DAY 1.
Walking starts.
"All I can see is horse shit, but all I can smell is cake...."!
I woke with my alarm and after Re-packing my Bergen for a fourth time (kit OCD) I headed down to breakfast with Sluggie, I have to admit after the fuck up of the evening meal the night before I wasn't expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised by a massive breakfast buffet which I piled high and sat down with the rest of the team. Susie was sat next to me eating her porridge, she informed me that the best breakfast for a long arduous day was porridge first then a fry up. I looked down at my mountainous plate of fried food and decided I would have to eat that then grab a bowl of porridge then another plate of fried heaven because it was always porridge then fry up ( I loved this adventure already).
Two cups of coffee and a muck out later and I was standing in the car park throwing my kit into the tikki taxi (Iains Transit van) whilst the rest of the gang were doing the same or trying to scrape the ICE of the vehicles. we were enjoying circling a roundabout a few times after Sam had announced "I ignore what my sat-nav is saying when i think it's wrong" then Sophie kicked in that he hadn't actually driven here before so how did he know it was wrong? I thought to myself this could actually be MTFU's 6 day "tour de roundabout, sponsor us now for who will throw up first"! eventually Sam and the sat-nav buried their differences and we all piled out of the car at "Walls end", our starting point for this amazing journey.
so everyone ready it was time to take our first steps and to get our first stamps in the Hadrians Wall passport (see photo in previous blog). unfortunately the stamping station was ...erm....closed!! so we headed in the wrong direction to the garage just down the road where there was a spare stamp. Whilst in the garage I filled my pockets with chocolate bar's when the guy behind the till wasn't looking :) only kidding I payed for some of them really (I don't know why I got so much it wasn't like I had burned off breakfast yet!). So now we took our first steps in the right direction.
Time passed quite quickly and before we knew it Sam and Dave had caught up with us after having to drop the vehicles back off at the hotel. Good effort lads you chased us down in 4 miles!! There was alot of tarmac to cover on this first day so we all headed off at a good pace with some of the team using the Iphone app "endomondo" to track our distance's and pace along the way. The first major stop we made was at a cafe so some folks could use the toilet. How fortunate we were to have arrived when there was a cycle convention and sale on outside this cafe, well when I say convention I really mean half a dozen tables with what looked like second hand cycle paraphernalia.
So we made it through the market and the girls didn't buy anything which I was very impressed with. I think we were about 5 miles in and Sluggie began to get faster and faster I caught up with him only to see that he had some "motivation", fair play mate carrot and stick come to mind ;) We soon stopped for a quick photo opportunity that and the "motivation" had started to get nervous and we didn't need slowing down with a night in the cell's.
This first day was turning out to be a grueler but as we closed in on lunch I began to smell the sweetest smell. it was like fresh cakes and bread. I looked down and all I could see was horse shit on the path but all I could smell was cake, I concluded that if the horse shit smelt that good then the horses must taste fucking amazing this is where the term "gateaux du cheval" was invented and I couldn't wait to get me some! of course it was all spoilt when Andy piped up and informed us of the mass bakery just behind the tree's (WANKER) I want my horse cake!!! Finally we hit the awesome lunch area Iain had set up where we ate hot soup and sandwich's (no bloody horse cake though) and discovered our first casualty Susie who had earned a full "heel peel" for all her hard efforts before lunch.
The final section of the day brought the first real climbs and this split the group into two parts. My mentality towards hill's is head down and go hard (which is also my mantra for sex but that too is another blog all together :) There were some who liked to get up there asap and others who tackled the climbs with a steady "just keep going" pace. Which is all good, I think if your made to walk at someone else' pace it can tire you out quicker especially when it comes to hill's. As we got around half way up the last major climb we came across an elderly couple who told us we were just 10-15 minutes from a pub.........yeah, OK! 10- 15 minutes if you suffer with Alzheimers and you forgot what time you started to count from!!! 30 minutes later we arrived at a pub. I wish I could say "end of day one" at this point but that would be too easy. we stopped for a drink and as we watched drew stalk his pint with a needy glint in his eye we took a moment to look at the view and it was pretty good.
Newcastle was disappearing into the distance a little did we know we were about to have our very first encounter with a real bit of HADRIANS WALL!!!! but it was only a bit though. Still, I had been saying that I couldn't wait to see the wall as it made it "real", oh how I would live to regret that statement.
Time was ticking on and the days mileage was approaching 15-16 miles i think at that point so we cracked on just round the corner to meet the wall.
We didn't stay long just enough time to say oooohhhh and ahhhhhhh and is that it?! then we walked on and into fields and some mud how we would come to hate that stuff too lol. The daylight was drawing to a close but we were still some way out from our first campsite we picked up the pace but I could see how tiered everyone was getting and could feel just how tarmac slapped my feet were. We followed the road until it became too unsafe to do so at which point we were lucky enough that the path cut into the fields and continued for a few more miles.
By the time we reached camp 1 it was pitch black and getting cold so the site of a warm tent, a fire, some hot food and the chance to take care of some personal admin couldn't have been any sweeter. as I took a moment outside later on to call Gemma and exaggerate everything that had happened that day for extra sympathy points I made mental notage of how clear the sky was, quite stunning with it's blanket of stars, knowing that tonight would be cold and the morning frosty. Then I retired to my bed where I slept like a baby, still giggling to myself over the groups first inappropriate joke "who shags kid's and then say's thank you? Jimmy civil!
Two cups of coffee and a muck out later and I was standing in the car park throwing my kit into the tikki taxi (Iains Transit van) whilst the rest of the gang were doing the same or trying to scrape the ICE of the vehicles. we were enjoying circling a roundabout a few times after Sam had announced "I ignore what my sat-nav is saying when i think it's wrong" then Sophie kicked in that he hadn't actually driven here before so how did he know it was wrong? I thought to myself this could actually be MTFU's 6 day "tour de roundabout, sponsor us now for who will throw up first"! eventually Sam and the sat-nav buried their differences and we all piled out of the car at "Walls end", our starting point for this amazing journey.
Time passed quite quickly and before we knew it Sam and Dave had caught up with us after having to drop the vehicles back off at the hotel. Good effort lads you chased us down in 4 miles!! There was alot of tarmac to cover on this first day so we all headed off at a good pace with some of the team using the Iphone app "endomondo" to track our distance's and pace along the way. The first major stop we made was at a cafe so some folks could use the toilet. How fortunate we were to have arrived when there was a cycle convention and sale on outside this cafe, well when I say convention I really mean half a dozen tables with what looked like second hand cycle paraphernalia.
you can just see in the background of the pictures, I swear some guy rolled up on a chopper!! I stifled my bike snobbery and sniggers and we moved on following the river which gave me a chance to see lot's of the thing's that Newcastle has to offer, no really! we even passed through a little riverside market complete with crying tramps and scruffy old men with big signs about the end of the world and Jesus' second coming. he asked me whether I had found god yet I said "yes! just next to event HQ usually. If you find god just ask for Donna or bag lady and they will sort you out mate". (CP event joke) don't think he got it, couldn't imagine why?
The final section of the day brought the first real climbs and this split the group into two parts. My mentality towards hill's is head down and go hard (which is also my mantra for sex but that too is another blog all together :) There were some who liked to get up there asap and others who tackled the climbs with a steady "just keep going" pace. Which is all good, I think if your made to walk at someone else' pace it can tire you out quicker especially when it comes to hill's. As we got around half way up the last major climb we came across an elderly couple who told us we were just 10-15 minutes from a pub.........yeah, OK! 10- 15 minutes if you suffer with Alzheimers and you forgot what time you started to count from!!! 30 minutes later we arrived at a pub. I wish I could say "end of day one" at this point but that would be too easy. we stopped for a drink and as we watched drew stalk his pint with a needy glint in his eye we took a moment to look at the view and it was pretty good.
Newcastle was disappearing into the distance a little did we know we were about to have our very first encounter with a real bit of HADRIANS WALL!!!! but it was only a bit though. Still, I had been saying that I couldn't wait to see the wall as it made it "real", oh how I would live to regret that statement.Time was ticking on and the days mileage was approaching 15-16 miles i think at that point so we cracked on just round the corner to meet the wall.
We didn't stay long just enough time to say oooohhhh and ahhhhhhh and is that it?! then we walked on and into fields and some mud how we would come to hate that stuff too lol. The daylight was drawing to a close but we were still some way out from our first campsite we picked up the pace but I could see how tiered everyone was getting and could feel just how tarmac slapped my feet were. We followed the road until it became too unsafe to do so at which point we were lucky enough that the path cut into the fields and continued for a few more miles.
By the time we reached camp 1 it was pitch black and getting cold so the site of a warm tent, a fire, some hot food and the chance to take care of some personal admin couldn't have been any sweeter. as I took a moment outside later on to call Gemma and exaggerate everything that had happened that day for extra sympathy points I made mental notage of how clear the sky was, quite stunning with it's blanket of stars, knowing that tonight would be cold and the morning frosty. Then I retired to my bed where I slept like a baby, still giggling to myself over the groups first inappropriate joke "who shags kid's and then say's thank you? Jimmy civil!
20 miles walked today, amazing effort everyone!!
I will leave you with this final photo taken at the end of day 1..........NUFF SAID !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment