Reality bites

Tomorrow will be the first day of our walk. It arrives with two sobering pieces of reality.

The first is the weight of our fully packed rucksacks. Although Doris's is slightly smaller in terms of volume, our respective packs both come in at just over 11 Kilograms. For the Americans and older Brits, that is a shade over 24 pounds, or 1.7 Stones. Gulp!

I have to admit to mild panic when I first discovered this. Since then, I have been engaging in what I believe is known as “self-talk”, telling myself that it doesn't feel too bad, as I stride manfully between train, 'plane, escalator and car. But tomorrow there will be no train, 'plane, escalator or car – just Shanks's Pony.

Add to this, the fact that our first offered accommodation is something like 25 kilometres away - more than our average target daily of 20 kilometres. Doris has gotten royally sick of me bleating on about how we are not fit and that we need to use the early part of the journey to get fit. I am sorry to mention it again, and in public, but the distance will be a stretch for our very first day.

We do have the option of a lift if we come up short. I, however, fear that if we do so, we may not start at the exact point that we left off. This, in my unreasonable and purist mind, feels like cheating. This despite the fact that we will have to take a detour when we restart that is equivalent of the distance “skipped”. I am trying to re-frame - honest!

In actual fact, we both know that our mutual stubbornness, when it comes to goals, will drive us to want to complete the full distance. But now comes the second sobering piece of reality. Tomorrow, it will 30 degrees centigrade and sunny. Double gulp! But there is worse to come. It is forecast to stay at around that level until Tuesday when the rain comes.

I think this makes it appropriate mention our pact. We have agreed that if either of us keels over and dies of a heart attack, the survivor will not carry on in memory of the other. He or she will recognise what a stupid idea it was and travel home first class. This, obviously, started as a joke but now prompts me to ask that, if you have a god, then please offer up a prayer to him, her or them – I think we may need it.