The Ridgeway Walkers Are Briefed

[caption id="attachment_2678" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Who's been up hill and down dale?"][/caption]

Hard on the heels of meeting Chicks and the Beanstalk, we have news of the Ridgeway Walk briefing day held in Oxfordshire earlier this month. The aim was for the teams to meet the organisers, to learn lost more about the event, ask lots of questions and come away well motivated to get on with their training.

We've had updates from three of the teams on how the day went...

Vicky Porter reports:

The Borehamwood Group Team (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and Mark) attended the information day. It was very informative and was a great help with regards to what kind of kit needs to be taken, the challenges we face, safety procedures & first aid.

As a Support Driver, for me it also explained more about what my actual role would be in the Walk.

There was also a representative from Sense who explained more about the Charity itself and how the money will be used.

The Team came away really excited and even more determined to Raise the money for what they see as a really worthy cause.

Debbie Nicholas from Wakefield House said:

[caption id="attachment_2679" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Who's been out in the wilds?"][/caption]

Jan [Cannings] and I attended from Chicks & the Beanstalk. We found it an informative day. The guy running the meeting was a mountain leader from the adventure company organising the walk. He is very passionate about all things walking and put a lot of enthusiasm into the day. We were given an overview and we now know that the 26 mile walk starts at Burydown near West Isley.

We will be coming off the Ridgeway for part of the walk and know where the check-in points and safety points are located. I was surprised to learn that apart from toilet facilities at our start point, there will be no other facilities en route therefore walkers being encouraged to go ‘eau naturale’!! He talked a lot about kit, hypothermia and health and safety…..anyone would have thought we were climbing the rock face in the middle of winter….not the (flat) Ridgeway in the middle of summer…..but he meant well!

There was also a representative from Sense who gave a short presentation on fundraising and showed a video of various people they support, which was very moving.

All in all, it was an enjoyable and informative event.. Jan and I followed up with a 7 mile walk in the countryside and along the Thames, which was lovely.

Carol Patterson from Nottingham Sixth Sense added the information given at the briefing was extremely useful and gave an update on how training's going:

[caption id="attachment_2677" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Did you use your Sixth Sense to guess Nottingham's the answer?"][/caption]

As well as training alone Nottingham’s team have had the opportunity to train together with a couple of long walks the last one being a trip to Kinder Scout which was about 9.5 miles. Our next training walk is scheduled for 13^th May where we will be around the Kinder Scout area again but have a route planned for 20 miles.

I have attached a couple of photographs from our previous walk [see left and throughout this post - Ed], we need really to get one of our chaps at Nottingham to take on of us all together.

Thanks for the update on how things are going everyone. Those views of the area around Kinder Scout are beautiful Carol!