We met a chap on the first day of the walk who was on his own. He was staying in hostels every night, rather than camping like our good selves. He used two walking poles like a true professional rambler, and because we never asked him his name we called him Sticks. But the strange thing was, his bag was as large and as heavy as ours were.

We asked him what was in his bag, as you do, and he was kind of non-committal in his answer. Just clothes and the like. Clothes! I ask you.

We found this fascinating, and one of the themes of the walk was wondering what Sticks had in his bag. Staying at hostels every night and having them prepare a packed lunch every day meant he didn't have to be carrying any of these; tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, cooker, food, gas bottles, cutlery, mess tins, and probably some more stuff that I can't think of right now. So why, we asked ourselves, did Sticks have such a big and heavy bag?

We bumped into Sticks most days, sometimes more than once, as you can imagine bearing in mind we were walking the same path and had set off on the same day. He was a nice chap was Sticks, although we want to know what he had in his bag.

If you're reading this, and you can remember meeting two chaps walking the Pennine Way who you chatted to a lot but never actually told them your name, then answer me this Sticks: What was in your bag?

What was in your bag Sticks?

On about the sixth day, when my feet were really bad, Karim found me a stick to use to help me walk . It wasn't alluminium like Sticks' were, it was regular wood. It actually helped out quite a lot, until I lent it to Karim for five minutes and he broke it while trying to see how strong it was.

Honestly.