it was dark. We ended up coming in on the wrong path, which meant it then gave completely wrong instructions to the CP. We eventually tracked the CP down and arrived for kit check. I found a few places in the RD where it said "TL" instead of "TR", but this was the most problematic issue we found. It seemed like a few others made the same mistake.

I had a toasted cheese sandwich here, and it was delicious. Now it was night we didn't need to carry so much water so I just took a half litre.

At Crowborough we both felt pretty rough. I had a lie down for a few minutes and that helped. I was feeling a bit out of it. There were quite a few of the West Yorks LDWA group here, and they were finding it hard going too.

The approach to Pooh Sticks Bridge was a bit weird - barbed wire, a high fence along the back of a house: really quite unwelcoming. With hindsight we were approaching from the opposite side to the way tourists normally come in. 

"wow, did you see that?"

"no, what was it?"

"it was long with a long tail, brown."

"how big, small or tiny?"

"small."

"Probably a stoat"

Pooh sticks

At the bridge we dropped in the sticks we'd been carrying a couple of miles, then watched them through the bridge.

The climb up from the bridge took a while - it's mostly not that steep but very drawn out. There were lots of people just ahead of us as we climbed up the moor towards Marl Pits. We train all the time on hills, so as usual we were overtaking fairly often. By god they were noisy though. I think most people get a bit nervous at night, and that makes them talk louder. Voices carry further at night, and the combination makes for noisy walkers.

At the top I could hear nightjars chirring. It was a bit noisy with chatter from the groups of people walking, but we heard the birds in brief lulls.

Down the hill to Eeyore's Gloomy Place and on towards the CP.

I had a couple of muller rice pots at Nutley CP, and just tried not to eat the jam. Think it worked, didn't zonk out. We got going quick before the noisy people left. As we left it was getting light, and we didn't need torches any more. It still felt pretty warm.

Horsted Keynes and pizza, plus some quiche. I was suddenly hungry. We tried not to stay too long though, and got on into the increasingly warm day.

At Fellbridge we picked up drop bags and went to our respective changing rooms. The gents changing room had one sink, but a reasonable supply of cat litter trays. I filled up a tray with hot water, stripped off and had a flannel wash. Reapplied Skinsosoft (with some hooting - it stung quite a bit) on my chafe-y regions,  and finally rejoined Claire for some breakfast. Fried egg, veggie sausage, hash browns and some yoghurt and granola, charged up my watch a bit, and I was ready to move on. I considered leaving my sun shirt in my mid bag, but it weighs next to nothing and may come in useful (it did).

Felbridge to Edenbridge was a long long leg with a lot of climb, and tough going.

Edenbridge was hot as the very gates of hell. Volunteers on a well earned break had their feet in a paddling pool. Others were wetting towels to stick on us. I had a crumpet with cheese, and some rice pudding, and tea. Then more tea. And iced water. We stayed here quite a while, just to cool down.

Idle Hill was a nice place, topologically complicated with hills, woodland and small valleys all over the place. I tried to fix my own toe blister while Claire's back chafing was being seen to by first aider Sara. Small world - Sara had been just in front of Claire on the EBB for several hours, and I remember meeting her on the Pendle in 2021. Eventually I gave up and Sara put an incredibly sticky plaster on for me. I resolved to get some of these as they were so effective at staying stuck on - I think they're Dependaplast brand. I swapped my fairly heavy Tea Round t-shirt for my sun shirt to try and keep cooler.

Off we went again, up the hill, between houses, through fields and into woodland. I was so much more comfortable in the sun shirt, definitely a good move. We chatted briefly to a supporter who told us over 200 people had already retired from the event.

Sundridge, and a long long stretch of road past Radnor School and over the M25, then on up the hill. The road kept getting steeper. That's fine, I like a steep hill. It kept being road though, and that I'm less keen on. At the top we doubled back and started dropping, which Claire was even less keen on. We were both having mood issues, so we stopped for a few minutes on a bench at the top and got our brains back under control.

Chain gates - shadows of the Speyside

Round the corner, and Chevening House came into view. We did a bit of a wiggle around the edge of it, and climbed a rather nice grassy valley to some woodland. 

Soon after we reached Halstead and the cricket pavilion, which was a pleasant stop. We were getting into the evening now, with seventeen miles left to go, and starting to get tired.

By this point we were thinking checkpoint to checkpoint, but it was only 5 miles to Kemsing so that didn't seem too bad. Climbing up we crossed the M25 again - this time a full ten lanes, with 4 lanes per carriageway plus slip roads. The noise was unbelievable, saturating and disorienting.

We caught up with a large group on the road near the end of this leg and were behind them in the woods, but soon squeezed past as they seemed to be struggling a bit with the navigation. Not surprising to be honest, the RD was extremely sketchy here. We'd been using the RD and GPX together throughout, with Claire using the GPS and me following the RD. The map showed a single coherent route through the woods, but it was a maze of different intersecting paths. Someone had marked out the right route with reflectives, which made it a bit easier although very often at path forks they were in the middle of the fork with no indication which to take!

We dropped down through a largely unmarked field, then down a ginnel and were greeted by some familiar faces - the Irregulars!

We didn't plan to stay too long, I ate some crisps and a biscuit and we had some tea, then got going.

Out of the CP and into the recreation ground, and the RD & GPX conflicted with each other. The RD told us to pass to the left of the copse of trees, the GPX went to the right. We encountered another couple here who'd recced part of it, they took the left and we took the right and both came out onto the road together. Then up a driveway and up through the woods. We were still able to push hard on the climbs and that felt like we were making good progress. Through the virtual self clip, and back down to the valley bottom through a dense rape field with plants up to my chest (they must have been above Claire's head). We stopped at the bottom while I removed something from my shoe, which took a long time as my feet were hard to reach.

At this point I was confused by (I think) multiple big antennae with red lights and was sure we'd just turned back on ourselves. I was cursing the route planner for sending us round in pointless circles (although in reality the whole thing is a pointless circle, isn't it?). I was pretty tired and fighting brain fog. In fact my mind was starting to play tricks on me. Unlike Claire I didn't get visual hallucinations through the second night, but I spent the entire night fighting with the feeling that everything was familiar because we'd done this route before.

A long, long, long gravel track, then up a road and back into the woods. Confusingly straight through a campsite. The shape of the hills ahead didn't make sense and I was trying to work out if we were crossing from one valley to another.

My left foot was increasingly painful - the arch was really sore with every step, and I now had a painful blister on the fourth toe of my right foot. I got slower and slower, and felt like I was slowing Claire down so eventually stopped (in what smelled like a fairly recently mucked field) and strapped my ankle with crepe bandage. I put an elastoplast on my right toe which, while not brilliant, held long enough to get to the finish. All this seemed to take ages and involve a lot of first aid kit faffing - one of the after-event jobs is to make my first aid kit better. Finally I was on my feet again and we moved on another mile or so to Hodsoll Street checkpoint.

Everyone knows the last CP of the Hundred - Dave, Merrien and friends sadly didn't include Jack Cooper this year - she had other things to do this time. But we had a lovely surprise to find Ken and Jenny Wyles there. They sat us down and fed us tea and rice pudding and we chatted for a while, but needed to get to the finish.

And so to the final leg. 5-ish miles, little climb. Mostly road, not my favourite but it gets the job done.

We got into Knole Park and followed the main park track to the very end. The sky was just starting to lighten a bit. Then finally onto the cycle way that seemed to go on forever. At some point we passed a car park and a supporter called "nearly there, just stick to the path". Claire and I went off on "and beware the moon" for a few minutes. My feet were painful again, and we were just plodding along in a straight line trying to keep up a decent pace. The dawn chorus was absolutely saturating. We could see mist covered fields to our right and no obvious sign of habitation. At last we came out in the village, head torches weren't needed any more and we limped all the way round the school and into the finish. Our final time was 40:39 - rather slower than our estimates, but most of that was spent cooling off in checkpoints.

We were both ravenous which is unusual for the finish of an event (Claire usually gets nauseous), and ate straight away before collapsing into the van for a few hours. Claire got up before me and went for a shower, while I opted to be a stinky git all the way home before lazing in a hot bath.

So that's it for another year. How soon can we enter the Jurassic?

Commercial and grassroots events - the weird and unhealthy evolution of UK trail racing

 I've been exploring these ideas for a couple of years now. The trail/ultra/off road racing scene has changed an awful lot in the last 15-20 years, and I think the changes bear calling out and talking about.

I have a number of different involvements in off road running.

I'm a participant in races.

I volunteer as a marshal/first aider/general tech dogsbody on a lot of races: some for Todmorden Harriers running club; some for Craggrunner.

I'm also interested in timing and tracking technology, and have ongoing prototype open source products in development.

I also used to be a committee member of Runfurther, which for those who don't know was a not-for-profit set up in 2015 to promote and support ultra distance running.

When I started to get involved in off road racing (fell & trail) in around 2008, most races were organised by individual running clubs. A few events like the Fellsman were run by the Scouting Association; lots of events were organised by the LDWA (and open to runners - the LDWA have always welcomed runners as part of their events); a few were organised by other clubs like the Achille Ratti.

Fast forward to 2026 and there are far more events taking place, especially at the longer distances. But almost all of them are organised by commercial operators, small and large. At one end of the scale you have the small race companies like Craggrunner, Trail Outlaws, Punk Panther etc (and my writing inevitably has a north of England bias, incidentally). At the other end of the spectrum is the corporate behemoth that is UTMB/Ironman Corp. In between you have some larger commercial companies like GB Ultras; Rat Race; and the late lamented Ourea. You also have some larger not-for-profit but quite slick events like The Spine Race; Saunders Lakeland; and The OMM.

What's interesting is that almost all of these still rely heavily on volunteer labour. More and more lately things like tracking, timing and first aid support are outsourced to professional specialists; and hardly anyone bakes buns for events any more. But the bulk of the work is being done by volunteers.

And honestly, that's just a bit weird.

Because for the most part, that means people are working effectively for free, while the RO collects the fees.

For sure, a lot of the time the RO barely breaks even and is just doing it for fun (and most of those smaller companies have just one or two people behind the business name). Very very few people are doing this because they're trying to get rich. Not zero, but very very few.

And volunteering on races can be lots of fun too. If it wasn't, I wouldn't do it.

But now that most races are commercial, but still run on volunteer labour, as a volunteer you're effectively working for free.

Most ROs offer race credit or similar in recompense. Rat Race for example (no shade on RR, they just happened to be very open about publishing their terms) cover your travel, and give you 150 quid in race credit or merch credit for an 8-10 hour shift. Even assuming you factor out your travel or don't have far to go, you're getting something not that much more than minimum wage. I honestly don't know where this fits into employment law, and I'm not sure I want to go there.

Spine are a bit less forthcoming, I guess because loads of people want to enter their races. So they offer travel, food, and the chance to be entered into a prize draw for a free entry. I honestly don't know if that includes their flagship events - I suspect not.

What would happen if ROs had to pay all the people who make the races possible? I think most would fold if I'm honest - I worked out that one race I sometimes work on required an absolute minimum of 15 volunteers for a ten hour day. Casual work at minimum wage would be about 100 quid each, which adds at the very least 1500 on the overheads of the event. Add on the costs of timing, medical cover etc which is increasingly expected or even required, and the overheads start to get pretty big when your entry numbers are around a couple of hundred. That "2 pounds per mile" reasonable entry fee soon gets eaten up.

Which means the crew rewards end up having to be intangible. Shared goals, community, the status and recognition of being part of the crew... the reasons are many, and it seems so far to be enough most of the time

But we can't call this a functioning business model, 'cos it really isn't.

St Cuthbert's Way - adventures in Celtic Christianity country

A couple of years ago we were in the Cheviots for New Year, and came across a few of the St Cuthbert's Way waymarkers on fence posts. Then in the Morebattle community shop we discovered the embroidered badge. Being suckers for an embroidered badge we bought them on the spot, which forced us to actually undertake the walk.

I had particular enthusiasm for this as one of the earliest books I remember reading was "The Wind Eye" by Robert Westall, which centres around St Cuthbert.

As previously noted, planning is something I do with some reluctance so I'd left it a bit until the last minute. Claire had got me the guidebook by Ron Turnbull earlier in the year, and the route website is really useful. A couple of weeks before our week off I had a frantic afternoon of booking accommodation (a fretful business for an OCDer - the fear of getting the days wrong is absolutely crippling) and we were set. 

Oh, except I hadn't figured out how to get to Melrose. Oops.

So a couple of days before we were due to set off, I worked out the trains. There are hints online that there is a bus to Melrose from Newcastle. This seems not to be true any more, so it's either bus from Berwick, or Edinburgh and the Tweedbank railway option. The latter seems to be much quicker, so bank holiday Monday saw us catching a succession of trains from home to Preston, then Edinburgh, then finally Galashiels. All of the trains ran to time, it was a weirdly relaxing journey.

Since it was only a few days we had quite small bags - 20l and only about 4kg each with all our clothes etc. I've included a kit list below, including comments on what was useful and what wasn't.

At Galashiels we walked along the cycleway picking up turf zones until we got to Melrose. Scotland being the home of Turf, there were lots of zones to be taken (but we didn't keep them for long). Found our hotel (the George and Abbotsford), left our bags and went for a wander around the abbey. It was gloriously sunny if a little breezy and cold.

Sunshine in Melrose

Melrose Abbey is of course ruinous. It has some interesting features (including a bagpipe playing pig) and a museum with monastic piss pots and a fragment of medieval glasses frame. Well worth a visit. We chatted briefly to an Irish tour guide from a Christian tour company who was guiding a party of American pilgrims. All the talk of pilgrimage gave me an earworm: "To be a pilgrim" - a hymn from school days. It stuck with me for days.

monastic piss pots

Back to the hotel for dinner, and a drunk man in the bar was talking extensively about French pop music. The George and Abbotsford was nice. Decent pub food, friendly and helpful, clean and with a good shower.

Tuesday morning and we were ready for the off. An extensive breakfast with lots of vegetarian haggis and we headed out to the abbey for the start. I had thought for years I was allergic to oats. Apparently not, which is useful news, especially in Scotland.

Eildon middle & south from north

From the abbey we headed up into the Eildon hills. We saw a group of 3 walkers as we climbed up to  Eildon north to take the Turf zone & look out at the hill fort/hut circles. Coming back down onto the route we met a couple we were to see frequently over the next few days (we eventually learned they were Vera and Paul) and their husky (we were introduced, and I forgot her name. Unusual - I usually remember pets names and forget the humans).

Shortly after we encountered the other three - from Newcastle by their accents. Both these groups were doing the route on a similar schedule to us. We were surprised by how many people we saw (but apparently there was a TV program about the SCW recently, which might explain it).

Bowden well

Day one from Melrose to Jedburgh was a longish one for us, with lots of lovely riverside paths and pleasant villages. We stopped for a delicious lunch at Mainstreet Trading Company in St Boswells and resisted the temptation to buy books. Approaching the A68 we debated the unofficial route avoiding the main road, but discovered that the main route is actually set quite a bit back from the road and is pleasant. We passed along Dere St, which was more varied than a Roman road has any right to be, then through the very pretty Monteviot estate woodlands to Harestanes.

Bowden church organ

From there it was a fairly short walk to the turn off for Jedburgh.

Bouncy. Near Drybergh

We opted to overshoot the lane through Jedfoot and follow the Abbeys Way, which turned out to be a good move as it followed field paths rather than tarmac. The walk through Jedburgh itself to our hotel (the Royal) was long and roady, but we picked up a couple of Turf zones on the way. There is a nicer route along the river, but we didn't discover it until the morning. Jedburgh is a nice little place with a decent co-op, and we were able to pick up a few bits of food (plus some wine), including plenty for our evening meal the following night as we were staying in an out of the way B&B.

The Royal was pretty average. The water pressure was terrible and there was a loud hum from possibly air conditioning that went on all night, and in spite of the sign outside they weren't doing food. They did have a drying room for boots/shoes, and there was an excellent restaurant round the corner - the Capon Tree Town House. Booking recommended, although they did fit us in (alongside another group doing the Way - 5 women who we'd see from time to time, including right at the end).

Next morning we took the footpath along the river out of Jedburgh, then through the woods on the way up the Abbeys Way. We had a pretty easy day planned, only about 20km finishing at Linton, not far from Morebattle. 

Cessford Castle

The route continued along valley and river, passing ruined Cessford castle with a bit of a road walk into Morebattle. At Morebattle we stopped at the village shop for a coffee, encountering various other SCWers. Getting coffee from the machine in the shop (bean to cup - decent machine coffee) I noticed Club biscuits out of the corner of my eye.

I'd booked us into a B&B at Linton - while there were rooms available at the Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm, having stayed there before I wasn't prepared to pay 180 quid a night. It's OK, but it's a bit basic. 

From Morebattle we left the SCW and followed the Kelso road out to Linton. I now had "if you like a lot of chocolate" added to my earworms. The combination became "If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit be a pilgrim".

Passing motorists on the minor road gave us lots of space, it was a nice afternoon and generally it was a pleasant walk, for tarmac. At the Old School House B&B we were welcomed by Annie and spent the remaining part of the afternoon playing Struggle for Catan in the very cosy and pleasant rooms there. We'd brought three packets of roasted veg couscous, some dried parmesan, some dried mushrooms and some cashews from Jedburgh Co-op. Plus wine of course. The combination of ingredients made for a hearty and filling dinner, made with nothing more than a kettle of boiling water. A look at the visitors book showed that Annie can provide a meal for those on foot if requested, and if her breakfasts are anything to go by you'd be well advised to ring ahead and ask.

After a delicious breakfast of very rich scrambled egg on toast (Claire went for porridge), yoghurt etc. we set out on a much longer day ("how far are you going today?", "Wooler", "Bloody hell!"). We've been to the Cheviots a couple of times now and got to know the area a fair bit. We were on familiar paths over the high point at Wideopen Hill and down into Town Yetholm. The path along the river is nice, with lots of bird life. We stopped for something to eat at Kirk Yetholm village green, then set off towards Wooler. This leg was another 17 miles on top of the 5 we'd already done, with 2 big climbs out of the Bowmont and College valleys. It was chilly up on the tops but still fairly bright and clear, we had good views out towards the coast and the company of curlews and larks.

The border - close gate SECURELY

We passed the group of 3 (we only ever caught one of their names) at the top of the climb past Yeavering Bell. There were just two of them, struggling with blisters and wrecked toenails. The third, Tony, had gone off ahead and we passed him not long before we reached Wooler. We dropped down into Wooler at 6pm and, after booking at the very good Italian restaurant on the High St, checked into the Arlington (some self-check in rooms in the town centre). We've stayed there before and know the routine, but I'd forgotten to buy milk so popped out to the coop. We're fond of Wooler (although our first experience there was the spectacularly appalling Tankerville Arms).

A delicious meal (seafood risotto for me, pizza for Claire) and a good night's sleep, and we were ready for an easier day out to Beal. Before that though, we had some breakfast in one of the cafes, then popped up to the Wooler hostel to meet Tim of Trail Outlaws. Tim and I have been talking about open source timing software, and I'd mentioned we'd be passing so we stopped off for a brew and a chat. 

At 10.30 we got on, heading out towards Weetwood Moor. Deep in conversation we (I) missed the most obvious way marker on the entire route and had to backtrack. This was a tarmac heavy day, with a lot of quiet country roads. The weather started to threaten and, while we were stopped getting waterproofs out, a fighter jet came roaring straight towards us then banked directly overhead. I did wonder if they were using my APRS radio as a convenient pretend target.

St Cuthbert's Cave

Waterproofs on, we plodded through the rain to St Cuthbert's Cave. By the time we reached it the rain had stopped, but we sat in the cave anyway to eat last night's pizza and drink tea from flasks.

After that we climbed to the top of the ridge and started to work our way down through the woods towards Fenwick. We passed Vera & Paul, then shortly after found a slow worm basking in the middle of the path and chivvied it into the long grass where their dog hopefully wouldn't find it.

At Fenwick we were just in time to have a coffee and some cake at the lovely little coffee shop. Then we crossed over the A1 (which took some time as there was quite a bit of traffic) and started through the lanes. Almost immediately we passed a farm with what looked like quite a large medieval hamlet attached to it - all ruined and surrounded by Heras fencing.

At the railway crossing we stopped and phoned the signal box, gave a needlessly pessimistic estimate of how long it'd take to cross, and crossed over.

At last we reached the tank traps and the shore, and we were looking across at Lindisfarne. Tomorrow we'd do the last little bit, across the sands.

It turned out to be further than I thought along the road to the Lindisfarne Inn - it's right up at the side of the A1 rather than at Beal as I thought. Ne'er mind, it's all training.

We had a nice enough pub meal at the Lindisfarne. Rooms are a bit pricey for what it is, but the food is hearty and the service is excellent.

But.

7am, we were woken by a large party of cycling lejog-ers on an organised trip. Banging on each others doors, shouting and clomping around in cleats. I'm a heavy sleeper and it took a long time to wake me up, but by the time I did wake I wasn't at all happy. Judging by the angry shouting I heard shortly after the lejog-ers had made no friends at all. I went out to have a word with the organisers - while I wouldn't have to share a hotel with them again, maybe they could be encouraged to behave better at their next stop. Big organised groups like that are often a nightmare, and there was audibly one bloke who never stopped talking at the top of his voice.

So, we had our breakfast and packed up for our final leg. Just after we left the hotel it started to rain and got very cold. May on the Northumbrian coast. We got to the causeway about 1045 and the matrix signs said the first causeway crossing was 1020. According to Ron Turnbull's guidebook we shouldn't set out across the Pilgrim's Way until 1120. It was far too cold to stand around for half an hour. A small group of runners from the Holy Island Marathon were sheltering behind a marshals car waiting for the crossing. We opted to walk out on the main causeway.

About halfway across we could see the Pilgrims Way was clear, and the runners had set off. So we cut across the sands to join the line of posts. Apart from one place where it was above my knees it was fine, and definitely the right way to reach the island at the end of the walk. It was bloody cold to be knee deep in north sea water though!

We found a table in the nearest cafe and drank some coffee to warm up, then went for a walk around the abbey and museum. The bus back to Berwick wasn't until 4pm so we had an easy afternoon of pottering around, and another spell warming up in the cafe. There was a huge queue for the bus, but we just about all fitted on.

Trains back from Berwick worked out OK, and we were home with a very happy cat by half eight.

The St Cuthbert's Way is a lovely route. A bit tarmac heavy in places, but with some beautiful scenery and a really strong feeling of connection to the past. At 60 miles it's a pretty short long distance path and approachable by anyone. The Cheviot section includes a couple of climbs and more of a feeling of isolation. As a trip it's best planned well in advance as accommodation can be limited in some places, and will probably be fairly costly regardless. Last minute meant limited accommodation options and hence a couple of 22 mile days. The start point at Melrose is far easier to reach by train than it looks.

Monastic Christianity, Pilgrimage and History

While I'm very much no longer religious, I have a fondness for the idea of pilgrimage and the simplicity and asceticism of that and monastic life. Walking St Cuthbert's Way gave me a sense of closeness to the history of Northern England and St Cuthbert's own closeness to nature. One of the books I was carrying (on my phone) was Stephen Graham's "The Gentle Art of Tramping" which complemented the walk nicely.

It was interesting to note though, that Lindisfarne Abbey only ever had a few monks on rotation from Durham, while the majority of the people there were farm workers, servants and guards. The monks were effectively management, charged with the running of an outlying branch office. In many ways medieval abbeys were just commercial entities, mainly concerned with running their farm holdings and accumulating capital (in the form of buildings, land, and goods) even while the individuals lived in considerable austerity. St Cuthbert himself played a role in the shift from the more ascetic Celtic tradition to the Roman tradition, with all it's pomp and power. Ultimately though, Cuthbert returned to asceticism, retiring to the life of a hermit on Inner Farne. With, no doubt, thousands of puffins and eider ducks.

Kit list

• UD Fastpack 20
• yellow merino t shirt
• grey merino hoodie
• grid fleece
• Montane fireball
• paramo windproof
• wallet
• primaloft gilet
• patagonia shorts
• patagonia leggings
• 3 walking t shirts
• waterproof coat and trousers
• powerbank
• phone
• book (Les Huit Coups de l'Horloge by Maurice LeBlanc) [plus 'The Gentle Art of Tramping' on my phone)
• watch charger & usb C cable
• APRS radio transceiver
• soft water bottle
• ti flask
• 1 pair waterproof socks (worn on Lindisfarne after my shoes got wet)
• 1 pair warm evening socks (not worn)
• 2 pairs merino walking socks
• altra lone peak shoes
• socks for evening
• cap
• mittens (Montane prism mittens. Not very good unfortunately)
• underwear *5
• toothbrush/paste/shower gel
• antihistamines
• guidebook
• compass
• monocular
• light walking trousers for the evening (should have taken shorts)
• small first aid kit & leatherman micra
• buffs
• travel game (Struggle for Catan)
• spare drybag for laundry

Lessons learned

I forgot to take boil-bags and sporks for food when we didn't eat out.

Arguably I didn't need both the primaloft and a merino hoody for the evening - given the forecast was OK I only ended up wearing the primaloft on the last day, and that was to warm up while sitting in the cafe/walking around Lindisfarne. 

I could have done away with 3 synthetic t shirts and taken another merino to wear during the day (if I'd remembered to do the woollen washing a week earlier).

I didn't use my windproof at all. It's a comfortable thing in the right conditions but probably too niche to bother with for multi-day. 

A notepad and pen would have been nice.