Folks
I'm a regular on here just under a different username and the Mods have very kindly given me permission to post details of a charity "venture" I'm undertaking with a view to bolstering my sponsorship. Perhaps it might also divert you awhile from talk of SDSR, carriers, trolling X Factor contestants and samsonites
I'm fundraising for RAFA, Help For Heroes and the Cystic Fibrosis trust - three charities that deal with matters that have touched my family and I directly. In August/September 2009 I set myself the challenge of walking all 15
National Trails in England and Wales over a 12 month period. Having lost an average of between 30 and 40 days leave a year for the last 6 years the sqn helped me cram in all my leave and accumulated post-det leave to try and achieve this challenge. The intention was to walk all the trails, each in "one go", carrying all my camping gear etc.
I'm at the 12 month point now and unfortunately I have only managed to achieve 10 of the walks, a total of just under
1700 miles or
2736 km. The realities of holding down a day job instructing and the vagaries of military planning meant that I just wasn't able to cram all the walks in. To that end I have extended my deadline to 18 months in the hope that I'll be able to finish off the last few walks.
I have so far walked
The Ridgeway,
The Cotswolds Way,
Cleveland Way,
Wolds Way,
Peddars Way & Norfolk Coast,
Glyndwrs Way,
Offa's Dyke,
South Downs and
Hadrian's Wall. My 10th walk, last month, was
The South West Coast path - a mega 631 miles which I completed in 32 days...
As someone who is renowned for being quite unsporty in the extreme this is certainly a major physical challenge! Averaging about 20miles a day with a 65+15 litre rucksack containing camping equipment and with a minimum of 5 days food & kit certainly works wonders on the middle age spread tho....
As I said, I'm raising money for three charities - all great causes I believe - and have 3 JustGiving pages:
RAFA
Cystic Fibrosis
Help For Heroes
Full details of this frankly ridiculous venture, including photos of the hills, mud, rain and snow I've endured are on my website at
WWW.SORE-FEET.CO.UK
If you've got a few spare quid rattling about and find the idea of a middle aged C130 pilot staggering about the countryside in the rain amusing then please sponsor me and I'll keep doing it!
Thanks folks