Day 14: Skipton

Isaac prepares to head for home.

With an unfortunate change of events, Isaac has headed home for Bristol. Four days ago Isaac began experiencing serious pain in his right foot. Through persistance and determination he still continued on the hike for three days while his foot worsened. By the end of the day it was obvious, by his voice and expression, that the pain was excrutiating.

Yesterday we arrived in Skipton with Isaac's foot worse than ever. We managed to get his foot looked at and Isaac was told instantly not to do any more walking, let alone hiking cross country with 3.5 stone on his back, until it had been fully healed and rested. Still determined not to let his injury get the better of him, Isaac decided to wait until morning to see how it felt. Unfortunately this morning his foot was in pain before we had even begun. Isaac is now on a train heading for home as I plan the next leg of the journey.

There will soon be a video from Isaac explaining the situation further. I will also send a Blog update later today covering what else has happened over the past few days.

Watch this space!

-Josh-
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I knew that you were covering up something, Josh, but I'm glad you both had the good sense to seek out a doctor and have Isaac's foot looked at. He needs to focus on healing that foot now.

I understand the disappointment that you must feel, Isaac, but Yorkshire isn't going to disappear overnight so just get better and return some day in the future. You did really well and no doubt had quite an adventure while seeing some amazing sights and raising funding and awareness for MNDA. Big applause from me!!!

Since Josh's girlfriend, Megan, said goodbye at Sheffield, she has been following the blog and has also been determined to keep up her walking. When she heard that Isaac had hurt his foot, and would have to pull out of the walk, she decided that she would rejoin the walk immediately. I hope that she will be able to add a few words of her own to explain the events but all I know is that Josh started Sunday morning in Skipton, saying goodbye to Isaac at the train station, and by the end of the day he was sitting in a cottage in Skipton with Megan and her parents and his mother's relatives.

A big thank you goes out to Debbie and Steve and to Ron and Anne, and of course to Megan. Welcome back, Megan!!!

Today has produced some strange coincidences which are almost unbelievable, but I will let Sue tell you about them.

-Paul-
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Early afternoon I spoke to Josh on the phone who was obviously feeling downhearted at Isaac suddenly having to leave the hike. I asked Josh where he was and he told me he was in Skipton.
Little bells stared ringing in my head as it slowly dawned on me that my cousin Debbie and Steve and their two daughters were going for a few days to stay in a cottage owned by a relative, in yes, I am sure you have now gathered.........Skipton !!!!! After many, many phonecalls to get mobile numbers of my cousin I finally got through to Esther, their daughter. She told me they had just arrived in Skipton and she, and her sister Simone, were sitting in the car while Debbie and Steve were buying in some food at Morrisons. I asked Esther to get her Mum to call me back on her return as Josh was also in Skipton ! I then phoned Josh and enquired where he was exactly. He replied that he was sitting outside Morrisons !!! I told him that Debbie and Steve were in there and he said he had just been in there but hadn't seen them. "Oh, hang on", he continued.........."here's Steve now!!". Talk about a small world !!! Of all the villages in all the land and all the supermarkets in the country, Josh and our cousins just all happened to be in the same place at the same time hundreds of miles from home !
Debbie left Steve and Josh talking and went back to her girls waiting in the car. "You'll never guess who we've just bumped into !!" exclaimed Debbie. "Josh !" replied Esther, explaining to her mother how I had just phoned. This was good timing for Josh that he could now have a dry, warm place to sleep, though unfortunately they couldn't get the washing machine in the cellar to work to catch up on his washing.

When I next spoke to Josh later that evening, he informed me that Megan was going to be joining him this very evening in Skipton!!! I then spoke to Megan's Mum Anne and then to Megan herself. And yes with only a few hours notice she was once again getting ready all her hiking gear and her parents were kindly driving her the two hours to Skipton to join Josh on the next stretch of the journey to Scotland. Lucky for Megan she had been keeping up the exercise, so it won't be such a shock to her system! So that very evening, after getting a little lost around Leeds, Megan too found herself in beautiful Skipton! After a cuppa with Josh and his relatives, Ron and Anne then drove back to Sheffield. Quite a long round trip.

So, many thanks to Debbie and family for putting Josh and Megan up on the first day of their holiday and to Megan's parents for getting her up there so promptly.

-Sue-