Why Is End Of April Too Late?

I have been asked why I feel that the end of April is too late for delivery of the battlebus, when I shall not be starting the walk until 15th May.

Don't forget that is an estimated delivery date. The last estimate was February, which turned out to be rather incorrect. Also, it is the date when the vehicle may arrive at the dealers, no in my hands. Also it is too late because it does not allow for any more delays, and it does not let us do what we wanted to do which is make several shorter trips in it so that Gay can get used to driving it, we can find the inevitable snags and have them fixed, and because Columbia need it so that they can cover it with a glorious design. End of April is too close for comfort, which is why we ordered it for the end of March, and came home earlier from New Zealand so that we could accomplish the above.

We are hoping to get a different model which the man claims he can get within five days. It has the snag that it is much dearer but hopefully we would get that much more back when we sell it, which we may well do straight after VBW. We would love to keep it and use it but can not conceive of when we would do that. With us being away so much of the year Down Under, Gay likes to be at home the rest of the time, except for the necessary trips to Italy, et cetera. She is very keen on the vegetable gardening (none this year because we are only here for 6 weeks in the whole year to the end of August).

Another problem is that I don't know how much longer I will be able to drive. My eyes are definitely worse than when we went away in January. We are watching "West Wing" on DVD. I can not now make out the faces I could see before we went away. We will have to move the furniture closer to the tv.

I have another appointment at the eye hospital on 27th April, to measure the rate of deterioration.

Homeless And Transportless

We had a bit of a setback today in the preparations for VBW. As a result, as things stand, for the 70 days of the walk we shall be homeless and transportless.

We drove over to Pamiers, confidently expecting to meet the campervan we ordered last October, and which we had been told would be arriving at the dealers in February. We need a few weeks to test out the vehicle, iron out any snags, and equip it for the journey. Not to mention the glorious design with which Columbia intend to equip it, head to foot.

On arrival, the smiling Stephan told us that, because of production delays, the vehicle will not be arriving until the end of April. That will be too late.

He is supposed to be scouring the country for an available model of the same type. Failing that, we shall have to return to the drawing board.

Hard Work

 

As I thought, walking 33 kms was hard, when the last time I walked 30 kms was the first week in February. But it is just a matter of getting used to it.

The Pyrenees were looking magnificent, as shown in this snap I took en route.

And I heard the first cuckoo of the year. We are not normally here at the end of March, because we are normally down among the kiwis and the kookaburras, so I don't know whether that is unusual here. I think in UK they generally appear in May.

Bursting Into Action

 

Home at last, after driving the full length, in reverse, of Vic's Big Walk. 48 days to go until the start.

As forecast, this has been a very poor walking week, because of all the travelling and visiting we were committed to. Tomorrow I shall walk, in one day, almost as far as I have clocked up in the past week.

Tomorrow's walk will be from Mirepoix to home, 33 kms, and what will be, in reverse, the first stage of VBW on May 15th. The knife sharpener pictured is usually in action outside the cafe from which, after breakfast, I will start walking.

I am indebted for the photograph to our friends Lorenzo and Jane. They took the picture on their last visit to France, which was much too long ago.

Rock Bottom

Rock bottom, that's where this week is, walking-wise. I think I will be walking less kilometres than in any week since the VBW project started nearly two years ago.

We are doing some intensive visiting in the UK. The rest of the time seems to be taken up with shopping for various items which will be needed during the walk, or equipment for the soon to be collected battlebus. Not much time left for walking.

Friday we drive from Manchester to Portsmouth, where I will check out the route from the ferry terminal to the start (for me) of the Wayfarers Way (which connects to various other walking paths which will carry me the 200 kms to Oxford). Then we catch the ferry to France, where we arrive on Saturday. We should be home by Sunday evening.

Monday morning is the start of a new week, as I record them. Training will start again in earnest. The plan, for the six weeks or so remaining until the start of VBW, is to walk at least 100 kms per week, with at least one walk of 30 kms per week. This should maintain my current fitness level and also remind me what is like to walk 30 kms so that will not be too much of a shock when I start doing it every day for 10 weeks.

Amazement

"Completely amazed by your dedication and just grateful that there are people like you prepared to put in the hard graft x"

This is a message on my JustGiving donation page, from Jacky Rolls, who made a donation yesterday.

I don't know Jacky, but she is one example of many strangers who are donating to Pancreatic Cancer research in connection with my walk.

Another example, yesterday we were in Holland and Barrett, stocking up on concentrated beetroot juice (which is good for stamina). Obviously we were talking about why we needed 70 bottles of Beet-it. As we left, she said she would definitely be making a donation.

A few minutes before, I was in Rohan, buying a waterproof cape. The man who was serving me told me that he writes for the Rohan magazine or newsletter and he would publicise my walk in there.

I am completely amazed by the kindness of people like this.

Dr Livingstone, I Presume?

We are now in Ambleside, in the English Lake District. I think I prefer the idea of walking 2,000 kms in 10 weeks to that of flying 20,000 kms in such a short space of time, especially last night's 14-hour flight, which started when we were already well past bedtime.

We had a very pleasant surprise at Singapore Changi Airport. As we were waiting to board our flight, a smiling man came up to us and spoke our names. It was William Brambell, with whom we always make our travel arrangements at his excellent company, Trailfinders.

William claimed they had been on holiday in Australia but we recognise this for what it is - outstandingly wonderful customer service - to travel all the way to Singapore just to make sure that we got home safely.

It was very nice to spend a little time with William and his wife, Karen. He is always unfailingly polite, helpful and cheerful. We can now confirm that he is still the same after such a long flight, because we saw him again at the Manchester end.

This breaks our duck. Some people we know never go anywhere without meeting somebody they know, but normally we travel all over the world without bumping into a soul.

As you can imagine, not much walking has been done in the past 24 hours, but I have, here in Ambleside, equipped myself with a pair of Leki walking poles, which I have a feeling may come in handy on those up and down tracks in France which, after such a wet winter, may still be slippy and muddy in May.