All that comes with it

Oli has just emailed me pointing out that I am the top two results on google for “I’m a very sweaty man”. What he was doing googling that in the first place is entirely his own concern, and it would be remiss of us to speculate.

There are now six days left until we set off on the walk and the fundraising is going extremely well. On Sunday I mentioned that the total stood at £1394 ($2794); today it reads £1979 ($3965). Does anyone feel like giving us that extra little push to take us over £2000?

Again, my thanks go out to everyone who has donated. Your generosity has been fantastic.

Today’s good egg award goes to Greg Lee from Greg and Deb on the Web. Throughout the entire process of planning the walk he has been incredibly supportive and encouraging, but it is for his help with putting together the press releases that I’m particularly thanking him for.

He’ll no doubt say that he didn’t do anything, and that I’d done it all myself. But never-the-less the knowledge that someone who churns out that stuff for a living was looking over my press releases was very reassuring. Especially as he gave it me straight - when something needed changing he told me about it. So in celebration of his good eggness I am resurrecting the Greg rating system.

I give him 5 Gregs

Also thanks to Whit who wrote an excellent plug for the walk on his blog. Thanks man.

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).

 

 Standard Podcast [9:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (135)

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}

There are now twenty seven days left until we set off on our walk. Twenty seven days. That’s about 648 hours, or 38,880 minutes. Hey, that doesn’t sound quite so close now. Maybe breaking it down even further will make me feel better.

2,332,800 seconds.

23,328,000,000,000,000,000 nanoseconds.

OK, maybe that’s taking things too far.

But no matter what spin I try and put on it, I think it’s pretty fair to say that the walk is officially “Not Long Now”.

Am I ready? Am I a lean mean walking machine? Am I bollocks. But as someone at work pointed out the other day, if I’m not ready now I’ll probably never be. I might as well resign myself to the fact that I’ll be doing some serious aching in the not too distant future.

I can hear Sandip tutting at that statement from here, but in my defense I’m not really all that bad. I can do seven or eight miles in a morning, then go do nine hours at work in the afternoon, and not feel stiff the next day. So I’m hoping that the extra effort of doing another eight miles on top of that isn’t going to take it’s toll too badly. And anyway, walking is pretty easy. It’s just a case of putting one foot in front on another right? Right?

Come on, back me up here.

I had the day off yesterday and so had the opportunity to get some serious walking done. Of course I didn’t take the opportunity; I went to the cafe for a full English breakfast and lay around the house in my underpants all day instead. Of course I didn’t want to do those things, I wanted to be out in the pouring rain tramping though muddy fields for hours. Unfortunately I have a reputation as a slovenly oaf to maintain. It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.

I did manage to haul my carcass off the couch long enough to go down to the hiking shop however. Inspired by Oli’s recent post over at the Dales Walk blog I decided I needed to get a new backpack. One with an airspace back mesh network, compatible hydration system, and side compression straps. No, I have no idea what all that stuff is either, but it sounds impressive and that’s the important thing.

The shop had a wide range of backpacks, and I think I tried on every single one of them at least twice before I made my decision. Rather upsettingly the ones that felt most comfortable to me were all designed for use by women. It must be my petite feminine figure I suppose. But comfy or not, there is no way I’m wearing the Ladyhiker 2000 out in public, especially not in front of the buggers I’m doing this hike with. It’s bad enough that my walking boots were made by the Smallpenis Corporation and my waterproof jacket by Chronicflatulence Inc.

However, after a bit of strap adjustment and buckle loosening I managed to find a man’s backpack I was happy with. So I am now the proud owner of a Karrimor Airspace 30, complete with mesh stash pockets and walking pole attachment points. Pretty damn nifty I’m sure you will agree.

I also got a new walking stick with a more comfortable handle, a waterproof liner for the backpack, and a Camelbak omega hydrotanium reservoir (read water bottle with a straw).

But the crowning glory was my purchase of a bandanna type thing to keep the sun from my scalp and the sweat from my eyes. But now I have a terrible dilemma, do I go with this new headgear or stick with my tried and tested walking hat? The problem is too great a conundrum for me to solve on my own, so I’m appealing for your help. I have taken some photos of me in full walking getup (including backpack and water bottle straw thing) in order that you can come to an informed decision. Remember, my self respect and dignity could ride on your decision.

————————

In July of this year I shall be walking 78 miles in 6 days in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust, a charity founded by my close friends in memorial to their son Joseph who died aged 3 in April of 2005. Please look here for further details and consider sponsoring me. Thank you.

Have you ever disclosed that you once got sacked for sweating too much live on air? I have.

Yesterday Neil and I went on BBC Radio Leeds in order to promote The Joseph Salmon Trust and the sponsored walk I am doing in aid of it. I’m aware that going on local radio for ten minutes isn’t exactly the hight of celebrity, but to a rube such as me it was all very exciting.

I was pretty happy about how we came across, although really do wish I hadn’t started babbling about how much I sweat as soon as my microphone was switched on.

You can hear the entire interview below. You have to listen to the DJ talking about TV programs for about a minute before we come on.

 

 Standard Podcast [9:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (135)

Despite putting in a fair bit of training for the Dales Walk my natural laziness has meant I’ve avoided hiking up too many hills. Kerry and the kids absence is a perfect opportunity to get a bit of walking done, and so yesterday I decided it was time for me to tackle a few slopes.

Obviously the sensible thing would be to start off small. But being sensible is for big girls blouses, I wanted to do something big.

So yesterday found me driving three hours in order to walk up the highest mountain in England and Wales, Mount Snowdon. Admittedly, at 3560ft above sea level it is relatively small by international standards. But it’s the same hight as Table Mountain in South Africa, and is about an eighth the size of Everest. Have you walked up an eighth of Everest? No? Shut up then.

I chose to go up the Ranger Path. The main reason for this was that I couldn’t even pronounce any of the other routes. I mean, come on: Over Y Lliwedd, Pyg Track, Crib Goch route, Rhyd Ddu path, Llanberis path? If I fell down a cliff face and broke my legs I wouldn’t be able to call out mountain rescue, I’d be too embarrassed about saying where I was in case I got it wrong.

According to the mighty Wikipedia:

The Ranger path rises gently to Bwlch Cwm Brwynog, between Moel Cynghorion and Snowdon, and then along the top of the Clogwyn Du’r Arddu cliff face to Bwlch Glas between Snowdon and Garnedd Ugain.

What it doesn’t mention is that “along the top of the Clogwyn Du’r Arddu cliff face” is bloody steep. I was alright going up it (although I certainly didn’t break any land speed records and had to stop every three or four minutes to stave off a heart attack), but coming back down really buggered my knees up. Perhaps I should have just rolled.

But still, I’ve done it. And despite my knees hurting when I go up and down the stairs I feel pretty alright today, I might even go on another walk this afternoon.

Ben Nevis anyone?