Today was one of those days where we seem
to have experienced the full range of emotions. We started the day wondering
how we would fare after the struggles of yesterday, and have ended it wondering
how we will cope tomorrow.
Our aim today was to walk from South
Wonston, which is just north of Winchester to North Wanborough/Odiham where we
join the Basingstoke Canal. A distance of around 23 miles.
We woke feeling good and positive. The
aches and pains of the previous day had gone and we were up for the challenge.
The weather was warm but not too hot. We set off at a good pace and made great
progress. By lunch time we had covered 14.5 miles. Our route took us under the
M3, our second motorway, and we also took advantage of a couple of footpaths
that saved walking miles on the road.
Passing under the M3
Our friends and hosts Jeremy and Sarah
manned the support truck and Sarah was able to film some video footage of us
which will be available later.
After a nice pub lunch we set off to walk
the remaining 8.5 miles. As we have often found, stopping seemed to change
everything. Anne particularly started to suffer as a couple of blisters on her
toes grew and started to push against the nails which meant they catching on
her shoes.
After about 4 miles she was not able to go
on as she was. After a stop to inspect the damage we realised she really needed
to deal with the offending blisters but we could not really do this on the road
side. So we had to drive back to Jeremy and Sarah’s house where we could pierce
the blisters and treat them. I must pay big respect to Anne at this point as
although the temptation could easily have been to call it a day she was
determined to patch herself up and get back on the road to complete today’s miles.
Anne carrying out some running repairs
So we headed back out again and were back
on the road around 6.30pm. We had 5 miles left to do and we decided to try to
knock them off as quickly as possible. We set out as fast as we have done at
any point on the walk and completed the 5 miles in under 1 hour 15 mins in one
hit with no breaks.
We have finished the day happy that we
remain on schedule to arrive in Westminster as planned on Thursday morning.
However I now have a blister on the end of my toe which is very painful. So we
are both hoping that we recover again tonight and are both fit for the road
tomorrow.
It wasn't all roadways - pioneering!
Tomorrow we pick up the Basingstoke Canal
and walk along the tow path which will take us around 23 miles to Woking. This
should be flat and easy going so hopefully we can complete this without too
many dramas.
Thanks
again for all your messages of support and recent donations. We are now only
£65 below the £4000 mark so hopefully we can pass that tomorrow. Here’s the
link if you want to sponsor us:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/doublesteve
