Gelt Wood and Talkin Tarn

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Distance: 7.5 miles (12km)

Time: About 3.5 hours (last stretch completed in darkness!)

We completed a trek through lovely woodland, now in full leaf, along the lakeside path at Talkin Tarn and on to the Blacksmiths Arms at Talkin village for a well deserved comfort stop before completing the loop back to Low Gelt. Toby was very excited by rabbits, Lee has now perfected the art of leaping (over streams and bogs), and we are all well versed in the following directions and finding prominent trees and impressive railway bridges!

Because of our stop at the pub we reached the last stretch through Gelt Wood at dusk, and can now claim to be experienced night time walkers. It was dark in the woods and very boggy and slippery down by the rushing waters of the Gelt. Another exhilarating hike by a tremendous team!

Training!

Wb 25th May	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day. Wednesday 27th May: 7.5 mile walk Gelt Wood/Talkin Tarn
Wb 1st June	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day Sunday 7th June: 16 mile walk Carlisle to Armathwaite
Wb 8th June	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day Friday 12th June: 12 mile walk Maryport to Silloth
Wb 15th June	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day Friday 19th June: 6 mile walk Rockcliffe Marsh to Carlisle
Wb 22nd June	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day Sunday 28th June: Long walk (25 miles), Keswick to Dalston on Cumbria Way
Wb 29th June	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day Thursday 2nd July: 11 mile walk Armathwaite to Langwathby
Wb 6th July	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day
Wb 13th July	Fast walk for 30 minutes every other day

I hope this suits you all. I have tried to mix longer and shorter walks and included coastal, woodland, riverside and lakeside. I’ve also put the walks on different days so that we don’t have to use all our Sundays for walking. The fast walking is important as it will help build our stamina if is done regularly every two days. See you on Wednesday!

Hawksdale to Gaitsgill – circular walk

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A stunning spring morning saw us set off from Shirley’s house just before lunch. We followed an easy footpath through the fields behind Pincushion Hill to Lime House school and then headed off down a muddy bridleway to Gaitsgill. The going was a little heavy but the views towards the fells of northern Lakeland more than made up for the slipping and sliding underfoot. Arriving in Gaitsgill we were pleased to stamp our feet and remove all the mud from our boots. Then we set off up the lonning that skirts round the back of Gaitsgill on the north side of the Caldew to Buckabank. After that it was a quick (very quick, those cows were big!) trek through the fields down to the Bridge End and home again in time for a late lunch.

We've almost raised our first grand!

We are making great progress towards our target of £2,500. A quick tally of all our recorded online and offline sponsorship totals just over £900! Considering we only started collecting sponsors just over a month ago I think we could all do with a pat on the back!

Next month we will be raising more money by selling cakes and tea to parents who are coming in to class assemblies at school. Assemblies tend to finish about 40 minutes before school does, so we thought we would serve up tea and cakes and donate the proceeds to Trailwalker. Watch this space - we'll keep you posted!

Car Boot Number Two

All four of the Caldew Wanderers rolled up to Brisco Farm in the early hours of this morning, wiping the sleep out of our eyes and wondering what had possessed us to spend the next four or five hours in a field outside Carlisle dressed in thick winter woolies. But it soon warmed up and the money started flying in. £145.36 by the end of the morning. We are getting closer to our target every day and our friends are beginning to donate online too, so fingers crossed we will have reached our target well before July 18th! Who knows, we may even exceed it!

Watch this space and remember you can go to http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/fundraise/trailwalker/index.html and look for Caldew Wanderers. We are now on page 6, thanks to your generous donations and our other fundraising events.

Caldbeck to Dalston, 10 miles

We have had such a good walk tonight that I have to sit down now and write about it. A glorious May evening, blustery but sunny and it stayed dry. Thank you so much to Steve for driving us to Caldbeck and dropping us off and all your encouragement. And to Martin for popping up from behind the car seat and surprising us all!

We set off at 5.15 from Caldbeck and quickly got covered in mud almost as soon as we left the road and followed signs for the Cumbria Way. But within what seemed like no time (okay it was 90 minutes) we were at Sebergham Bridge, just about the halfway point. After Sebergham Bridge we passed the squat tower at Sebergham Church and then hit a long stretch of the Caldew and walked along its western bank for about 3 or 4 miles to Lime House School. We spotted 2 red squirrels, a heron, dozens of frisky young cattle, frolicking lambs and countless bluebells and primroses. And the time flew by. We were at the Bridge End by 9 pm and sitting in the Blue Bell by 9.30, having a well earned refreshment break!

We have improved in our fitness and I don't think we could have done this walk so comfortably 3 weeks ago. We are pushing ourselves on every time we gou out and really gelling as a team. Fantastic work, guys and see you at Brisco Car Boot Sale on Sunday morning. And thank you to everyone who has sponsored us and to Judith for all the car boot donations.

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Burgh?

Burgh by Sands to Burgh by Sands

Well, we walked 7 miles today and I am still awake at 9.45, but I have a feeling we will all sleep well tonight. We had a lovely walk round Burgh Marsh. Good choice, Ally, Lee and Toby. The weather was very springlike and we saw geese, swans, ducks and a few fish jumping out of the Eden. We stopped for a rest on a bench and spent a while trying to get the perfect team picture, and altogether it took 3 hours and 7 minutes (Swiss timing) to do the whole walk. We all agreed we could have walked faster, but at the moment we want to build up our stamina so are not overly concerned about speed at present. Thanks for the cheese sandwiches, Diane. They were a godsend.

On Thursday evening we are going up to Caldbeck and will be walking back - it's about 10 miles to Dalston. We may be back after dark, but we need the practice so que sera sera. Hopefully Lynda and Gillian will be joining us too. And another car boot sale on Sunday should see us raising some more for Oxfam/Gurkha Welfare Trust.