John O'Groats to Land's End Challenge

Only two months to go!

2010-03-10T23:51:00.006Z

It's now a little over two months until the challenge starts. A lot has happened over the past few months . . .

There are now be three walkers intent on doing the whole JOG-LE. These are me, Brian North, and Tess Shellard. Mark Hobson will be attempting to walk the length of Scotland and will then be leaving us at Carlisle. At least ten other walkers have committed themselves to walking a few days or a week with us, and a number of others are thinking of joining us for a period.

That covers the two-legged walkers. The surprise addition to the team is Midge, a labrador x who will be about sixteen months at the time of the Challenge. Many of you will be aware that Bonnie, my devoted lab, died of chronic kidney failure earlier this year. I was heartbroken. She would have loved to have come on the JOG-LE, but would not have managed the distances. I had no plans to get another dog. But an unexpected phone call, telling me how Midge's owners couldn't give her the exercise she craved, and wanted her to go to a good home, and could I help? She's a fine dog. Intelligent. Fit. Irresistable.

Obviously, given her tender age, I will need to make sure Midge doesn't overdo it. She will undoubtedly ride out part of the longer days in the support vehicle. Mind you, she is comfortably walking 15-20 miles a day at the moment, and still has a couple of months to go! There is something about walking with a dog that just makes it right.

One of the biggest obstacles over recent months has been the support vehicle. Ann unfortunately had to pull out due to illness in her family. Insurance has been a problem with hiring a minibus, so we may well be using my own estate car as support vehicle. I can change the insurance to cover any named driver easily enough. Although it has been described, unflatteringly, as a rust bucket, it has just been serviced and I am told it is a very sound motor. It also has character! As far as drivers go, we still need volunteers to drive three sections: Glasgow to Kendal (28/5 - 5/6), Youlgreave to Bath (12/6 - 22/6), and Exeter to Land's End (28/6 - 6/7).

Route-planning is coming on nicely. The route was laid out some time ago, and I am now in the process of fine-tuning where we will meet up with the support vehicle each day. This is especially important in areas where we cannot rely on mobile phone contact. Talking of route-finding, I bought my first GPS recently (Satmap). It's one of the most incredible pieces of kit I've come across. An electronic OS map with a blue dot showing your position and an arrow showing the direction you're walking. What could be easier? It's almost cheating.

Must get on. An awful lot still to do in two months. I'll be updating this blog a lot more frequently from here on in.

2009-07-31T19:20:00.003+01:00

The latest great news for the Challenge is that we now have a vehicle and driver who will be with us for the entire length of the walk! Many thank to Ann Kemp, who has agreed to accompany us with her Freelander for the whole eight weeks.

Now that we have one vehicle, this gives us considerable flexibility with other transportation. Some sections of the walk are proving to be quite popular, so we will almost certainly need extra luggage space. Ann can arrange to tow a small trailer, but we may also arrange for a second car to cover some sections. We have also been offered a van if we can find a driver. If there is anyone out there who is willing to drive their own vehicle for a week or more, please get in contact. We will cover the cost of petrol.

As the Challenge is now less than nine months away, training is becoming a priority. I will be arranging a variety of training walks over the coming months, aiming to lead at least one walk of 20-30 miles every couple of weeks from now until the start of the Challenge. Details will be available on the Challenge website and local press. The first training walks will be:

Thursday, 6th August, a cliff walk from Charmouth to Burton Bradstock, returning by an inland route. 20 miles. Leaving Stonebarrow car-park (SY 381932)at 8am
Saturday, 15th August, North Devon coast and Exmoor. 28 miles. starting at Selworthy car-park (SS 920468) at 8am.

Anyone is welcome to join me on any of the walks - I have space for up to four passengers in my car if needed. More walks are planned, hope to see some of you sometime!

2009-07-10T17:02:00.007+01:00

Recently, I sent off the first press release about the Challenge, and was pleased to see it published in the Western Gazette last week. For those who missed it:

Hospice Nurse to Tackle John O’Groats to Land’s End Walk

Yeovil, Somerset, 1st July, 2009
Lead nurse at St Margaret’s Somerset Hospice, Phil Edwards, is to walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End to raise money for the hospice. The 1280-mile journey, starting on May 13th, 2010, will take eight weeks, and Phil is inviting other supporters of St Margaret’s to walk sections with him.

Phil had dreamed of doing this walk for some time, but was spurred into action by seeing the effects of the economic recession on other hospices in the UK. He says, “Across the country, hospice jobs are being cut, and services squeezed, because of the recession. Only last week, a hospice in the east of the country was forced to close a third of its beds.

“As a nurse at St Margaret’s in Yeovil, I see, every day, how vital our work is for people with life-limiting illnesses. It would be tragic if we could not continue to provide the same level of high-quality hospice care for local people. About 80% of our funding comes from voluntary donations, and even a small drop in giving can have profound effects on the work that my colleagues and I are able to do.“

The walk that Phil has devised is almost entirely off-road, and will follow bridleways and footpaths most of the time. It will go through some of the most beautiful parts of Scotland and England, including the Scottish Highlands, the Lake District, the Yorkshire dales, and the Cotswolds.
Accommodation will be in youth hostels, B&Bs, and country inns. Says Phil, “We want this to be a unique experience, and at different times we will be staying in a Scottish castle, a converted railway station, a gothic mansion, an ex-coastguard station, and an 18th century millworker's cottage.”

Walking 15 to 30 miles a day, completing the whole walk will be a feat of endurance. However, Phil believes that most reasonably active people would be capable of joining the Challenge for a few days, “The pace will be steady, and while a few days cover 30 miles or more, most of the time we will be walking between 20 and 25 miles a day.” Phil will also be leading a number of training walks over the next twelve months for those who would like to take part but need to get fit.

The Challenge has already excited the imagination of his colleagues. Several employees of St Margaret’s Hospice have signed up to walk sections of the route. Others have offered to drive the support vehicle or help with fundraising. It has been suggested that this could become one of the biggest fundraising events St Margaret’s has ever staged.

Details of the Challenge can be found on its website – http://www.walktheextramile.com/ – which outlines the route and how to get involved. As well as walkers, Phil and his colleagues also need volunteers to drive the support vehicle and help with publicity. If you wish to sponsor this event, donations can be made on www.justgiving.com/walktheextramile. For details of other ways to support the work of St Margaret’s Hospice, please visit http://www.somerset-hospice.org.uk/ .

You can follow Phil, as he prepares for this epic challenge, on his blog, http://walktheextramile.blogspot.com/.

2009-05-20T23:08:00.004+01:00

Less than a year to go now - 358 days to be exact. Thanks to some generous donors, www.justgiving.com/walktheextramile is starting to look respectable. And progress is being made securing a vehicle to use as support during the challenge.

Having identified that I need to work up to the planned distances, I have now completed two or three 20+ mile walks. They went well, and I managed to catch some of the good weather on the Mendips, and Dorset coast path.

Talking of good weather, there was little of this on the St Margaret's Charity Walk last weekend. The walk, an annual event for the last five years, stretches 34 miles between the two hospice units in Somerset (Taunton and Yeovil). Over 400 people took part in the event, most walking shorter sections of the route. I don't know how many completed the whole distance, but I am pleased to say that I was one of them! The fact that I finished bodes well for the JOG-LE challenge next year; unfortunately, I also got hopelessly lost which bodes less well. Who knows? Next year we may end up completing the first ever John O'Groats to East Grinstead challenge!

A couple of people have asked me about training walks for the Challenge. I had planned to set up some walks later in the year, but I'd be happy for others to join me earlier. I'll be out next weekend (30th & 31st May) and I was planning to walk a 20-mile route around Dunkery Beacon and the north Devon coast on the Saturday, and a similar length route in West Dorset on the Sunday. If you want to join me, drop me an email philedwards@st-marg-hospice.org. I'll try not to get lost this time.

Cheers for reading this far. Over the coming months, I'll try and keep you posted as to how preparations are going for the Challenge.

Phil

2009-03-18T02:25:00.007Z

Well, things seem to be taking off! Since publishing the http://www.walktheextramile.com/ website, several people have come foward to say they will walk sections of the route. There will hopefully be a good few people walking with me every step of the way.

Perhaps I should also clarify a couple of points I have been asked about. On my JustGiving website (www.justgiving.com/walktheextramile) I have set a target of £40,000. This is a target for the venture as a whole - at least one reader was worried that this was the amount expected from each participant! Mind you, if anyone does want to raise that on their own . . .

Secondly, I am often asked if Bonnie, my labrador, will be joining me on the walk. Sadly, she will not. At twelve years old, Bonnie's heart may be willing, but her legs tend to give up after six or seven miles. She will be spending the period of the Challenge with a colleague, Pinky, and a number of her old canine friends. Nevertheless, although Bonnie will be sitting out the Challenge itself, she will be fully involved with the preparation. She has already accompanied me to check out several sections of the Walk, and will share many of my training walks through the coming year. Bonnie has been my constant walking companion for over a decade, and it is only right that she should be fullly involved with this venture too.

Having mentioned training walks, I should say these have begun! As Bonnie has got older, so our walking routes have become shorter, and I realised the other day that it is several years since I walked 20 miles in a day! This obviously needs to be corrected, so I have set myself the challenge of walking the complete South West Coast Path (630 miles) over the next three months (while also working full-time). I shall be walking fom Minehead on Saturday (28th), athough will need to be back at work by Sunday morning!

I'd like to thank those people who have spread the word about the Challenge to their friends. Following numerous enquiries, I'm now a lot more confident that we will be able to get a reasonably-sized group walking every section of the Challenge. We may even end up having to turn people away!

Thanks for reading this blog . . . however you accessed it, you are welcome. If you would like to be involved in the Challenge, drop me an email.

Phil

Walk the extra mile: The Blog

2009-02-19T01:06:00.003Z

"Why not start a blog?", they said.

It's not always a good idea to nod enthusiastically when you don't really understand what someone has suggested. But that's how I came to create this blog.

Someone in the communications team at St Margaret's Hospice came up with the idea that I run a blog alongside our great John O'Groat's to Land's End Challenge. A blog? Me? But I don't even own an anorak!

But, after a few false starts, here it is. What's it all about, Alfie?

Well, basically, I am organising an eight-week challenge walk from John O'Groats to Land's End, due to start in May 2010. I will be using this blog to describe how we are getting on with the planning and, ultimately, to try and convey how it feels to be walking through the entire length of the country. Now and again, I am also likely to expound on why raising money for St Margaret's Somerset Hospice is so important. It really is important. Trust me.

That's it. I've started a blog. Tomorrow I can buy an anorak.