First full day on the Ridgeway

SATURDAY: Walking to Sparsholt Firs  We were supposed to wake up at 5am today, but we had a lie in because we had a late finish last night. So we were awake at about 7.30.

7.46am: First sight of camp site. (We arrived in the dark).

We took our time and had breakfast and brushed our teeth before packing the tent.

8.59am: More than three hours behind schedule!

We had been walking for about ten minutes when we saw what would have been an ideal place to camp last night. It was level and sheltered and even had a bench where we could have had our breakfast.

9.30am: On the other hand, we might have been squished.

9.42am: Turn left.

Because of our late start, it was after ten-o'clock when we arrived at the place where we hid the food on the way from Swindon. It was a nice surprise when we unwrapped it because we made the parcel a couple of months ago and forgot what we put in it. Please ask your friends to sponsor my walk here. A food parcel from Luton Foodbank makes a real difference to people in difficulty and is so much more important than mincing about in a rucksack.

10.26am: HOW much cling-film, Dad?!!

We had a snack and drank lots of water, then put the rest of the stuff in Dad's rucksack and carried on walking.

11.07am: I went jellybean because we were about to walk next to a road.

We had to be careful walking next to the road, but mostly there was a wide verge. We promised ourselves a pitstop when we got back on a proper path.

11.39am: Special thanks to the two cyclists who whizzed past our resting place and did amazing skids so the dust went in our faces. Wish I was as cool as you.

12.23pm: Me with a wind farm in the background.

12.44pm: We passed a bunch of flags in the middle of nowhere.

1.34pm: Took some time out to just be really really ridiculously Goodlooking.

After topping up our water bottles (and soaking our hot heads) at a tap at Idstone Farm, we walked on to Wayland's Smithy and got there at 1.45pm. There was quite a lot of people there because it's not far from a car park. But we had the place to ourselves after a while. Dad just lay there not moving. He said he didn't need an ambulance or anything, so I went exploring.

1.56pm

2.42pm

We had planned to camp near here, and we arrived an hour late. But we started walking three hours late, so we had caught up very well. We decided to just have our lunch and a rest, then do some more walking. As it got near 4-o'clock we reached Uffington Castle. It was a long steep walk up to the top but I still had plenty of energy to run about like a mad thing when we got there. We saw a man with a big kite. He was nearly lifted off the ground when the wind blew hard. I went off and found the Uffington White Horse while Dad stayed and guarded the rucksacks - which involved bravely sitting on the grass taking photos.

4.03pm

4.17pm

4.17pm

4.18pm

When we reached the next tap (just before Sparsholt Firs) we decided to camp.

6.34pm: Pleased to be camped at last

6.35pm: Sparsholt Firs

We had our dinner once the tent was up, and now we are lying in our sleeping bags waiting for sleep Distance covered: 18.273km

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.

Practice camp - Warden Hill

This weekend we did our second practice camp. As it was pretty cold, and my dad still hasn't found his proper sleeping bag, I got a new winter sleeping bag and he had my one.

We set out at 6-o'clock, and reached the countryside at dusk. When we were walking past the last houses we heard two cats fighting and they made a real din! Just after that we heard an owl, so it felt like we were properly out of town.

After walking in the dark for a while we reached our first destination which was a geocache. We found the right place but the cache had been stolen so we kept walking but we couldn't find the path we needed so we turned around and used a different path to get to the top of the hill.

When we reached the top the view was amazing even though it was dark.

We pitched the tent and had our dinner then went to sleep. I was really warm in my new sleeping bag.

We woke up at about 6-o'clock on Sunday morning and had our breakfast. It was REALLY cold and our fingers hurt just from doing up zips and things. We were fine once we started walking again though.

On our way back along the footpaths in the fields we met loads of people walking their dogs and everybody said "Good morning". We saw a sign we'd missed in the dark the night before. It said there used to be a farm house and some barns there.

When we were nearly home we phoned my mum and asked her to put the kettle on so when we got home we had a nice hot drink and told her and my brother about our adventures.

Training Walk 2

Yesterday evening we went on our second training walk. We started from the hospital (Dad was there for a scan) and stopped to get a couple of tins from Tesco for our dinner before heading up the hill from the roundabout at the end of Hatters Way. While we were at Tesco we saw people collecting for Luton Foodbank and we said hello. One of them said he recognised me.

We reached out planned camping site very quickly, and pitched our tent in the woods just as it was getting dark. It was VERY cold out but when we got into the tent and into our sleeping bags we were nice and warm. I fell asleep straight away.

In the middle of the night I woke up and Dad said "Can you hear that?" and there was an owl hooting very nearby.

We couldn't get back to sleep so we decided to pack up the tent and continue our route. We walked through a golf course by the light of the moon and went through two villages before going through Stockwood Park and finishing up back in Luton. When we got home we had a hot drink and a biscuit then went to bed.

We covered 11.73km between the hospital and home.

Our tent

My dad put the tent up in the living room just to show me, but we haven't taken it walking yet. We are going to use this one because it's very easy to put up so we won't be messing about in the rain when we're tired. Dad says he's going to attach it to his rucksack. We hope it doesn't get too windy and blow him away.