The Really Big One!

Lawrence, Steve & myself set off from my office in Nailsworth at 5pm on Friday afternoon, an hour later than we had hoped for. We had been checking the weather forecast throughout the day and thankfully the rain that had been falling all week was due to clear away by the time we were going to leave. With calls of "good luck", "you must be mad" and "are we likely to see you again on Monday morning?" ringing in our ears from my collegues we headed up into the woodland opposite. So far so good. However, 20 minutes in, we must have inadvertantly taken a wrong turn as, rather than finding ourselves heading towards where we intended to cross the A46, we found ourselves coming back into Nailsworth about half a mile from our departure point. Oh well, the whole walk was about covering distance so we decided that this little navigational cock-up was actually a good thing.
We were soon into a good rhythm and made pretty reasonable progress, despite some pretty steep hills and a lot of mud.
The countryside in South Gloucestershire & the Cotswolds is stunning and we were deep in the heart of it. Quaint Cotswold stone cottages nestled in valleys, woodland and pastures with sheep and cattle grazing covered the hillsides, and the sky was a windswept vista of grey clouds with the occasional break to let the almost forgotten sun shine through.
 A good portion of our route was going to be along the Monarchs Way, King Charles II's escape route after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester in 1651. We wanted to get onto this path before nightfall as it is quite well marked so would make navigation in the dark a bit easier. As the evening drew on, we must have made better progress than we thought as we ended up totally lost. After much studying of the map and scratching of heads, we came to the conclusion to do something that men would never normally do - ask for directions!! We were outside a beautiful old gate house next to some very ornate wrought iron gates. We could see a roaring log fire ablaze inside and a knock at the door was answered by a chap who was the head gamekeeper of the large estate we were inadvertantly on. He pointed out where we were on the map and it turned out the reason we were lost was that we had been going so well, we were much further on than we had thought and had missed a path we should have taken. It didn't matter though as we were able to join the path further south than originally planned.

As the evening drew on we made it onto the Monarchs Way and we carried on through a valley called Knights Valley. It could easily be used as a setting for a medieval film as it was very easy to imagine it with an army of Knights marching through or medieval peasants toiling on the land. Naturally, this led to us having a period of quotes from Monty Pythons' Hunt For The Holy Grail.
Brave Sir Lawrence of Whitley was the first to don his trusty head torch of light as we descended into the woods of doom on our quest for.....

Sorry, getting a bit carried away so back to the story.
As the sun started to set we knew we still had a long slog ahead of us but our spirits were high despite our ETA slipping further back. It seems that the mileage distance I had calculated from the Ordnance Survey website was somewhat different to our actual mileage whilst walking.

It's all your fault we're here Steve!

Sunset

We were all suffering from mild backache and our feet were starting to ache a little. But thankfully our legs were fine. The training over the last few months is obviously paying off as previously just 10miles or so would have meant aching legs.
Throughout the hours of darkness we plodded on relentlessly with a short break to consume the assorted snacks we had bought along. Dried fruit, snack bars, honey roasted cashews (very popular!) and even bombay mix to add a little spice to the evening.
Both Lawrence & I had brand new head torches. However, the batteries that came with them seemed to fail for both of us at the same time. Steve had forgotton his head torch altogether, so to conserve battery power, we tried to use one light between us, where possible. We didn't want to be left in total darkness. Valuable lesson learnt - carry a spare set of batteries.

Being watched!

Steve

Finally we arrived at the village of Doynton, several hours later than expected, where Lawrence had left his car the night before. After a brief goodbye, he jumped in his car & headed off home as he had a wedding to go to the next day. Steve and I sat in the village bus shelter contemplating what our options were. The next bus was due in about 5 hours time and the nearest train station was 10 miles (16km) away. After eating some more fruit and nuts we set off to walk another 10 miles.
After an uneventful walk in the very early morning sunshine Steve & I finally arrived at Keynsham Station at 7.40am, 14 hours & 45 minutes after setting off. Our total mileage was 36.5 miles (59km) which is over half of the Trailwalker distance.
Although we didn't make it all the way to Bristol, as originally intended, we were very pleased with what we had achieved. Despite the aching feet and backs our legs were fine. And anyway on the actual Trailwalker there will be more frequent stops at the checkpoints for drinks, food, changes of socks/footwear and even the promise of a massage at 2 of them! Sounds like I'm making the Trailwalker sound like a stroll in the park. It's obviously not, it's a pretty tough event, but after last nights walk we're much more confident that we will get through it and hopefully in our target time of 24 hours.
Neil