Just a quick note to say all the video diaries from all six of the days of the walk are now up on the ITV yorkshire website.
Thanks go to Neil and all at ITV who edited down our rubbish to try and find something of at least slight merit. Thanks guys.
The task of reporting all 78 miles of our walk of the Dales Way seems almost as daunting as the hike was itself. Therefore I’m not going to bore you with a blow by blow account.
I do want to record it’s general feel for posterity however, and so I’m afraid I’m going to subject you to at least some half baked amateur travel writing. If that seems a bit too much to stomach then I’d advise you to give this blog a miss for a week or so and hope that when you return I’ll be back to blogging about my bodily functions once again.
The personnel of the walk varied slightly throughout the start due to various commitments, but those present right from the start were (from left to right) Mushy, Rich, Gav, Oli, Dave, Craig, me and Brooky.
Trying to look buoyant and optimistic while secretly worrying that our backpacks are far too heavy.
Within a mile we had naturally split up into two groups, the slow walkers and the fast walkers. I had anticipated this would happen, it was why I bought some walkie talkies so we could keep in contact. I hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly though. I stopped to take a photo, turned round, and half of the buggers were disappearing over the horizon.
The first six or so miles were very easy going, and we stopped for a horrendously overpriced lunch at a cafe near Bolton Priory (£1.50 for a can of Diet Coke! The swines!). Then it was over some stepping stones and into Strid Wood where we ran into a couple who had done the Dales Way twice before and assured us that the walk got easier as the days went on. I have since considered reporting these two to the police for such blatant disinformation.
Craig and Brooky stubbornly ignoring my pleas for them to ‘fall in for the camera”
Once out of Strid Wood we had to take a minor detour to Bardon Tower ruins where a very grumpy restaurant owner allowed Oli to refill his water bottle but wouldn’t let us sit down on their outside tables. Then onwards towards Burnsall via an ice cream van (£1 for a can of Diet Coke! The bastards!).
On reaching Burnsall we had done around twelve miles, and were starting to feel rather drained. We also managed to catch up with Rich, Gav, Mushy and Dave who told me they had been working very hard filling the video camera with “interesting facts”. It was, they assured me, television gold. They had also spent the last half hour or so drinking in the beer garden of a nearby pub and to my sweat stung eyes they all looked very unfairly refreshed.
The last three miles to Grassington was a bit of a struggle to say the least. Which was a shame as the scenery would have been breathtaking should I have had any spare breath to take.
Walking towards Grassington
We stayed the night at the Foresters Arms, but much to our disappointment had little energy for any serious drinking. We had a fantastic meal then sloped of in dribs and drabs to bed. The latest any of us were up was 10:30pm. Quiet the party animals I’m sure you’ll agree.
Time set off: 10am
Time arrived: 6pm
Rough distance traveled: about 16/17 miles
Number of swear words uttered: 587
You can find more photos of the day here, and you can also still see the video footage we took of the first day over at the ITV local site. Neil also very kindly put some of it on youtube for us:
The mighty conquerors of the Dales Way.
More tomorrow. Tonight - Bath, pain killers, and bed.
Dan and Co. have now reached Kendal at the end of Day Five and are rewarding themselves with a very well deserved chinese meal. Only ten more miles to go now. Hopefully tomorrow at lunchtime they will make their way towards the bench which marks the end of the Dales Way in Bowness. Myself, Rachael, Lydia and Eve along with Dan’s wife Kerry and Lee’s wife Natalie will be amongst the party at the finish! They have done so well.
More video should be posted by the team at ITV Local tomorrow with the big finish going online on Tuesday. I’ll try and do what I can to get it on youtube too. Although that won’t be tomorrow as I’m not in work.
I’ll leave you with Dan’s twitterings from the past 36 hours or so.
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I have received many twitterings from Dan this morning and even managed to get through to him on his phone as they reach an area with better mobile reception. He told me that Sandip has had to drop out and has headed home.
Anyway as the twitters are not appearing properly on this site, I’ll copy and paste them……
I’m pleased to say that Dan and his band of merry men are still alive - received the following twitter this morning:
Day three and two miles into the fifteen we have to do i am absolutely buggered
And to prove that they have actualy set off……I have some footage from day one!! I’ve tried and failed to embed - so click here please!!!
More footage including this at a higher quality can be found at itvlocal.com/yorkshire. My colleagues have enabled the ITV site so that it can now be seen from countries outside the UK. Although I’m told there may be problems with Macs………
We won’t receive any more video now until Monday when I’ll do my best to post some more on here, ITV Local and You Tube. Also when and if they make it back….I’ll edit together a highlights film that I’ll stick on You Tube.
Mobile reception remains a problem today with no signal for any of the walkers for most of the day but just managed to talk to Gavin and Kerry who said that they’re all looking tired now but enjoying it! Apparently the accomodation tonight leaves a lot to be desired!!!
Hope to be able to update further tomorrow….
Well it’s the end of day two and all has been fairly quiet. I spoke with Dan this morning and he said they had missed the last post yesterday which means I have no video to post. But the good news is that we’ll have a double whammy of footage to show tomorrow!!
His twitterings have been few and far between today due to the limited mobile reception in the Dales. In fact I’ve not had word from the walkers since lunchtime today when Dan texted:
Stopped for lunch after doing six miles. Only ten more to do today. Bugger
I know today was going to be a tough old slog for the gang as it was 17 miles or so of uphill struggle…..maybe they’re still walking now!! I guess we’ll have to wait until the tapes come rolling in to find out!!
Right, now that I have control of Dan’s blog and while he’s away…I can let you into a few secrets about him……on second thoughts he knows far too much about me..!
Hopefully by this time tomorrow we should have received their first piece of video which will be posted on itvlocal.com/yorkshire - for those in the UK… and on youtube.com/thejosephsalmontrust for everyone else. It should also appear here too!
I know Dan has thanked everyone for sponsoring him and his team, but I wanted to say thank you too. For myself and Rachael the past three and a bit years have been extremely difficult. Launching the charity has been our way of trying to offer a small amount of help to other parents in a similar situation and also to keep Joseph’s name alive. I find it hard to express how grateful I am for all the support that we have received. So, thank you for everyone that has sponsored Dan and co. and for the kind words that have been written on blogs around the world. We try and read them all.
Today, I thought that I would list the twitterings of Dan on Day One. Here goes.
The past few days have been a mad whirl of last minute organizing for the walk. Here are some of the highlights:
Oli has informed me that he is only taking one t-shirt for the entire six days. He says that it a special one that is made from wicking material that draws away sweat and is chemically treated to repel odors. However I don’t believe that and think it’s all an elaborate ploy to ensure that he always gets his own room due to no one wanting to put up with his stench.
Rich Bassinder rang me up and asked me if I wanted a fourway. I politely declined but told him what he and the other walkers got up to in their own tents was between them and the STD clinic. He quickly clarified that he meant a fourway electric plug socket, but I remain to be convinced.
Greg sent me an email telling me to kick ass and be prudent. I have no idea what he means by that but I have decided that if I do kick ass I shall take his advice and do so in a financially responsible way.
I have amassed a pile of bags in my lounge which rivals Everest in hight. Theoretically they are all supposed to fit in the car for Kerry to drive from place to place. I can’t work out if I’m proud or ashamed of the fact that the battery rechargers for our various gadgets are heavier than the combined weight of all our clothes.
So here we go, this is the last I’ll see of you for 78 miles. It is also the last time I’ll be nagging you for money because as soon as my feet hit the Dales Way I’m going to stop concentrating on fundraising and start concentrating on not dying.
As I type our total stands at £2802.66. That is money that has been transfered into the Joseph Salmon Trust’s bank account. There is still a fair bit of cash floating around that has yet to be collected or handed in, so we’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for an official final total. There is still time to donate, so if you have been putting off giving why not do it now. If you have already donated, thanks again for your generosity.
I’m handing this blog over to Neil while I’m away. The plan is that he will post youtube versions of our video diary (that we will be mailing to ITV Yorkshire every morning) and also a feed from my twitter account so I will be able to text the blog from the road. You might have to refresh the page each time you visit in order to get the most up to date twitter. Don’t be surprised if it all goes wrong however as quite frankly Neil is an imbecile.
If it does end up not working then you can follow my twitter here and hopefully watch the videos here or here.
Wish us luck!
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