A bit more information

on Jun 19 in General by Dan

I’ve sent this post out as an email to everyone who’s expressed interest in coming on our epic walk next year. However just in case I missed anyone I wanted to publish it here as well. If you’re reading this, are interested in coming on the walk, but haven’t already got this in an email then please let me know so I can add you to my address book for further updates.

If you did get this, took one look at it and fainted due to it’s sheer length and wordiness then I apologize. I get a little carried away at times. I promise to be more brief in future.

We’ve had a fantastic response from people, and this has the potential to turn into something absolutely amazing. Both in terms of raising money for the charity, and as a real adventure for those who are taking part. The timing of this is very good The Joseph Salmon Trust really needs a boost at the moment as they have just expanded the area they cover and so are receiving double the requests for help than they were before.

If we get a number of international participants coming along then the possibilities of publicity and fundraising for the walk are really significantly increased. Last year my online campaigning raised over £1000; next year our efforts could blow that out of the water. That sort of money to a small charity like the Trust can be future changing.

So I really want you to come. I mean I really really want you to come. But even if we weren’t doing this for charity I’d still really want you to come. Because it’s going to be bloody fantastic. There isn’t a single person who’s said they would like to come who I wasn’t already eager to meet. I’m incredibly excited about all of this.

There are however a few things I feel the need to point out, just so you feel you know exactly what you’re signing yourself up for. As I’ve said, no one needs to make a decision on this until mid August. In fact, shall we put a date on this? Let’s say Sunday 16th August 2009 (however if you want to let me know one way or the other before this it would make the task of organizing a lot easier).

So here’s some more details:

Difficulty of the walk

I’ve had a good look at the map and all the contour lines look nice and well spaced out, which basically means there won’t be any steep hills to climb up. That’s not to say that it’s completely flat of course. The middle couple of days in particular has a fair few short ups and downs. However both those days are the shortest (10 miles long) so there will be no pressure for pace or time.

There is also a 20 mile day in the itinerary. this is less than ideal, but necessary due to the lack of accommodation on that particular stretch.

A few people have expressed concern about the level of fitness they will need. While it certainly will be a physical challenge, and a the end of some of the days you will be decidedly knackered and rosy cheeked, you don’t need marathon runner levels of endurance for this sort of thing.

I walked the Dales Way weighing 308lb. And while I was a relatively fit 308lb, and I did suffer slightly (especially on the hills) I managed to do it without too many problems. It s true however that the fitter you are the more you’ll enjoy the walk. I certainly found that after loosing 70lb for the Cumbria Way. And I really wouldn’t advise coming on the walk without doing any training for it at all.

If you are thinking you need to get fitter than you are now I really can’t recommend doing this more highly. The Dales Way was 100% responsible my subsequent weight loss. It was just the kick off i needed and my life is much richer for it.

Accommodation
It is very important to point out that we’ll not be staying in 5 star accommodation during the walk. This is for two reasons;

a) I want to keep the costs down as much as possible
b) The potential numbers of walkers on this hike is quite high.

We will be sleeping for the most part in shared rooms of roughly 4 people, sometimes more, and sleeping mainly in bunk beds. In addition it is likely that at least some of these rooms may have to be mixed sex, although this won’t be clear until I get final numbers in August. There will be showers and such however, and i don’t anticipate having to cook our own food (other than make packed lunches)

In addition I’ve just discovered that the youth hostel that I planned for us to stay in on night three (the night that both teams meet in the middle of the country) is not available on the day we wanted to book it. This means that we are going to have to camp instead.

We won’t have to carry our tents and sleeping bags however; I’m currently in negotiations with a crack team of sherpas who will bring all that stuff to the campsite for us and take them away again afterwards. If you are coming from overseas, or even outside Yorkshire, you won’t have to bring any of that stuff over with you either. We’ll be able to find someone to lend it to you.

The night of camping we had when we did the Dales Way was one of the most enjoyable we had. We lit a fire, got takeaway fish and chips, and had a really good time. I personally think that the one night of camping will only add to the adventure of the trip; however if it is something that you just can’t stand the thought of then I can probably find a B&B for you to stay in somewhere. This will increase the cost of the trip for you however and i obviously can’t do it for everyone as there just aren’t that number of places available in the area.

Numbers

If everyone that has expressed an interest in coming on the walk actually comes with us (a man can hope) then team Ocelot will consist of roughly 33 people (this is taking to account husband and wife couples and the like). My brother is organizing the participants of his side of the walk separately and has around 15 people so far (the looser).

Hopefully we might even get a few more people saying they’d like to come over the next week or so as well.

We’ll obviously know more come August, and I may have another quick flurry of “do you know anyone who wants to come” in order to fill the numbers to the top before we close the admissions gate for good.

Equipment

We’re not going on a trek up everest here, but there are a few things that you’ll definitely need to carry with you:

Walking boots & proper walking socks – The trail is relatively straightforward, but it’s a path not a road and you’ll want some protection just in case you go over on your ankle or have to navigate muddy areas. As for socks, on the dales way i wore two pairs of normal socks and got horrible blisters; on the Cumbria way I wore walking socks and my feet were absolutely fine.

A water supply – There aren’t really any shops or places to get water for very long stretches of the walk, so you need to carry a water supply. I use a camelbak style water pouch which I found invaluable on the previous two walks.

Waterproof coat and trousers – My coat is rather bulky and takes up a lot of room in my bag so I might get a more lightweight one this time round. You put the waterproof trousers on over your normal trousers if it rains, although quite few people just wore them all the time on the last two walks.

A towel – As Douglas Adams says: A frood always know where their towel is .

Misc safety stuff – Like a torch, whistle, space blanket, compass, couple of high energy bars, that sort of thing.

Clothes to last you the week – obviously

A map and/or guidebook – Not every single person will need to have one of these and the trail is very well signposted. However it’s always good to have a few floating around and I find it’s always comforting to know what’s coming round the next bend. I’ve personally bought the guidebook ‘Hadiran’s Wall Path” by Anthony Burton and the waterproof map “Hadrian’s Wall Path XT40″ published by Harvey. If you are only going to buy one get the book as it has maps in too and has quite a lot of interesting facts in it. I’ve had a look and both the map and book are available from both amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com. if you buy from the UK site however could you get to it via hadrianswalk.org as the charity will get 5% of the sale as commission.

A backpack big enough to fit all that stuff in.

Travel

This is particularly aimed at those people who will be coming from overseas or places in the UK other than Yorkshire.

I don’t know if your intention is to come just for the walk, or if you plan on taking an additional vacation as well. Both ends of the walk are very well serviced by rail(although the end of the walk doesn’t finish near a station, our sherpas will drive you into Carlisle which does have one). Newcastle also has a airport. Train tickets can only be booked about three months in advance, but they are significantly cheaper if you book them then rather than on the day of the travel (we’re talking £10 as opposed to £40 for example). Kerry, my wife, is a genius at finding the best train deals so be sure to get us to help you get the best deals.

Depending on how many people from overseas come along on the walk we’ll be able to put people up in various spare rooms both before and after the walk if they want this like. We live in Huddersfield, which is relatively near Manchester airport and you would be more than welcome to travel up to the start of the walk with us. This can’t be planned until we know who exactly is coming oviously.

Liability

This may sound a little unpleasant, but I need to say it unfortunately.

While I’m organizing this walk, I’m not a tour guide. You’re choosing to come along on this walk as my friend and teammate rather than my employer. I can’t take responsibility for your enjoyment, the weather, or your safety – although obviously I’ll do my best as a fellow human being.

If you give me a definite answer that you are coming and I book a place for you, then you are going to have to pay me for that place even if you later find out you can’t come. There probably will be a possibility that I can get a t least a partial refund for you. But if I can’t then it comes out of your pockets rather than mine or, even worse, the charities.

And that’s about it. If you have any questions or see something I’ve got wrong or omitted then let me know.

Related posts:

1. Meme: A unit of cultural information which propagates from one mind to another
2. A couple of soundbites
3. A slight change of plan
4. Tara’s Gallery: Friendship
5. Moonraking

« « Recipe for homemade playdough:| In Memoriam » »

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