The night before ...

So thats work finished, hoodie picked up, flight checked in and seats sorted and packing done.
I have swerved between childlike excitement and fear. What is I don't make it? I'll be so gutted. All this effort, all this money raised. However I know I won't fail however hard it is. I'm not just doing this as a life experience. My motivation started with Sam more than 10 years ago and was massively increased when Claire started her fight.
Claire is for me an inspiration. Her way of making cancer seem like a small irritation whilst she gets on with her life is so the best way but something so many find difficult to do.
As well as these 2 wonderful women I have known others who have fought and who have inspired.
You can't not leave an imprint on this world and if its to inspire good in others then your life has been a success.
Getting to know the Newhams and Fosters has added more reason to succeed.
This will make a difference to teenagers in the midlands and to bowel cancer patients.
Every step I take will help in the fight. We have one life, live it.

Packing

5 days to go and its starting to be very real. last night I was awake at 4:30 because I'd been packing in my head in my sleep for so long I was unable to sleep.

Today I tried to pack, my day pack is so full and my book for the flight won't fit in! I think I will need to do some juggling but there are so many stories about luggage missing that i've put all essentials in my hand luggage!! This pic is the start of my packing!!

It's the Final Countdown (and the sun shone)

Today we tackled Edale and Kinder Scout again. So far we've been snowed off twice, rained off once and the other time we completed a walk in the pouring rain. Yesterdays walk was wet and miserable so it didn't bode well for our final training walk.
Sunday dawned dry, arrival in Edale and a strange yellow blob could be seen in the sky, OMG its sunny!
We took the Grindsbrook path which starts off on a nice paved path and then gradually becomes more rocky and then the final half mile is a sheer climb on rocks, great fun. Once at the top it was time to admire the view and have some lunch. Boy did it quickly get cold so onwards across the strange moor, through the rocks that due to weather look like sculptures and eventually down Jacobs ladder and back to Edale.
A fab finale to our training. Sponsors are on about £30,000. On Tuesday we're meeting the Teenage Cancer Ward sisters and Heather from TCT. Boarding tickets can be picked up tomorrow eeek! 10 days and counting.

Lost, muddy and the cheese shop wasn't open

Well I've said on several times what a muddy walk we'd done so I thought I was prepared. This walk started in Hartington and was described as a strenous 12 mile. That was about where the instructions ended! multiple getting lost and the intense mud meant we'd taken hours to get to Longnor. We were exhausted at this point but hoped a spot of lunch would restore spirits for the return journey. It seemed to initially until we realised we were going in the wrong direction and losing light.

We asked a friendly local who suggested we went back a mile up the steep hill to the village we'd had a late lunch and then on the roads it should only be another 6 miles!

We probably started to get an idea of what summit night will be like with our moods! However we speed marched up hill and along roads and shockingly made it back just before dark. Last time I do a walk with so few instructions!!!

Up to about £30,000 in fund raising!