Virgin Vie Raises More Cash

Diane’s Virgin Vie party at Church House last night was a huge success. Altogether around £119 was raised for Trailwalker. We had fun sampling some tempting glittery products and nobody could resist the delicious marshmallow fudge and chocolate biscuit cake brought along by Gill (Fantasweets). We also sold the last of the Treasure Map squares and the £50 prize money goes to the owner of square E1 (Liz from Woodstyle).

Thanks to Diane for organising the party and getting us all together again.

 

Coming soon - yet another curry night! Hurray! And a quiz night in Dalston. Watch this space!

Vie at Home Party on September 18th

Diane has organised a fundraising party! And you are invited. Please come along to see a great range of cosmetics, jewellery and homeware and to have a fun evening with friends.

Church House, The Square, Dalston.
Friday 18th September, 7.30pm - 10.00pm

Free entry, but there will be a raffle and plenty of goodies to spend some money on while helping us raise some more money for Oxfam, The Gurkha Welfare Trust and The Army Benevolent Fund.

To have a look at the kinds of goodies on offer just click here.

Steve’s Trailwalker Pictures

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TRAILWALKER 09

Well, 2 weeks after the event and I’m ready to write! I was worn out physically and drained emotionally after doing Trailwalker, and that must explain the delay.

STAGE ONE 9.6 km Queen Elizabeth Country Park to Harting Down Ascent 300m; Descent -210m

Up at 5.30, after a night under canvas. Peter thoughtfully provided some whisky and lemonade after our delicious pasta meal and a slug of this helped us to sleep for , ooh at least 5 hours! We tuck in to a hearty military breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, beans, hash browns and fill our bottles. Our absolutely fantastic support crew, Steve and Peter, wait around at the campsite after we leave until the tents have dried out and then take them down and pack them away. Start time for the walk is 7 am and we are raring to go. The huge number of walkers starting at the same time as us (about 500) means that for the first few kilometres we are walking at an uncomfortable pace, but about halfway through this stage we drop back and settle into a pace that suits the team and we reach Checkpoint 1 after about 2 hours.

STAGE TWO 10.4km Harting Down to Hilltop Farm. Ascent 290 m; Descent -390m.

After a quick refreshment stop at CP1 we're off again, fortified by a range of hot and cold drinks made available to all Trailwalkers by smiling Gurkha soldiers who co-organised the whole event with Oxfam. One third of the proceeds donated by generous sponsors will go to the Gurkha Welfare Trust and fund community projects across Nepal.

During this stage we gain height quickly, and enjoy views right across Hampshire to the north and south. We are now in the South Downs that we have seen in photographs - huge, rolling hills, barley stalks waving in the breeze and sunshine all the way. Around 500m before CP2 we phone Peter to say we are nearly there; he replies that he can already see us from the checkpoint, looking up the hill through his binoculars. At CP2 we feast on bacon rolls that Steve and Peter have prepared for us earlier. Mmmmm. And an exuberant heroes' welcome from the Oxfam greeting people when we register. Thank you - it feels GOOD.

STAGE THREE 8.3km Hilltop Farm to Littleton Farm. Ascent 190m; Descent -170m

This stage is really pleasant. Most of it is high up and we have beautiful views over the downland and villages of Hampshire and West Sussex. More rolling barley fields, more distant lines of trailwalkers as far as the eye can see. To the south are glimpses of the English Channel. We read a sign put up by Oxfam - a conversation reviver asking if you can cry underwater. We don't need a conversation reviver - we are buzzing anyway and enjoying what feels like a weekend stroll although we have already walked nearly 30 km .

STAGE FOUR 9.3km Littleton Farm to Houghton. Ascent 180m; Descent -300m.

At CP3 we help ourselves to cereal bars and fruit and can top our water bottles up with Bottle Green elderflower cordial or Ocean Spray cranberry classic, all generously provided free for us walkers. Or just plain water. Alison is in constant touch with home by phone and we hear that there will be cake at CP4. We hope it's chocolate cake. Oxfam's website has a live feed of comments and photos posted by organisers and supporters and Sue keeps us informed of what is happening. We hear from her that the first team have already crossed the finish line in Brighton. Their finishing time is just 10 hours, 44 minutes and 30 seconds, and they are Queen's Gurkha Engineers Team 2. We are in awe of their very fast completion of this tough course. By the time we reach CP4 the cake has gone.

STAGE FIVE 12.5 km. Houghton to Washington. Ascent 280m; Descent -220m.

This is the longest stage so far, and the end of it marks the halfway point. Now wearing reflective clothing we cross a river and walk a little way along a main road before we are climbing again - a hamstring pulling ascent. On the way up many walkers stop to get their breath. We are walking with some really friendly Irish walkers at this stage and there is still plenty to talk about. Favourite topic of conversation is whether the next checkpoint will have a shop selling replacement knee caps! A long stretch along the hilltop is followed by a very long descent down to the picturesque village of Washington. We suggest to Alison and Lee that they have their wedding in the pretty church in the village. I cannot publish their reply. Alison is beginning to have trouble with her knee and Lee discovers some horrible blisters. At CP5 our amazing crew are there to help and Peter nips into the nearest hedge and fashions two decent walking sticks to help her through the next stages. He is like a cross between Puck and Bilbo Baggins and can produce what we need from thin air. Night is falling as we leave CP5.

STAGE SIX 10km Washington to Botolphs. Ascent 210m; Descent -270m.

As darkness falls across the Downs we walk on. A trail of lights ahead of us marks out our route, and behind us another procession like threaded fairylights weaves its way up and down the hills. In the distance we see bright city lights; we guess it is Brighton and Worthing. We wrap ourselves up; the night air is cooler despite the fact that we are moving at a good pace. At CP6 we go to the Red Cross Tent. The nurse looks at Alison's knee and says it looks like a pulled cruciate ligament. This must be where the term excruciating comes from. She is in a lot of pain, but decides to carry on. We applaud her courage. Lee discovers that he has some toenails hanging on for dear life. He tends to his feet and we set off again at around midnight.

STAGE SEVEN 9.4km Botolphs to Devil's Dyke. Ascent 330m; Descent -130m.

It is very dark and quiet. Hardly any walkers are speaking now, and when we do it is with hushed voices. The darkness is telling my body to shut down and rest, but we have to keep going. We continue through the night. Without daylight we have no landmarks to aim for and little sense of where we are going. Trailwalker torches ahead of us prevent us from losing our way. Our pace slows and with both knees now hurting Alison is finding it very tough. At CP7, Devil's Dyke she retires from the event after walking at least 20km in constant pain. We eat a hot meal in a draughty mess tent at Devil's Dyke. Steve brings warm clothes for Alison.It is the only check point on a hill top and we arrive there at around 3 am in the chill of night. Warm pasta bolognese feeds our minds and bodies and Lee, Diane and I set off again, very sorry to have left a fantastic team mate behind.

STAGE EIGHT 6.9km Devil's Dyke to Jack and Jill. Ascent 190m; Descent -230m.

We set off at a cracking pace after CP7. The sun is beginning to rise and we no longer need our torches to pick our way. We all feel energised by the meal and the dawning of the new day. We have been walking for about 22 hours as the sun comes up. We still have some way to go and the clock is ticking. However, we reach CP8, the windmills at Clayton, and have a short break. Peter has made a delicious hot chocolate; Steve is as solicitous and cheerful as ever.

STAGE NINE 12.5km Jack and Jill to Juggs Road, Lewes. Ascent 264m; Descent -325m.

This stage is long and arduous. I am feeling really tired now and my mind is looking for excuses to stop. I feel grumpy and negative. Unfortunately I cannot shake these feelings off. I plug into some music which lifts my mood a bit. I am snappy with my team mates who have done nothing to deserve it. We continue the trek to Lewes and enter the town down a bridleway. Local horse riders are not amused at having to share their Sunday morning ride with dozens of walkers. They complain that our hoods are scaring the horses. It starts to rain. After a steep climb up to CP9 I feel finished. A quick team discussion in the car and we decide to call it a day. We have walked 90 km in 27.5 hours. The mood is sombre as we leave CP9. Despite all our efforts and the fact that we have achieved a great deal in just 3 months it is a huge disappointment not to have completed the full 100km. I know we would like to try again. And we still have some way to go to reach our fundraising target of £2500 by the end of September. If you have read this, please donate online now. Your money could help Oxfam provide disaster relief or help fund long term development or campaigning for changes to make the world safer and fairer for everyone. Thanks to the generosity of our friends we have already raised over £1700 - can you spare a little to raise our total further still?

Trailwalker as viewed by Oxfam's official lenses

Pictures of an unforgettable weekend

The South Downs Way – this is what Wikipedia says about it.

The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway.^[2] The trail has about 4,150 metres (13,600 ft) of ascent and descent making it a challenging route.

The undulating path begins in Winchester and moves past Cheesefoot Head, the towns of Petersfield and Arundel, the village of Steyning, Devil's Dyke viewpoint near Brighton, and miles of chalk downland, finally ending in Eastbourne. Several youth hostels are along the route to accommodate walkers. It also passes Birling Gap, a beach area with hotel and restaurant. At Rodmell on the trail, Virginia Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse in 1941.

Much of the South Downs Way is on high chalk downland and the views are dramatic. The Way is solely within the Sussex Downs and East Hampshire Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, soon to become the South Downs National Park. There is plenty of historic interest along the way. Without exception it is a very well maintained and signposted route. While it crosses various villages for provisions much of it is surprisingly isolated and quiet considering the density of the population in south-east England.

It can be walked in about a week while a horse rider or cyclist would take two or three days. It is closed to motorised traffic along the route and this rule is generally observed.

Various events are held along the route; the most popular of which is the British Heart Foundation's annual Randonee. Part or all of the 100 miles is cycled to raise funds for heart disease, the fastest times are sub 8 hours with most riders taking under 14 hours.

Currying Flavours!

We’re just back from a lovely evening at Steve and Linda Withers. Linda very kindly offered us the use of her kitchen for this evening’s curry night. So we had a marvellous evening in a very special home with delightful company. Steve and Linda are fabulous hosts and gave everyone the tour of the house and garden. Very envious of those parsnips and onions, and even the sunset was to die for!

Curries went down a treat too and thanks so much to Dave for the chicken curry you sent in your absence. Very delicious! Diane and I are getting this down to a fine art now, and Ali and Lee have been perfecting their lamb rogan josh for next time! Next time? Well, we don’t know when yet, but Linda seemed to enjoy having us in her kitchen. The 6 kids had a great evening telling spooky stories on the trampoline. Steve, the Lidl wine went down very well. Thank you again for your more than generous hospitality.

Another £84 raised tonight. Thanks to Liz, George, Helen, Lesley, Joanne, Steve, Steve and Linda for coming, eating and making it such a special evening!

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Presenting the new team strip…

In today our new look with team T-shirts.

Can we get to £1600 by the end of this weekend?

Curry night on Sunday could just take us up from £1460 to £1600. We have raised a huge amount of money with 2 car boot sales, 1 coffee morning, 1 Easter Egg Trail, 3 tea and cake sales for parents, and one curry night. Our efforts have paid off and many people have generously donated online as well. I’m thinking pub quiz in August. Any other ideas or help always welcome.

Evening News & Star, July 1st 2009

After what seems like months of fundraising we are hoping that this article in today's paper will do a bit more to get us nearer to our target of £2,500. And we've all made a good recovery since our long walk on Sunday - all aches and pains now just a faint memory.

http://www.news-and-star.co.uk/news/our_100km_walk_for_the_gurkha_veterans_1_576193?referrerPath=news

Please click on the link to see our article.

We just walked a MARATHON

Keswick – Latrigg. Latrigg – Skiddaw House. Skiddaw House – Great Lingy Hut. Great Lingy Hut – High Pike. High Pike – Wood Hall. Wood Hall – Hesket Newmarket. Hesket Newmarket – Sebergham. Sebergham – Rose Bridge. Rose Bridge – Dalston. 26 miles in 12 hours.

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We’ve been building up to this long walk for weeks and now we’ve done it. An early morning start was a good idea because we saw two young deer on our way down to Keswick, as well as scores of rabbits. As we drove over the fell road round Caldbeck we had to slow down and go round a new calf feeding from its mother in the middle of the road. A lovely start to the day.

Keswick to Latrigg was a steep climb and we’d barely had time to warm up before we the ascent began, but we quickly gained height and beautiful views out over the peaceful waters of Bassenthwaite and Derwentwater. Once at the top we skirted round Lonscale Fell, heading towards Skiddaw House where we had a good rest and feed.

From Skiddaw House it was a pleasant 3.5 mile trek over moorland and peat bogs to a tarmac road before the arduous pull up to Great Lingy Hut. The path was hard to follow and although we didn’t lose our way there were times when we weren’t sure we were going the right way. Lee had enough energy to go on ahead and check that we were going the right way. Eventually we saw Great Lingy Hut, which looked like a glorified garden shed from the outside. Inside it was very cool with a wooden sleeping platform and a visitor’s book. We were feeling quite chuffed by now, at having done most of our climbing, when we saw a retired teacher from Caldew who put us firmly in our places by telling us he once ran the whole of the Cumbria Way in just two and a half days. We covered the 26 miles to Dalston in 12 hours; he did the 31 miles to Carlisle in about 4 hours!

High Pike was not far from Great Lingy Hut and we reached the top easily. Then we got lost. Not badly but we ended up going back to the Cumbria Way in Hesket Newmarket instead of Caldbeck. It gave us an excuse to get some much needed liquid refreshment at The Old Crown. From Hesket we covered the remaining 10 miles back to Dalston with increasingly sore feet and a bit of help from Abba, Michael Hutchens and Scissor Sisters. Now, where did I leave that foot spa?

Wednesday Walk in Wreay Woods

Our Wednesday morning walks are becoming a regular fixture now. We set off from Newbiggin picnic area where the sounds of the M6 almost drowned out our conversation. Followed the river Petteril through pastureland and then into lovely Wreay Woods. A sign at the gateway to the woods told us there have been woodlands there since the middle ages and they have been managed woodlands since the eighteenth century. We were certainly glad of the shade provided by the leaves and a chance to cool off from the heat of the morning. A quick climb up the hill into Wreay itself, a small village clustered around a very pretty church. St Mary’s Church was built between 1840 and 1842 by Sara Losh, described by Simon Jenkins as “a Charlotte Bronte of wood and stone”. From Wreay we followed the road back under the M6 and took a footpath along and over the main West Coast railway line, passing Newbiggin Hall before crossing the newly repaired bridge over the Petteril and back to the picnic spot. A 2 hour walk and between 5 and 6 miles I’d guess.

St Mary’s Church, Wreay

For more about walks in the Eden Valley click here.

Marsh-stomping on the shortest night

We were finding it difficult to find a time this weekend when all 4 of us were able to go out for a long walk. Out of this confusion sprang the idea to go at night – when we should all have been catching up on our beauty sleep. So here we are on Sunday evening in dire need of a good night’s sleep, but able to say that we walked from Abbeytown to Burgh by Sands in around 4 and a half hours on the shortest night. We stuck to the roads, and although there were long stretches with no street lighting we got used to the dark quite easily. Bats, owls and nocturnal sheep occasionally interrupted our conversation. There was also quite a lot of inappropriate giggling. This helped us a lot! During the final leg from Glasson to Burgh by Sands we could look across the Solway to twinkling lights in Annan and Gretna. It was a fine sight to be sure, but it didn’t stop the aching legs and feet or Diane’s huge blister. We only admitted to aches and pains after the walk though. Mind over matter will be our motto in July.

Alison wearing a halo – or had she just had a bowl of Ready Brek?

We are over halfway to our target of £2,500. Please sponsor us:

www.justgiving.com/judycarruthers

Caldew Wanderers over half way to fundraising target! Yey!

Online and offline donations so far now total £1,261.87!! That is more than half of our target of £2,500. Our fundraising efforts so far have been very successful. Over the next few weeks we will be adding to this total. Check out our fundraising programme below:

Friday 12th June:     Coffee and cake sale – St Michael’s School

Sunday 14th June:    Curry Night, Church House, Dalston

Friday 18th June:     Coffee and Cake Sale, St Michael’s School

Friday 26th June:     Coffee and Cake Sale, St Michael’s School

If the curry night goes well on Sunday we will hold another one in July or August. We are also going to have a write-up in Dalston Parish Magazine which will come out at the beginning of July and go to most homes in the village. Thanks to Judy Rckerby for offering to write about us. A high profile poster campaign around Dalston is also planned and several shopkeepers are happy to keep sponsor forms for us.

Keep up the excellent work, everybody. We are doing a brilliant job!

Carlisle to Armathwaite (16 miles)

Lookiing north across the Eden from Stony Holme Golf Course

Our aim was to complete a 16 mile walk and we did it! It was a cool day with a strong north easterly breeze blowing in across the Eden as we set off at midday from the top of St Aidan’s Road. Within an hour or so we had gone under the M6 and emerged away from all the traffic noise into the peaceful countryside between Scotby and the Eden. After a short rest and lunch spent watching swifts and thanking our lucky stars that there was a large body of water between us and the cows rampaging on the opposite bank of the river we set off again, feeling much refreshed.

We left the Eden and reached Wetheral via Scotby and a footpath adjacent to the railway line. This stretch of the walk was pleasant and away from the windswept river bank so we soon warmed up and enjoyed a pleasant Sunday afternoon walk, reaching the half way point by 3.15 and very pleased with our time. A short rest again on the Green in Wetheral before setting off again.

Our third section took us through woodland and riverside meadows. The path through Wetheral Woods is very pretty and well defined and the air was filled with birdsong and the scents of river garlic and sweet rocket. The Eden is wide, fast and deep at this point and well stocked with salmon. A few lone fishermen stood thigh deep and still as statues in what must have been very chilly waters. The stretch along the Eden to Armathwaite is around 8 miles and we were all pretty bushed by the time we left the main river path, with its frequent ups and downs and headed for Drybrook Farm. From here we knew from our guide that we only had around 2 miles to go before reaching Armathwaite, and our spirits and pace lifted so that we had finished the whole walk by 7.30.

We achieved our goal of completing a good long walk and it was done in a very reasonable time. The 26 km stretch is just over a quarter of the total 100km we will do in July; we need to walk a little faster when we do the Trailwalker walk. But we still have 6 weeks training and who’d have thought any of us would complete a 16 mile walk and have so few aches and pains the next day? I wouldn’t have got off so lightly a couple of months ago! Next walk: Maryport to Silloth, Friday 12th June.

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.

Easter Egg Hunt

What a star Diane is. She organised a brilliant Easter Egg Hunt in Dalston yesterday, raising £70.00, half of which she has donated to Oxfam/GWT. About a dozen families came along to join in the fun and follow the trail round the village, finding bunny footprints and solving anagrams on the way round. Caroline and Hannah painted faces and Sam hid little Easter chicks around the Jubilee Gardens for the younger children to look for. The weather stayed dry and we all had great fun. Well done, Diane!

Training tonight! Wahay!