Mud, mud, glorious mud!

If I am going to manage this challenge, pootling round my local footpaths is not going to be enough preparation, so I need to do some longer and more strenuous walks. My walking buddy, Gill, is incapacitated at the moment following a foot operation so I signed up for a Sunday walk “Secrets of the Stiperstones”, with the Shropshire 1000 milers, a local walking group I occasionally walk with. I have walked up and over the Stiperstones many times but this sounded like a different route to one I had done before (and indeed it was). It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Waking up to drizzly rain and a forecast of more to come, I wasn’t sure that it was such a good plan after all, when I could be curled up in my dressing gown, drinking coffee and listening to the “Archers Omnibus” instead.

But I knew I would regret it if I didn’t go, so suitably dressed I made my way to the Snailbeach Village Hall car park to meet my companions for the day.

Walking is always more fun with other people and this was a jolly group fuelled by the most enormous bar of Cadbury’s chocolate I have ever seen. 

There was mud EVERYWHERE and some paths were so waterlogged they were hatching frogspawn. But once we got up onto the higher path and the Stiperstones themselves the ground was drier - but rockier of course!

We found a little place sheltered from the wind to have lunch (and large amounts of chocolate) and then the steep decline back to the car park, walking through the remains of Snailbeach mines along the way. It was a satisfying way to spend a Sunday after all.

Warming up

During lockdown, when we were limited to leaving home for a maximum of an hour and only on foot, I started to explore the local footpaths around my home. I had never really done this before, preferring to jump in the car and find a hill to climb where there would be a view, but this was a better option than not walking at all.

There is quite a network of paths but, in truth, they are not very interesting so it is no surprise that I rarely meet another soul. To begin with I was nervous of going too far and being out too long, or worse still, getting lost. But as things eased up and my confidence grew, I widened out my routes. If I am feeling particularly energetic I can extend the walk out to five miles – or even more.

But this weekend I am just warming up, checking out the routes, getting back into the swing of walking. 

 

My fundraising page is up.

Sponsor me here!

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Juliasontheway

This walk is primarily about getting out and about to see some of the projects we have supported over the years, which I am really looking forward to. I rarely get to see the finished results and it is always heartening to see plans come to fruition. It also makes a good story, raising awareness of the work we do with the local media. 

But it would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to raise some funds for the charity so that more groups will be supported and if people sponsor me, it makes me accountable to them: I have to see it through, come what may.

This will be the third time I have raised funds through walking. I have never had my own fundraising page before and have always relied on people sending a cheque or giving me cash so its strangely exciting!  And a couple of people have already put contributions into my electronic collection bucket which is a little bit thrilling as well, but also this suddenly feels real.

Here I go again.....

I have long thought that I had another trek in me and now that I am just about to retire, it seems that ambition will finally be realised.

It's not going to be an epic adventure like my first to Peru walking the Inca Trail:  https://perutrip2006.blogspot.com/ or my second trip to the foothills of the Indian Himalayas https://asiatrek2010.blogspot.com/ not least because (thankfully) I will be sleeping in my own bed at night. But I am considerably older now, I am less fit, and I have the distinct impression that I am developing a “dodgy” hip. It is no less daunting a prospect than the previous two treks were – but the challenges are different.

This walk was originally planned for 2020 to celebrate 60 years of the charity’s work in Shropshire – but of course the covid-19 pandemic put paid to that. And during the pandemic I decided it was time to retire, so this trek has become my last “hurrah”, my swansong, an opportunity to visit some of the projects we have supported over the years, and my chance to say “good-bye” to lots of people I have come to know over that time. Oh, and to raise some funds for the work to continue, of course.

But first I need to get some practice walks in, so my faithful boots are being brought out of hibernation after a lazy winter.