Walking Lands End to John O'Groats 2025 for Alzheimer's Society

1350 miles over 101 days with around 112,000 feet ascent I had dreaded writing this, as I didn’t want it to end. This would represent the end of a way of life which I’d grown accustomed to, like a second skin, and a return to the old. Only it hasn’t turned out that way. Instead, I have a deep sense of fulfilment and calm. And looking forward to returning home to my precious family and valued friends. It’s a phase of endings and beginnings. No abrupt stop and start but a gentler moving on. And one of the most important things is that of my mourning for Mum. My love for my mother is as keen as ever, but the mourning has evolved into something more fortifying. I will always carry something of my mother within me - whether it is the idiosyncrasies I remember of her, sticking out her tongue when scrambling over a particular bit of ground and hearing Dad tick her off, or the loving chastisement of Dad when he was up to mischief … all things I pick up on myself with Martin now. To my knowledg...

Being the last day, it felt important to wear my old beastly friend of the trek - the large rucksack. I was actually surprised how comfortable - and comforting it was! Maria and I set off with Martin at 9:30, letting some heavy rain go through first. We would have to watch ourselves on the cliffs as the forecast was for 45 miles per hour gusts from the west. Within minutes we could see Keiss castle before us but for Maria, I think seeing seals bobbing up in the water was more interesting, not least because Georgie was desperate to see them too. Martin turned back and we told him to let Georgie know. The path was overgrown with wet vegetation, and it wasn’t long before Maria reported that the inside of her boots were starting to get wet. It wouldn’t take too long before mine followed (by 10:20!): with rotting stitching it was the reason I had originally decided to swop over to my new boots all those days ago down in St Ives, Cornwall. Oystercatchers were clearly alarmed by our proximity...

 After 101 phenomenal days of walking and an unbelievable 1346.7 miles, I finally arrived at John O’Groats this afternoon. I am so pleased and so relieved. As you might imagine, the family and I are spending the evening celebrating, and I’ve been banned from writing my blog tonight! So a blog post will be coming out tomorrow with more detail on the eventful Day 101, but for now if you will forgive me, I shall kick off my boots, relax and enjoy a glass of prosecco!

So if you were thinking this was the last day, it wasn’t. I would finish on Day 101. Starting on a beautiful sunny morning following a thunderstorm earlier, I started at 10:30 - the others doing a road trip up to Thurso. I was just sorry the girls had done their day’s walk for me in fog! I walked around North Head and onto back roads passing an old corrugated door shed just before the sign to Papigoe - I was astonished to realise a colony of Arctic terns had chosen to nest there! As I came into Staligoe (In Norse, goe means inlet and stali means stack - sure enough there was a small harbour with a stack within it) a storm gathered to the south of me. I hoped it would pass to the west of me - fingers crossed! The day’s forecast was thunderstorms and I admit I was considering strategies to avoid being a target of lightening as I walked along the low cliffs and beaches of the day’s walk. Two gull fledglings sat on a house roof above me looking very cute but I wondered if the locals though...