Roman' the countryside
There has been an interesting conversation going on over on Google Wave about the various equipment we’ll need on the walk. Although, as usual with such things it degenerated into smut and innuendo by the end.
Head on over to our Google Wave Page to take a look.
The BBC1 TV show Countryfile will be featuring Hadrian’s Wall on Sunday 7th of March at 6pm.
Matt Baker and Julia Bradbury head for Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland to get a sneak preview of a spectacular plan to light all 73 miles of the iconic landmark as part of its 1,600th anniversary celebrations.
It will also be available on the iPlayer for a week after that, you will be able to watch it here. I’m not sure if people overseas will be able to access that however.
In the eighth entry of our Know Your Walkers series, we meet Martin, an Irishman living in Holland. He’ll be a member of Team Ocelot.
Who are you?
That’s a bit personal don’t you think? Hmm. Martin. That’s who.
What do you do, where do you do it, etc.?
I make a living out of taking data from one database and putting it in another one. This keeps people happy, and they pay me. I know it’s dull, but shut up, it’s what I do.
I do it in Holland, because of my crippling fear of heights. And humour.
Why are you going on this walk?
I lost a twenty pence piece somewhere near Newcastle in 1986, I’m going back to find it.
What song will we most likely hear you singing to yourself at some point during the walk?
The one that starts ’sometimes late at night, I lie awake and watch you sleeping…’ just to inspire my fellow lodgers.
What kind of boots will you be wearing that week?
Most likely the 7 inch heeled faux leather ones I’ve on me now, if I can get them through customs.
What one completely unnecessary luxury item will you be carrying with you on the walk?
Underwear. Carla Bruni’s.
Anything else we should know about you before we spend a week of our lives together?
I once killed 11 Liberian rebels with my bare hands, – they started it. I was runner up in the 1984 Eurovision song contest. I’m currently working on a renewable power source that harnesses the energy of idiocy and I am a compulsive liar.
Martin blogs at Xbox4NappyRash
In the seventh entry of our Know Your Walkers series, we meet Steve, from Virginia, USA. He’ll be a member of Team Ocelot.
Who are you? What do you do, where do you do it, etc.?
Hi, I am Steve Roberts, husband to Sherry. We live in Fredericksburg, VA with two daughters aged 9 and 12. I work for the federal government in Dahlgren, VA as a project manager. I have been working there for almost 20 years. That is where I met my wife back in ‘92. It amazes me that I have stayed there for that long, but I am not interested in spending my life in a car so I won’t get a job in Washington D.C. I did do one detail assignment at the Pentagon, but that was only because the commute was on the clock. I stored up lots of leave that year.
Why are you going on this walk?
Why am I going? I mean, besides to raise money for the Joseph Salmon Trust and because my wife told me we were. I am going because I think it will be fun to hike across a country. Not going to accomplish that here in the US. We also enjoyed the UK 2 years ago when we went to see my dad’s boyhood home in Kent. We talked about going back sometime and next summer seems as good as any. My only fear is losing too much weight as I am a reasonably picky eater. Last time we went, I lost about 10 pounds. I had many dinners of just cheese chips. Should be interesting.
What song will we most likely hear you singing to yourself at some point during the walk?
I am not sure what I may sing. I listen to lots of different things from country to classic rock to alternative rock. It will probably the last thing I heard on my mp3 player. Usually something like Yes, Crowded House, Blink-182, or Green Day. Just saw Green Day with my 12-year old daughter. We both loved the show. I didn’t scream as much as her, though. She lost her voice by the end of it.
What kind of boots will you be wearing that week?
Not sure on the boots yet. I have bought a pair of mid top Merrells. I am still trying to decide between those or low tops. With the elevation change only being 1000 ft, I am not sure if I will need the extra ankle support. Will definitely buy them with plenty of time to break in as well as from REI as they offer a 100% return policy if not satisfied.
What one completely unnecessary luxury item will you be carrying with you on the walk?
As for unnecessary items, I haven’t really planned this far ahead. As it stands right now, I am trying to pack as light as possible so I can survive the hike. I guess my mp3 qualifies. Not truly necessary for the hike, but definitely necessary for the plane ride. Knowing me, it will probably be a pack of a hundred bandaids. Sherry thinks I have a fear of bleeding to death as I always have tons of bandaids in the house. So, if you cut yourself, just let me know.
Anything else we should know about you before we spend a week of our lives together?
Be warned, though, as I have been told I walk fast. Maybe it’s my long legs and that everyone else has to take three steps to my two. I don’t know. To me, I am just walking normal speed. I can’t help it if you short people can’t keep up. I might be slowed from the flight, though, as coach class kills my knees. One of the down sides of being tall and not extremely wealthy.
The Hadrian’s walkers may have noticed that they’ve recently received an invite to Google Wave from either myself, or someone called Midmoclub (which is really me too, I set up another account in order to get more invites becasue I’m nothing if not a cheat).
I invited all the walkers on my email list, so if you haven’t received one and you think you should have then let me know as I’ve either done something wrong or it’s been lost in your spam filter.
Google Wave is a sort of collaborative document editing tool/chat room. It’s quite hard to explain, the best way to find out what it does is to go and have a look at it really.
I thought it might be quite useful for people to use it in order to discuss all sorts of walk related subjects in a much more interactive, collaborative, and conversational form than the blog. I’ve already started up a fundraising wave and it’s raised some interesting and useful discussion.
You can see all our publicly accessible waves on this page.
In the sixth entry of our Know Your Walkers series, we meet Whit, from Issaquah, Washington. He’ll be a member of Team Ocelot.
Who are you? What do you do, where do you do it, etc.?
I’m Whit Honea. I’m a freelance writer living outside of Seattle. I write for numerous websites. The internet is my office. I have two little boys and a lot of grey hair.
Why are you going on this walk?
I’ve really been inspired by Dan and his friends with what they’ve done for the Trust, so that really is the biggest factor in my wanting to be a part of it. Also, I’ve never been to the UK.
What song will we most likely hear you singing to yourself at some point during the walk?
100 bottles of beer on the wall. Loudly and often. Everybody sing!
What kind of boots will you be wearing that week?
I have no idea.
What one completely unnecessary luxury item will you be carrying with you on the walk?
iPhones are not unnecessary.
Anything else we should know about you before we spend a week of our lives together?
Sleeping on the floor makes me gassy.
You can find more of Whit at his blog, The Honea Express.
Idaho dad just alerted me to the fact that Hadrian’s Wall is featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper as one of the top travel events for 2010.
Although to be fair I’m not sure that they are talking about our walk particularly. Still, it’s a great photo:
http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/travel/travel-events-2010/3.html
Here’s a copy of an email I recently sent to all the walkers. If you are coming on the walk and haven’t got this, let me know as I must have the wrong address for you.
Remember, we set off walking on Monday July 5th, 2010 and reach the end on Saturday July 10th, 2010. This means that you will have to book these dates off work. I am talking specifically to Oli here. Oli – you need to book those days off work. Do it now Oli. Go talk to your manager and do it now.
So far we’ve raised a little over £400 (about $650), which isn’t bad going since we haven’t officially started fundraising yet. I’ve done this via a couple of plugs on my blog ( allthatcomeswithit.com) and also by agreeing to do a couple of PR companies pitches as long as they make a donation to the Trust.
The ultimate aim is to raise the equivalent of what the trust gives out in a year, about £20,000. it’s a lofty goal, but I honestly think it’s achievable. As the walk draws nearer (exactly six months away now in fact) it’s probably time we at least started thinking how we’re going to raise the cash. It would be really good to pool our collective brains on this one, so if anyone has any ideas or leads then please let me know and I’ll put together a post/email of collected ideas.
As you know the walk has a Justgiving page where people can donate online. Justgiving is by far the best way of gathering donations as it’s automated and the charity gets the cash straight away. Plus only legitimate charities can get listed on there, and so it acts as reassurance that we’re not just pocketing the cash.
You can either direct people to the walks Justgiving page (http://www.justgiving.com/hadrianswalkers) or if you want to track who’s donated specifically to you then you can make one of your own. It’s very easy to set up.
However good old fashioned sponsorship forms definitely have a place; and I’ll be emailing out some templates for these in a month or two.
Also if anyone has any leads on corporate sponsorship – please pursue them!
As you may have read on my blog, I’ve recently been asked to be a Trustee for the Joseph Salmon Trust. This basically means I’m now on the management committee of the charity and doesn’t really effect the walk one way or the other, but I just thought I’d mention it.
In my last email I outlined that we’re looking at an overall cost for accommodation and transport (while on the walk, not at either end) of £135 – £145 each. I’m going to work out exact totals very soon and will be sending you an email shortly saying how much you owe.
If you have any preferences as to if you want to go for as many B&B beds as you can as opposed to as many communal hostel type beds then please let me know. The former is obviously a little more expensive.
We are finally booked up in all the places where we need to be booked up. The last place to be confirmed is for day one (Monday July 5th). Five of us will be staying at Ironsign Farm B&B in Heddon-on-the-wall.
People are going to be responsible for their own transport to and from the start and the end of the walk. The train is probably the best way of doing this.
I personally will probably be setting off extremely early in the morning on the first day (Monday July 5th) and aiming to get to the start point at around 9:30 for a 10am mass kick off. People who’s starting point is further south than me may want to spend the previous night in Newcastle.
Idaho Dad, of the blog A Family Runs Through It, has booked a room at the Premier Inn – Quayside in Newcastle for Sunday, July 4th for example. There are plenty of other places to stay in Newcastle should you wish to avoid him :)
Phil also very kindly offered to share his research on low cost places to saty in London. If you want to pick his brains then email him.
I am planning on making provision on the last day of the walk (Saturday July 10th) to get all those who want to get from Bowness-on-Solway back to Carlisle (as Carlisle has much better public transport links and more places to stay). But I could do with knowing who’ll want to get transported back and who’ll be making their own way. This will probably be via taxis.
The biggest news on the transportation front is that we are now not hiring a people carrier for Kerry to drive about. Instead I have booked a coach to transport us too and from our accommodation at the end of day 4 and start of day 5. Surprisingly this is significantly cheaper. Plus we can all be transported in one go rather than a number of trips (which, especially if it’s raining, would be a real pain for those picked up last)
Kerry will still be driving up on Wednesday July 7th with all the camping gear however, but using our own car. We will also try and get someone else to drive up too, as there’s probably more stuff than just one car to hold.
Someone recently emailed me asking about what they should do with their excess luggage. It’s ok for us UK walkers to just travel to and from the walk with the stuff we need for those six days, but for those coming from overseas and staying over here a little longer for a vacation this is obviously not too practical.
My first thought is to see if I can persuade someone to make a luggage pick up run on the evening of Sunday, July 4th in Newcastle, then drive it all over to Carlisle on Saturday July 10th. I’m not entirely sure who this would be however.
The alternative would be for everyone to stick it in a left luggage locker somewhere – but that assumes that you are returning to the point you set off from (i.e. London or whatever).
Any suggestions on how to deal with this would be gratefully received.
Things have gone a little bit quiet on the Hadrians walk blog recently – and I apologise for this. However I intend kicking the promotion of the walk up a few notches over the coming months. The six month mark has always been the point when I planned on getting started on the whole publicity thing.
As before, if you have your own blog then an occasional mention of the walk will do wonders for keeping it in the blogosphere’s consciousness. You obviously don’t have to go overboard
Any ideas, suggestions, and offers of help in this area are most gratefully received.
I’ve set up a list of all the Hardian’s walkers on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#/list/dghughes/hadrians-walkers
If you’re on twitter and not on this list, let me know. If you’re on twitter and haven’t followed some of your fellow walkers then do so, its a good way to develop some relationships before we set off. and if you’re not on twitter then consider it – I was a naysayer for a while, but it’s actually quite cool.
I recently sent the overseas walkers a small (and I mean pathetically small) christmas present as thanks for coming on the walk. If you haven’t got one yet it’s not that I don’t appreciate you, it’s that I haven’t posted it yet. This is due to my general incompetence above anything else. it is coming though, I promise.
I think that’s about it.
Cheers.
Dan
I was in the local paper on Thursday. It was an article about myself and a very lovely woman called Helen being appointed as new Trustee’s of the Joseph Salmon Trust.
The story focused on Helen more than myself, which is fine by me – I’m not sure I could cope with the celebrity anyway. I have enough trouble answering the fan mail I get from being featured on the letters page of Whizzer and Chips back in 1985 without adding to my fame further. Plus there is that infamous “I’m a very sweaty man” incident on Radio Leeds last year.
But what tickled me most was the photo (excuse the shoddy quality):
Is it me or do I look like some Hagrid like giant, too huge for mere page boundaries to contain? I’m surprised that on publication there wasn’t panic on the streets, with people fleeing their homes in fear of me crushing them with my gigantic feet.
You can see the full article on the Huddersfield Examiner’s webpage here
I can now confirm that Team Ocelot will be spending their final night together at the Old Brewery Youth Hostel in Carlisle.
It’s taken a little while to sort out, as the hostel doubles as a hall of residence during term time and it was unclear if it would be available or not.
Thankfully it is available, which is fantastic as it’s considerably cheaper than the alternatives.
I have booked 33 beds (all single rooms, as that’s the only type available) at £22 per person. It’s self catering, but Carlisle is a big town with plenty of places to eat out if we choose.
I’ve also been working on a few other details of the walk, namely transportation, but I’ll report more on that when things are more concrete.
We're walking in aid of the Joseph Salmon Trust, a charity founded by our friends in memorial to their son Joseph who died aged 3 in April of 2005.
The Joseph Salmon Trust supports parents who have lost a child by providing financial assistance to those who need it most. Please consider sponsoring us. Thank you.
