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.

Thursday 10 August 2006

Day 101 - avoiding military confrontation

I met up with Peter at Swindon station, and we took the coach to Devizes. After a pub lunch, during which I learned a good deal about Peter's musical tastes and my ignorance of modern music, we took the canal tow path to our starting point (013617 on map 173).

Harvest was in full operation as we followed good paths (but overgrown stiles) south to the village of Urchfont. Thereafter there was a satisfying pull up to Salisbury Plain's perimeter road; the MOD site was clearly marked (see photo).

Onto map 184, we met up with my sister Rowan and her friend Phil, and we walked together to Gore Cross (009509).

They then drove us into Tilshead and we had an entertaining evening together. During the night the military reminded us of their presence nearby by keeping up a constant barrage of artillery!

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