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December 30th, 7:15 AM the alarm sounds - action stations. All of us had had a much better nights sleep than the previous, including Robin - although the way he walked down the stairs to breakfast did worry me quite a bit. Despite repeated calls to hurry up and get under way breakfast was a slow affair, Robin insisted on enjoying the last moments of luxury whilst I was really anxious to get going because I didn't want to do too much walking in the dark. Finally all our bags were packed and we made our way across the island back to Freshwater to start where we had finished the previous day.
The morale was high and we knew that come the end of the day it would be over. However there was still an alarming distance to cover.
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| The beginning of the end... |
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| The four of us at the Tennyson Monument |
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| A really great stretch along Tennyson Down |
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| This honestly isn't what it looks like ... |
This didn't dampen young Christopher's spirits, as he enlightened us by telling us that we were encountering a rare phenomenon called the Brocken Spectre where halos form over your shadows in the fog. The rest of us thought, "yeah that's pretty cool", but Chris was in an excitement league of his own, he would not stop talking about how rare it was to witness such a spectacle and how privileged we were. (In hindsight it was something that doesn't happen very often and credit to Chris for identifying it and sharing his insight.)
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| Chris and the Brocken Spectre phenomenon, made this little chaps day! |
Saint Peter found a brilliant picture from the tourist board showing us what we should be able to see and then he took his own picture of what we could actually see which really wasn't very much at all. We descended down into more fog and then rose above it again on the heath on the next hill. As we looked across the Solent it was clear that the fog was to be a permanent fixture for the days proceedings.
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| What the tourist board would have you think ... |
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| What you actually get! |
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| Headon Warren top, looking across the Solent. We should have been able to see the mainland ... it was a nice inversion though... |
As we passed Totland we said farewell to Peter who would short cut across the narrow stretch of land back to Freshwater and park the car at the end in Gurnard and walk back towards us. The three of us passed through a holiday park which's exterior wasn't massively appealing and Robin likened to a concentration camp so we sped our way through there and into Fort Victoria park. We were very close to Yarmouth now and very ready for our lunch, which we carried ourselves. By the time we got into Yarmouth we agreed to only stop for a short while. We weren't willing to stray off the path to find anywhere nice to sit and eat our lunch so we parked ourselves in a very dingy bus shelter. We looked disgusting and the place itself was revolting, heaven only knows what passers by thought of us tucking into our sandwiches, its a miracle the police weren't called. It was at this point that I cheered everyone up by telling them that we only had 15 miles left to cover, Robin wasn't too impressed by this new revelation. Give him his due he was putting in a great stint and really going for it but Chris was now struggling and was bringing up the rear. After a short trip along the road outside of Yarmouth, Peter called to say that he was leaving the car now and we also encountered some different terrain.
The fog was still with us as we entered an ethereal looking lagoon (also known as swamp 1). I remarked at the beauty of such a place only to be ridiculed by the others. I merely said if we weren't doing this walk it would be a lovely place to see - I haven't been allowed to forget it. Ever since The Needles we had to deal with this incredibly irritating blurt of a fog horn every once in a while, just when you thought you had got rid of one, another would sound in the distance.
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| Honestly it looked much better than this ... |
From here we trudged through sticky mud for a considerable amount of time, this was the real killer and added much time to our journey. I was growing more conscious of our time and our remaining sun light and how the fog would affect that. Finally, released from the sticky mud, we picked up our pace walking along the shore before we entered hell. Swamp 2 was far less glamorous than it's predecessor, it ran along the Newton river estuary and it was abysmal. We were all so fed up of mud and slime but it continued. On and on it went, just when you thought you had crossed the last slippy board walk you were faced with another. Finally, we reached a forested area and a much better surface to walk on, but we were pretty low, not only was it time consuming but swamp 2 had been zapping our energy. We were relieved to find that we would be shortly meeting Peter in Shalfleet so we ploughed on and darkness descended on the island.
W e got to Shalfleet, the fog thickened and by now it was complete darkness. Peter was still not with us but we carried on and we knew that we would see him very shortly. He never appeared. We were now out the other side of Shalfleet and we should have found him by now. The visibility was atrocious and Peter was out there somewhere, lost. We gave him a call and expressed that we were very concerned that we hadn't found him. This was the only time I thought we shouldn't carry on. We had lost a man in the dark and it was so foggy that you couldn't see a thing. We looked for any reference point that we could give him and Robin found a sign for a scout camp which Peter had seen before, he had missed a turning and carried on down the road. He assured us that he wasn't far off and would catch us up. Nevertheless when Saint Peter did catch us up he gave us that much needed lift to spur us on - his enthusiasm that we were close to achieving our goal was infectious and that momentum carried us on.
At this point I checked the tracker and I knew I was extremely close to achieving my goal of 500 miles and should we finish I would be over the target. This was a tough moment for me, I don't often mention in these blogs, but every walk I did, I tried to think what Jim would be saying if he were with me and I was very close to tears walking along a road section out of Newtown. Peter was doing a sterling job with navigation despite the fog and darkness and Robin was powering on out front with me, what? Yes you did read that right, Robin was up front we me, not only keeping pace but setting it at times, it was really great to be able to chat about why we were both doing this but also spending time with a very good friend who I've known for years, against the odds being so close to finishing an epic walk. We had to be so careful along the road and Robin and I had a very near miss with a car. This car was approaching at ridiculous speed and I said to Robin, "just tuck yourself in a bit more to the hedge mate ... hang on ... be prepared to jump." The stupid idiot (not Robin) was driving way to fast down a narrow country road and very nearly hit us.
Thankfully Peter and Chris spotted the sign which took us off the road and we were in touching distance of the finish. We had to negotiate (in Peter's words) "small rivers" or a big bog and were assured that these were in fact the last muddy bits ... you can find out whether they were or not in the following section. We also came to our last stile ... again find out in the next section if it was indeed the last stile. By now we were all (Peter included) feeling it. All of us had done 20+ miles and were pretty worn out. Peter had developed a twinge in his knee and was hobbling along. He assured us that he would be ok as we entered another holiday park. This one was nicer than the last but a twisted sign led us astray. Once we regained the path we were so close. Peter was telling us all the things that we needed to look out for so through the fog and dark we kept our eyes peeled. It was so difficult to spot anything let alone specific targets.
After another stile we carried along the edge of a field to the coast line when the path became very unclear, we did what we thought was best only to be told "No, this isn't right theres a bridge which we have to cross" well there clearly wasn't a bridge there was a passive pond. I told Robin and Chris to backtrack but Robin was convinced there was a round. Very tired now, I said, "Well go and look for yourself then!", "Alright, what are you on about its looking good, yeah its fi... No, no there's definitely not a way through there" he replied. After checking our GPS trace we realised that we hadn't followed the shore closely enough so we found the beach and then the bridge and we were onto the last straightforward part of the walk. We were walking along the cliff edge towards Gurnard and found a bit more mud but it wasn't too sticky before finding a road.
This was it. Along this road and to the corner and the sign where we started two days before would be there. It was around 7:30 now and we were so happy to see street lights. I checked the trace to check that we were in fact meters from the finish (because you couldn't see further than the next house!) and sure enough the finish was just there. I quickly stopped everyone, to which Robin couldn't understand why I was doing it and gave a little speech, which was met by, "Shut up! we aren't even there yet, oh bloody hell we are!"We had made it, three days of relentless walking and we had made it all the way around the Isle of Wight. 74.1 Miles. The 500 Mile challenge was complete. Wow. There were no words, and to be honest even now it still seems a bit ridiculous that we actually did it. We posed for (as you can see) the worst picture known to man, the fog probably messed up the auto focus.
I would like to say that we were greeted by our loved ones but seeing as we are all single we just crammed our stuff in the fiesta and debated our next move. Stay on the island or go home?
Saint Peter: "Charlie, are you ok to drive?"
Charlie: "Yeah, I mean my legs are a bit stiff but the worst thing is the tiredness but I'm fine, I can drive."
Saint Peter: "Good, because I don't think I can!"
Great, our support guy has knackered himself so much that he can't drive! We decided to go home so we bombed it over to the ferry to see if we could still catch one and we were told we could (at no extra cost!) but there would be a wait so we parked the car up and saw a pub so we all started to move out of the car. There were many groans as we got out of the car so much so that one of the ferry operators heard us and asked us where we were going. We explained and she said, "but your ferry will be here in about 10 minutes! So don't go far." We weren't delighted by the fact that we could get on a ferry straight away, more miffed that we had taken the effort and endured considerable pain to get out of the car only to be told to get back in! We did see the funny side of it. The fog was messing the ferries up but we boarded and made our way up the ferry stairs which had a very interesting affect on Robin. At the end of every day, Robin's body never ceased to amaze us as what it would do - it was the gift that just kept giving (I never thought I would ever write that in a sentence). Day 1 he throws up. Day 2 he starts going from hot to cold really quickly. Day 3 we are on the ferry and he sits down and his whole body starts shaking, not a pathetic twitch but properly shaking. All of us, Robin included, started laughing but we didn't know whether we should be calling for help or what! Anyway he stopped after a while and we got back to the mainland.
There was no formal send of, it was more chuck everyone out of the car as quick as possible as it was now 1AM by the time we got back to Fetcham. Nevertheless the experience the four of us shared was unforgettable. We were overwhelmed by your support and your interest and we cant thank everyone involved enough. There will be another post at some point to round up the year but this event was something else. What a great way to spend our Christmas holiday. We have all talked about the possibility of a future walk and we certainly aren't going to rule it out. Again thank you so much for your support, we had fun, we did something crazy but most importantly we raised money for charity and did it in memory of people that we love and have lost.
So the final count is:
Walk total: 25.8 Miles
Isle Of Wight total: 74.1 Miles
Please do give generously to Jim's chosen charity The Rainbow Trust using the link below to support families with seriously or terminally ill children through some of the toughest situations. Thank you for your support and enjoy this round up.
To give to the Rainbow Trust please use this link: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/displaySomeoneSpecialPage.action?pageUrl=500Miles
