Day 19 - Bolsover to Sheffield

My dad thought it was very funny in a complete shift from ever that I was the one to say we were having breakfast at 7.30am and should be on our way as soon as possible after that and by 8.30am at the latest! Saying the timings out loud was mostly for me and I was just about ready on time! With 19 miles to walk to Sheffield where I was staying with my friend Katie we needed to get going. The cooked breakfast and coffee got us off to a great start, and we made more coffee to take in our flasks as it looked like the first part of our walk crossed quite a few fields, as well as the M1 so we couldn't count on passing a cafe.

There was frost on the ground and ice in places so we walked carefully leaving Bolsover. It felt colder than it had in a few days but another dry and sunny day so no complaints. It was lovely to have the company of my parents for the first 10 miles of the day to Eckington and seeing as we crossed a bridge over the M1 the sign saying The NORTH. My dad uses Komoot the app I'm using to navigate, and it has a feature where you can share a walk in live time, so they've actually been able to track my daily progress from day 1. 

This has been great for me, I feel reassured that someone knows where I am, especially during the occasional moments I've felt isolated or lost my confidence a bit, becoming aware of the fact that I'm on my own with a heavy bag in what can feel like the middle of nowhere. This happens for different reasons some of which are, if I'm tired physically or mentally, when it's getting darker towards the end of a day, if I haven't seen anyone for a while or sometimes if I have seen someone, also being at an overgrown industrial edge of a town/city. I talked about this with my mum as we walked, observing that if I'd been in those same places but at a different time of day, if the sky was blue and I wasn't alone I may have felt different. It's interesting.

With the live tracking it's also nice to receive encouraging messages during more challenging parts and celebratory messages when I reach a destination. It does have a drawback in that it is immediately obvious when I make a wrong turn or can't work out where I'm going and walk round in circles! Once I'm back on track I can see the funny side of the comments sent at these times!

My dad offered to carry my big bag I gratefully accepted and he set a good pace, my mum and I followed chatting! I grew up in Whitby from the age of 9 and many friends came to stay over the years including Ro who loved visiting. He particularly liked getting takeaway fish and chips from The Magpie and going on the tourist boat trips - speed boats and slower boats! Of course there was sea swimming and time on the beach, trips to local places on the coast and moors, along with plenty of coffee and cake in town! 

One of my mum's favourite memories of Ro is in Whitby when she'd made a crumble (with custard - Ro's favourite!). We had all previously been at Greenbelt festival where I'd been trading with Fair Grounds my fair trade business and my parents and Ro along with other friends had helped me set up and run the stall. Ro and I had been at a late night comedy venue and seen a musical performance by a Britain's Got Talent contestant called Lorraine. We had no idea who she was but absolutely loved her song about making crumble it got stuck in our heads and for the rest of the festival we sung it at anyone who would listen (and anyone who wouldn't) including my mum. When my mum brought this crumble to the table she started singing the song to Ro who was as taken aback as I was, and my mum's memory is of his face looking surprised then a smile forming which was given away in his eyes and the corners of his mouth followed by a full smile and laugh of appreciation! 

Ro had a great sense of humour and appreciation of comedy. One of the most precious things in our WhatsApp communication is a voice message of his laugh, I hope I keep it forever. It was in summer 2023 and he'd found a CD in packaging on a street in London, maybe the creator was wanting to share their music or couldn't distribute them any other way. Anyway Ro had picked it up and sent me a voice message as he was listening, so I heard some of the music (in my opinion it wasn't good!) and then he says "right that's enough of that" and laughs! 

One of my dad's favourite memories of Ro is when I was returning to Bradford for my second year of uni and on my Nokia brick phone received a text from him saying "I'm not coming back...." I was pretty upset by this message as we'd become friends and I was looking forward to the year ahead. I kept clicking the down arrow and 6 blank messages later read "....till Thursday!" He had managed to fool me, my dad appreciated the thought that went into the perfect delivery! I remember laughing with Ro about it on that Thursday when we were reunited. Also back in those days when you paid per text it would have cost a bit, but was obviously worth it!

Back to the walk and we needed to use our poles in certain places where the rain had made the gradients slippy with mud, we saw birds which we thought might be gannets. We came to a nature reserve and lake with a large variety of birds and ducks, deciding to sit at a picnic table furthest away from the geese for a coffee stop. The next part was an old railway line, busy with cyclists and walkers. We were almost in Eckington with self-cleaned boots when we crossed an old golf course and entered a horse field not walking far across but the boggy mess of dung and mud was enough to cake our boots in mud all over again! 

Melanie a friend from Manchester was meeting us for lunch, we ate together and then I said goodbye to my parents who got the bus back to Bolsover to continue their journey to the Midlands to visit friends. Melanie and I crossed some fields and then in a wooded area had to walk down the steepest hill of my journey so far. All the fallen leaves helped make it less muddy and a bit easier to get down on our feet! I was carrying both my bags again and Melanie offered to carry my smaller bag which helped a lot. In fact this was one of my longest days in miles but because of the company and not carrying both my bags it seemed to fly by easily. Melanie spoke about her friend Jo who had died and who she wanted to remember while we walked together. It's a privilege to learn about people's friends, listening to stories and hearing about the influence they had and still have in the lives of their loved ones. 

We got to a farm where my app was saying no entry and if I had been on my own I would have turned around and taken a long detour, which I didn't really want to do 16 miles in. This has been the nice thing about walking with others, making decisions I wouldn't have felt confident to on my own. Melanie's OS app showed there was a way through and we started walking, we saw someone working there who ignored us so it must be ok! There was a footpath sign further up but it was overgrown. 

At some point we crossed from Derbyshire into Yorkshire, and since the start of my walk in Brighton I'd been building this moment into a significant occasion as I've spent most of my life in Yorkshire - North, South and West and it feels like home! I don't know what I was expecting but disappointingly there was no big 'welcome to Yorkshire' sign, nobody giving out white roses and cups of tea saying "ey up love, ee by gum you've come a long way from't South!" 

We were on the outskirts of Sheffield as it was getting dark and the sunset was stunning this evening. We said goodbye as Melanie had to get back to Manchester for work and I continued to Katie's house and ate pizza with her, Philip, Arthur and Iris, and was introduced to their very cool pets! I've stayed quite a few times, we've been friends since secondary school and it's always so lovely meeting up and makes me grateful for friendships that go way back. We only had about an hour where it was just the 2 of us, but the catching up went deep which is possible with years of friendship and I really value this. We also laughed a lot too!