The Last Team Training Hike

This weekend we planned our last full team walk, dropping the mileage by almost half of last week's 31 miles. We also fancied a change of scenery after the recent weeks on the Trailwalker route, so we settled on the medieval route of the Pilgrims Trail, a route that takes walkers from Winchester to Portsmouth, and if you are really keen, on to it's final destination of Mont St Michel in Normandy.

It was a sunny, but chilly start in the car park at the foot of St. Catherine's Hill, just south of Winchester, at 7:30. We set off on our planned 16 miles walking through a valley named the Plague Pits to a crossing that took us over the M3, and then on to Twyford Down. We became quickly aware that the paths were to be wet and muddy. This was not a good day to ditch the gaiters, but ditched them we did.

This early part of the walk covered some of the same route that Jo & Julie did on their walk back in early March, where they experienced a range of all weathers. Today though we were thankful it was just sun with the occasional cloud cover.

We skirted around Hockley Golf course on to our first checkpoint destination today, Owslebury, a village that sits not only on the Pilgrim's Trail, but also the Monarch's Way (a 615 mile footpath that approximates the escape route to Shoreham taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester), and also a Roman Road that works its' way to Portchester, which we were also to walk along for some distance today. It can also boast at being the highest village in Hampshire.

Here we met support crew Gem & Anna on the lawn in front of the medieval church for some snacks and stretches. On the menu today was Gem's pecan chocolate brownies and peanut butter fudge, very tasty.

Erm...which way?

After a short break we set out again, through the grounds of the church and on to a field that was home to a motocross track. This was a navigation test, as the instructions for the route did not specify a direction and so we crossed straight over said motocross track, which involved climbing to the top of the incline. With no sign of the path at the top, Gubbs remembered that he had a map as well as the instructions, which showed the path quite clearly that we should have followed the edge of the field. Opps, so we headed to the edge and that's when we saw the Bull watching us.

He was sitting down so we felt comfort that we'd have a little notice if it had decided to take offence of our presence. Also we were right by a fence we could leap over if push came to shove...

Turns out we weren't as interesting for him as he was for us and we left the field through the electric fence in the corner. Josh decided to jump over fence not realising there was a handle to open it up without the need for such athleticism.

Watch out for the caged animal

We survived the bull run and Josh decided to tell us about the time he peed on a electric fence, unintentionally of course (well the peeing bit was intentional, the on the electric fence bit not so much). He described it as painful. Ouch.

Shortly afterwards we entered a copse that was surrounded by a large fence and gates. It looked like something from Jurassic park. Julie begged the question, what are they keeping in... We luckily didn't find out as we made it out in one piece on the other side without seeing a single T-Rex.

Hardcore Four coming in to land

We then crossed over a field which happened to have a wind sock at one end of it. Yes, that's right, in-between the crop, there was a grass airfield. Lucky for us not in use while we were crossing it.

The paths became narrower and narrower and we got the feeling that perhaps this isn't a well travelled route. With plenty of scratches we made our way through. We did get a little lost on the way to Bishop's Waltham though. Crossing over another field - we were learning that open fields were not our best friend for keeping on route. We did find our way however with just a little extra distance.

Bacon rolls coming up

Gem & Anna were making bacon rolls and were asking us for a number of ETAs (after each one past). They had already had their own rolls and they were starting to get peckish. This was now a race against the hunger of our support team. If we were much longer we'd have to go without!

I am happy to report that we did make it and lunch was served up. The menu today was bacon rolls, potato salad, boiled eggs and chicken bites... as well as more of the treats from the first checkpoint.

With topped up stomachs, we set off on our final 6 miles of the day. Hay fever was taking it's toll again with a couple of the team suffering the effects of being through all these fields.

The final part of the walk was completed without the navigational issues of earlier. We finished the route in 100 acre wood near Wickham. No sign of Winnie-the-Pooh or Tigger though, but there were a number of groups of heavily laden DofE students, and families enjoying in the woods today, and most importantly our support crew which signalled the end of our walk.

We completed the walk in 7 hours 1 minute covering just under 17 miles. Next time the whole team will be together will be in three weeks on Trailwalker weekend. Looking forward to it.

A Fathers Day Yomp

This week was the big one, the longest we'd go before the Trailwalker event itself, 31 miles - half the Trailwalker distance.

We all met in Queen Elizabeth Country Park, at the start of Trailwalker, at 7:30 Sunday morning. Today we would be walking the first 5 stages of the route to Washington. We completed a 27 mile walk last week so this was only going to be another 4 miles.

Support today was led by Jeff, who was to have his first taste of the support crewing. He brought with him an abundant supply of meals, snacks, energy bars and rehydrating tablets, along with a gas canister for the cooker we weren't able to use last week because, em..., we didn't have any gas to run it on.

Gem would be riding shotgun with Jeff for the day to aid in the support, and also as it turns out provide that paparazzi feel that any good walk should have.

With feet all taped up, support car packed to the limit, and team in good spirits we headed into the country park for our first of the 31 miles. Today was Fathers day and it gave us some great weather.

We left the boundary of the country park as we discussed food for the event day and Julie informed us that her brother Keith, a Major in the Royal Marines, had been able to provide her with a number of ration packs, each with a 24 hour supply of meals and snacks, for which we are very grateful! If it can fuel an army then it's more than good enough for us! It doesn't look like we'll be going hungry on the day.


We completed the first stage in record time, arriving on Harting Down in 1 hour and 45 minutes. We obviously had fire in our bellies, and it wasn't long before Jeff was dishing out lots of other treats for our bellies while Gem was snapping profusely, in between filling camalbaks of course!

So, on to our second stage of the day towards Hilltop Farm at Cocking.  The sun was shining so the sunglasses came out and for the first time in his relatively short Hardcore Four history, Josh took off his fleece! We had been ribbing him a bit last week about how he had kept his warm fleece on while we were walking in the warmth, but he shrugged it off. First he said how he couldn't really be bothered to take it off, then the explanation was that it would help him acclimatise to the heat of July when it hits us, but we'd take a guess that the first of the two was the truth.

It was also the first time Josh had been introduced to our 'old friend' (as Julie put it), Beacon Hill. When Josh approached he said "It's not so bad, I'm going to run up it". Yeah, yeah, sure you are Josh.

Well he didn't run up it, but he didn't hold back.  He was the first member of the team to scale the height and by some distance too. We've found on these past few training hikes that once Josh gets going, it's hard to stop his rhythm! He shoots off and you have to call him back for he is in some kind of trance that enables him to go at almost superhuman speeds, usually when going up hill.

We continued on our path, steaming past the Devil's Jumps, there was no stopping for them today, we had 31 mile to eat up.

As we approached the second checkpoint at Cocking we were told by a walker heading the other way, "There are a couple in the car park that would like me to ask you to hurry up!"

We were not late by any means, we were early, again in record time, completing the second stage in a little under 2 hours and 4 minutes.

The support team, which at Cocking was bolstered by night-shift support team Tracy & Peter, had readied us a picnic! We had the blanket out for stretching, with each of our boxes at the four corners together with a camping chair each! This was the life.

We were each handed a bowl of pasta for lunch which Jeff cooked up for us on the camping stove, and we tucked in enthusiastically.

Heading off on stage three with more fire in our bellies, Josh was commenting on how much more he felt he had to give in this walk as opposed to previous walks. A sentiment that would be shared through the rest of the team. The supply of food was doing us some real good.

Stage three to Littleton Farm is is pretty short one really, and we were in the field of rapeseed at the end of the stage before we knew it. This week it appeared that someone had driven over the path we took last week. The creeping rapeseed had been pushed down so we had a better path to walk down.

We arrived at checkpoint 3 in 1 hour and 40 minutes, again a good time, almost the same as when we did the same stage last week. We were greeted with bunting on a nearby hedge (though I don't think that was the support crew's doing this time...) and the picnic set up again. However, this time Gem shouted as we went to sit down, "No, those chairs aren't for you, take away the chairs, you'll stay too long!"

It was like Jim Bowen on Bullseye showing us what we could have won... the chairs were out for the waiting support team apparently. Oh well.

We again stretched and stocked up on food, water and treats, taking some for the road this time to save time at the checkpoint.

We headed out on to stage four towards Houghton and Julie supplied us all with an energy shot drink that we would take together later on this stage to give us that boost we'd need. Josh didn't read the script though and downed it before he had even left the checkpoint. He's still new bless him.

It did provide the rest of the team with some entertainment shortly after setting off again though as Josh was saying how much he was "more aware of everything", and how his aches had vanished.

Julie, what's in those shots?? Did you get them from a special pharmacist?

Anyway the rest of the team took theirs a little later and the conversation moved on to our favourite 70s and 80s TV shows, with Josh and Julie trading quotes.

We were at the next checkpoint and arrived after 2 hours and 23 minutes of walking. This wasn't the proper Trailwalker checkpoint, but a little higher up the route at a convenient stop of the support team.

It was also our second cooked meal of the day, with sausages and beans! Yum... who wouldn't like beans..?? Well Jo apparently, as she had another pasta meal instead. Jeff was offering all kinds of treats again and Gubbs had a second helping of sausages and beans, a move he would shortly regret when we commenced the walking again.

After leaving this checkpoint Gem would head off with Peter & Tracy to show them the checkpoints that they'd be responsible for on the day, meeting everyone at the end in Washington.

We started stage five with the sun beating down our our backs, as the food sloshed around in Gubbs' stomach.

That sun soon faded as a thin veil of cloud formed. Julie commented on how much she enjoyed being on the top of these hills at this kind of time, early evening. The number of people dwindles and its time you can enjoy the scenery, etc. in quiet.

The aches on the feet were intensifying now. We were all feeling great, apart from that though. Much better than the week before, even Gubbs was agreeing now his dinner had gone down a bit.

When we came into the car park at Washington we were greeted to cheers, music and medals thanks to our support team!

That was it, 31 miles done. We were very happy with ourselves. We felt we had more to give, and we did it well within the 12 and a half hours time we had set ourselves. Total time including breaks was 11 hours and 16 minutes.

Walking On, Walking On Broken Sunglasses

The Hardcore Four with added sun.

We were given the good news this week that we had reached 19th in the top 20 teams on the Trailwalker fundraising leaderboard. There are well over 500 teams competing so we were really pleased to see our name up there.

We'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us, or played in our pub quiz, you are all great people!

If you haven't sponsored us but would like to, there is still time. You can reach our fundraising page using the button on the top right of the web page (not shown on mobile), or you can use this link.

This week we planned to hike between checkpoint 2 (Hilltop Farm) and checkpoint 6 (Botolphs). Support team Gem & Anna were going to look after us for the second time, on the three checkpoints in between. So we all met in Cocking Hill car park at 8am.

Opps, those sunglasses won't last long.

The sun was out and so everyone decided to get their sunglasses on as we were getting ready. Unfortunately for Gubbs he found that his sunglasses had broken with one of the arms missing. Cue a walk with unprotected eyes squinting all day - great!

We set off on the way to Littleton Farm on stage three and the discussion turned to breakfast. Julie had the best breakfast for long lasting energy of the team; a banana and porridge. Gubbs had a bowl of bran flakes, Josh had a bowl of THREE Weetabix, and Jo had Belvita Breakfast biscuits, which the rest of us all suggested was not enough for a walking breakfast!

Erm...where's the path?

While we walked along we spotted a number of marathon mile markers and arrows pointing towards the start of our journey. We hadn't seen any runners yet so we presumed that the race may not have started yet. As we neared the end we had a call from Gem to say they had gathered a crowd to clap us in to the checkpoint! The checkpoint on the day, which is a field usually closed to cars, was open for a marathon relay checkpoint.

Prior to getting there we had to cross a field of rapeseed though and this is where the path closed in on us.

Ready for a run Anna?

The weather, although sunny and very clear, was also very windy in the exposed sections of the course.  We spotted a downed tree on the route and we were worried we may fly off in some gusts of wind.

At the checkpoint Gem and Anna were telling us that they started stretching when people were looking at them wondering where their runner is!

We set off on stage four towards Houghton, where instead of meeting Gem & Anna at the checkpoint we'd meet them nearer Amberley for a rest up on the edge of a field.

Do they know something we don't??

In this section we came into contact with a number of the marathon runners. Many friendly folk who were saying/shouting/wheezing 'Morning' to us as we walked by. With so many running past Gubbs mentioned that he was reminded of a Monty Python scene.

We left the runners at the Roman Villa path and carried on towards Houghton, with Josh informing us all that today he was wearing his thermals rather than the PJ bottoms of last week, under his hiking trousers, after a rummage in the loft. We wouldn't want him feeling too comfy in the later stages of Trailwalker.

We met Gem & Anna for lunch where a variety of foods came out and so did Gem & Anna's nice and refreshing slices of orange, as well as some chocolate fingers! What a treat!

After a 25 minute break, with the support team shouting at us with every 5 minutes that had passed, we got up and set off again on to stage 5 to Washington.

We had the full force of the wind up at the top of the hills as we were at maximum exposure, but the views were clear and great.

Towards the end of the stage you reach a fork where you can carry straight on towards the A24 or go off towards the left which will take you to Washington avoiding the A24. The team had not walked this section before with Gubbs walking it with Gem and fellow support team members Tracy & Peter back in February, and Jo & Julie with Support Crew Jeff in April, so there was some debate over the correct path here as in the instructions it says to avoid the A24. We headed straight though as the checkpoint is just prior to the A24 so we believe the instruction is to stop people skipping the checkpoint and taking a short cut.

Today though, to add to the confusion, we did cross the A24 to the small car park where Gem & Anna were waiting, as we walked up to the car park they put on the car stereo with some selected tunes for the team.

Our top support team for the day

As we bopped our heads along to Tom Jones and Michael Jackson we were also offered a surprise treat by the support team, YumYums and Almond Twists from a bakery they had visited earlier in the day.

Morale was high and one stage to go for the day!

We crossed the A24 again back towards the checkpoint and followed the path to the posh boarding school mentioned in last week's blog.

We climbed the path to Chanctonbury Hill which seemed to last forever on this day and when we reached the top the wind was up again as we actually had to fight it to stay in a straight line. Luckily for most of the way it was behind us.

By Chanctonbury Ring we spotted a bike pannier sitting on the path. We weren't too surprised that it's owner hadn't notice it fall off as the wind would shield any noise. A little further along the path we saw a cyclist on the path coming towards us with one pannier...a-ha...

He asked us if we saw his missing pannier and of course we pointed him towards it for which he was very grateful and we were pleased to see it reunited with it's owner!

Lambs-a-leaping

The path also takes you past some fields with grazing sheep and we noticed that some of the lambs were a-leaping around. We stopped a moment for a chuckle as they jumped over one another which was very amusing. Unfortunately we did not get a photo of such behaviour, rather just of them eyeing each other up very much like a pole vaulter prior to their vault...

We walked on past the pigs of last week and the whole team found their bladders weakening by the minute! We presume it must be all the fluid taken on throughout the day. We wonder how we'll be after another 15/16 hours!

That last section seemed to take ages and we were a fair bit slower than the same stage last week, although that was the first stage of the training last week to be fair.

We completed the 27 mile walk in 10 hours and 13 minutes.

The car back to Cocking was one full of sneezing and sniffing though as the whole team, apart from a luckily (for him!) immune Gubbs, had fits of hay fever! Must remember to take the anti-histamines earlier in the day next time!

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.