Day 8: Shillingstone to Maiden Newton

We left Shillingstone armed with a packed lunch (thanks to Carol from the Willows tea rooms) knowing that there would be little chance of encountering any shops or pubs or other places for getting food or water up on the Ridgeway.

The Ridgeway, as the name suggests, is mostly high up with spectacular views over Dorset. However there are plenty of times where we had to change from one ridge to another. This involved significant dropping down into a valley in order to climb back up to the next ridge.

We are building towards the kinds of ups and downs we're likely to encounter on the coast path in the next few days, so we see it all as a nice progression. We definitely did this walk in the right direction - heading towards the west - both because of building up to the tougher walks and because the cold easterly winds are behind us.

Day 7: Berwick St John to Shillingstone

Saturday's walk felt like spring was finally in the air after all the unseasonably chilly and wet weather recently.

Starting with a lovely view over the village of Berwick St John after climbing the hill and then past lush meadows and through woodland, into green valleys and over ridges.

There were quite a lot of ascents and descents throughout the day, but it didn't feel like we'd been climbing as much as it looks from the route profile on our "Share Your Adventure" map -
http://www.shareyouradventure.com/map/os/2WalkTo/London-to-Totnes-Walk

We landed a lucky find with accommodation in a lovely 18th century cottage in Shillingstone.

Day 6: Salisbury to Berwick St John.

Half way to Totnes!

We left Salisbury after a fairly leisurely start. We climbed the hill out of the city and picked up the Shaftesbury Drove. It was virtually a straight line along the ridge from here all the way to Berwick St John.

The pictures don't do it justice, but the views from up there were stunning in many places. The sun was in and out all day - when it was out it was really OUT.

At the end of the walk our fantastic CouchSurfing hosts Roz, Richard and Algy met us and took us to their house and made us a delicious meal. The best part of this trip has been the wonderful people we have met along the way. Everyone has really rallied round and gone out of their way to help us.

If you are not familiar with the CouchSurfing project it is well worth getting involved, either as a "surfer" or as a host - see www.couchsurfing.com for more info.

Next stop, we push onwards into Dorset!

"We Do What We Can"

Our very good friend and brilliant musician Zoe Konez has released 3 songs, and all profits from sales are going to the 2WalkTo charities.

Zoe is a London-based performer, song writer and community musician. Find out more about Zoe via her website, Facebook page and Twitter.

Download the music for free, or on a pay-what-you-want basis, from http://zoekonez.bandcamp.com/album/we-do-what-we-can

After chatting to Will and Alex about their adventure Zoe felt inspired and wrote 3 songs in a day.

She decided she would record them herself at home and put them out to the world to promote the 2WalkTo trip.

You can download the tracks for free if you wish, but if you do donate any money, it will go to the two chosen charities.

Day 5: Kings Somborne to Salisbury

Amazing day walking the Clarendon Way. The last 2 miles into Salisbury were nice and easy to navigate - we just headed directly towards the cathedral spire.

You can view our progress each day almost live via the Track Our Progress page.

We're nearly at the half way point!

Get your copy of the charity EP by Zoe Konez from zoekonez.bandcamp.com/album/we-do-what-we-can

Here are a few photos from today's walk:

Day 4: Alresford to Kings Somborne

We walked the remaining part of the Three Castles Path to Winchester then onwards along the Clarendon Way to the village of Kings Somborne.

In Winchester the end of the Three Castles Path is the Great Hall (last remaining part of the old castle) with its famous round table.

We were presented with a seal of completion for getting to the end of the path and a set of postcards of scenes from along the route - a nice surprise we weren't expecting. We'll do something with the postcards - we'll send you a thank you letter for supporting our walk.

Later on,  after reaching Kings Somborne we had another surprise - a very kind donation from a couple who saw our Macmillan and RMH Bristol t-shirts and got talking about the walk. So thank you Mr and Mrs Read.

We were mentioned in community magazine "Beyond Bude' today - you can read the article here: http://budeandbeyond.co.uk/it-would-be-quicker-to-walk/ Thanks to Jenny.

Another mention has to go to super star Dan for hosting us tonight and letting us couchsurf.

Possibly the biggest news of the day is that Zoe Konez has released a 3-track EP inspired by the walk. She's putting it out on a pay-what-you-want basis and all money raised from the sales goes to our 2WalkTo charities. More details about the charity EP tomorrow - but in the meantime here's the link to download: zoekonez.bandcamp.com/album/we-do-what-we-can

Lots has happened today. Did I forget to mention the amazing, beautiful and stunning scenery?!

Here are a few photos from Day 4...

Day 3: Winchfield to New Alresford

Tuesday's walk in pictures...

Find more photos on our Twitter and Facebook pages