Day 60 Extra. I Suppose It's Progress

"The Pithead bath's a supermarket now ..."

So sings Max Boyce.

Well, the first flat I had, the one I shared with the late Jeff Bardsley, over the newsagents in Huntbach Street, Hanley, is a carpark now.

Big disappointment of the day.

But I did get good pictures of the first school Karen went to in Werrington, and the first house I owned, also in Werrington, which is where Nicola was born.

As I said, I suppose that is progress. Things move on.

But not much progress with my signal strength so, sorry, the pictures were late.

Day 60. Normal Service Will Be Resumed ...

I forgot to mention yesterday that I walked 22 kms and that the total VBW distance covered so far is 1640.

I am dawdling about now because I have plenty of time in hand. I could probably get to Blackpool this weekend if I just continued straight on up the canals, but that would ruin the concept of walking back through 70 years of life in 70 days. It would also ruin the plans of people who have come from overseas to witness my arrival at the house where I was born.

I have cut out the side trips to nostalgia land, or at least the walking version of those, which I only ever intended to do if I had lots of time to spare. As it happens, if I now walked off to Leek, et cetera, I would be pushed for time, but as we are now going to have a day off to visit those places, I shall still have time in hand when I reach Lancashire.

There will be no walking today, for the first time since May 15th.

Day 59. Enter The Soup Dragon

We were sitting in V-Force One yesterday evening, minding our own business, when I saw this hot-air balloon looming over us. We went outside to get a better look, and noticed that two other balloons had already gone past without us noticing.

Despite all that excitement, we slept well – for the first time in years, Gay has been sleeping well every night during VBW, I never have any trouble, even when not walking 30 kms a day. We awoke this morning to the good news that the heat wave was over. The weather man said there would be rain today, but nothing sustained – I realised later that I must have accidentally been listening to a comedy show. It was spitting when I set off, but after half an hour or so it started lashing down. This went on for some hours. The towpath was mainly grass, so my shoes and socks soon became uncomfortably sodden. The rest of me was as snug as a bug in a poncho.

As I approached Stone, I saw the Soup Dragon striding towards me. This was not a surprise. Tonight we are staying in his house in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The original plan was for Soupie to walk today’s stage with me, but an injury put paid to that. So he parked up in Stone and walked along the canal towpath to meet me.

We had a coffee with him in Stone, then he cleared off to take care of business while we did a bit of nostalgising in Stone. I lived here for 4 years or so in the very early 60s. After Derek (the Soup Dragon’s alias) had gone, we drove over to Walton where I took a photograph of the tiny flat where I once lived. My eldest daughter Karen will not remember the place.

Then we drove to Derek’s home where we have the rest of the day off. Amazingly, after 59 days walking, we have tomorrow off as well.

Day 58 Extra. Extra Big Donation.

You may have noticed an extraordinary donation on my JustGiving page. The sum is £540. This was donated by an 18 year old boy.

The message from him which failed to appear on the JustGiving page is as follows:

Dear Vic,

Last week, for my 18th Birthday my parents bought me a parachute jump. I thought I would take the opportunity to raise money for your cancer research charity in support of your efforts and in memory of my Grandmother. As the jump was paid for by my parents, every donation I got could go directly to charity. I collected a total that was the equivalent of £540 in sterling, so here it is.

Everyone was very supportive over here, and they feel that your walk is a very noble and selfless cause! I hope the money I raised will prove to be a nice contribution to your journey!

I hope to see you soon; we will try to meet you along your way next Saturday.

Your friend,

Rowan Moorkens O’Reilly

Rowan is an extraordinary boy, if you need telling that after this amazing piece of fundraising. Among other things, he has been on an astronaut training course in America.

Rowan's mother, Evelyn, made the Vic's Big Walk banner you may have seen in pictures on this blog.

Thanks, Rowan, for showing what can be done. And for doing it.

So, with an example like that to follow, what can you do?

Day 58. Small World Part 97

Yesterday evening we were taken out to dinner at an excellent Chinese restaurant in Lichfield. John Hayfield had already driven himself and his lady Sandra up from Devon to their home on the edge of the Cotswolds. Then he drove to Lichfield, on to our campsite 26 kms north (I know because I just walked it), picked us up, drove back to Lichfield, brought us back to the campsite, then he and Sandra went back to the Cotswolds. Unbelievable! You will be pleased to know that in the middle of all that, we had a splendid time at the restaurant.

This morning Gay drove me back to yesterday’s finishing point near Whittington and deposited me on the towing path of the Coventry Canal, where I headed north. She headed in the direction of Rugely for a desperately needed launderette. The combination of this hot weather and my own antics is producing lots of damp kit. As we are not registered ammonia producers a pile of it was urgently in need of a washing machine. Fortunately Gay found one and all is, as they used to say on the toothpaste adverts, clean and sparkling.

I passed one moored vehicle which was flying two New Zealand flags – the official one with the union jack in the corner, and the one which could possibly replace it, with the silver fern. Some time later, I caught up with a moving boat, which had a New Zealand name. It turned out that the previous owners had been New Zealanders. Of the current crew, the young lady I was speaking to, when she learned of my mission, told me that she was born in Blackpool. In Kendal Avenue. This was small worldsville again. Several of my late first wife’s relatives lived in that street, including her mother and father.

It was strange walking back to the campsite I left at 6.30 this morning, but here I am. Tomorrow I will walk on to Stone, where I lived for a while in the early 60s.

Today’s walk was 26.5 kms, I am now walking up the Trent and Mersey Canal, and kilometres to date are 1,618, which, for the Luddites, is well over 1,000 miles.

57 Extra. Replanning of Final Days.

Blog Day 57 Extra. Replanning of Final Days.

As I said a few days ago, we have replanned the last phase of VBW. Most of the nostalgic side-trips to places where I have lived, worked and enjoyed life will now be made under power.

This is in the interests of not adding unwanted extra mileage in this heat. It also allows me to introduce some shorter walks after a bit of a tough time lately (especially in the aforementioned heat). A byproduct of the re-planning is that there will actually be some days without walking, or at least without walks which contribute to onward progress.

There follows a rough plan of what is to come.

Day 58. Sunday July 11. Walk from Whittington to Wolseley Bridge.

Day 59. Monday July 12. Walk from Wolseley Bridge to Stone.

Day 60. Tuesday July 13. Day off sightseeing.

Day 61. Wednesday July 14. Walk from Stone to Kidsgrove.

Day 62. Thursday July 15. Walk from Kidsgrove to c. Alderley Edge.

Day 63. Friday July 16. Walk from Alderley Edge to Altrincham.

Day 64. Saturday July 17. Walk from Altrincham to Warburton Toll Bridge.

Days 65, 66,67. July 18,19,20. Walk with Walters Walking Club from Warburton to Preston.

Day 68. Wednesday July 21. Walk from Preston to Garstang with my son-in-law Kenny. This day is reserved for Kenny. Nobody else welcome.

Day 69. Thursday July 22. Walk from Garstang to another location.

Day 70 Friday July 23. Walk from another location to target address. Arrival 1100 prompt.

Please note that almost all the above days are spoken for in that we are either staying with friends, or I am already walking with somebody. There are only a couple of days which are in neither of these categories. I actually want to walk on my own some of the time. This means that all applications to walk with me are now closed.

Day 57. Nostalgia

Today I entered Staffordshire, and nostalgia territory. I have lived in Staffs and Cheshire and Lancashire, the next two counties, for much of my life, so will be meeting people and seeing places which will inevitably stir up memories.

I didn’t expect that to start with the view I had for some time today, of the enormous television transmitter aerial near Lichfield. Jim Gregson and I sat in a layby on the A5 for 2 hours in the very early 70s, or possibly late 60s, staring at that mast and waiting for a rescue vehicle to tow my broken-down car to a garage in Stafford (that drive was quite exciting, I remember, on the back end of a rope).

The first of the expected nostalgia treats came last night. Bill Davies, an old friend from the same era, who was very sadly recently widowed, came to take us out for dinner. He drove us in his Jaguar to a pub about two and half miles from our very rural campsite. The pub was built in 1245, and the heights of the ceilings and doors reflected that. We had a good time with Bill, who insisted on paying, then went home and made a generous donation to the cause.

Today I pressed on from Atherstone to near Lichfield. We were unable to find a campsite anywhere near Lichfield, so we have driven to a point well north of there, nearer to tomorrow’s finish, in fact. It is very rural. We are quite near to Rugely Power Station, which is a very ugly site in what is otherwise again a very rural vista. The telephone signal is again poor, as it will be tomorrow, because we shall be at this same camp tomorrow. But somehow I managed to get photos up for the past 3 days.

Today was a day for several attempts upon my person by badly-controlled dogs on the towpath. One of which was a huge Newfoundland, and another, part of a pair who jumped from a boat to attack me, landed up on its back after a swift uppercut from my foot.

I seem to have swiftly progressed from crossing 1500 kms on Wednesday, to nudging 1600 kms on Saturday. Today’s walk, again in very hot circumstances, was 28 kms. The total is now 1591.5 kms. I hope to be having some shorter walks in the remaining 13 days, and even a couple of days off so that Gay and I can do some nostalgia sightseeing in V-Force One.