A two day walk

Employing the basic method of measuring a route on a map (marking a strip of paper against the route shown on the 1:25,000 map and then measuring the total length) produced a distance of 15.6 miles between my start point in Caterham along The North Downs Way to my overnight stop at Dorking. In all probability it was less than that but to me, on the ground, on the day, it seemed much more. I put that down to the state of my fitness rather than the condition of the (well manicured) paths of Surrey, downland England. And to my measuring method.

On my way

The reason for the walk was to test my fitness, in particular to see how I would cope with walking a distance in excess of 15 miles. So I set off from Caterham on the morning of Friday 22nd May, spent the night at a Bed & Breakfast in Dorking and returned along the same route the following day.

The section of the National Trail that I walked is a well trodden route and waymarking is fairly good. Despite that, and the glorious weather, and that it was the Friday before a Bank Holiday Weekend, there were few people on the trail. Surprisingly, there weren't many more on the Saturday either. The description of the route is well documented elsewhere so I'll not elaborate here other than to say that there are many interesting places along the way (Reigate Fort for example) and fine views overlooking the likes of Redhill, Reigate and Dorking.

View west to Box Hill from Colley Hill (TQ 245523)

As I said, the aim was to test my fitness. Well, I completed the walk of course and from the knees up I was just great. Plenty of puff. A feeling of elation to be walking with a pack on my back again - the Osprey Exos 46 (made up to a packed weight of 22lbs on this trip) is fantastic. Luxuriously comfortable, practical, attractive - Cool!

My knees and the soles of my feet would tell a different story though. They started to complain after about 5 miles and were really shouting by the end of each day. It may be that it is to do with the way I walk - I have had knee problems in the past and the pain/discomfort was not evident on the uphill sections. However, I'm hopeful that it's more about a need to get fitter. Although I was wrecked on arrival in Dorking, I was fairly well recovered after an early night and a good sleep. It wasn't as bad on the second day either. We'll see.

Short term targets

I promise not to go on about it in future blogs but I have to record that I have met my short term target to reduce my weight by 20lbs. When I stood on the scales on Monday morning this week, I was 20lbs lighter than I was on 9th March when I had decided I would try to lose that amount. I'm keen to remind myself that I have not been, and am not on, "a diet". I've changed my lifestyle so that I eat mostly the same things as before but less of them - mind you, my garden compost heap is testament to the fact that I am eating a lot more fruit. And I am more active of course. My efforts have paid off over the last 10 weeks and I am very pleased (not too smug I hope) with myself. I am still overweight but I'm confident that more pounds will go in the coming weeks. I'm not in a rush though and I am no longer focused on the issue.

This week, I hope to complete the other part of my short term target; a longish walk. On Friday I plan to walk from Caterham, Surrey, west along the route of The North Downs Way to Dorking. I'll stay at a Bed & Breakfast overnight (no wild camping on this trip) and then return along the same route on Saturday. It's about 16 miles in each direction.

Some may wonder "Why The North Downs Way?" Well, my start point is close to my daughter and family's house and they will put me up for the night before and after the walk. And, more importantly, they will look after my dog Holly - a 10 year old Border Terrier who loves to walk but wouldn't be able to manage the distance I hope to cover.

My Weight: 12 - 18 May -2lb. Since 9 Mar (10 wks) -20lbs.

The excitement is back

The excitement that I felt whilst prepararing for my first long distance walk (The Cleveland Way) many years ago was accompanied, naturally enough, by a feeling of apprehension. I was setting off on a great adventure. Would I be capable of completing the course? The same excitement was always resuscitated during the build up to subsequent long distance walks and it is with me now. The apprehension was not long-lived after embarking upon that first walk but it has returned. It has been a while since I have walked 15+ miles a day so I'm not sure how well I can cope. The mind is willing but I have yet to see if the body is still able. "You'll be alright!" I hear you say - well the kinder folk out there will be saying that.

I'll have some idea later this month of what I'm capable of when I take a two day walk in southern England, and then a better idea in July when I spend a week in the north-west. "I'll be alright!" I hear myself saying.

Later this month I plan to walk a small section of The North Downs Way - fifteen plus miles in one direction (staying overnight at Bed & Breakfast accommodation) and then walking back to my start point the following day. More about that in a later blog.

In July I aim to spend a week in The Lake District. I'm spoilt for choice on where to go of course but the general idea is to find a demanding, continuous route (camping & Bed & Breakfast). More about that in a later blog (as well as blogs en route) too.

Three sets of excitement. I hope I can cope with that as well.

My Weight: 5 - 11 May -1lb. Since 9 Mar (9 wks) -18lbs.

Shangri-La 1 & Big Agnes Air Pad

I used my Golite Shangri-La 1 and Big Agnes Clearview Air Pad overnight for the first time at the weekend and I'm very pleased with the outcome.

The Shangri-La is excellent. It's lightweight of course and, packed away, doesn't occupy much room in my rucksack. Erecting it is simple. Admittedly, I put it up in bright, dry and calm conditons on a level garden lawn. Putting walking poles to a second use as tent poles is a great bonus. Inside the shelter there is plenty of space for me, my bed and rucksack. Just one slightly negative comment which is that there was quite a build up of condensation overnight. In defence of the shelter, it may be that I restricted the airflow by pegging it out close to the ground. Overall - five stars so far though.

Five stars for the Big Agnes Air Pad too. I'm a light sleeper and prefer a soft, warm bed. The Air Pad is both. I sleep better when using two or more soft pillows as well so I cheated on this first night by using a couple of pillows that won't accompany me on any walk. On this occasion they helped ensure a comfortable night.

My Weight: 28 Apr -4 May -3lbs. Since 9 Mar (8 wks) -17lbs.

Progress - and it shows

When I declared in the first post of this blog that Bryn and I were going to walk part of the The Cleveland Way, I also declared that fitness was an issue. Furthermore, that I aimed to reduce my weight and improve my fitness and stamina. I feel that I have made significant progress with part of that aim; I have reduced my weight by a stone. That's 14lbs off the targetted 20lbs reduction before we set off on our walk in August.

I have shed the 14lbs over 7 weeks by eating less and exercising more. Exercise so far has consisted of walking rather than driving to work most days (it's almost a 5 mile return trip), occasional slightly longer walks with my dog and some bicycle rides of 5-10 miles. Exercise gets bumped up this week though as I move into Phase 2!

My gym membership has been reactivated and I have been swimming. I'm not a strong/fast swimmer - it's more a case of moving whilst floating, and that movement doesn't come easily. It's takes maximum effort. It doesn't look pretty but those in the pool at the same time should take comfort from the fact that I do not displace as much water as I used to though. I start the gym workouts followed by swims this Wednesday and Friday and thereafter twice a week. I plan to ride my bicycle further and more often too.

There has been progess this week on another front as well. I reached the ripe old age of 63.

Kit - Part 3, Shangri-La 1

Cantonese is a sing-song language. Unaccountably, I love the sound of it. Not that I would have the faintest idea about what was being said. It's just so appealing. In the jumble of sounds there's a flat "a" - similar to the sound you would make as the sides of your mouth rise into a smile to say Cumbrian "path" rather than The Thames "Parth". "La la laahh" - the last word stretched out and at a lower frequency. La la laahh. It's what I am reminded of when I say Shangri-La; "Shan gri laaahh ..". Ahh so - perhaps now you know what I'm on about. Yes - my shelter has arrived. My very own GoLite Shangri-La 1 [*Initial comments below]. She's the 2009 version in evergreen rather than the Chinesey bamboo (yellow). She looks like a Helen to me.

Here she is; Helen (pronounced Herren) Shangri Rahhhh ....

GoLite Shangri-La 1

Agnes is here too. Big Agnes Clearview Air Pad, who weighs in at 460g (plus a net bag at 15g). It should have been the lighter Mummy version (a minimised, Egyptian Mummy shape) but the on-line supplier sent the wrong one - a Rectangle; that's not an insulting description of the supplier, it's the shape of the pad. I had the option of returning it but my impatience won the day when I just had to try it out on my living room floor. I can live (for the time being) with the extra couple of ounces.

It takes a little more that a dozen big puffs (no sniggers at the back please) to get the pad into shape. Worryingly, then amusingly, it hisses slightly (like Gollum in the book) as your body changes positon on its surface. What a treat though - to move on to my side and not feel my hip touch the floor. Excellent. Impressive for the brief spell on the hard level floor of my living room. I'm hopeful it performs as well overnight on a less even pitch.

* Shangri-La 1. The shelter is supplied without guys but I prefer to use some front and rear so I have borrowed two from elsewhere. It came with six pegs but I have supplemented them with another three; two for my guy lines and one for the open door flap. The tops of the issued pegs are quite sharp, so they dig into the hand as they are pushed into the ground. I will be swopping them for another type of peg.

The poles inside the tent are 7' (feet) apart. The high point, inside at the front pole is 3' and at the rear pole 2', although the height can be adjusted somewhat by raising or lowering the poles - walking poles in my case. There is a 7' spread between the two front pegs and a 4' spread at rear. The tent's front flap, shown open in the photograph, can be sealed closed with what seems like a strong zip.

It's easy to fold the shelter and slide it into its small sack.

My Weight: 14-20 April -2lbs. Since 9 Mar (6 wks) -12lbs.

In case you noticed/wondered - that's a blackbird near the tent. It's pulling out a worm to take back to it's young, in their nest nearby.

These boots are made for walkin'

These boots are made for walkin'

and that's just what they're for.

One of these days these boots are

goin'tut walk a Yorkshire moor.

(With apologies to Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra)

My new boots are such beautiful looking objects, they wouldn't seem out of place, to my eye, on a mantelpiece. It would be tempting to keep them, unused and in pristine condition for that purpose. However, they were made for walking and that's what they have been doing. Not far though. On Saturday we wandered through Putnoe Wood and then on into North Bedfordshire.

Putnoe Wood, Bedford

Then on Sunday, we followed the bank of the River Great Ouse, upstream through Bedford.

River Great Ouse, Bedford

Properly christened, my boots rest now in the dark of my understairs cupboard with their tongues hanging out. Muddied, no mantelpiece for them now.

Weight Watch: 7-13 April -2lbs. Since 9 Mar (5 wks) -10lbs.

Kit - Part 2

All of a sudden, shoe sizes are a complicated mystery. An internet search for shoe size comparisons produces fine looking tables but each shows different results. UK shoe size 9.5 is European size 44 on one table and 43.5 on another. UK 10 is 44 or 44.5 and so on. However, none of that really matters because boots have to be tried on in a shop and that is what I did. I now own a pair of Scarpa ZG65 XCRs (labelled as: UK 10.5, EU 45 and USm 11.5 - what ever that is). And they are within sight as I write. They encase my feet. Earlier, on their first outing, fellow dog walkers spied them almost before they caught sight of the rest of me and "ooohs" & "ahhs" followed. More about boots in due course - after they, hopefully, have moulded to the shape of my feet.

A feature of new boots, like many other things new, is that they tend to stand out, showing up the things around them as shabby. In this case my trousers. New trousers will have to wait though as I should like to try those on before buying them when I am a size smaller. I'll need a pair that don't clash with my new, flashy walking poles - Black Diamond Contour Elliptic Compact.

I have not used walking poles before but having read good things about them felt that I should like to give them a go. Having deliberated for ages about this model or that, I thought it was time to just go for it and the knowledgeable chap in the Outdoor Shop at Stony Stratford made the decision easier for me. With luck these will be just fine. A lighter, tougher model might follow, although I suspect I'll grow fond of the ones I now have and they'll become trusted friends. Alan Sloman (see link in right hand column) has his Wanda tent. If they graduate then I may have Piotr and Petra poles.

What else is new? Well my sleeping mat is. It's just that it hasn't arrived yet. I ordered and paid for a Big Agnes Clearview Pad but a UK dealer dashed my immediate hopes by refunding my money and saying sorry but they were out of stock - despite what it showed, and still shows, on their online store. Another one is on order elsewhere and I expect to receive it later this week. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have only slept on a foam mat before and I'm impatient to try out one of the lightweight inflatable mats. The Big Agnes Mummy seems to fit the bill for a Summer trek. Its 20" x 72" should accomodate me and its 2.5" depth should soak up some, hopefully all, of my hip pressure (I wish I could sleep on my back). The price of thirty something and a weight of 396g (14oz) sounds excellent too. A NeoAir has been suggested but that is not available yet and, perversely perhaps, I'd like to progress to that after experiencing a next-step-up in the evolutionary chain from my wide, fairly lightweight, thorn ripped, hard foam mat. The unnamed foam mat was never my friend but it was a quantum leap from a ground sheet.

Finally, for this post, I've been looking at images of Montane jackets and trousers. I have a Berghaus goretex jacket which I consider uneccessarily heavy for The Cleveland Way in the Summer. The Montane Litespeed Jacket and the Featherlite Waterproof Trousers, in the region of 170g each, look better than good. They may feature in a future Kit - Part 3.

Weight Watch: 31 Mar - 6 April -3lbs. Since 9 March (4 wks) -8 lbs.

Kit - Part 1

I've bought a new sleeping bag. It's a Snugpak TravelPak Lite which, with its compression bag, weighs in at 875 grams on my scales. That's a saving of 525 grams (about 1lb 2oz) on my Snugpak Softie 6 - Kestrel which has a packed weight of 1400 grams. The TravelPak Lite was available at a special show price of £29.00 at The Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show last weekend. Googling the TravelPak Lite now seems to confirm that I got it at a good price. I hope it helps me have a good sleep too when I try it out in the warmer weather.

The Outdoors Show was not quite what I had hoped for. I saw, and was able to drool over, some solo Terra Nova tents but I was hoping to check out other items - sleeping mats and walking boots in particular. I only saw two large Exped mats and there weren't many boots on display. I've only ever used a foam mat but my old bones can't easily rest on those now and I'm informed (by the Snugpak Rep at the Outdoors Show) that I should be thinking "sleeping systems" in this day and age. So I need to stretch out on a Thermarest or an Exped mat, an Exped Down perhaps, to see what they can do for me.

My fairly new Brasher Hillmaster boots are very uncomfortable and hurt my feet. The previous two pairs, now retired, were fine - comfortable from the outset, neither pair needed to be broken-in. The new ones are different; they seem narrower and the rubber sole doesn't give me as good a cushioning effect as before. They feel a long way from being broken-in. I'm not sure if they ever will be. I don't understand why they have padded suede uppers which extend well outside the boot (it looks more like a fashion/style change rather than a practical one). Nor am I certain as to how that part should be cleaned and cared for. So they may have to go. I have always favoured leather boots. It seems to me that they give the best ankle support when needed and I have assumed that they are easier to clean. Perhaps now is the time to get used to non-leather boots though. Perhaps I need to get with it. So I am considering the lightweight, Vibram soled and very attractive looking Scarpa ZG65 XCR.

I need a new tent or shelter too (I'm wearing out - so's my kit). I have a Litchfield Viper 2 tent which I bought about 20 years ago at the YMCA shop in Covent Garden. It's flysheet usually suffices in the Summer but that, plus poles and pegs weighs 1300 grams so I'm looking for a lightweight alternative. That's why I drooled over the Terra Nova at The Outdoor Show and why I daydream about a Hilleberg Akto but the prices aren't lightweight. I'm considering the more basic, but lovely (in evergreen) Golite Shangri-La 1. It's a solo shelter without poles but it's lightweight (600g) and more affordable.

Weight Watch: 24-30 March -1lb. Since 9 March -5lbs.

Twenty pounds

Twenty pounds - it's like a tune in my head, playing over and over, on a loop.

I have set a target to reduce my weight by 20lbs before 5th August. I've made a good start without starving myself and principal among the beneficiaries so far seems to be my knees; they don't ache as much now. It seems to me that there have been several factors which have caused them to ache or swell up intermittently in the past despite a doctor telling me a couple of years ago that "they [my knees] were wearing out". I worked it out that my driving position in the car was the cause that time, so I changed my basic Primera for my much more comfortable Volvo V40 and my knees got better. Last year one knee packed in whilst I was walking home from work. The culprit that time was my office chair or rather my sitting postition in front of the computer. The chair was old, couldn't be adjusted properly and I had made do, ignoring the warning signs. A new chair revived my knees. On The Cleveland Way once, with Bryn, on the approach to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, my knees puffed up making it difficult, and painful, to walk. I think the downhill sections across the Yorkshire Moors had done for them on that occasion (I'm hoping that walking poles might alleviate the condition this time round). Recently though I think my knees problem can be attributed to a poor diet which included too much sugar and fat. They are ruled out or strictly limited in my current diet though. That and a slightly more active lifestyle seems to be doing the trick.

Twenty pounds is the maximum weight I have set for my fully packed rucksack. I have started to compile a kit list (see link on the right hand side) but I feel that getting the pack below 20lbs isn't going to be easy for me. Bryn and I are going to the Outdoors Show 2009 at the NEC Birmingham this coming weekend. (Ten year old Grandson Rueben is coming with us.) I'll be on the lookout for lightweight items of kit. Lightweight on my back but not on my pocket I suspect, so my £20.00 pocket money won't go far.

Weight Watch: 17-23 March -2lbs. Since 9 March -4lbs.