Day 2: The end of Devon

Dartmeet to West Gulworthy

Today was hilly and windy but sunny. 

Starting with a big climb from Dartmeet, the first 6 miles took us up the moor to the prison town of Princetown (by 'prison town' that means the place where Dartmoor prison is).

Following the trackbed of a former railway line we left Princetown and headed towards Tavistock and onwards to the overnight stopping point of West Gulworthy.

West Gulworthy is a hamlet which is just about still in Devon but we are a stone's throw from the border with Cornwall. Tomorrow Cornwall begins...

19 miles covered today.

Below are a few photos to sum up our second day.

PS The reason for this walk is to raise some money for two very worthy charities so please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walklandsend for more info.

Day 1: Totnes to Dartmeet

Wow, what a day! There were some fairly almighty ascents to contend with. There's nothing like jumping in at the deep end.

It's all for two fantastic causes, Macmillan Cancer Support and RMH Bristol.

Take a look at the sponsorship page and if you are able to donate to the charities we're supporting with this walk please consider sponsoring the walk. There are plenty more days and a lot of hills still to climb!.

http://VirginMoneyGiving.com/walklandsend/

Here are some photos from the first day of the walk...

It's nearly time...

Tomorrow is the kick off. Day one. The walk begins!

Looking at the map for tomorrow it is fairly steadily all uphill for much of the day. We are going to be following the River Dart, from Totnes town up to Buckfastleigh, then on Dartmoor to Dartmeet.

Dartmeet is so named because it is where the East Dart and West Dart tributaries meet and become the (single) Dart.  So that's all very exciting.

We are currently somewhere on the A303 driving to Devon. Got that "did I remember to pack my walking boots" kind of feeling, like something crucial has been forgotten.
Driving out of London after work was a fairly torturous experience, with the mass exodus for the bank holiday weekend creating gridlock. It was because of being stuck in a traffic jam that was the reason and inspiration behind wanting to do the walk in the first place. That fateful comment "it would be quicker to walk" which is a horrible cliche, but was just crying out to be acted upon.

It definitely won't be quicker to walk this particular 150 miles to Land's End, but on the other hand it definitely would not be possible to drive this beast of a trek we've got planned. We'll be off-road for as much of the time as it is feasible, which is why the route plan looks a bit wibbly-wobbly in places.

To see where we're going, check out the Route Plan page here: http://2walkto.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html

The "Track Our Progress" map ( http://2walkto.blogspot.co.uk/p/track-live-progress.html) should update with our latest positions sent by GPS to an app called Viewranger, which in turn gets interpreted by a website called Social Hiking. The Social Hiking map will also grab any social media posts or photos we take and attach them to the nearest position on the map.

Well that's all the pre-walk things to say. Thanks again for following the walk and for sponsoring!

To end this post, here's a photo of Lua the cat helping me pack my bag earlier today by conveniently falling asleep amid the gear, on top of my clothes.

More hills and training

Only one week to go before the walk from Totnes to Land's End begins.  The sponsorship page is now open at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walklandsend

Training Walk on the North Downs

We have been out in the Surrey countryside exploring another part of the North Downs Way. This time we caught the train from London out to Oxted, just outside the M25.

Here is a map of the route (click on the map to zoom in and view the distance, height, average speed etc if you are into that kind of thing!)

This part of the North Downs Way seems to hug the M25 for quite a long way. The countryside around here is absolutely beautiful (ignoring the 8 lanes of roaring traffic where possible!).

We had to cross the motorway a couple of times during the day, and we were never far from it.

Despite the proximity to the M25, at times it was possible to forget it was there. Combined with a beautiful Spring day we were treated to some great views of Surrey.

Here are a few more photos from the walk:

And no walk would be complete without seeing a quirky road name. We stumbled upon...

Don't forget to follow us next week when we begin the walk from Totnes to Land's End, and if you can sponsor us that would be brilliant.

The sponsorship page is open at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walklandsend

2 Walk To Land's End badges

Sponsor our walk and you'll receive one of these unique, handmade, limited edition... BADGES!

Masses of thanks to Karen and Rupert for making and sending the badges.

Sponsorship page and social networks

We've set up a Virgin Money Giving page to collect sponsorship donations for the charities.  It's at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/WalkLandsEnd

Click on the website images to open in a new tab/window:

Sponsorship Page:

If you use Facebook and Twitter we're on both under the username 2WalkTo. We'll post updates from the walk, photos, and progress on here as well...

Facebook:

Twitter: 

Training on the North Downs Way

With only a few weeks to go before the start of our Totnes to Land's End walk, we stepped up the training regime.

We caught the train to Otford in Kent, where the North Downs Way passes the station. We followed the trail east towards Rochester (19 miles). If you want to view / download the route you can get it here: North Downs Way Otford Walk Route

It was a mild day, but felt hot at times - especially after climbing a big hill. Apparently the high pressure system has trapped air pollution from Europe and dust blown over from the Sahara over Kent and south east England. There was a murky haze of blue-grey throughout the day but we didn't notice any abnormally bad air. On the radio in the morning the news had warned of "stinging eyes" and "difficulty breathing", and maybe as a result of this there were very few people out and about on the trail or in the villages along the way.

After 19 miles of the Downs (mainly Ups) there aren't any aches or pains to report. This is encouraging for our big Totnes to Land's End walk starting on the 18 April.

We've launched the sponsorship page at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/walklandsend

The map at the top of this post is the training walk route on the North Downs Way.  If you would like to view the route for our walk to Land's End please see the Route Plan page.