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UPDATE: (See below for Gerry's "end piece") Day one dawned bright and sunny and Gerry and I set out from Bath in good spirits. The weather held dry and sunny all day and we made good progress. Several people along the way showed an interest in our venture and made donations.  Sadly by mid afternoon I was starting to develop quite serious blisters. Despite treating these at the earliest opportunity, by the time we reached our first camp at Semington my feet were in quite a bad state. Never mind; a few clean dressings and a nights sleep, despite a very wet windy night in a very small tent, saw me reasonably comfortable for a fresh start at 7.30 next day. By mid morning we were still making reasonable progress despite the dreadful weather. But my feet were now deteriorating rapidly. at the end of a very wet day with 30 miles completed I could barely walk. Still; thinking that many people have suffered to support charity. I decided that a change of dressings and a good nights sleep would sort me out. Once again we had a very wet windy night in the tent but we had the luxury of sheltering under a half marquee next morning to cook breakfast. After the first hour or so my feet felt like they were in shreds. A quick check proved this to be correct with large open, bleeding blisters on the balls and heels of both feet. My progress by now was very very slow as I could barely put my feet to ground without great pain. So with the fear of doing permanent damage through infection I took the extremely difficult decision to abandon my effort. By now we had walked about 35 miles. I hasten to add that Gerry was extremely supportive of me through this experience and helped greatly by carrying some of my pack and lightening my load. He also took the the decision to carry on alone and as I write this ( 20th April) is still going strong. On my return home my local surgery confirmed that I had done the right thing in stopping and that the dressings they applied needed to stay on for a week before they check up and change them.

I can only apologise most sincerely to all who have supported me but hope to assure you that this was not a course of action which I took willingly or lightly. If anyone who has donated feels tricked or cheated then please contact me and I will refund you from my own pocket. Thank you.

 

Towpath Trek, the end piece.

Even before the decision had been made it was becoming obvious that John couldn’t carry on.  Our pace had dropped to a crawl as he painfully put one foot in front of the other.  At Pewsey Warf, over a cup of coffee and a sandwich (our breakfast) the decision was taken, I would carry on and try to complete the course.  Despite the dreadful weather I plodded on in full rain gear with my trailer loaded with the tent and rucksack along a towpath which had turned to a treacherous mud slide.  Luckily the next three nights had accommodation booked, Great Bedwin, B&B in a pub where I could dry my gear on the radiators, Newbury with Georgina & Barrie Seaman and the third night in a hotel in Reading, again badly in need of drying out.  The next four days saw me walking through almost continuous rain, putting the tent up in rain and striking it next morning, in rain.  The trek was saved only by the camp sites having high quality facilities, including for drying gear.  The final day into London, the longest, due in part to a diversion for Olympic preparations, and most definitely the wettest, as it poured all day, was also probably the fastest pace of the trek, as head down against the rain, over smooth paths my only thoughts were to get to Waterloo and home as soon as possible. Big Ben chimed quarter past three and ten minutes later I entered the station, bought a ticket, rode the short hop back to Richmond to be collected by John and transported home, very wet, very tired and very self satisfied (smug) at my achievement.  I am grateful to the many kind and helpful people that I encountered, to the many landlords/camp owners/councils, who gave or reduced the rental on facilities, to the many friends and neighbours who sponsored us and most of all to my wife Ella who puts up with my absences on mad schemes.

Gerry.

28/4/2012.    

PS from John:

I can't begin to say how much I admire Gerry for his determination and stamina in completing a very arduous walk under absolutely appalling weather conditions. But to do so alone is doubly amazing. When I picked him up Gerry and his gear couldn't have been wetter if he'd walked in the canal. His fund raising talents are phenomenal; the amount he has raised off line is amazing. Barbara and I wish to extend a very big thankyou to you Gerry. Well done.

We are two pensioners with a total age of 144 (76 & 68) who intend to walk the Kennet & Avon Canal towpath from Bath to Reading, where we will join the Thames footpath to continue on into central London. A total distance of 144 miles. Our objective is to raise funds for The Behcet's Syndrome Society. We start our walk on the 16th April 2012 and will take 10 -12 days to complete the journey. We will be totally unsupported and will backpack everything we need. We shall be using a mix of camping and B&Bs for accomodation.

In June 2011 we both completed the northern half of the West Highland Way (WHW) approx 45 miles, Gerry did the southern half in 2010. Having done this challenging walk we felt the need to do something else and make it worthwhile by raising funds for charity.

 

Behcet's syndrome, now known as Behcet's disease is a very debilitating, rare, chronic condition. There are approximately 2,000 sufferers in the UK,sadly my wife is one of them. In common with many other rare conditions it receives little or no funding into research and the work and support of the Behcet's Syndrome Society is invaluable in this respect.

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