Monday 27 August 2012

Sorry, no hand signals!

OK, before we get stuck into our weekend training adventure I’d better introduce you to Oli, the latest addition to The Pollicott Belles, who featured heavily in last weekends little experience.

Think Flower Power, Jimi Hendrix, Mamas and Papas, and you’ll be on the right lines -  Oli is Sians Volkswagon camper van, in bright yellow in case you might miss it.

Oli was brought into play on what was (so far) the hottest day of the year, as Sian and I set off to Worminghall. The plan was to give Oli a good run out and to get us to the start of our first serious walk of the new fund raising campaign for Florence Nightingale Hospice – The Clifden Arms.

Given this was the start of the days training our visit to The Clifden Arms involved only soft drinks….very much out of keeping with The Belles, but work to be done.

After a quick study of the map we decided to head off in what we thought was the direction of the pathway we were after, but ‘oh dear’ – lost after just thirty seconds. Not to worry though we headed in the direction of a friendly face sat having a drink outside of the pub but, not to be, before we could reach him he was up on his feet and off into the pub.

Just as we thought we’d lost our only hope of a ‘point in the right direction’ there was the friendly face – in the open window almost next to us. ‘Hi’ said Sian, ‘we’re looking for the pathway on this map’ she said, kind of holding the map up as if that might help jog his memory. As he began to explain the best he could we realised this window leads into the gents toilet – Sian was busy holding a map in her hand as it quickly became apparent this gentleman was holding something in his – and it wasn’t a map!

‘Sorry, no hand signals’ came the friendly voice, clearly trying to help us feel at ease with the situation we had managed to get ourselves into, I may have felt a little more at ease but I’m sure my red face was radiating more heat than the hot sun.

Eventually we did get on our way and once clear of the window and out of sight of the kind man, well, it would have been wrong not to have almost fallen over with laughter. Sian and I agreed…today was going to be a good day.

The map shows the route far better than I can explain it but the basic plan was to head off to Waterperry (cake here, so huge incentive for us to make good time), then make a circuit of around 7 miles, and head back to Oli at Worminghall.


I have to conclude that walking seems to be every bit as hazardous as bike riding, perhaps because Sians warning of 'watch the rabbit hole' took on less urgency at walking speed than perhaps it might had I been riding a bike. Anyway, I failed to 'watch the rabbit hole' until my foot was well and truly stuck and I was left fighting to maintain some balance. Fortunately it was a case of 'no harm done' and I walked away unscathed but I did begin to wonder how I might have explained a broken ankle to the consultant treating my arm injury from last year - I assured him we'd be doing 'safe fundraising' this year, not a bike in sight, to turn up to his next consultation on a pair of crutches might have been awkward.

As we arrived back into Worminghall I really did begin to worry about Sian. Alongside the wall of a local church someone had very thoughtfully placed a bowl of water for anyone walking a dog, a very kind gesture on such a hot day. As Sian headed straight for it and began to stoop down I really did begin to question whether it was wise to have gone out on such a hot day - what I didn't see from the angle I was at was the fresh cold water tap on the wall above the bowl. A moment of some relief I can assure you.

Oli was a welcome sight and, after 3 hours in the hot sunshine, we sat back and enjoyed a short rest before setting off back to Pollicott. It had been a fun day....can't wait until the next one.

Love

Alex x


Monday 13 August 2012

Planning our Route

Our original plan was to walk from East Ilsley to Thame and Thame to Pollicott to follow the routes of our Pollicott & Ashendon forbears. This route, however, had a few too many issues (not least that we couldn't find really strong evidence of what that route was and also that a significant chunk of it is on The Ridgeway/Icknield Way and we have already cycled that). So, along with our charity shift, we have trampled all over our plans and decided to follow a known Drover's Road from Faringdon to Oxford and then from Oxford to Brill.

Finding the route is still no easy matter. From Faringdon we have a rough idea of the route to Abingdon which the following images help to illustrate. We will be carefully re-tracing this route on our OS maps over the next few days. We believe this may have been known as Southampton Street or Gloucester Street and that it came across from Monmouth.




Our final push we know will be an approach to Brill from Little London (see our previous blog) but the bit in between Abingdon and Little London is still more than blurry.

There are a few enthusiasts around whom we hope to track down to pick their brains. Bruce Smith of Syresham if you read this please drop us a note. Bruce is on the WI speaker circuit so any friends with access to WI speaker lists please help us to find an email for him. We have also been given a local contact near Brill who we hope will be able to help us piece together our journey. Any other contacts or suggestions will be gratefully received.

Please watch out for more news of our route plan and of our fundraising efforts over the coming month. For anyone who would just like to make an online donation to Florence Nightingale Hospice, we now have a justgiving page set up: http://www.justgiving.com/pollicottbelles2

Our walk begins in less than 7 weeks!

Monday 6 August 2012

It's a Ladies Perogative

After much soul searching, Alex and I (Sian) took a decision to change our chosen charity this year and we are now going to be walking to raise funds for a local charity - Florence Nightingale Hospice, Stoke Mandeville.

We were both lacking a inspiration for the charity we had originally chosen to support this year and, to add to that, we were not getting any motivation from them. This lack of oomph was affecting our psyche and we were struggling to get excited about this year's challenge and the fundraising to go with it. So, it's a late change but we have personal connection with the charity we have now chosen to complete our challenge for.  

Florence Nightingale Hospice has been there for our friends in Ashendon and in our hearts we very much want to support this wonderful charity.

We have set a date for our walk - Friday to Sunday 28-30th September and are planning a fun, fundraiser for just before we leave. Watch this space.

Please support us any way you can.