One of two achieved

Well after a nice easy drive to lands end (thanks mum and peter for the lift!) We are finally here, we arrived early enough to get the picture taken at the first sign post, time will tell if we get the second but it will prove harder to get I think !. The transit verification form for the end to end club has its first stamp and now everything is in place for our 8.30 am start. while at lands end we met up with the mayor of penzance who was seeing a group of cyclists of for the start of their trip to great yarmouth so we stole the oportunity for a  photo  (will add this to the blog upon the return home) nice chap.
We are now at our hotel the commercial in st just, an excellent fish pie dinner has stoked the engines for tomorrows start and an early night is in store for us.
The walk still feels unreal even after all the planning and training a few days walking and this will resolve itself. the weather is excellent and looks set to stay good for tomorrow so we can count our blessings and await the morrow.

Day 1(added after completion!)
stunning sunshine for the start what more could you need?
oh yes beautiful scenery.....

All the training walks at home can't prepare you for coastal walking, i knew there was a good reason I hadn't walked a coastal path before, bloomin hard work!
I quickly headed in land and followed the quaint local roads to Treen where after a refreshing ice cream we headed back onto the coastal path at Penberth

(looking inland to a wheel used to land boats I presume)

(looking in the other direction!)
following the coast past St Loy the path blurs somewhat requiring a scramble over a barbed wire fence to get downhill thru woodland to the real path!
Another stop for refreshments at Lamorna bay (its very hot and the goings hard!) and round to Mousehole and the long drag around penzance bay to Marazion

 and our campsite Dove meadows.

Another LeDog

How great is this, we will be sharing the trail with another lejog man and dog duo!

http://gyptackleslejog.blogspot.com/

Nice to know I'm not the only nutter!

Gyp and Pete will start they're lejog on the 14th of April so we will be sure to meet at some point,I hope!

Alderwood

Second attempt!

A quick test for emailing the blog to Alderwood

Hi Claire, this should now be set up to forward you the daily blogs!
Andy

More alterations to the gear for the walk

First off for my latest gear tweaks is something for Alfie.
having spent a night camping in the back garden in -8 degrees to test our gear.

(spot the ice on the tent!)
 my conclusion is my gear is great but Alfie's options for keeping warm were ineffective to say the least, the fleece coat I bought him (pictured near the beginning of the blog) was hopeless and after shivering for the majority of the night he ended up forcing his way into my sleeping bag!, so I have committed a great sacrilege by cutting up camping gear!.  :-o
The gear in question was my old snug pack softie sleeping bag, I've decapitated this to create a doggy sleeping bag:-

Trust me the dog is not dead! just very warm and sleepy :). And yes he can get out if he wants!
by removing the old fleece and packing this I only gain 0.1 of a kilo so considering the amount of energy it will help Alfie conserve it's well worth the slight added weight

The second tweak is a new rucksack, a 51litre golite pursuit ,admittedly this is the third pack I've bought for the walk! but at 1.3 kg's it saves me a whole kilo of weight in comparison with my blacks pack. tho not as functional as the blacks pack everything will still fit on or in as well, tho my first two attempts at packing left me with gear still scattered across the floor and me scratching my head!

Alfie seems happy with my choice too!

The countdown to the walk is at 19days 11 hours 37 mins and 1 second as I write this!
I seem to be in the process of saying goodbye to my home town already! every time I drive or walk passed a landmark (no matter how trivial!) I'm thinking "wont see that again till mid summer!" an odd mix of sadness and excitement is building as I sever ties with my usual surroundings, one thing I wont miss is my local footpaths I've walked them all so many times now maps are no longer needed , I'm so looking forward to chasing the horizon!
Bring it on!
ps will be going to the outdoors show this friday gear heaven!

Strangers can be Lovely!

This is a quick post to celebrate my first donation via my paypal button!
The kind person who donated is a lady named Stacie from Washington, I wont give out more of your details Stacie but you know who you are!
What makes this donation so special is I have no idea who Stacie is, other the payment details from paypal!
Hope to get lots more of course! and if and when the walk is complete I shall post a list of all people who donate to the fund.
Thank you so much from Alfie and me :-)
Oh! I can say at this point donations are up to £217.00! considering that other than the paypal button I have only been hassling people for donations for one and half weeks thats great going! thanks to all!

A Snowy day

Just a little walk to test our latest gear.

 I think the hat may have to go, looks far to silly! also its too floppy, in the wind and rain I need a cap with a stiff brim to shield my glasses.

Alfie seems to be getting on fine with his new coat ! and my new merino gear kept me nice and warm, excellent heat to weight ratio so i'm still keeping the pack at a good low weight, my berghaus boots kept dry inside too.

The days walk was stunning with a good covering of virgin snow .....

and lots of sunshine! the temperature was all over the place varying between 4 and 20 degrees in sheltered spots.
We took to the old railway lines near Kelmarsh and walked through the tunnel there..

this picture is looking up the air shaft in the middle.
All in all a great but gentle wander, snow walks are not too easy, hopefully we wont get snow in april!

Blogaway

Well that works nicely!

Trying out blogaway

Blogaway is an app for my phone , this may be less data intensive than the browser on my phone so therefore more responsive/reliable in areas with weak phone signals, hopefully a daily blog will be possible throughout the trek.

Testing testing !

Test of email blog update

A quick test of emailed blogs
A lovely view while walking an 18. 5 mile full pack walk in leicestershire, bloomin chilly tho stayed around zero all day. once again alfie walked me into the ground ! Hopefully he'll maintain his energy for the big one !

just completed another tweaking session!
Thankfully just the route spread sheet! should be more coherent and informative now.
I may use the spreadsheet to cost the walk as we go along, dont want to run out of funds!
I have also changed Alfies jacket and bought a Ruffware sun shower waterproof jacket, sort of goretexy and also has taped seems so his snugness should be improved, the original jacket is ok but as with most dog jackets it closes with velcro fasteners which are suffering from dirt so not closing too well!

The Donations button is now active, so anyone who wants to can! Notice the charge that Paypal levy is per donation of 3.4% of your donation + 20 pence. I tested this out with a £1 donation and 77 pence went to the charity, so with a £10 donation, £9.46 goes to the charity. The larger donation the better! ;-)