Snack break at Graffham Water, with our training companions
We decided that we would allow ourselves the luxury of doing this at a leisurely pace - 19 days, and not try and cram a beautiful walk into a fortnight. Kate was adamant right from the start she would only consider doing this using a baggage transfer service (otherwise collapse would be inevitable!) Packhorse was chosen as it was a small local firm. This proved to be a brilliant choice as they were incredibly helpful, and even agreed to deliver our bags on one occasion off their designated route.
We had unstinting support from our long-suffering husbands who ferried us hither and thither (often!) and gave us wonderful encouragement.
Thanks also to Rich who deciphered our hieroglyphics and designed this website.
And also thanks to our 40 friends and relatives who joined us from time to time, and were such a part of it.
The discussion on how and when to start training took some little time, but we eventually decided on March, which turned out to be just right.
As we live in Cambridgeshire, which is not renowned for its challenging hill climbs (plus Kate lives in a bungalow, another serious handicap!) the numerous floodbanks around the River Ouse got their fair share of pounding, much to the bewilderment of random locals. We decided to build up our stamina and muscles by planning a 12 mile walk on two consecutive days each month, and by and large we managed it, and always accompanied by our dogs, Charlie and Noodle. Training culminated in a glorious 3 day stint in Derbyshire where we climbed everything in sight.
Day one of our training got off to a rather inauspicious start. We planned to walk to Bluntisham, via Earith across the fields, a wonderful opportunity to practise our newfound compass skills! Attempting to take a short cut to avoid the thundering lorries in Earith, we took a side road. This would have been fine, but unfortunately we were doing what we didn’t need to practise – talking! Imagine our surprise when we found ourselves in completely the wrong place and several miles in the wrong direction .... Colne! After sorting ourselves out we decided this was a salutary lesson, and we should learn from it!
Other training stints took us to Grafham Water, the Gog Magog hills (!) and Elmdon, all of which had their predictably very funny moments.
Snack break at Graffham Water, with our training companions
The Roman Road, Wandlebury
The splendour of bluebells near Linton
As time went on we found ourselves getting fitter and fitter and more confident – a very good job as the 1st August was approaching at speed.
Our three days in Derbyshire (at the beginning of July) were a marvellous training opportunity because it was steaming hot, and we needed to test out our kit (learn what we really needed to take and what we didn’t) and our legs. We stayed in the gorgeous Hartington Hall Youth Hostel (Kate’s first introduction to a youth hostel – top end of the range!) and climbed Thorpe Cloud, Chrome Hill and Great Wheeldon, all of which helped to show us that maybe we could do this walk after all.
Kate's first summit!
View from Thorpe Cloud
Life saving water - it was a very hot day!
View from Chrome Hill
The splendid Hartington Hall YH
Thor's Cave, Monifold Valley
Map studying at Wetton Mill
RUCKSACKS
As we were using a Packhorse as our baggage transport service, we could fill our main rucksacks to bursting point (and Kate did!!), but our daysacks were a completely different matter.
CONTENTS OF OUR DAYSACKS