About this blog

The journey from John o'Groats to Land's End took place in 14 sections, starting in 1996 (a week or so each year). The idea came to me in 1995 and I completed the British JoGLE Watershed in June 2009.

I was joined by a number of relations and friends from time to time. Most notable among my walking companions were my son Tim (7 sections) and nephews Peter and Jonny.

After walking the first section in 1996 I discovered that Dave Hewitt had already pioneered the Scottish Watershed (to Cape Wrath) in 1987, and had published his excellent account Walking the Watershed in 1994. We have been in touch since then, and he has been a great encouragement.

A simple definition of the watershed is that any rain falling to the left of the path finishes in the North Sea or English Channel, and anything to the right flows into the Atlantic Ocean, the Irish Sea or the Bristol Channel.

I believe that this was the first walk along the full length of the British JoGLE Watershed. I became aware just after I completed the journey that the late Mike Allen walked a slightly different version (from Land's End to Cape Wrath) between 1988 and 1994, so he will have covered the same ground apart from the most north-easterly 220km.

There have subsequently been several walks and publications about parts of the JoGLE watershed, including Peter Wright's 2010 Ribbon of Wildness account of his Scottish section walked in 2005, which has brought the subject of watershed walking in the UK to a wider audience.

I hope you enjoy this blog. I'm planning to publish a full account in 2013/4. A summary of the walk appeared in The Angry Corrie volume 76 in 2009.

Malcolm Wylie.

Tuesday 15 August 2006

Day 106 - animal/vegetable/mineral

We set off at 8:30am up a footpath I'd noticed on the map. It turned out to be completely overgrown with brambles and nettles, and at one point was blocked by a thick hedge. I stubbornly insisted on my rambling rights, but came off worse than the vegetation. Shortly afterwards we reached the lovely village of Evershot, and watched a thatcher at work (see photo).

There was the usual mixture of roads and paths today - mostly pleasant, but we did have to cope with 4km on the A356 before lunching at Winyard's Gap and another 4km on the A30 at the end of the day. The pub lunch at Winyard's Gap was a long, lazy and somewhat liquid affair. We spent some time there playing 20 Questions - I noted in my journal that the most esoteric item on the card was "Gordon Brown's 2005 Budget Speech"! At WG, there was a plaque describing "the Channel Link" - an LDP connecting the English and Bristol Channels.

Onto map 193, the afternoon's walk afforded good views north and south as the Watershed runs parallel to the River Axe. When we got to Windwhistle, farmers Derek and Jean kindly agreed for us to camp on their land (at 388094).

We dined at the Windwhistle Inn with Jan, and afterwards Keith and Jan left for home.

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