Thanks to All!

 

With the wet and windy December weather we're having here in the north of England it seemed a suitable time to review our trip this spring and summer. We would like to thank all who helped us along with help and donations as we made our way slowly north. Here's a list of both planned and unplanned help for our trip - it's almost certainly incomplete and we apologies for any missed entries!

Friends & Family
Rosie & Garry. Starting us off from home, meeting up at Monmouth and a glorious afternoon at Burnlaw as we neared home.
Nigel, Kay & guide dog Jackie. At the very start & then a complete surprise at the very end!
Keith & Margaret. Our first rest day and a chance to chill out on the Cornish Riviera. and meet up with family over the Easter weekend.
Penny & Tim. After struggles with blisters we were treated to a holiday with old friends from Settlingstones who couldn't do enough for us - a wonderful time recuperating!
Richard & Emma. Our bags were carried for a stage and a welcome night indoors in an area that had hit the headlines not long ago for the severe floods.
Karolie. We met en route in Cornwall. Karolie (and her lovely golden retrievers) offered to put us up when we reached Cheddar. A welcome change from camping.
Poppy. We needed somewhere to stay around Bristol and pick up one of our resupply parcels - a vital point in the journey.
Mick, Penny, Ian, Stephen & Geraldine. Worcester family - picked up, resupply, family gathering and then return to the trail lightly loaded. Walked with family and we even got lost!
Hilary & Mike. Old friends put us up and Hilary walked a stage with us on another lightly loaded stage. Thanks to Mike for the driving.
Robin & Gwynn. Again, old friends who went out of their way - Jos needed new boots and we did a mini tour of Sheffield outdoor shops. Another stage with only day sacks and at last we're in the Pennines! One of the places we simply have to return to - we want to ascend Mam Tor in clear conditions!
Joanna & Phil. Our vital resupply before we tackled 'England's Last Wilderness' here in the North Pennines.
Mick & Ann. Baggage transfer while we walked with just day sacks.
Jane & Neil. Walking with us & looking after Barney after we had finished.
John & Angie. Even though off to France the next day we had somewhere to stay after finishing the Pennine Way.
John & Penny. The section difficult for accommodation. We were taken back and forth to near Sterling whilst we were able to walk several stages light loaded.
Geoff & Wendy. Help at Fort William and then we met up again at the Crask Inn where Wendy & Meg walked with us to the end while Geoff ferried gear, appeared en route with cups of tea, ice creams and other wonderful treats!
Sue.Picked us up from Haltwhistle station and took us home (at last!).


Guide Dogs / Dogs Unite (fund raising section of Guide Dogs)
Lorraine & the rest of the Dogs Unite team at Reading for the organising and support throughout
Nikky, Julie & Fionna - Scottish central belt where we were treated like royalty!
Pippa - back home and a party was arranged at short notice in our local pub.

Inns
We camped for most of the trip so the Inns & Hotels we chose had to be special! All are wholeheartedly recommended, are do friendly and deserve a visit...
The Red Lion Hotel, Clovelly
The Royal Oak, Luxborough
The Notley Arms Inn, Monksilver
Tan Hill Inn
The Crask Inn

Donations & Help
The response to our walk was truly outstanding. As well as collecting directly as we walked, we had over 250 donations online at our JustGiving page and through our text donations number. Many thanks to all of you!
A special thanks must go to:

• The Flat Coat Retriever Society who were so generous with two substantial donation. (You can see a picture of Barney relaxing on the Rescue Rehousing page!)
• Our son-in-law's firm, Grontmij whose Newcastle workforce made collections every week for the duration of the trip.
• Hadrian Vets, Hexham. Not only looking after Barney but adding a substantial customer collection to our total.

With these additions, we raised a total of £8000. The Dogs Unite ' Match a Mile for Barney' scheme raised a further £22000 with over 1200 people and dogs taking part!

A number of organisations reduced or waived fees when they found out we were associated with a charity. Equivalent sums were added to the donations total. In all cases, people were generous and couldn't have been more helpful. Space precludes us from detailing all of these but we certainly remember you all! Apologies for any missing entries...
The North Inn,Pendeen - good collection in pub to start us off
Porthbeach Holiday Park, Newquay
Porthtowan Holiday Park - made welcome even though the site was still officially shut!
Atlantic View Caravan Park, Portcothan and Porthconan Bay Stores
Cabin Cafe, Crackington Haven. Not a campsite but the owner let us camp in her garden. Also the offer of phoning Australia as we had an urgent need to contact relatives.
Greencliff Farm, Bideford. The owner's son kindly did some shopping for us as no shops were nearby and we were staying 2 nights.
Brightlycott Barton campsite, Barnstaple. One of our pre-planned packages was waiting for us.
Huntstile Organic Farm - rescued us after torrential rain when it was getting too dangerous to walk on the unlit roads. We were well fed and had an exceptional room on the house for the night.
Totney Farm, Mark. We decided to have a short day but it meant a long detour by road to get to the campsite. A farmer stopped and after chatting, suggested we take a short cut through his land which saved us many miles of road walking.
Oak Farm campsite, Congresbury
Celia of Canine Relate near the Severn Bridge. Looking for somewhere to pitch a tent and we were able to stay in a field belonging to Celia where she instructs owners and trains dogs - Barney was at home!
Eve Victoria Cafe, Hay on Wye. Even though they were closing, we were presented with tea and cakes just when we needed it most.
Radnors End Campsite, Hay on Wye
The Copper Kettle, Much Wenlock. A welcome break and then they collected on our behalf.
Wenlock Hardware, Much Wenlock for the replacement sleeping mat for Barney!
Darbys, Ironbridge
Tong Hill Farm, Tong Norton. Jos asked in the bar of the local hotel and a farmer spontaneously offered the use of his garden for camping.
Cannock Chase Camping and Caravanning Club campsite
The Dapple Grey, Uttoxeter. A very busy Sunday afternoon after race day but once the staff knew we were collecting for Guide Dogs they couldn't do enough for us!
Ashbourne Heights Country Park, Thorpe
The Rambler Inn, Edale
Carrylite Baggage Transfer Service. No we didn't use the service! We met on St Cuthbert's Way and the driver donated and offered us their service should we need it.
Jedburgh campsite
Linwater campsite
Campsie Pharmacy, Milton of Campsie
Cobleland Campsite, Aberfoyle
Ewen's Taxis, Ullapool

Marathon Meg walks on after the end!

Barney had Meg walking with him for the last few days of the walk as her owners Geoff & Wendy became our support team from the Crask Inn to John O'Groats. Wendy and Meg walked with us whilst Geoff gallantly drove their camper van back and forth, sorting out logistics, serving up drinks in unlikely places and generally making our days that much easier - thanks Geoff!
The picture shows us walking a long stretch of road, something Barney normally hated but he didn't mind at all with Meg along!
That's not the end of the story for Meg however - she went on with her owners soon after and walked the Pennine Way raising over £300 for Match a Mile!

Jackie and Barney want help!

Now it's us two* asking for your help!
Final round voting in the Mountain Warehouse competition finishes soon. If you haven't voted yet please go to http://bit.ly/1eCdpJz and help us to win £10k for Guide Dogs!
*Guide Dog Jackie was with Barney at the start of the trek

Urgent call for votes

Come on folks - we need votes! We're 3rd at the moment in the Mountain Warehouse competition so your vote may make difference between winning and losing! See the last post for details.

Here is our voting page:
http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/charity/entries/barneys-long-walk--e2446.aspx

How the fund raising is going

Hello from the Barney's Long Walk team,

Although the walk ended at the beginning of August we are still collecting for Guide Dogs! We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have donated to this very worthwhile cause.

We started out with £2500 as our goal and this was soon increased to £5500 which was reached before the trek had finished. The total now stands at almost £8000! Added to this is the amazing amount being raised by Guide Dogs on the Dogs Unite 'Match a Mile for Barney' challenge - this is now well past £14000 and as the challenge continues until the end of September we expect it to be considerably more. Well done everybody!

Well, our trek is finished but we are still looking for assistance. As you may know, we entered a Mountain Warehouse outdoor competition to win a further £10000 for Guide Dogs. You may have voted for us in the first round and I am pleased to say with your votes we made it through to the final - well done! We now need you to vote for us in the final round:

* If you voted for us in the first round, could you please spend a few minutes to repeat the process as the count has started again for the final.
* If you have not voted for us before, please do now - it's very easy and only takes a few minutes.

Either way, you can click the link below (or copy and paste it into your browser) to get to our voting page. Click the Vote Now button and enter your email address. You will receive a confirmation email with a further link to click in order to confirm your vote. Until you have done this your vote is not registered. This process is followed to avoid cheating!

Here is our voting page:
http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/charity/entries/barneys-long-walk--e2446.aspx

Many thanks and I hope we can report we have all won £10000 for Guide Dogs when voting finishes later this month!
Barney, Bob & Jos

p.s. If you want to help in another way with your dog, visit http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/dogs-unite/find-events/dogs-unite-match-a-mile-for-barney/ and sign up to the challenge which is open until 30th September

Competition Final Round

Barney's made it into the final 10 of the Mountain Warehouse competition! Please vote to help him win the £10000 prize for Guide Dogs. Even if you voted in the first round, please do so again as this is a fresh round. It's very easy - after you have voted, an email will be sent to request confirmation in a link. This is simply to stop cheating!
http://www.mountainwarehouse.com/charity/entries/barneys-long-walk--e2446.aspx

Hexham Courant

Barney gets a whole page feature in our local Hexham Courant!
Still time to match a mile - see www.DogsUnite.org.UK/match-a-mile for details.
Also donations page is still open at www.JustGiving.com/BarneysLongWalk

Postscript

As a few of you will know, our youngest grandson, Archie, was diagnosed with cancer just a few days after we started the trek. We deliberated over whether to terminate the walk but decided to continue and be prepared to finish at short notice should we be needed in Australia where he lives.
His parents, our son Dan and his partner Sally, have had a testing time as treatment progressed. They live over 200 miles from the childrens hospital in Melbourne where Archie is being treated and they have two other boys.
Fortunately, Sally's mum has been able to help out (she lives in Seattle) through a very difficult time when Archie has had chemotherapy and two operations. Now it's our turn to assist, so we are flying out to Melbourne on Wednesday to be with the boys through the next 3 months while Archie has more chemotherapy.

Day 133 Home!

A 6 O'clock taxi saw us at Thurso station for the 6:50 to Inverness. Then it was trains to Edinburgh, Carlisle and finally Haltwhistle where Sue picked us up - thanks!
Before we knew where we were, we were having a meal in our local, the Crown in Catton and that's almost it...

Day 132 John O' Groats

A rest day!
The weather stayed fine so we simply... chilled out.
We finished by visiting the Seaview Hotel and I had quite the best seafood meal I have ever had!

Day 131 Keiss - John O' Groats!

Well, what a final day!
The guidebook describes this as not suitable for children or dogs and we had two (I'll let you decide who they are...)!
A glorious walk along cliff edges where sometimes you hang onto the fence because the drop is so close! The 40mph winds never really happened - it was just a classic windy coastal walk with the wind in the right direction.
We met up with Geoff at a couple of points which helped progress a lot - hot drinks and food! Again, our heavy sacks were in the van and Barney carried nothing - he loved it!
Then, after a long day, we arrived at John O' Groats and... surprise, surprise, Kay, Nigel & Guide dog Jackie appeared at the end! They'd travelled all the way up from Falmouth to greet us! They saw us off at Land's End and I remember Nigel saying 'we might get up to John O'Groats to greet you' but never really expected it, as it is a 900 mile trip (don't we know)! He even posted Facebook posts to make it look as though they were still at home! What a finish - even the sun was shining!

Day 130 A9 - Keiss

A full day for Wendy & Meg. First forest, then steadily more easy down to Watten where we enjoyed our first shop since Ullapool!
Next was a change of route - Andy Robinson in the guide describes the crossing of the Moss of Killimster as hard - if he says that, he means hard! Given that it is hard because of the, let's say, damp nature of the terrain and the fact that everywhere is already waterlogged this year and we'd had steady rain last night, we decided to bite the bullet and walk the road instead. Barney really slows up on roads normally but having Meg along made all the difference and he trotted along at normal speed!
Eventually we left the road and headed for the beach! This was the East coast and our first sea en route since Devon although we had camped next to Loch Broom at Ullapool.
Geoff had spotted a fish & chip van in Keiss earlier where we finished so we raced off in anticipation to find it had shut 10 minutes earlier! Yet another dehydrated meal it was then...

Day 129 Dail Righe - A9

More track and eventually we met up with Geoff & Wendy again for Wendy & Meg to join us for the walk whilst Geoff did the transport. Jos had described the camper van previously as the (n)ice cream van as it is cream coloured so Geoff & Wendy presented us with... ice creams!
A picture below shows Meg in a stream - her favourite position in water is sitting down!
The destination was the A9 but we weren't camping on it!Geoff picked us up and we made our way to the Watten campsite - not the best one of our trip! The walking was good however apart from Jos dropping her Australian cap and we having to return (in the camper van) to find it!

Day 128 Kinbrace - Dail Righe

Wendy and here dog, Meg, came part way for this one and it immediately started hard! We have found that forestry and other changes in Scotland has meant the route details have been outdated in some instances - this was one of them. A struggle to get through what should have been an easy stretch made hard by a new forestry plantation. This was followed by a big climb and then miles of peat hags mixed with waterlogged ground. The trig point at the top is stood on a mound of peet which is slowly being eroded - eventually it will fall over! Then followed a long land rover track and finally we reached our camping spot for the night - quite a relief!

Day 127 Loch Choire - Kinbrace

We arranged to meet Geoff & Wendy part way through todays trek and then Wendy walk with us while Geoff took the sacks - what a man!
After a lovely walk around the loch (spot the deer in the pic below) where we saw divers close to, we then had a 10 mile trudge along a land rover track - very remote with spacious views however. Wendy then joined us for the last 5 or so miles to Kinbrace where we camped next to the railway line!

Day 126 Crask Inn - Loch Choire

As well as staying at a pub, we have met up with friends Geoff & Wendy from Arisaig who we last saw on the stage from Fort William where Geoff took our bags and Wendy walked with us for the day. They are now taking most of our food so we only need carry supplies until we meet them again in two days.
We stopped early at Loch Choire - it's a lovely spot and we are definitely feeling tired after the last few days, all of which have been hard.

Day 125 Glen Cassley - Crask Inn

Heading for a pub! We've wanted to stay at this inn - one famous amongst walkers and fishermen alike! Situated in the middle of a large expanse of remote country, it was quite a walk to get to it. The ground was very wet and although we could see it in the distance, it took several hours of hard walking, including a difficult stream crossing to arrive!

Day 124 Glen Oykel - Glen Cassley

Wet to start again! Another very remote section of the walk as we traversed around the flanks of Ben More Assynt and headed towards Loch Shin. The route followed an old track and then we decided to leave it and follow hydro tracks to avoid what we thought might be a difficult river crossing but when we arrived, having detoured several miles, the water level was very low!(that's not the picture below which was just a little side stream!)

Day 123 Knockdamph - Glen Oykel

We had all been this way before but the plus this time was that the bar at the Oykel Bridge Hotel was open! Sandwiches and soft drinks were readily consumed while we listened to the fishermans talk before they all went off for an afternoons fishing.
The cattle grid is well known to us - the last time here the gate was locked so we were deciding how to get Barney across. Jos walked across to see if she could find a gap in the fence and Barney decided to follow by jumping it! Needless to say he didn't make it and fhis legs went down between the bars! Luckily nothing was broken, just a grazed shin and he had to be lifted out.

A cattle grid we know well!