Diary of a genetically unmodified traveller: Last day of the Pennine Way

If you go into the Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm and ask to see the Pennine Way register of people old Wainwright bought a drink for, you'll find my name - Robert Fielding.

Getting there - 270 miles and 14 days from Edale was and still is one of the highlights of my life, and it would be if you did it too. As Wainwright - the writer of great guide books on the English hills, and now sadly no longer with us, I think, says, "Give up on the Pennine Way and you'll be giving up on things from now on." I didn't give up and I don't, if you get my meaning.

Stamina is a vastly underestimated attribute - not just for marathon walks and tests of physical endurance and the like, but for anything you care to mention.

Writing a book takes a lot of stamina - teaching English does too. Give the Pennine Way a try some time in your life. You will enjoy it, after you've suffered from sore feet and the like.

The rewards of your achievements are great; your own personal feelings of worth are hugely increased by doing something well and seeing it through to the end.

Simple hedonism is for simple types - real people go for things that build character, rather than merely leaving a sweet taste in the mouth, as was said in that wonderfullly tragic film, 'House of Sand and Fog' starring Ben Kingsley, who delivered that line.

Start your life on the better way, it might be the one less trodden, but like Robert Frost, you will be changed by it, and it will make all the difference.

Sorry for preaching and going on a bit. I mean well, I do assure you.