Sunday 30th January 2011

15.4 miles, 11.5 kg, sunshine and ice, no injury and a fine finish at the Three Crowns in Whaddon! Enough said.

Apart from the fact that I alway bicker with my husband about navigation when we walk together. He loves his GPS and I am a staunch (stubborn?) map and compass wench. It is bound to cause friction. But I am delighted that I managed the weight and the distance with no problems and none of the grumbling I had expected from my knee. I just need to build up to another 3 kg to account for 5 days worth of food and more water.

Here is another completely random picture of me and my husband Andrew at Stonehenge during the Winter Solstice this year. It was cold! I live about 15 miles from here and work about 1 mile away.

Canoeing last summer in Canada

I love anything to do with water, which is why I am rather sad that the CWT doesn't include more coast. However, I know from experience on the coast of Dorset that walking along coastlines often involves cliffs, sand dunes, gales or a combination of all three, which inevtably make the walking harder!

Saturday 29 January

I am planning on doing a 15 mile walk in the New Forest tomorrow with all the kit in my old rucksack. This is partly to see if my knees are up to it (and I am assuing that they are!), but also to check that my old Karrimor Jaguar SA Supercool 55 - 75 l rucksack is going to be O.K. It is certainly big enough, but I am not sure whether it will be comfortable enough. I did the West Coast Trail in Vancouver Island using the same rucksack when I was in the Royal Navy and used to being beasted... The question is, am I as hardy as I was then! The rucksack is a man's rucksack and was alway broad for my shoulders.
Anyway, today I have been weighing kit in an obsessive manner worthy of a Trail magazine reader. This is the verdict... I will be walking with about 11 kg tomorrow, carrying all the kit I plan to carry on the CWT except a maximum of 5 days' supply of food. The forecast looks cold but (hopefully) dry.

Item	Weight  (g)
Rucksack	2810
Coleman tent	1010
Tarp	204
Sleeping bag	850
Thermarest	511
Cooking Stuff
Water bottle	83
Vargo Hexagon Wood Stove	134
Blacks saucepan/cup combi	230
Trangia burner and lid	90
dishcloth (hankie)	31
firesteel	19
Fuel bottle (empty)	164
Spork	10
Lighter	14
Fuel bottle (full)	562
Clothes
Buff	59
Hat	89
Gloves	31
thick socks x 2	168
thin socks x 2	60
Black rohan trousers	394
Shorts (mountain hardwear)	209
Merino base layer	144
Helly hansen	153
Black fleece	240
Handkerchief	30
Waterproof jacket	446
Waterproof trousers	295
Black berghaus	565
Purple rohan shirt	240
Blue pants (Rohan)	19
Black pants (Cotswold)	56
Underwear	87
Underwear	87
Walking boots	1166
Dubbin	50
Crocs	200
Croc stuffsack	31
Accessories
headtorch and batteries	87
Compass	55
Poles x 2	425
sunglasses (no case)	24
sunglases case	38
3 x maps (cover removed)	238
Wash/teeth/lens kit
glasses and case
hairbrush	26
First Aid Kit	100
Ultralight 20l dry sac	80
Ultrasil 4l Stuff Sac	16
Notebook and pen	35
Passport	35
Flight/Hotel/YH/Bothy info	35
Lipsyl X 2	40
Gen purpose wash liquid	50
Rubble sacks x 2	35
String	35
Tin whistle	35
Cotton wool	19
Safety Blanket (silver)	54
Map case	157
Handkie	31
Camera Case	101
Safety Whistle	7
penknife	186
Fixing kit incl batts, SC card	240
camera and batteries	150
phone	160
TOTAL WEIGHT	14035

I shall be wearing about 2.7 kg of this and not carrying a full bottle of fuel, so the total weight will be 11 kg (excluding food)

Wednesday 26th January 2011

Which one tastes best

Wednesday 26th January 2011

I didn't walk last weekend due to the lovely occasion of being a Godmother at my niece Alice's Christening.
But the preparations for the CWT continue regardless.
On Tuesday I went to school with weights round my ankles to strengthen my legs, much to the amusement of some of the other teachers and pupils. I also took in some of my kit to show some of my pupils, and they were particularly impressed by my cooking gear and my Gore-tex hat (with optional orange mode for rescue and waterproofing purposes!). It is rather cool I must admit although only for people who don't mind drawing attention to themselves!
I have also been trying out different cereal bars, with the intention of choosing the best ones and sending some out in food parcels to a few spots along the way.
I haven't tried them all out yet, but so far the Naked and Trek bars are the winners by far, in terms of taste and natural ingredients.

I am going to carry a maximum of 5 days' food, so will be posting some food and maps out to two locations; a B & B in Ullapool, and also to Killalan Bunkhouse. I think carrying 3 maps at a time will be quite enough.
I have made up an excel spreadsheet listing all the items I will be caryrying and their weights. It is quite a large list and another time I will attach it to this blog (somehow!). So far it looks like I will be carrying about 9 kg of 'kit' and perhaps another 4kg of food. I will not carry much water for reasons which should be obvious. 
I will attach a few photos of the kit I am so proud of and keep up the exercise.
This morning I swam 38 lengths before work (950 m) and after work I did aerobics with Emma Bugler at school - a lady not to be reckoned with after a tough day at the office!! So I am feeling great (i.e. knackered)

Wednesday 19th January 2011

Shadows - I wish my legs were really that long!

Wednesday 19th January 2011

This morning I got up at 5 a.m. and went swimming. I have a 'dodgy' knee and know that if one part of my body will let me down while walking the CWT - it will be my knee. So I am trying to build up muscle strength without doing damage. Swimming and cycling (on my brother's exercise bike) seem the right things to do for me. Running is definitely out!! I won't give up my Monday dose of Irish Dancing for love or money and aerobics at Alderbury Village Hall with Sue is just too good to miss.
So as you can see, 3 months before I start my walk, I am concentrating on my physical fitness and having the right kit. I have my rucksack, sleeping bag, tent (less than 1 kg but a single-skinned Colemen so sure to leak in your typical Scottish spring weather) and a fabulous lightweight tarpaulin courtesy of my husband Andrew. I am toying with the idea of titanium tent-pegs but I'm scared I will start to change into a radically different person if I do something so uncharacteristically geeky and extravagant! If anyone has any advice out there, please let me know.
Now to look after my mental fitness. A bit of relaxation with my husband is called for.
I'm talking about sitting done on a comfortable sofa and watching the second half of "Chronicles of Narnia" in case you had other ideas....!
I'll keep you up to date with my preparations and tell you a bit more about my dietary plans next time I write something.

Sunday January 16th 2011

Bacon, rocket and egg butty!

Here is a photo of me cooking on my trangia in the New Forest.

Sunday January 16th 2011

This is my first day of being a slightly reluctant blogger. The reason for doing it is that I am going to walk a variation of the Cape Wrath Trail in Scotland this April and want to share that experience with my readers. I also hope to raise some money to buy some playground furniture for the school I work at (The Stonehenge School) in Amesbury, and hope this blog will provide evidence that I have completed the walk!
I hope to download pictures and comments on my route so that other walkers can benefit from my experience of walking the Cape Wrath Trail. I have been keenly following other peoples' experiences of this arduous route in an attempt to find the best route for me, and will be describing this walk as I go.
I have also become quite interested in 'kit', to the extent that I have bought a Vargo hexagonal wood-burning stove, weighing in at an astonishing 116g. I believe that this stove, used in conjunction with my trangia meths burner, will be an ideal cooking combination for my trip.