Sponsored Walk for Broadway Update 1

I'm currently walking the thick end of 200 miles across England from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire hoping to raise money for the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway's extension to Broadway.

Details of the walk can be found here and also at the end of this article.

What can you do?  Well, unlike me for a couple of weeks, you can just sit back, relax and take it easy.  Oh, and if you happen to have a few quid burning a hole in your pocket, you could choose to sponsor me too.

Please send cheques to:
Steve Sperring (Fund Raising Director)
Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway
Toddington Railway Station
Toddington
Gloucestershire
GL54 5DT

Please make cheques payable to GWRT with ‘Ray O’Hara’ written on the back.

So, here is the update:

I have made it to: Shap

I have covered approximately XXX  miles so far.  No idea, not enough wifi bandwidth here to check.

The weather since the last update has been: varied between the hottest day of the year and violent electrical storms.

Number of blisters so far:.  None, but I fell flat on my arse on the first day

I have been via: the High Stlie Ridge, Helvellyn , St Sunday Crag (long story to follow) and High Street rather than Kidsty Pike.

That was roughly where I was going to leave this update, but it has been a bit eventful so far.  I tackled the High Stile Ridge on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far. By the time I hit Honister Pass I had got through 4 litres of water and discovered too late that I had left my supply off Jelly babies in the car.  It doesn't help that my backpack weighs about the same as 2807's tender. By the time I eventually got to Homister I was out of water, rather light headed and had been vomiting.  Not very good.  At Honisterr pass, Ibumped into a doctor that I had met the day before who was also doing the coast to coast and she started to take a professional interest in me.  In railway terms, by this point, the fire was out, the pressure gauge plummeting and the water bobbing about in the bottom  nutt.  Completely down the pan!

The following day found me in an electrical storm on Greenup Edge in the morning, thunder was never less than 2 seconds after the lightning, so it made for an interesting and relatively safe spectacle.  That night I had just reached the top of Helvellyn where I was intending to camp when another electrical storm kicked off.  This time I was 3117' up and at the highest point for quite a few miles.  The delay from the lightning to the thunder was too short to measure, I beat a hasty retreat down to the safety of Grisedale Tarn and camped down there, going to Patterdale the next day via St Sunday Crag.  So far so good, but it has all been rather more eventful than I had hoped for.

To add to that,I discovered last night that my nice little 1 man tent is not as waterproof as it was last time I used it.  Camped out last night on High Street (2717') in a rain storm was where I made this important discovery.