Walking The Pennine Way When I Was Eleven: When We Got Home

In the days after we returned home there was some interest from the local media in our walk because my sister and I were so young. I don't know who had contacted them but we did an interview with BBC Radio Nottingham and local newspapers the Newark Advertiser and Mansfield CHAD. We also had our photos taken by the papers with the one below being my favourite.
We joined the Pennine Way Club, which we had found out about at the Pen-y-Ghent cafe, and received this cloth badge. However, the Club folded a few years ago.
The walk was the first long-distance trail of many that I have done since. As a family we attempted but didn't complete Offa's Dyke Path two years later. On my own, in 1989 I started walking from Land's End to John o'Groats but soon stopped after getting bad blisters. However, I managed to do it in short stages between 2004 and 2010 taking in the South West Coast Path, Cotswold Way, West Highland Way and Great Glen Way. I have also done parts of other trails but it all started at the age of eleven on the Pennine Way.

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