Bouncing Back

I just had what could be my last walk of the year. The temperature has really bounded back from the minus 7 or 8 Celsius we were experiencing just over a week ago. Today it is in the mid-teens, as it was yesterday.

One of the results of that is early morning mist. As I climbed 300 metres from Quillan to the Col du Portel I was in and out of this mist, and into brilliant blue sky and bright sunshine The effect was quite eerie at times.

When I was at the highest point, looking down, I was well out of the mist, which was still enveloping people at the market down below - people who still had no idea what a fine day they were in for once the sun had burned off their chilly blanket.

Ill-Prepared

So, we are about to enter 2010. The year in which I will attempt to walk an average of 30 kms a day for 70 days. To go back in time from where I am now to where I started. To reverse my steps, in terms of geography and timescale. While recognising that there is no going back from the 70 years of age I will hopefully achieve next July.

Among the things I have accomplished towards this end, in 2009:

More than 4,600 kms of training walks.
The route decided on and maps acquired.
A major sponsor (Columbia Sportswear) on board.
Lots of support on my blog and various forums.
A campervan on order, for base and support vehicle.
A decision to use the walk raise funds for Pancreatic Cancer research.
Significant press coverage to publicise the fund-raising.

Less welcome has been the return of the knee injury which, several years ago, finished my career as a competitive athlete.

Even less welcome than that has been the discovery that I have a serious problem with my eyes, which will only get worse, for which there is no treatment, which will prevent me reading and which means already that I can not see the tracks on the maps for which I have spent a small fortune. Could it be that I will accidentally be retracing Eric Newby’s Small Walk in The Hindu Kush? This is the book I am currently reading and I have been struck, once again, by how very ill-prepared so many of these people were for such major undertakings.

Starting At Zero

A beautiful day today. Started out at zero degrees, then warmed up to about 10, which feels OK after a cold spell.

Walked 22 kms today. 91 for the week, which is not bad for Christmas week with a couple of really wet anti-tramping days. Over 4,600 kms for the year. I don't suppose I shall do too many more before we hit 2010, the Chinese Year Of The Big Walker.

Those are the Pyrenees in the distance. Doesn't look too warm higher up, does it?

Mulled Wine and Baby Horses

While much of Europe, including Britain and northern France, suffered from a much-too-white Christmas, we had rain putting a dampener on things.

The intention, as last year, was for Gay and myself to walk to Nebias through the woods and return across the plain. A total of 16 or 17 kms and an excuse for the mulled wine and mince pies when we got home.

But it was raining much too heavily for that to be enjoyable. As I have said several times, during VBW itself, I will have to ignore the rain because the daily kilometres must be covered or the target will not be met. At the moment I have the luxury of selecting comfort over a soaking - also I hope that in May-July the temperature will be above yesterday's 4 degrees.

In the afternoon the rain eased off for a while so we did a sedate 4 kms round a truncated "Baby Horse 6" course. Not that we have seen a horse, baby or not, on that circuit for some years now.

But we still had the mulled wine and mince pies, of course!

Topsy

A topsy-turvey couple of weeks, walking-weather-wise.

First it was so cold that the winter dressing dilemma arose - the amount needed for the first hour was much too much for the rest of the walk.

Then the snow was getting so deep it was really strength-sapping. Then the bits where I had to walk at the side of the roads became impassable because of piled-up, melted then frozen-again snow.

Then the temperature rose just a few degrees above freezing and the snow disappeared as if it had never been here.

I think we need these very cold spells so that when the temperature, as now, creeps up just a little bit, it feels positively warm. If we had come down to 8 degrees from, say, 20, we would think it was cold.

Still, it's nice to think that, in a couple of weeks, we shall be in the southern hemisphere for a final burst of warm weather training for the Big One.

Thank Goodness I Was Born In July

Just walked 34 kms from Puivert. The only people I saw - one man and child in the village of Rivel, after 27 kms. All the way it wasold, wind in the face, slip-sliding at various points on packed snow and re-frozen snow melt.

But a happy thought struck me. Thank goodness I was not born in February. Then I would have been starting VBW in December and looking forward with trepidation to a possible 10 weeks, 30 kms a day, of such winter walking!

Girding Up The Loins

A shorter walk than normal today. My usual thing on Sunday, after the shopping trip to Esperaza market, is to drive to Quillan, have another coffee, gird up my loins, and walk back to Puivert with the usual climb through the woods. Although almost all of the route is off-piste, there is one section of quiet road, about 2 kms. The edges of that road (which of course are where I walk) consist, at the moment, of packed snow, shoved aside by snowploughs and traffic. This makes the middle of my 16 kms route dangerous and to be avoided.

So Gay dropped me off at Nebias (pictured above) for a 6 kms amble through the countryside to home.

Despite the weather I have managed to walk 68 kms this week, which takes me over 4,500 kms for the year. Clearly, as it is December 20, I will not be adding much to that before we hit 2010. But it is a bit of decent groundwork, is it not?