Walking in the rain

Today has been a good tester for the Coast to Coast. Leonie and I did a 17 miler around Cannock Chase in the pouring rain. We set off at 8.30am (dry) and got back to the car at about 3.30pm (soaked) after a stop for a picnic lunch (consisting of a gastronomic feast of cheese and lettuce baps, melon, banana and yoghurt).

For those of you who know the Chase, we started at 'The White House' near the Cannock Chase Visitor Centre. From there, we headed to Spring Slade, the glacial boulder,Stepping Stones, Seven Springs, Rifle Range Corner and Fairoak. At Fairoak we had a bit of bad luck after (1) we took a wrong turning (that's what happens when you leave the map reading to a woman!!) and (2) the Forestry Commission have taken it upon themselves to vary the route of some of the trails. After putting Leonie's mum on notice that we may need picking up from whichever main road we would eventually enter onto, we (well, okay, I mean Leonie) found our bearings again and we headed back along the road through Slitting Mill before getting back onto the Chase again back to Marquis Drive and eventually the car.

Stamina and fitness weren't a problem really although I was getting a bit weary by the end. My feet feel a bit tender though and this is what I think could be a problem if we don't take steps to prevent the onset of blisters. My mates Sean and Stephen along with one of their friends Martyn, started the Scottish Coast to Coast (from Portpatrick in the West to Cockburnspath in the East) on Tuesday. They will cover 212 miles in 11 days. Unfortunately, blisters have been a real problem for them and Stephen had to actually return home yesterday as his feet were in such a state. Sean and Martyn are continuing though Sean is struggling. Their schedule is alot tougher than ours will be as they are doing 212 miles in 11 days, whereas we are doing 192 miles in 14 days (plus one rest day) but I still think that there is a risk that we may encounter similar problems if we aren't careful.

We will make sure that we take several pairs of socks with us each day so that we can change them if they get wet. We are also going to get some surgical spirit and treat our feet with this for a couple of weeks beforehand - surgical spirit apparently hardens the feet and helps prevents blisters. Leonie has also bought a selection of other creams, bandages etc so hopefully we will be ok. Any blister prevention tips would be extremely gratefully received though!!!

I'm going to do another 15+ miler tomorrow on my own. I want to do two long distance walk on consecutive days to just see what effect it has on my body (and in particular my feet). If I can come through tomorrow ok, then I think I will be fine. My MP3 player is fully loaded with albums and podcasts so I'm aiming for a 7am start and a lunchtime finish all being well. I'm going to do a similar route to today as my navigational skills are awful to put it mildly and I know most parts of the route which we did today fairly well.

5 weeks today we will hopefully be in Ennerdale Bridge having finished our first day of 14 miles. I can already smell the scampi and chips and a pint of Cumbrian real ale!!