FACTUM EST

Here’s Jonathan looking clapped-out but smug at the end point, at 7.40pm on Friday – too late to visit the museum, but roughly on schedule.

I’ll post more about the final 24 hours later, but I can’t cross the finish line without mentioning two lovely people I met this evening.

Lynn and Rick from the Tyne and Wear Active Persons’ Group of Parkinson’s UK had somehow got wind of what I was doing, and planned to ambush me (in a nice way!) at the end. I knew nothing of this, and unwittingly spoiled their plan by stopping for a 2-hour rest in my hotel in Newcastle before doing the last 4½ miles to Segedunum. Nevertheless, people wearing Parkinson’s tops can spot one another at 200 paces, so we caught up with each other on the quayside. I don’t think I let on, but I was close to tears at their kindness and encouragement.

And so it ends. Feet are really quite sore, but that’s nothing a long hot bath won’t fix. Home tomorrow.

Thanks, everyone, for your overwhelming generosity and encouragement. I hope I haven’t let you down – no short-cuts were taken, but I had to abandon a couple of planned side trips because I was too tired, or arrived somewhere too late. Watch this space for a cleaned-up blog and a proper picture gallery in the next day or two.