Advice

I've been given the odd bit of advice - mainly on how to look after my feet. Advice which includes soaking the feet in salt water, soaking them in spirit (No chance! If we get hold of any spirit we'll drink it) and rubbing them in vaseline.

When I was walking to Reading today (last minute training!) I met a man in his late 50's or early 60's with three randomly distributed front teeth who asked me how far I was walking. "Six and a half miles each way" I replied "but next Wednesday I'll be setting off to walk from Lands End to John O'Groats".

"You must be one of the idiots I read about in the Wargrave News" he said. "I've done that walk and it's very good but you don't want to bother with b&b's or camping. You should rough it. A piece of tarpulin is all you need."

"Are you ex services?" he went on to ask. I wondered if I had somehow acquired some military bearing from my two years as a Cub Scout when I was 9 or 10 but I said no I wasn't. "I still think you should rough it. And you can get water in churches" he said as I backed away and continued my way along the A4.

Just in case he reads this blog I have to say he was a very nice man and I will think about the tarpaulin.

7 Days to Go!

It's been a while since the last blog. I've been busy with last minute preparations.

Yesterday I weighed everything I'm planning to take and loaded it all into an Excel Spreadsheet. At the moment the total stands at 7.5 kg excluding any food and water but I suspect this will creep up by another 0.5 kg or so. My plan is that the absolute maximum to carry should be no more than 10.0 kg including water and food.

My new MP3 player is now fully loaded with about 120 hours of music. This should help ward off Andrew's jokes.

Donations to out Justgiving web site are steadily increasing. Please accept our thanks to all who have sponsored us.

This time next week we willl be underway!