Changing Faces

The Jubilee Weekend Blog Update

After a very enjoyable and successful Pub Quiz last week, we have some BIG news...

Start Time

First of all we have received our start time for the day itself. We had hoped for a 8am start, so we were pretty happy to be given a 9am slot. If nothing else it gives us an extra hour in bed before heading to the start, so that can't be a bad thing.

New Team Line Up

Who's that chap in the bottom left...?

Secondly we have had a team member change. It is with sadness that we have to report that Gem, having done all that training and fundraising until recently, has had to step down from the Hardcore Four team following advice from her doctor... The doctor actually would advise against anyone doing it even if healthy, but we'll breeze over that...

...that said Gem isn't going to slide off to Trailwalker retirement quietly. You may have noticed that having been unable to participate in our last training walk, Gem provided us with support team practice with friend Anna. She did so well that we've decided to move Gem to a backroom staff role (in football terms), or a 'promotion' (if that makes her feel better), to be a part of a new and third support team sitting in the middle of our two existing support teams on event day. This is a role we know Gem will enjoy and will enable her to remain part of this challenge as it was her who suggested doing it in the first place! In addition, we've had confirmation from Anna that she'd like to partner Gem in that support team, so thanks Anna!

All that said, Gem is still gutted she will not be getting a Trailwalker t-shirt!

We obviously needed to replace Gem, and that we did, with a good friend of Gubbs'; Josh who Gubbs met through work 5 years ago.  Josh's profile is up on the Team page for you all to check out. He must be mad for joining us at this late stage, but for that we are eternally grateful, and we'll hand him over to the men in the white coats after we finish Trailwalker.

Enough of that, there's walking to be done

This week we looked at hiking a route that was a little scaled back in terms of distance to ease Josh in. So we selected the 17 odd miles between Washington and Jack & Jill Windmills (Stages 6-8).

The entertainment started for Jo, Gubbs & Josh on the drive to the end point, where they were to meet Julie. Josh was describing how he had been reading about the correct way to hang a Union Flag and how hanging it upside down could be considered a distress signal. So we started a game of spot the flag and whether it was hung correctly or not. We spotted about 5 in this part of the journey all of which must have had some distressed owners as they were all upside down! ...either that or Josh was getting his facts wrong, which he admitted getting from a primary school web site...

It was a windy morning at Jack & Jill. Wind that would stay with us through much of the walk leading to a feeling of being quite windswept.

When we did this route a couple of months ago in early April we were unable to find the actual starting point for the stage. As it turned out we were well off, trying to walk down the verge of the northbound A24 duel carriageway. After a bit of research we found that actually if you were finishing stage 5 you do not reach the A24 but rather work your way down a footpath through some woodland before turning into a field. So today we decided to give that a go, and while we didn't go into the field we followed the footpath to the grounds of a posh boarding school where we would exit the checkpoint to continue on to stage 6.

Beacon ready atop Chanctonbury Hill

As we walked we realised that the golf course mentioned in the instructions was actually part of the school grounds too! We started to discuss the kind of cost of sending your child to such a school and after a little research it turns out to be up to £7,000 a term, so not cheap then!

Anyway back on to the walk, when we climbed to the top of Chanctonbury Hill, not only were we greeted with the expected sight of Chanctonbury Ring, but also a huge pile of wood which we could only assume would be used in this evening's nationwide beacon lighting for the Jubilee celebrations.

As we walked along the hills towards checkpoint 6 we wondered across a free range pig farm which had a fresh batch of piglets running and jumping about, leading Josh to question where Eeyore was??

We continued along ended up at the checkpoint in Botolphs where we stopped for a 15 minute break for some sandwiches/rolls and a quick stretch before heading out on stage 7 towards Devils Dyke.

This was our opportunity to introduce Josh with one of the more 'challenging' hills we've come to expect from the Trailwalker course and it's one that he very much 'enjoyed'.

Paraglider high in the sky

As we neared Devil's Dyke we spotted a sole paraglider who was floating through the sky above us. He looked like he was in a sleeping bag, having been surprised after waking up to be found floating through the air.  There's a prank to be had there...

We had another 15 minute break at Devil's Dyke and then proceeded on to our 3rd and final stage of the day, now heading toward the car park at Jack & Jill windmills.

As we set off we felt the spots of rain after Gubbs had recently said "Looks like we'll be alright today...", referring to the weather. Nice work Gubbs. Luckily it didn't amount to much and we didn't have to crack the waterproofs out.

We also got a sponsorship notification while out on this section, which really rises the smiles we can tell you! So thanks to The Bings (Anna's parents) for your very well timed sponsorship!

We reached the car park after 6 hours 37 minutes walking 18.5 miles.

One walk down for Josh, with no blisters which he was very chuffed about. Next week we will up the miles by another 7.