77 Gates and 25 Stiles Later

Hold the front page, we did it! We hit several of those notorious (metaphorical) walls, and Andrea hit several (real) large boulders when she slipped over, but in spite of bruises, aching backs, painful hips and agonising toes, we got to the end. There were no less than 77 gates to manoeuvre and 25 painful stiles to cross. They are an absolute killer when your legs are aching and you have to literally lift your foot over the stile! Worst of all were the (infinite number of) steps at Monkton Combe. After walking 25 miles, any number of steps are bad news, but this is a long and steep flight. It most definitely wasn't made any easier by the 4 'sweepers' who had caught up with us as we were the last walkers. As I struggled up those steps I could hear them behind me like the Black Riders - very intimidating!

The last few hundred metres flew by as we walked with our arms around each other and singing our tribute song "Islands in the Stream"! Andrea hated this song before Heather and I treated her to our unique rendition, but after we had spent the day singing our way through the alphabet she could do no more than join in with this song! Next Year's challenge? X Factor of course.

At the final checkpoint, we were greeted by Rik clutching a very welcome glass of bubbly which helped to numb those aches and pains! At the start of the walk we had achieved 83% of our fundraising target and watched it increase as we walked on, which was a huge encouragement and thank you to everyone who cheered us on. As I write this our fundraising is now at a wonderful 130%, which makes every little ache worthwhile.

This has been a great experience and writing this blog has been fun too, but never again will I be stupid enough to intentionally walk 26.7 miles.

So this is The Last Post. Da Da. Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da. (See what I mean about the singing?).

12 hours to go

Like all great athletes we have been preparing today by eating plenty of carbs like pasta, cake, biscuits and more cake, and have been relaxing and focusing on the task ahead. We focused by spending the day on a canal boat, and here we are looking very stylish in out ME T shirts:

 

Notice that Andrea is less stylish than Heather and I as we only had 2 T shirts with us today.

We picked up the boat at Staverton and by lunch time we had got as far as Semmington, about 2 miles away - I hope we get further tomorrow! We have also become obsessed by checking out the amount raised on our Just Giving , which incidentally is currently at 83%! I wonder if we can get to the illusive 100% by tomorrow morning.



Catching Up

Oh we have so much to catch up on! It's only 3 days to go to The Big Walk and I haven't told you about the last 3 'small' walks. I bet you've really missed my updates!

Well, 2 weeks ago we had a practise run (practise walk?) of 18 miles. That's not a typo, we really did walk 18 miles, and I didn't even ask for sponsorship for that walk! We started at Andrea's house and when we found ourselves in Bath, the penny suddenly dropped. "We've just walked from your house into Bath! We could go shopping now...". But showing true dedication we continued through Bath and back towards Bradford along the canal. The decision not to stop and shop really had nothing to do with our stylish walking clothes. But 18 miles was a killer. My hip was so painful by the time we reached Avoncliff that we called a taxi to take us home, and both of us became quite anxious about the prospect of walking a further 8 miles for the actual event. However, we've started this and it wouldn't be a challenge if it wasn't... a challenge!

Our next foray was a short 2 mile evening walk from Freshford to Norton St Phillip, during gales so strong that the map was whipped from my hand leading me to gallop across a field to retrieve it. I really didn't want to be lost in the wilds of Wiltshire (or even Somerset!).

Then things got very exciting because the organisers of the Bath Beat sent out the final route instructions. There are so many abbreviations you need to be a coding genius to follow the route, but it does leave little room for error. So we tried out the last 4 miles from Combe Hay to Ralph Allen school. This is along a disused canal where the old locks are still visible. The combination of a sunny spring day and the beautiful landscape made this walk pure joy. This photo doesn't really demonstrate the charm of this section of the walk, but unfortunately it does demonstrate the dumpiness of me (pointing to a lock)!

Our final walk was last night when we revisited the section from Bathford through Sally in the Woods. Last time we walked this section it was muddy and slippery underfoot and we found ourselves scrambling down a long bank to the path, however this time, with the detailed instructions we found the correct route, and the lack of mud following a spell of good weather made a huge difference to the time it took us.

So, 3 days to go. It's too late to worry about it now. But I would like 3 dry days please, and on Saturday please can we have a dry but cool day? And just one last request. No lurgies. The world and his wife have had the flu over the last few months, and I haven't caught it yet....