Walk update email

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.

Dates of the walk

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.

Fundraising

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!

Trusteeship

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.

Deposits and payments

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.

Accommodation

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.

Transportation

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.

Luggage.

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.

Blog and publicity

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.

Twitter

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.

Christmas presents

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

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