We started off walking round North Kent (not all of North Kent, just a bit of it). It was raining quite hard so it was good to test out not only our waterproofs (never without them since that disastrous time a few weeks ago), but our spirits as well. Luckily both held out so we blasted fearlessly and defiantly through the damp and dripping Hayes Common with typical British pluck – stiff if slightly wet upper lip. Then it stopped raining after 2 or 3 hours. (But still with scattered showers of course).
I had decided to try the new pair of boots, but thought it best to wear the old ones for the morning and break the new ones in during the afternoon, but just in case I carried the old ones in my backpack. As it turned out by lunchtime the old ones were still causing some pain, I put the new ones on and it seemed the one area that would probably need the most breaking in was right where the most pain was, however they were brilliant – my worst nightmare (ending up in the Andes with the wrong boots) is now laid to rest.
The afternoon went well, lots of hills (see picture. Please note that to get this picture I had to run ahead up the hill).
After the 8 hours we didn’t feel too bad at all, Laurie had a slight blister) however the next morning there are plenty of aches and pains, so we’re quite glad the traing schedule has a couple of single 8 hour walks before the double 8 hour (in two weeks’ time).
NB, looking the photo you might think it’s a flat field with a vertical field behind. That’s my bad photography. It’s actually an (almost) vertical field with a flat field behind (honest).