I am sitting on a comfy sofa in the wonderful Manor House Inn on the side of the A68 with far reaching views over the beautiful Northumbria countryside (yes, I've made it to Northumberland- hooray!) I bounced over the border of County Durham into Northumberland marvelling at the fact that the next border will be from England to Scotland. This jubilation doubled when, with a yell from Bugs, we spotted our first road sign to Edinburgh (103 miles!).
I am also very sunburnt (so much for leaving my sun cream behind because it seemed like a needless additional weight in my pack) and slightly dozy from tiredness and too much sun but greatly cheered by the prospect of a large dinner and glass of wine!
The roads haven't been too bad and I've got into a rhythm of walking on the tarmac and leaping on to a verge when traffic is approaching. I sweated up the hills (oh boy there are a lot of hills) and felt a few more blisters appearing but the scenery was so beautiful today that I really couldn't get demoralised. We stopped in a little village for a breather and chatted to the local shop owner who declared that "we aint seen nothing yet if you think the hills are bad here" - oh great. Tomorrow will be tough as it's uphill all the way but at least i'm rewarded with a spectacular view at the end of it all. Huge thanks to Bugs for taking my pack up the hills in the last few miles when my feet and back couldn't take any more and for making the massive effort to join me in the middle of nowhere. We spent the whole of this afternoon planning what to eat tonight (passes the hours) and now, oh joy, we can eat our way through the menu..!
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