Walking the Walk

Today we did our first training walk along part of the actual Trailwalker route, from the start at Queen Elizabeth Country Park (henceforth known as QECP) nearly to Checkpoint 2 and back again... 10 miles out and 10 miles back.

For the first time since starting our training we encountered properly hilly terrain! Actually there were two hills in quick succession... very tough on the calf muscles!

The pictures (one from the bottom and one from the top) show the first of them, the steepest and longest of the two... although they definitely don't show just how steep it was, balance-losingly steep in places! All good training!

In general though it was a lovely walk: clear blue sky, beautiful countryside with signs of Spring everywhere, church bells ringing in the nearby village... just perfect.

As we approached the turnaround point we wondered where we would stop and eat, and just at that moment a selection of large tree trunks hove into view off to the side of the track... we really couldn't have planned it better! We stopped for 10 minutes to eat our sarnies and take the weight off our feet then headed back the way we'd come, a small part of my mind thinking about the fact we had to go back over those two hills!

With 5 miles still to go to get back to the car we passed an older gentleman who asked where we were headed. We explained that we'd done 15 miles and were now headed back to QECP. He said "Gosh, what it is to be young!"... which gave us a little extra spring in our step and a chuckle.

So we did 20 miles (route below as usual) in 5 hours and 52 minutes which is an average speed of 3.4 miles per hour... pretty good considering this was our longest training walk and incorporated 4 (2 in each direction) big hills. Very pleased with that. Best of all... NO BLISTERS!!

We learn something new every time we train... today we learned that we need to take even more food and drink... we were both hungry and thirsty by the end.

Today's route.

Spring is Sprung

Rest week this week. I am breaking in new boots so we only went for a short walk, between 8 and 9 miles. After the frosty night it turned into a lovely sunny day and the signs of spring were everywhere: snowdrops adorning the verges; daffodils ready to flower and buds on the hedgerows... the Great British countryside at a great time of year.

From a training perspective this wasn't a challenging week, but I am pleased that the boots were very comfortable, even on their first outing. From a fundraising perspective things are ticking over nicely... we have now raised over £500, thanks to all donors.

The route, such as it was, is here.

Man with a Van

On Sunday 12th February we went for an 8 mile walk in the New Forest at Brockenhurst, which we managed in a couple of hours.

This is despite getting lost at one point and asking a man parked up with a van for directions. He told us where to head for so we followed his instructions and around 40 minutes later we were back at his van again!

The photo shows Marie, Gary and me with Lola the chocolate labrador. Nick was kindly taking the photo.

It was a good 1st attempt towards the longer walks.

Geraldine

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

We tramped 17 miles today, through a snow-covered landscape... tres pictuesque. Once again, though, the walk wasn't without its fair share of drama. It started off smoothly enough, walking out straight from home, along the towpath then across the fields to Braishfield. The ground everywhere was frozen solid, with snow in most places, and easy to walk on. All the way up through Parnholt Wood was still thick with snow and we accosted an innocent bystander to take a photo of us both.

Down the steep bit of Clarendon Way, still pretty frozen (on the north side of a big hill), then out towards Hoplands and that's where it started to get a bit sticky.. the landscape was defrosting around us!  Puddles and mud started appearing everywhere. We kept having to take to the field edge and clamber round trees to get past vast lakes in the path. Eventually we got back into the other end of Parnholt Wood and it got a lot more solid underfoot again. Then we ran into loads of people, vehicles, dogs and men with guns and hunting horns... some kind of 'country pursuit' going on presumably. Once we escaped that lot we headed down the "road past Howard's" thinking we were home and dry, but no, it wasn't to be... we got attacked by 4 massive turkeys (honestly they were the size of a labrador)!!

They waited for us to walk by then started following us, surrounding us, gobbling aggressively. What is it with us and dangerous birds?! Once they'd seen us off their land, they stopped following and I felt brave enough to stop and take a picture (in case it was needed for evidence).

It was a relief to get home in one piece.

Click to see our route.

Brrrrrrr!

We decided to bite the bullet and braved Farley church car park today (now known as pheasant car park)... no sign of it... phew!

It was freezing cold (-6) and we had to wrap up warm but we were determined to do the 15 miles. We packed sandwiches and drinks and set off with big coats, hats, scarves and gloves. Most people must have decided to stay inside in the warm because it was almost deserted out and about. Coming down the Clarendon Way from Farley Mount we saw our usual herd of deer (forgot the bloody camera of course), about 30 or so of them just grazing happily in the field opposite.

The cold did have an up-side... all the mud was frozen solid so it was pretty firm underfoot.

We did just over 15 miles, in 4 hours 40 minutes... an average speed of 3.21 miles per hour. This time, despite the icy conditions we stopped for 2 short breaks along the way. Happy with training progress so far.

Click to see our route.

Money Money Money!

Well, now that we're all registered, it's all about 2 things: training (which takes place mainly at weekends) and fundraising.  We have started to publicise our online fundraising page and have also started to run fundraising games at work. The money is starting to come in, which is very exciting!