400 Days To Go

400 days to the start of Vic's Big Walk from the French Pyrenees to the Lancashire Pennines in England.

When I first conceived the idea, here in New Zealand last year, there were about 800 days to go. How time walks! During that time I have walked about 3,000 kms in preparation, and have much of the planning done. My objective now is to keep reasonably fit so that I hopefully at least start the walk as a man, 70 days away from being 70 years old, with a reasonable chance of completing the task.

As we did the Oamaru Skyline walk this morning – where we climb more than once from just above sea level to a couple of hundred metres, we could clearly see the mountains to the south and west, which are now totally white with snow.

This time next week we shall be in Adelaide for a few days, then Brisbane for a week, Singapore for 2 days and UK for a week before driving home to France. While we are thus in transit, our walking will be less intense than lately, but that is not a bad thing, the body periodically needs a chance to recover.

Once back in France, I shall get cracking again and expect to walk about 4,000 kms this year and maybe another 1,000 kms next year before starting VBW on May 15th 2010.