All that comes with it

According to Yahoo the weather during our walk is going to be partly cloudy with highs of 21 degrees celsius and only a 10% chance of rain. I do realize that forecasters can only predict the weather for 48 hours ahead with any degree of accuracy, and anything further than that is pure guesswork. However I’m going to ignore that fact for the sake of my mental health.

Nice and cool with no rain is just about the ideal conditions for walking in my book, and if it ends up scorching hot or chucking it down then I’m going to sue the forecasters at Yahoo weather for every penny they have.

Fundraising continues to gallop ahead at a very satisfying speed. I’m just hoping it doesn’t slow down before we reach our £2500 target. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. If you haven’t donated yet you can do so here.

Neil is currently in negotiations with the local TV station who are considering lending us a camera in order to do a video diary for their webpage. The idea would be that we’d mail a tape to them at the end of each day and they would edit it and put it on the front page of their website.

I’m not sure how interesting our video diary would actually be, and trying to stop Sandip from swearing on camera would probably take more energy than the walk itself. But it sounds like a fun idea. It’s still all up in the air at the moment so might not happen, but watch this space.

I’m giving out two good egg awards today. The first one goes to Morticia. Not only did she organize a fundraising event at her work which raised a rather significant amount of money, but she also managed to persuade a medical supplies company to donate a load of blister plasters to sooth our aching feet. Thanks Morticia, and I’m sorry that the walk coincides with your birthday and so Kerry and I can’t come to the party.

The second one goes to Jeff from View from the Cloud who is currently running a competition on his blog in support of the Joseph Salmon Trust. From the amount of comments he’s got it looks like I may have killed his blog. So please go over there and say hello even if you don’t donate anything.

I’m running out of good egg graphics and so I thought I’d post a couple of videos in the winner’s honor instead. The first one is of Jeff’s band The Receders. Our man is the one on the piano with funny sounds coming out of his mouth (I think he’s trying to sing or something). The second video alas doesn’t feature Morticia, but I think she’ll enjoy it just the same.

Only 8 days left to go until the walk and for some strange reason I’m still unfit and overweight. I just don’t understand it, I’m drinking loads of Diet Coke so the pounds should be falling off me.

Today’s good egg award goes to Gary from Jerry Chicken who has put one of his fantastic watercolors on ebay All proceeds of the sale will go to the Joseph Salmon Trust. It’s too late to bid I’m afraid as it quite rightly sold within the hour. Still, there is always next time.

The man has talent I’m sure you’ll agree.

Not only that, but he has also publicly announced that he’ll do an entire series paintings using photos we take whilst on the walk as a reference and sell those too.

As I say, a good egg. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of Gary and so can’t honor him by sticking his head in an egg cup like I did for Avitable. I’m afraid he’ll have to make do with this picture I stole from the internet.

Thanks go also to Rol, Ed (Zoe’s dad), and (un)relaxeddad who have all given the walk a plug on their blogs today. Cheers guys. I especially liked Ed’s description of us as “Dan and his Lunatic Fringe” - I’m very tempted to get some t-shirts printed.

It’s now only 10 days left to the Dales Walk and I have an aching knee, a bad back, and a growing sense of impending doom. But I’m also extremely excited.

I’d like to thank everyone who has donated money so far. Of the £1394 that we have raised nearly £900 of that has been through people responding to appeals on this blog. That’s around $1800 in pretend money. If you ever needed proof that the blogging world is a real community then you’ve got it right there. I’m humbled by people’s generosity.

You can find a list of everyone who has given here. I’m aware that I’ve missed some people out. This is not because I didn’t receive their donation, or because I don’t appreciate their contribution; it is because I have the organisational powers of a dead wombat. If I’ve missed you out drop me a line (dghughes28(at)yahoo.co.uk) and I’ll rectify things.

I’d also like to thank everyone who has mentioned the walk on their blogs. This has contributed greatly to the donations I’ve received and I am truly appreciative. Just off the top of my head I can list Phil, Whit, Xbox4Nappyrash, VegasDad, Jeff, Jo, NYCWD, Dave, Gail, Sam, and Gary. There are more, I just can’t think of them right now.

Special thanks go to Avitable who just today posted a competition on his blog, the prize of which is a donation to the walk in the winners name of $100. This goes on top of Avitable’s already extremely generous donation to the charity. He’s a good man and I have decided to honour him with my coveted Good Egg Award:

If you haven’t donated already, then please consider doing so here. If you have already donated money but are looking for a way to help even further then you could possibly mention the walk on your blog or website (even if you’ve done it before). The more people know about it the greater the chance of attracting more donations.

Just to remind you, we are raising money for the Joseph Salmon Trust, a charity set up by my close friends Neil and Rachael in memory of their son who died at the age of three years old.

The Joseph Salmon Trust supports parents who have lost a child by providing financial assistance to those who need it most. This may be to help with funeral costs or to allow the self employed a break from work while they come to terms with their loss. Grieving families have enough to deal with without worries about where they will find the money to say goodbye to their child or pay the next electricity bill. Nothing we can do can make their situation better, but we can do something to stop it getting worse.

You can read more about the 78 mile walk we are doing here and here, or you can even listen to a radio interview Neil and I did for BBC Radio Leeds (it’s about a minute in).

 

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There is still a lot of money to come in for the walk. Most of the participants are doing their fundraising offline, and so the final amount won’t be known until all the cash is counted. We’re pretty confident that we are going to break the £2000 ($4000) mark, but we’d love to get even more if possible.

Again thank you.

_{A dedication to Joseph at Chester Zoo}

It’s only twelve days now until our walk and my hopes of becoming super fit and loosing four stone in weight are fast diminishing. I could still do it though, all I need to do is start a gruelling exercise regime and go on a crash diet.

I’ll start Monday.

I’m planning on another big online donation drive at some point next week. If you haven’t already given then please consider doing so. Not only will you have the satisfaction of contributing to my pain and discomfort as I walk 78 miles in six days, But you will also be helping a really worthwhile cause.

I had a day off yesterday so I thought I would head off into the Dales just to make sure I knew how to get to our various bits of accommodation from the route. And I’m glad I did; it took me an hour and a half to work out how to get from the Dales Way to the campsite we will be staying at on the fourth night. I’m sure that this wouldn’t have gone down well if it had happened after a long tiring day of walking.

Sandip has expressed concerns about camping as he is a man who likes the luxuries in life. Just to calm his fears here is a photo I took of Holme Open Farm where we will be staying:

Tee-he-he.

Never mind Sandip, the place we are staying on our first night is far more suited to your tastes: