It was on the last day it really became apparent. At the top of the valley with a 1500 foot descent the insides of my feet were so painful it was as if there were thumb tacks pinned to the insides of my shoes, or a bed of nails that someone put there just for fun. Seven days of carrying a pack across semi wilderness had bought it to the fore that I had FLAT FEET , fallen arches, whatever it is you want to call it. The victory was that we had managed to scale what the book had described as the most dangerous part of the journey – Stake Pass – where in a moment the weather could become blizzardine, where navigation might only be possible with a compass, yes we had managed to scale that mighty peak but somewhere in the ascent an elastic band or two inside my feet had finally snapped. At the top thankfully the weather was clear, the wind though was a bit cruel whipping into us with northern bitterness, straight through the swishing gortex jackets and under clothes grabbing hold of each goose pimple and squeezing it, threatening to make it explode, but we walked and kept ourselves warm as a drying room at a ski resort. A photo opportunity to look at the valley below and then the descent for a nice cup of tea and a bite at Dungeon Ghyll. Instead of air punching the air with elation it was a case of please cut my feet off they hurt so much.

I booked in to see a specialist finally when one morning I got out of bed and found I couldn’t walk, it was as if the muscles on the bottom of my feet were jelly, would support no weight. On hands and knees I crawled to the bathroom reviving my feet beneath stinging pellets of hot water with no cold added. Walking on heels is a funny balancing act while the rest of the feet wake up, trying not to bend those falling arches too much. The specialist supplied me with orthotics, two blue raised bumps that fit inside the shoes, these take the strain off those dodgy muscles and eventually make the pain go away- Five years later and it’s all still good, the occasional bad day. But I could almost take on that at walk again I reckon – anybody want to pay the airfare?