The Pennine Way was the first designated National Trail opened in the UK, winding its way for over 260 miles through the Derbyshire Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, and the Northumberland National Park, ending just over the Scottish border at Kirk Yetholm.
My parents were lifelong keen walkers, walking on the North Yorkshire Moors in their youth, taking the family along on many walking holidays when my sister and I were younger, and leading walks with the U3A right through until they were stricken with ALS. In their retirement they walked the Cleveland Way and other long distance walks with friends, breaking each walk down into manageable sections and using two cars to allow them to 'leap frog' between B&Bs along the way.
When I was about 16, out walking with my father one day he mentioned how he'd love to walk the Pennine Way, which I'd never heard of until then. It was clearly something he'd been mulling over, and he asked whether I would be interested in walking it along with him. Of course at that age that was the last thing I was interested in, and it wasn't until many years later that I realised what an opportunity I had casually dismissed. By then I was working, and my father would probably have felt that the time for such a thing had passed.
So walking the Pennine Way is partly a belated fulfilment of my father's plans, and partly a tribute to the love of walking and the British countryside which my parents have passed onto me and my sister. At the same time it is hopefully a way to raise funds for the MND Association through your generous sponsorship.
Throughout the journey I hope to update this blog daily with that day's status, along with photographs taken the same day. Of course this depends on finding a WiFi hotspot or a decent mobile phone signal, so there may be some gaps along the wilder parts of the route.
If you would like to donate to the MND Association, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/PhilipJAWhite
