Should I do something with this experience?

I know I promised to write about a couple of things that we encountered on the walk but never did. When the walk was finished I just wanted to put it out of my mind. I have no idea why I did not want to embrace the success. It seems it needed some time and now I am proud as punch about our achievement! Maybe I will fire of a couple more emails about the inconsistancy of wireless access, toilet paper and public right of way accross Europe!

But back to the question of what will I do with the experience. I think I wrote about it before; when I was younger I never let myself be stopped by any kind of barrier or hurdle. I was so good at the 'head down and go through anything' thing. The walk showed me that I have not lost it and on top of that I have got fantastic support in Gary to do ANYTHING (he is very indulgend!)

Here is my new project where I will need some of that grit and determination to get up and do stuff to get a little closer to my goal every day.

Sad news

Gary's mum Lily died in July. Her bravery and encouragement when we were away is a great lesson for us. We miss her very much and the memory of this walk will be dedicated to her.

Es ist vorbei

Auch mein Dank geht an Alle die uns auf unserer Reise unterstuetzt haben. Eure ‘hits’, Kommentare und E-mails haben uns immer gerade zum richtigen Zeitpunkt erreicht, genau dann wenn wir es gebraucht haben.

Die letzten zwei Tage seit dem wir daheim angekommen sind, sind etwas verwischt. Gary und ich hatten Schwierigkeiten gerade zu denken und vollstaendige Saetze herauszubringen war auch nicht einfach. Heute ist alles etwas besser und wir scheinen uns zu erholen.

Ich bin sehr dankbar das Gary und ich diese Reise zusammen so solide ueberstanden haben. Wir sind noch verheiratet, reden immer noch miteinander und hatten auch in der letzten Woche noch Gespraechsstoff beim Abendessen. Es hat sich gut abgewechselt wer schneller laufen konnte und weniger Schmerzen hatte und die Person hat dann auf den anderen aufgepasst. Unser Code ‘Wie geht es dir aus 10’ hat bis (fast) zum Schluss gut geklappt. 1 ist ‘mir geht es super und nix tut weh’ und 10 ist ‘ich kann keinen einzigen Schritt mehr laufen, es tut sehr weh’.

Unser Rythmus hat einfach gut zusammengepasst und Gary hat es immer geschafft mich aufzuheitern wenn mal alles nicht so lustig schien. Am meisten hat geholfen das wir beide sehr hartnaeckige Menschen sind und nicht leicht aufgeben – wer ist schon so verrueckt am letzten Tag noch einen Marathon hinzulegen nur um im eigenen Bett schlafen zu koennen?! (Ich bin mir uebrigens ziemlich sicher das Gary am letzten Tag beim Code geschummelt hat – ihm hat sein Schienbein wesentlich mehr Probleme bereitet als er zugeben wollte)

Ich will ich noch ueber ein paar (ueberraschende) Gegenstaende schreiben die sich als unerlaesslich herausgestellt haben waehrend unserer Reise aber dann scheint unser Blog komplett zu sein – irgendwie Schade weil wir so gerne unseren Zaehler angeschaut haben um zu sehen wieviele hits wir hatten und ob jemand einen Kommentar hinterlassen hatte. Wir haben uns einfach verbunden gefuehlt.

It is over

My thanks to everybody who supported us on this journey. Your hits on our blog, comments and e-mails always came at the right time, just when we needed a boost.

The last two days since we have arrived home have been a bit of a blur. Gary and I have had difficulties to think straight and even forming whole sentences has been a challenge.Today everything is much easier and we seem to be recovering.

I am so grateful that Gary and I have survived this journey together. We are still married, still talk to each other and even during the last week we had stuff to chat about over dinner. We took turns in who could walk faster and was in less pain and that person simply looked after the other. Our code of ‘How are you out of 10’ worked well until (nearly) the end. 1 is ‘I am feeling great, nothing is hurting’ and 10 is ‘I can not walk another step, I am really hurting badly’

We had the same rhythm and Gary always managed to cheer me up when I needed it. What helped us most was that we are persistent people and tend not to give up easily – who else would be mad enough to walk a marathon on the last day only to be able to sleep in ones own bed. (I am pretty sure that Gary was not totally honest with his code response during the last day. I am certain his shin gave him much more trouble than he admitted)

There are a couple of (surprising) items I would like to write about which turned to be essential for the success of our journey. But after that it seems that our blog is complete. I am really sad about that at the moment – we loved to check our page counter in the evenings when we had an internet connection to see how many hits we had on our blog and who left a message. It was nice to know we were connected to home.

Thank you

Late on Tuesday I bashed out a quick entry to tell everyone that we were home. My intention was to write something more substantial the following day. But whatever had kept us going for the previous 39 days ran out and yesterday we just did not feel capable of doing anything that required energy or clarity of thought.

On our walking days, we always had a target location to walk to. It was rarely an easy target and when we reached it, we generally felt that we could not walk another step. Manageable aches and pains and general tiredness all seemed to increase with proximity to our destination. Such seems to be the psychology of achieving difficult goals.

Reaching our ultimate goal seems to have had the same effect, increased by an order or two of magnitude. Whilst the journey was a wonderful and fun experience, getting up day after day at 7:30, excepting the 3 rest days, knowing that one is going to face a physical challenge, eventually takes its toll.

I had thought that I would want to write some reflections on the journey but, right now, I just feel like saying: “Yeah, we did it” and thanking you all for your support. So I think I will leave it there, at least for now, and simply close out with the final musical choices.

We didn't post a choice for our penultimate day but I can do so now. Jackson Browne makes another appearance with “Running on Empty” which is exactly how we felt.

For our final day, there are lots of contenders, not least Les's excellent suggestion. The theme from Mission Impossible comes to mind, as does “We Are the Champions” by Queen or a reprise of the overall theme of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley.

But I have gone for something I really love, the celebratory and energetic: “Hey Ya!” by Outkast - here is the link to that wonderful video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAB7yGQsYks

Thanks again to everyone who encouraged and supported us. And if you didn't donate to our charity then it isn't too late to do so here: http://www.justgiving.com/walkingtobavaria

By the way, I am sure Doris will also want to post and I will leave it to her to make any additional music choices.

Day 39 – 44 km walked – Total of 842 km walked – Home

A short entry for the time being to say that we are home - we'll do fuller update tomorrow when we begin our recovery. Do we need it - hell yes we do.

The closer we got to home, the more difficult it became to stop walking and find somewhere to sleep - the desire to get home was just too strong and we ended up walking 44 Km. The imperially inclined can do the maths and find that it is just over a standard marathon - with 13 Kg rucksucks of course.

"Do you think you can walk another 10Km or so, with that pain?"

"I can try".

We started at 9 am this morning and got home around 9:30 pm this evening. We are tired, in good spirits and our feet hurt. A few beers and a little wine has been consumed but now it is time for bed.

Thank you to you all for your support.

Musical choices and reflection to follow

Day 38 – 25 km walked – Total of 798 km walked – Lenham

After yesterday's very hilly walk, we woke up a little stiffer than we were used to in Belgium. All in a days work for a walker not to look like an old age pensioner when getting up from breakfast. Breakfast needs a special mention today. After 36 days of Continental breakfasts with endless reams of bread rolls, ham and cheese and yesterday's said B&B which did not instill enough confidence in us to go for the full Monty (wise decision as we ended up with hard boiled poached eggs on toast) we went for it today. Lovely sausage and Internet connection, what else does a girl need in the morning :)

A special prize goes to Dem who was the only reader who spotted Gary's deliberate mistake of mixing up the North Downs with the South Downs. Just checking that you are all paying attention! Either nobody else is reading or you are not PAYING ATTENTION!!

To be truthful – we sometimes find it difficult to make the verbal difference between East and West. Yes, yes, we know we are walking west, north west, south west – probably a combination thereof throughout every day. East is the devils work and if we are heading there we are going the wrong way (like today for a couple of miles, but lets brush over that). However, what comes out of our mouths is quite different. 'Are we going in the right direction?' I ask my co-navigator and Gary gets his compass out.. 'Yes', he says after consulting it, we are heading South-East. 'Oh good' I say, then we should be reaching the Cherry soon, to cross the Channel and todays musical choice should be the 'Tie of the Iger'. I personally am now at the point where I feel I do have a high IQ by just remembering which week day it is and what country we are in.

Gary has only recently come into the interesting feelings that are created when a toe or two go numb. I have had the pleasure since the beginning of the walk on my left foot's big toe (which is actually the middle toe on that foot). The blood flow comes and goes........... ouchhh. A couple of days ago Gary started complaining that his sock kept getting stuck between his toes. On further investigation it was the same thing – numb toe. Wiggle at your own risk!

Today's walk was less hilly but equally pleasant. Not very many cars and certainly no brightly clad bicycle riders whistling past us. I have to get something of my chest about Lycra here: Guys, if Lycra gets stretched too much it becomes see-through. So, if you are wearing 'nada' beneath your Lycra cycling shorts and they have been stretched too much, lookers-on get way more information than when looking at, say, a builders crack.

Another pleasant feature of today's walk was that the Pilgrims way and the North Downs way have joined. My thoughts kept wandering to those people who walked this ancient route over the centuries. What are your hopes? Which body parts are hurting? Why the hell are you doing this???