Tuesday 14 February 2017

Miles In The Legs

Hi everyone!

A very warm welcome to the first ever Rambling with Ric blog.
I hope you already know that I will be Walking the Camino later this year.

·         How did I come to ever hear of it?
·         Why did I commit to doing the walk?
·         What are my Objectives?
·         Exactly what’s involved?
·         Who is joining me, whether On the Road and/or In the Bar?

All these are Questions to be fully answered in future blogs.

For today, let me just tell the Big Facts:

1.      I set off from St Jean Pied de Port in the foothills of the French Pyrenees on Tuesday 19 September
2.      It is an average of 25 kilometres / 16 miles a day, walking 6 days a week
3.      A total of 860 kilometres / 530 miles




And – if I am able to stick to the Plan – 34 walking days later … on the late afternoon of Friday 27 October I will reach the Atlantic Coast at Finisterre, which the Romans believed to be the end of the known world.



Will you be in Finisterre on that Friday afternoon?
#JustHopeSo
 
As well as giving you the Big Facts, I want to ask you to Be Involved
It is one of my Objectives.
I’m hoping lots & lots of people – some I’ve known for 50 years & more, some I’ve never met before – will be Taking Part

Perhaps you will be able to join me in Spain and stretch your legs for a few days walking?
Or meet me at the end of an afternoon with a cold beer?
May be you’ll be able to involved reading the blog & spreading the news?

But for the moment … how about coming on a Miles In The Legs training walk?

I’ve known from the start that I’m never going to be able to walk the over 450 miles without some serious practice.
So since last September I’ve been out & about getting Miles In My Legs!
I’m up to almost 250 miles.

Some of the walks have been with EnBro, a walking group based in Bromley. Think of it as a Saga Dating Agency!!

I’ve been strolling the Thames Path, from Putney to Hampton Court by way of Richmond & Bushey Parks.

And wandering the Kent & Surrey Hills with Chris & Phil.
My legs are just recovering from 8 miles around Box Hill. Can it really be Uphill all the way round? It felt like it!!




But some of the best walks have been on the South Downs.

Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate for 40 years and more in the second half of the 19th century, could have been with me when he wrote from his house at Blackdown, the highest point in Sussex:

You came, and looked and loved the view
Long known and loved by me
Green Sussex fading into blue
With one gray glimpse of sea.

Like Barbara & Mike: Maybe you’d like a gentle 5 miles amble just north of Worthing; from Washington to Sullington - where the church has stood for a thousand years - and Chantry.

 Rambling with Ric Factoid : the view high above Chantry is one of the best in the South of England. You can see from the Isle of Wight to Gatwick Airport.



Or what about, like Nicole: Up & down to see the Long Man of Wilmington, along the South Downs Way & back via Folkington.


Rambling with Ric Factoid : the Long Man is 235 feet tall. He may have been there since Neolithic times 10,000 years ago.
(Piper Family) Legend has it that beneath the Long Man’s left eye is a secret chamber, built ahead of the expected German invasion in 1940. Had he been successful, Hitler was planning to spend his first night in England at Wilmington Farm House, which the Long Man overlooks.



My Dad was stationed in the Left Eye with orders to destroy the house as & when he saw Hitler playing croquet in the garden!

But I sense that you’ll soon want something to really stretch the legs.
So how about: Lewes to the Sea - the Big Dipper?

We start in Lewes High Street and soon pass the oldest Bowling Green in England. At Offham it is up to Blackcap, with its view right over Brighton. 


Then it’s the long run down to Housedean Farm, before it is up again to Kingston Ridge.
With Luck .. we’ll find the  footpath  heading high on the Downs to Telscombe and downhill all the way to the sea at Peacehaven.

Rambling with Ric Factoid : the Smuggler’s Rest was Rudyard Kipling’s favourite pub when he lived just down the road at Rottingdean. It is where he wrote A Smuggler’s Song:

IF you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by.



Hope to see you soon!
Can’t wait for YOU to join me!!

Ric the Rambler

Follow me on Twitter: @RamblingWithRic

Camino Thought