Pics: Training walk, 30 April 2016

We did a training walk today without full backpack loads. Today's walk was all about speed - which was lucky, because that meant we were already on the way home when it started pouring with rain.

It was amazing how different it all looked. We've always done this route in the dark before!

Gazing at Warden Hill - and the storm clouds gathering above it!

We practise on hills a lot.

See that cloud? We did. Up close and personal.

Final climb of the day.

"Can we slide down again, Dad?"

For the hit album cover.

Dad forgot to start the trip monitor when we left home, so this only shows a bit of the walk.

Latest total: £628.76

Thank you Mr Hatton for donating. It helps me so much.

 

Running total: £603.76

Thank you Liz Aldous and Caroline. Thanks to you and all the other kind supporters I am now approaching the halfway point on the way to my target. It's an amazing thing you've all done. This amount of money provides many many food parcels to struggling families. 

 

 

 

£566.26 for Luton Foodbank so far!

 Thank you very much Keith for bringing the running total to a whopping £556.26 (with Gift Aid included.)

 

£516.26 (incl. Gift Aid) raised so far!

What an amazing Sunday! Mary, of our street's residents' association, sent information about my challenge to all the residents and landlords. Within four hours the running total had leapt to £435, which means Luton Foodbank gets £516.26 after the Government's Gift Aid is added. Thank you so much Mary, Hassan, and Shirley! Your names have been added to the Cool Wall on the left of the page.

 

 

 

 

£443.76 (incl. Gift Aid) raised so far!

Thank you to Steve for supporting me I my challenge and for your encouraging message. I'm sure I will enjoy the walk as the weather will be nicer than it has been for training so far.

Everyone's kind donations now total £365, which means Luton Foodbank get £443.76 after Government Gift Aid is factored in.

 

£418.76 (incl. Gift Aid) raised so far!

Thank you very much Helen Pratt for donating.
Including Gift Aid, the total raised is now very nearly a third of the way to the target. This is amazing stuff. Everyone is so generous! I'm confident we'll reach the target by the time I set out on the Ridgeway.

 

 

£406.26 (incl. Gift Aid) raised so far!

 Thank you Katie for your donation and comment.

 

£330 raised so far!

 Thank you Miss Cook and Margaret Woodward for your support!

 

Almost 30% of the way to the target!

Thank you very much Bex Jones for the latest donation. With Gift Aid factored in we're over a quarter of the way to the target!!!

 

Dirk Walks into the pages of the press

Dirk's teacher drew our attention to this or we'd have missed it.

Luton News, Wednesday 13 April 2016

Online version of the article is here.

Latest total: £310

Thanks very much to the anonymous donor who brought the total to £310 this morning, and sent the message "Have a great walk along the scenic Ridgeway."

 

 

 

I still have a long way to go to reach my target, so please share my challenge with all your friends.

Training walk 8/9 April 2016

Last night I went on another training walk with my dad. We were meant to leave as soon as I got home from my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class, but at first I couldn't find my boots, then I had to wait for my dad anyway. We eventually set out at 8.55pm.



It was already dark, and when we reached the countryside it was difficult to see properly but it was ok because there was so much reflected streetlight from the clouds. (Usually I do not like light pollution because it stops you seeing the stars.)

We got to the place where we were going to camp and we pitched the tent. It is a new tent because the other one was too big to put in a rucksack. The other one was really good because it pitches all by itself in 2 seconds but the new one takes much longer. It is a bit bigger inside though so we had more room. Dad cooked our dinner and then we went to bed but we found a slug on the floor and had to put it outside first.

During the night it rained very heavily and the wind was very strong. The tent made loud flapping noises but we were nice and cosy inside.

In the morning we woke up at about 6.30 and had a hot breakfast. But then it started to rain very heavily again so we decided to wait in the tent until it stopped. We packed all our gear and waited. When the rain stopped we went outside and took the tent down then we left. Before we left we checked the ground very carefully to make sure we hadn't left anything. My dad found a tiny bit of tape that he had used to cover our tiny tin opener.

On the walk back it hardly rained at all. We met loads of people walking dogs and some who were running or riding bikes. We looked for three geocaches on the way but only found one of them.

When we got home I had a nice cup of hot milk. We asked Mum and my brother what they did last night and they said they both played Wii Fit. Then we weighed our rucksacks to find out how heavy they were because we swapped some stuff around before we started for home. Mine weighed too much so next time we won't swap.

We walked a total of 5.71km. Next time we have a training walk we will start to walk farther because on the Ridgeway we need to do an average 15km a day.

Tour of Luton Foodbank Warehouse

On Wednesday afternoon, I visited Luton Foodbank's warehouse. I was shown around by Thakor Morarji, who is a board member. He told me all about the work and history of Luton Foodbank, and introduced me to some of the volunteers.

Thakor Morarji, Paul Turvey, and me

I told them about my Ridgeway challenge and they said it was great. Mr Morarji said donated money was already being used to buy certain items that they were running low on. (See Luton Foodbank's page of most-needed items.)

It was really interesting seeing how it all worked. One of the volunteers was measuring 500g portions of pasta into bags, and some of the others were sorting out tins and making a note of the use-by dates on them.

I also met Amanda Burnham, who is the Community Life Champion for Asda Luton. She said I could put a Dirk Walks poster in the store. :-) 

£293 raised so far!

Thank you very much Great Aunt Linda and Great Uncle Mike for bringing the total to £357.51 including gift aid.

Practice Walk (Stopsley)

Today we went on a practice walk to the park near Stopsley fire station. My rucksack didn't have the actual camping gear in it, but we loaded it with 3kg to make it realistic. (3kg is 10% of my own weight, which is the maximum I am allowed to carry.)

We had a snack at the park and I played with my brother for a bit before we headed home. It was a good practice walk and the weather was fine. The total distance was 6.52km.