The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Thursday 16 April 2009

A Year Ago

Mick sent me an email at 9.40 this morning, asking where I had been exactly one year ago.

It took me just a second or two to think back before I responded that we were a few miles beyond Marazion, battling the wind and that a few hours later, at the end of our day, we would inadvertently misplace the coast path (how? I still wonder; keeping the sea on your right seems so simple) and find ourselves walking a bit of a detour. We then found that our campsite was up a hill and I may have whinged a little bit.*

It was Day 2 of our LEJOG. Happy days indeed – and my goodness, doesn’t time fly?

Of course LEJOG season is now back in full swing and once again this year there are people sacrificing their evenings to keep up entertained by blogging it as they go.

First off there’s Litehiker Geoff, who set out a week last Sunday. He’s walking solo, using a bivvy and tarp arrangement, is raising money for the Multiple Sclerosis Research and Relief Fund and has already had many good experiences with the kindness of strangers. His blog also looks remarkably similar to how this one looked a year ago – although I note that the Pocketmail has a slightly different annoying footer attached to each sent message this year!

The other current LEJOGgers of whom I am aware sit (to my mind) firmly in the category of ‘nutters’. Now admittedly most people to whom we disclosed our walking plans before we set off did think that we were mad, but in my opinion walking for 12 weeks is a perfectly sane pastime. Running the length of the country though? That’s a special kind of mad! Their daily blog posts are short and sweet, so if you’ve not followed their progress so far it will be quick (and worthwhile, in my opinion) to catch up. It seems that thus far they’re having a bit of an issue with mileages being longer than they should be... They also have a website, where donations can be made to their chosen charities of Marie Curie and Macmillan.

I look forward to continuing to enjoy their respective journeys as they make their way up north.

(*I wrote that description off the top of my head. Having just re-read my blog entry for that day, it seems that I’m either dully predictable with my choice of language or that the day stuck well in my mind!)

2 comments:

  1. Hi Gayle,

    I'm also following this one:

    http://brendanslittlelegs.wordpress.com/

    And here's a couple of JOGLE people who will be starting later in the year:

    http://longestdogwalkinbritain.blogspot.com/
    http://www.thegreatfridgeadventure.co.uk/

    I will do it myself one day, I will, I will...

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  2. Hi Karen,

    Thanks for pointing those out to me. I was aware of Sophie's longest dog walk, but hadn't seen Brendan's Little Legs so I've just popped over there for a read.

    I'm sure that others will crop up over the next couple of months - it's just a matter of finding them!

    Gayle

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