Peru Trek

Sacsayhuamán

In September 2006 my wife and I took part in a fundraising walk along the Inca Trail in the Andes, Peru. To do this we first had to raise £2650 each (as well as our airfare) in aid of our chosen charity which is APEC, a charity which has saved the lives of my wife … Read more

A Few “Post Trek” Thoughts

It struck me that here was a bunch of people doing something for charity. Something that was potentially (and really was) “tough and miserable” to quote the words of Kelso, one of the team leaders. Not only the toughness and miserableness of exhaustion and altitude sickness but in addition I’m sure there were quite a … Read more

The Trek!!!

There was no chance to actually write this blog from Peru. It was either a case of looking (unsuccessfully) for an internet cafe (4450 meters up in the Andes) or else too much altitude sickness to get it together even had we found one. Yes altitude sickness can mess with your brian, as well as … Read more

The Final Days of Training

Sorry for the delay in posting this, I hope you didn’t all think the training had got the better of us. After last week, I must admit I was nervous about being about to do 2 eight hour walks on two consecutive days. It was quite an achievement to do 8 hours, but to come … Read more

Weekday Training

It’s not all exhausting but somehow enjoyable walks round the countryside that get more and more exhausting, we also have to do weekday walks. Just when you thought you could give the calves, knees, thighs and blistery bits a chance to recover, there are also several weekday walks. Not so easy when you also have … Read more

7th Weekend – another 8 hour walk

Compared with last weekend, this might have been a bit easier. We walked along the Pilgrim’s Way from Winchester to Upham and back, a round trip of only about 14 miles. No, no, no. It turned out to be either walking up hill or downhill. Even the level bits seemed to be hills (see photo … Read more

The “B” Word (Blisters)

So far I haven’t had actual blisters, but some very painful areas on my left foot: the pad just below my big toe and the lower part of my heel. I hate these more than blisters because they are spread out and harder to define. The problem with my toe is not so much a … Read more

The Wonderful World of Goretex

You’ve read about our experience of being caught in the worst downpour since records began, Goretex is now our best friend. When I first bought the waterproof trousers I got home and thought, F***, I’ve just paid £90 for plastic trousers. No, no, no. I ‘m so glad I didn’t take them back and buy … Read more

Fundraising to date

Apart from one round of begging emails to friends and clients, my fundraising has all been via donations on my website and forum, along with any advertising revenue from the sites. We were initially going to try yardsales and fundraising parties, but so far things are looking quite good as it is and I’m quite … Read more

New boots (and trekking gear in general)

Got some new boots today. These are not as macho looking as my previous leather ones, but they are lighter and ventilate better. Most importantly there is room for the shock absorber insoles. Saxophone players use an expression “Gear Acquisition Syndrome” or “GAS”. It’s very often associated with amateurs, but can quite easily spread up … Read more

5th weekend – the big one

The big one. Two six hour walks one day after another. We did it. Not easy. Saturday was an easy morning as Jim and his grandma were with us so we just did a two and a half hour amble along the Itchen from somewhere to Ovington where there is probably the best pub in … Read more

The Pedometer

(Or is it Podometer – I can never remember). Laurie bought me this for Christmas and its great. Here is an example of what it tells you: Pedometer It’s great to get to the pub at lunchtime and know that you can replace all those calories. As long as you make a creative guess about … Read more

4th Weekend

This weekend we almost reached the extreme limits of human endurance – 6 hours walking the South Downs Way without a cup of tea. At one stage late in the afternoon we arrived at the top of a very steep hill where there was a lane. All we had to drink was two teaspoons of … Read more

3rd weekend

This was supposed to be one long walk of six hours, but didn’t quite turn out like that. We drove to Exton in the Meon valley and planned a walk that would start off with some hilly bits, as close to the Andes as the South Downs gets. We managed quite nicely up Old Winchester … Read more

2nd Weekend – Sunday

We went to the Outdoor shop in the morning and they fitted my boots with some special insoles to soften the bottoms and stop the blister, sort of deluxe £32 odour eaters. We left the car at Shawford, a station half way between Southampton and Winchester and planned to get a train back to eastleigh … Read more

2nd Weekend – Saturday

This weekend we needed to do two 4 hour walks. It’s easy enough to do one, but the real test is to get up the next morning and trundle off on another. This wasn’t too bad, on Saturday we did a walk from the Hampshire Teashop Walks book which went from Stockbridge on a roundish … Read more

1st Weekend

This is the first weekend of serious training (ie longer than the paltry 5 mile walks we’ve been doing up to now). We needed to do a 4 hour walk this weekend so decided to walk along the Itchen Way from Southampton up towards Winchester and then turn back after a couple of hours. We … Read more