Blisters have got to be the number one reason for making any long walk miserable,slowing the pace or ending it prematurely.
The final three days before starting any walk,I usually regularly rub surgical spirit into all the high risk toe and heel areas to toughen up the skin layer.
Also each morning before starting I vaseline around my toes,which eliminates moisture forming,thus reducing blister creation opportunities.
It's worked 100% the last two years!

Thanks for all the advice guys.... keep it coming

Evening,
Doing my second crossing in June (accomodation permitting). Did it last year for the first time in 12.5 days and coped quite well for an old chap in his late fifties. Thoroughly enjoyed it, even when it poured down over Kidsty Pike and I walked up Rest Dodd by mistake...oh and a few other slight unplanned detours!
So this time the plan is 10 days, shaving a day off between KS and Richmond and then following the Lyke Wake Walk route over two days to the coast from Osmotherley; just to make the run from Blakey Ridge a bit more challenging. Reckon this should be still enough days to make it fun.
Hope to meet all sorts of new people en route

Just to let you know that on this site you are not "an old chap" if you are in your late fifties. You are still a youngster!

That will put a spring in my step!

In Yorkshire they say that you cannot be regarded as a local until your grandparents are buried in the parish cemetery.

You're not old until you bend down to pick up a dropped map and wonder what else you can do whilst you're down there to save you having to bend down again.

Blisters. Strange thing about blisters. For the first few years of walking I used to pamper my feet, use mole skin, use surgical spirit, powder, creams, adjust my boots, everything you can think of...and I still got blisters...toes, heels, underneath.

Now I never seem to get them, no matter what I put on my feet or how my shoes fit.

Mind you...now the soles and sides of my feet are hard and shiny, with skin like armor plate. When I touch them I think that there is plastic sheeting stuck to them...but it is just the way the skin has worn.

Must be how postman's feet become........?

I remember a lady in the village on about new people moving into the village and wanting to change things.
I asked how long had she lived in the village , she answered 25 years ,
I told her she was new comeden herself

A true quote.

We went to the Gateshead Garden Festival many years ago (The "hand of God" goal happened whilst we were there).

Inside was a display about how the geology of the area was formed. There was a model showing the sea, a huge desert and dinosaurs roaming the landscape.

Two elderly ladies were looking at it when one turned to the other rand said....

"Well, I've lived in Gateshead all my life and I don't remember it looking like this"

Verry Good