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?).