Thought I’d just jot down a few words about the walk we done last weekend.
As I said, it was in aid of the MacMillan cancer care nurses. 99% of us have a cancer story , and to the other 1% ….. hope it stays that way.
Well, the walk started at 11pm on a chilly Friday evening. Our plan was to stay near the lead till at least lunchtime on Saturday and then take it easy. It did’nt work.
Its strange walking in the middle of nowhere thro the night.First stop after 6 miles, nice cup of soup and a breadbun to warm us up. Continued on after a loooong break of 30 mins (for some reason) and back onto the moors. Lovely clear nght, and still at the frontof the 180 people partaking in the walk. I looked round at the top of a hill and and is like an army, all with our headtorches on
, best ‘gadget’ I’ve bought lately. Another 4 mile done and a nice hot cup of tea and biscuits. First injury, 1 old bloke pulled a muscle and had to drop out, and scores of people applying blister plasters …… only 30 mile to go
Now off on section 3,a walk of 9.5 miles, a climb of 432m , easy, we do this nearly every week
(we were in a false sense of security) This would be about 2.30 am and I was wishing I’d worn my shorts
, lovely evening and clear blue skies.After about 4 miles of this section we join an old trackbed of 5.5 miles, nice and flat so made good progress.
Now its 6.am and its daybreak, and another checkpoint, breakfast of bean and sausages, bun and a cup of tea.
Still feeling good surprisingly, and this is where it starts to get slightly harder……over the peat bogs 5 miles of watching every step or you can be upto your waist in black,smelly peat , so that really slowed us down. Was quite hard going, and a few people ‘sank’ but only to their knees.
Next couple of sections were more of the same.
Now, we set off on section 4, a trek of 8.5 miles …….. and you can see the finish line in the distance, on top of the hill …….. and its 15.5 miles away and never gets any closer
This is where I got blisters , sat down and said to my wife I’d catch her up. Sorted out the feet and set-off, no sign of the wife, and came to a ravine. Realized I’d left my walking pole on the grass and could’nt be arsed to go back. Set off down the ravine and twisted my knee Its not my day, but soldiered on. Finally met my wife, (who’d been waiting 20 mins) and just headed for Flyingdales, knowing we’d lost pace, but was’nt bothered, now onto the lunchtime stop of ‘stew’ which I gave a miss. Had to rest the feet and knee, and now an old foot injury was flaring up.
7 miles to go ……. Now this was hard work but we got thro it with the help of guides etc, another checkpoint and the last 2 mile which flew by and time to touch the LWW stone to finish. What a feeling
Myself and Sandra (my wife) have raised £900, and said we would NEVER do it again ……..but, we’ve talked 3 more people to join us next year
It really is worth doing this walk, but like I said its hard going.
And had my trusty 'Black and White' badge with me at all times. Now I've finished the walk once, I'm known as a 'Dirger' and my wife is known as a 'witch' (yeah....thats right ) in LWW terms .
