Challenge and Goal Achieved

The group of carers sat in a circle waiting for me to make a statement.  I had twirled my response around in my head beforehand but sometimes I just say whatever pops up.  Not always a good strategy.  I replied, "If you're planning a fundraiser for Huntington's WA, hiking across England is a good way to go!  We raised $6,500.  Then I filled them in with what I saw, how I felt and what happened.

I've been home for over a month and this story has rewritten itself a dozen times.  Now I will just put it together and hand it over to you.  I still wake and wonder if my sisters and I walked across England. 

Did we do it?
Yes we did! 

Was it difficult? 
Yes it was!

Was it an amazing adventure?
Every minute of every day!

We put together a day by day diary version of our 13day adventure on our Facebook page.  You can read it and see our amazing photos:  www.facebook.com/walkforhuntingtons




Maureen, Susan and Pamela at St Bees beginning our adventure
 

Our goal was to walk from St Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood's Bay in Yorkshire over 13 days, which we did.  It was harder than what I thought and I knew it would be difficult.  These short legs of mine aren't exactly built for mountainous hills and thousands of rocky steps or steep descents.  Even short legs can do amazing things and they trudged up countless hills and painstakingly descended sideways on the other side.

It was a time I found out how amazing my little sister Maureen is.   As I plodded with only a distant view of the group Maureen stopped and walked by my side.  Each day she was there encouraging me up those damn hills and making jokes on the way down.  I still laugh when I remember she had her camera ready to catch me fall down one of those steep descends only to put it away and down I slipped amongst the rocks.  I don't know who laughed the loudest! 

The English landscape is amazingly different from Australia and nothing was more capturing than being high on a hill or ridge-top looking down over paddocks, green and yellow pastures and quaint historic villages.  I think we saw almost every type of sheep and cow there is in England and climbed stiles embedded in dry stone walls.  We viewed beautiful lakes and tarns (summit lakes) in Cumbria and the beginning of the heather in flower in Yorkshire. 



Kirby Stephens almost half way through our journey.  We had walked 82 miles already

On the very last day the mist was low over the Yorkshire moors and I felt like a character in a novel.  Who would we find murdered on the moors among the mist with Poirot in pursuit?  Fortunately the mist soon cleared and we were on the homeward stretch to Robin Hood's Bay.  As we continued our approach on the headland I stopped in my tracks.  Before me beckoned the calm blue North Sea and the little village of Robin Hood's Bay propped up like a postcard.  My eyes misted up as the realisation of walking from the Irish Sea to the North Sea became a near reality.  It was a moment which will stay with me forever.

In hindsight the hard work wasn't just on the hiking trail.  It began twelve months beforehand with setting up the Facebook page and contacting everyone we knew to encourage them to donate.  There were flyers to make, T shirts to design and ongoing training to complete.  It's been a very full year and I wouldn't change any of it.  How many of us at 58 take off half way around the world and walk across England?  An amazing challenge, will you take it on?  Whether you walk across a country or do something else equally as amazing.  The challenge is to plan it and just do it.  It may not change your life but you never know it might do just that!

Robin Hood's Bay at the North Sea.  We did it!  190 miles (304kms)