Another milestone

Whilst I have been pretty busy in the past couple of weeks I have managed to do a bit of walking to keep me ticking over and edge closer to the 500 mile target. I must say it does seem incredibly distant at the moment. Anyway, here are my last few walks.

Fetcham - Downside - Fetcham:
It has been a while since I have had mum with me on a walk and she insisted that we walk to Downside and back. Not very far at all. The weather was hot ... and it's that time of year that I loathe. Now most people say, "Oh cheer up Charlie it is summer!" ... If another person says that to me I might actually scream.  During June and July I get really bad hayfever ... its really not a joke ... it makes going outside a real chore. Secondly I burn incredibly easy, last year I got burnt up a mountain in the Lake District in April ... I hope that puts it in perspective. Thirdly ... I have a huge phobia of bees and wasps. Regardless of all these things I do still manage to show my face to the world and it was nice to get out with mum for a bit.

Walk total 5.3 Miles

Reigate School - Home
Now you might think that that is a bit of a random place to start a walk! I actually work one day a week in Reigate School as a mentor and male role model ... yeah ... don't ask. So after a long day's worth of mentoring I could have done with going home ... so I did. On foot. After quickly getting changed I left school in my bright green rainbow trust t-shirt and my blue shorts, with a few odd looks from the students filing out of school. I headed from Woodhatch up the hill towards Reigate Park. I dropped my work stuff off with mum at the top of the hill and changed into my boots and headed out towards Betchworth. It was a really lovely walk through quiet back roads and wooded areas. Amazingly the hayfever wasn't bad at all. This walk was quintessential Surrey. Lovely meadows and wooded areas with the occasional farm on the side. To be honest I was a man on a mission. It's not the aim of the challenge to be in a rush at all, but sometimes you just need to crack on. Within two hours I had wiggled my way through the leafy villages of Betchworth and Brockham all the way up to the A25 just outside of Dorking. I set myself the challenge of being on top of Norbury within the hour, so I crossed the A25 and through Pixham to Mickelham. Sure enough, after climbing the hill I was on the top of Norbury Park. Walking through the trees I was aware the light was dropping so I needed to move fast. Beyond the great "dark" forest (Emperor fans will get that ) I saw why the light was dropping, storm clouds behind, to the left and to the right of me. Next challenge could I get through Bookham and Fetcham dry. It was so localised that I could look down a side road and it would be tipping it down at the far end of the road but completely dry at my end of the road. Sadly it didn't last for long and with 15 minutes to go before reaching home ... it absolutely chucked it down. I trudged through Fetcham, completely sodden, through biblical rain. Honestly it was really rain. Well to be honest it was the first time I got properly wet during the 500 mile challenge. I got home where I was greeted by towels.

Walk total: 12.5 Miles
Overal Total: 210.4

A stately manor I passed on my way

The last time I stood here was February on the first walk ... 200 miles later ...

The great dark forest

Rain? Bring it!

Please do not forget I am doing this for charity, I am walking 500 miles for the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity who support young people with serious and terminal illnesses and their families at the most difficult of times. To donate follow this link: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/500mileschallenge
 200 miles huh! Only 300 more to go ;)

Get back to it!

After three weeks of taking it easy it was time to get back into the swing of things. Week 1 was a given to take off as I still had a patch of blisters on my foot and couldn't feel one of my toes (pleased to report no break). Week two I probably should have done something so by the time week three came around I had no excuse, the weather was very sunny so I had to get back out there.
Now the first walk after a 42 mile walk I didn't want to push it too hard. I decided that I would walk from Ockley back home which I reckoned would be around 10-15 with two fairly decent hills in the middle. It would be a good test of how my body was doing.
I set off from Ockley and walked along a road for a short while before diving off down a path through a farm and started to climb gradually up Leith Hill. After walking through a Tolkienesque wood the path became steeper and steeper. Normally I wouldn't mind this but this was within the first two miles of a walk and the first where I was testing out how my body was doing after the K2B. It's like asking an F1 driver to go and give it the full beans on the first day of winter testing in the new car and expect nothing to break

 Well at the top of Leith Hill I certainly found out was was good and what was not so good ... Now there is a Surrey rumour/fact that standing on the top of Leith Hill the next highest point due east is the Ural Mountains in Russia. As I descended down the other side of Leith Hill all sorts of K2B aches and pains resurfaced, most probably from pushing my body too fast too soon.
I cannot rate the next part of the walk highly enough. Once on the Greensand Way the path down to Wotton was so pretty. Imagine your stereotypical walk in a British country wood and there you have it. There was hardly anyone about, the sun was peaking through the trees and there was the rumble of a distant stream in the background. I passed a waterfall which was pretty cool and then bumped into some "lost" DofE'ers ... who had just started their weekend ... I pointed them in the right direction and crossed the A25. I walked down the side of a quaint little church and down an overgrown path, starting to regret the decision of wearing shorts. Then I went through some farmer land and crops where I felt like I was in some sci-fi movie about to be beamed up by some extra terrestrial being.
Then started the second climb, much more gradual than the first but still the K2B mentality of push on through kept me going. From here on in I was in very familiar territory. Although in a lot of pain ... creeky knee syndrome was back ... I knew where I was and just kept going through Polsden Lacey where I was stared down by a herd of sheep, through the back of Bookham/Fetcham hobbling home.
When I got home, I felt like I had just done the K2B all over again ... To be honest from the top of Leith Hill all the way home I was in excruciating pain. Nevertheless it subsided pretty quickly.
Walk Total 12.2 Miles

The Tolkien Wood

The Sci Fi field!

I couldn't hear anything ... What?

Being Half term this week I thought it would be good to get a few friends together and go for a walk. Ever since I started this challenge my school friends have been saying we should get together and do our old school sponsored walk route from Dorking to Leith Hill and back. We picked Thursday as it was pretty much the only dry day of half term, assembled the team of Robin, Spratt, Max and I and went for it. Turning up at school was a very weird experience considering I was last there 5 years ago. Blooming heck, I left school 5 years ago. The banter was incessant and a good chance to catch up with friends. We passed the fisheries and headed up to the farm and were disgusted to find the route had (marginally) been changed to bypass the farm yard. From here it was through the forestry commission to Coldharbour and we chatted about absolute rubbish and caught up on how old school people were. At Coldharbour, as was custom on real sponsored walks, we had a doughnut ... the schools way of bribing us to keep on going and went up Leith Hill, where to Spratt's amazement there was a cricket pitch. From here we went up the less steep side of Leith Hill and were nearly blown over at the top. Not stopping too long we turned around and came back down the way we came. This time we went through the farm yard, where we were met by a rather uptight dog and Robin came very close to needing a new pair of underwear. The aches weren't too bad this time round, probably because we took it much slower and we didnt have too many insanely steep climbs. When we got back to the car we were shocked to find that the school had deceived us for our entire time at the school. We had been told at school that the walk was 12 miles ... The tracker told us that we had walked a mere 10.2. Ah well it was a good day out with friends.

The view from Leith Hill

Clearly it was getting a bit much for Max ...

Walt Total 10.2
Overall Total: 192.6
Please do not forget I am doing this for charity, I am walking 500 miles for the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity who support young people with serious and terminal illnesses and their families at the most difficult of times. To donate follow this link: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/500mileschallenge