Tuesday, 19 June 2007

The world's worst weather.


There's one story that's not been told. A story about a May day when Alick, Tristan and Annie ventured onto the South Downs, ill-equipped and totally unaware of the adventure they were about to experience.

A story about the day Alick uttered the infamous words "haven't we been lucky with the weather".

I still find it hard to talk about that day, hence why this post is now out of synch and weeks after the event.

It was all going so well. Pockets full of cold sausages and peanut butter sandwiches and hearts full of glee, our intrepid heroes set off ignoring the severe weather warnings and gathering storm clouds.

All was fine until Alick ignored the prime directive of outdoor pursuits and dared - nay double dared - the gods and sure enough, the heavens opened.

Two hours later, cold, wet and tired we walked off those hills and into the warm, comforting arms of Alick's local Harvester pub. A finer, more modern and welcoming hostelry one would struggle to find, it's sole deficiency being the lack of Harveys on tap.

The End.

Monday, 18 June 2007

Not a bad view


17062007057.jpg
Originally uploaded by lloydshep.

Not a bad view, eh? This previous Saturday and Sunday we did the preliminary to the Big One, walking two Trailwalker stages on Saturday and another two on Sunday - 40 kilometres all in all. We started in Petersfield, spend the night in a bizarre little b&b in Midhurst run by a woman from Bombay and a man from Iceland (sounds like a Men at Work song) and then walked to Amberley the next day for the train back to London.

On the way, we learned several things. Drinking the night before walking is really dumb. The BBC weather forecast is crap (heavy rain forecast, none forthcoming). The view from the top of Bignor Hill has to count as one of the best in England (south to the sea, north towards Kent). And we did 40% of the full distance in 24 hours. Not too shabby.