Walking the Pennine Way When I Was Eleven - Introduction and Preparations


In the summer of 1979 I walked the Pennine Way when I was eleven years old, along with my father and my sister who was nine.  The Pennine Way is the oldest and most famous long distance footpath in Britain running for 260 miles from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish borders through the Peak District, Pennines and Cheviots.

I don't remember exactly when we decided to walk the Pennine Way but we had been told tales from when my father had walked it as a young man not long after it had been established.

I also don't remember much of the planning for the walk.  We did one training walk of about five miles but that was it.  I do, however, remember quite a lot about the walk itself even though it was forty years ago.  I took a notebook to record a diary but only kept it up for a week.  The rest of this account is from my memories of the walk.

For some reason we didn't take a camera so there aren't any photos from the walk itself.

We all had rucksacks for our own stuff and my father carried a tent and the things for communal use.  My sister and I also each had a sleeping bag which was held around our bodies on a cord.  Sometimes it would rest on top of the rucksack, at other times it would dangle in front of our chests.  I don't remember this being uncomfortable but I did swap the position between front and back to spread the load. As I recall we wore walking boots and they were quite comfortable.

After a practice at putting the tent up on the lawn the school holidays dawned and we were ready for our adventure.

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