Apparently not. Just been on the YHA website. When/how did they all get reprieved?

Earby was bought by Pendle Council, and then leased back to the YHA.
Keld was bought privatly by the people who run ********* baggage service.
Alston was bought by an ex-warden.
Greenhead was bought by the people who own the Greenhead Hotel, and opperates under the YHA Enterprise Scheme.
Bryness opperates under the YHA Enterprise Scheme.

Only Bellignham and Baldersdale have actually stopped providing accomodation.
Whilst it is ggod to see that most of the hostels earmarked for closure last year are still opperating, they will only continue if people use them....

fellwanderer,

i'll be the one looking decidedly worse for wear

Well, I'll have done about 175 miles by then so may not be in the pink!

Robbie, Many men have sat in the shade with a decent pint planning their divorce and future freedom !

Did you have baggage couriers on the whole route? if so which ones

If I told you, I would have to kill you.

But feel free to read every detail of my Pennine Way account on my website:
http://tomread.co.uk

(You may even find what you are looking for).

Tom, Just finished the journal. Great stuff! It brought it all back. Happy days!

PS. I was on the phone to Kevin Glendon last week. Remembers his time at Macclesfield with some affection!

I think we signed him when we first got promoted to the Conference. He wasn't well liked by fans at the beginning, but he did win them over with some cultured performances. Last I heard he was manager at Radcliffe Borough or something like that.

Thanks for the kind comments anyway Kevin. Hope you didn't mind the namechecks of yourself and Janet in the journal! It does become quite a habit to be asking after all the friends you have made on the Pennine Way after a week or so.

...after they've overtaken us that is!

I thought that our 20 days (really 19 days with a 4-mile "rest day") was about average for the Pennine Way, but it seems not. We met two couples doing it in 14 days (that must be hard) and the rest in about 16/17.

But for any of you now trying to decide how many days to allow for the Pennine Way, here's a list of our pros for 20 days:

1) You get more days on the PW!
2) Garrigill is a nice place to stop, and so is Alston.
3) Only having an easy riverside 4 mile day on day 14 was like a tonic to our bodies.
4) It is worth spending a whole day on Hadrians Wall - and a whole afternoon in the Twice Brewed Inn.
5) The Cheviots are quite something else - worth two days of anyone's time. You don't want to be marching over these, you want to be savouring every minute of them.
6) Uswayford Farm is a great place to stay, just the sheer remoteness of it!
7) You can get up and have your breakfast at a civilised hour in Byrness.
8) You get plenty of time for photos, free drinks, shower, change, rest before booking your table for a relaxed and unhurried meal at the Border Inn.
9) No days longer than 18 miles.
10) Time for a pint when walking past a pub

and the cons:

1) Each extra day needs financing!
2) Other PW walkers will overtake you

No contest! They say "Once In A Lifetime", but I'd rather like to do it again. But I should really have a look at the Offa's Dyke Path and the Coast 2 Coast first!

And Gritstone Trail is definitely ON this summer, so must do me planning for that now and stop harping on about the PW!!!!