Our intrepid supporter, Paul Howlett is off on another fundraising expedition in aid of Young Carers…following the footsteps of the great Alfred Wainwright and taking on A Pennine Journey.
In Paul’s own words…
Did you know ‘A Pennine Journey’ is an older trail than the Pennine Way by aprox 10 years? Well I had never heard of the Pennine Journey until I was looking at an Ordinance Survey Map of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks and I saw a mark on the map. It stirred my interest, I needed to know more.
This is what I found out. On the 24th of September 1938, Alfred Wainwright set out on an expedition from Settle to hike to Hardian’s Wall, which had intrigued him for years, his plan was to hike East of the Pennines and return on the Western Flanks. The Total distance then was then 220 miles, His journey northward would involve him in ascents and descents into the successive valleys of, from the initial Ribblesdale, Littondale, Wharfedale, Wensleydale, Swaledale, the River Greta, Teesdale, Weardale, Rookhope Burn and the River Derwent.
After his epic adventure he wrote a book on his experiences.
The more I found out about the route the more I was hooked, the new route was 247 miles and a Total elevation of 36,942 feet. A significant challenge in anybodies books, but I thought you know what I bet it can be completed in 7 days, this worked our atleast 35 miles a day and 5,277 feet of climbing. Now that’s a challenge!
So initially I planned the route to start in June, however with injury and work, I have knocked it back to September. This time I wanted a partner in crime, somebody with a bit more personality than a 2 stone Teddy Bear. There was only one person (daft enough) with a bit of hounding (okay a lot of hounding) to do it. Our very own Chris Edis (Operations Manager North East), What could possibly go wrong, he’s a fellow Geordie, he was born in the same area as me Chester-le-street and a legendary fell runner! To be fair to Chris he’s never gone long, so it could go horribly wrong but that’s all part of the fun right? (that’s what I keep telling him anyway).
THE ROUTE
For logistics we have moved the start and finish points to The Sill and each overnight will be in a Youth Hostel. So the route looks like this all being well:-
Starting on September the 5th at around 8am
- 4th Sept overnight at The Sill
- 5th Sept- The Sill to Kirkland 38 miles – overnight at yha Dutton
- 6th- Kirkland to Hazelgill 32.3 miles – overnight at yha Hawes
- 7th – Hazelgill to Singleton 37 miles – overnight at yha Ingleton
- 8th Singleton to Yockenthwaite 30 miles- overnight at yha Kettlewell
- 9th – Yockenthwaite to Bowes 37 miles – overnight at YHA Grinton
- 10th – Bowes to Blanchland 37.7 miles overnight Yha Langdon Beck
- 11th – Blanchland to The Sill 30 miles.
We’ve decided to fundraise for YHA but specifically Young Carers at Carers Trust Tyne and Wear and Blackpool Carers, the money raised will fund a trip away to one of our amazing Youth Hostels with adventures for a week. I have met the team and the Young Carers, they are fantastic and deserve the respite for all their hardwork they do each day to support their families.
So if you want to dot watch or join us, please use this link, it should show the route and where we are every 10 minutes – https://share.garmin.com/APennineJourney
MAKE A DONATION
If you want to donate, please use this link – https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/foryoungcarers
As you can imagine the logistics involved in the planning and on the actual event is a challenge in itself. For example once we are finished each day, we still need to get to the Youth Hostels, so if you could spare the time and want to help, please speak to myself or Chris Edis.
I am sharing my training and will do regular posts during our challenge, so if you want to see the pain and suffering, you can follow on either Instagram or Facebook.
FOLLOW OUR PROGRESS
- Instagram –
- STRAVA – https://www.strava.com/athletes/1161718
- Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/520583955104390/
We would like to thank Paul and Chris for taking on this fantastic challenge in aid of Young Carers and can’t wait to hear all about their adventures…and of course, who they meet along the way.