Wednesday 12 August 2009

Another Busy Day!

I managed to get up at about 8.30am today which was pretty good as I had a terrible night of sleep. It was one of those nights when, no matter what I tried, I just couldn’t get to sleep. It must have been about 2am by the time I finally dropped off. To make matters worse I kept waking up throughout the night! My mate rang me at 6am to wake me up but I fell back asleep for a couple of hours. I am hoping I will have a lot more success sleeping tonight as it has been a very busy day and I am feeling pretty knackered now!

Once I had got up and replied to a few emails I decided to walk to where my dad works to see if I could sell some DVDs. It’s just over 4 miles away from where I live and we did about 5 miles on the way back. I didn’t put his boots on him for this walk but have been out again tonight with him wearing them. We stopped for a brew with my dad and managed to sell a fair few DVDs. Every little helps, as Tesco say!

I wasn’t in the house for long before I was off out again. I had to get my mum a birthday present so had to go into Chester to do that – for those who don’t know I have 2 mums, a little confusing sometimes when I am trying to explain stuff but that’s just how it is! While I was in town I decided to get some things that I will need when we set off on Monday. Right at the top of the list – and usually right at the bottom from past experiences – was sun cream. I got a selection of factors so that I will be able to adapt depending on the weather. I picked up a few other things too including toiletries and lots of batteries for my camera!

I must have walked about 6 or 7 miles by the time I walked into Chester, around the city and then back home so I was already up to about 15 or 16 miles for the day. When I got in I fed Roman and then, half an hour later, we had to go out again – as it was my mum’s birthday today I had been invited up there to eat. In total I think Roman has done about 11 miles walking today and I have done close to 20 miles.

Tomorrow I am determined to get up early and get a couple of walks done before noon so that the schedule is not quite so intense. I have felt like I have been in a rush all day and I always think that you are less productive at these times. It’s nice to be able to think about things properly and I find I forget less that way. One thing I almost forgot today was to ring DEFRA to see if Roman needed a health check before we boarded the ferry. I rang them at about 5.30pm and they told me that they have no requirements for that; the passport is sufficient.

As I was sure I had read somewhere about a health check I decided to ring P&O Ferries just to make sure that they had no additional requirements for Roman. As it was, the only thing they insist upon is that we board earlier than usual. This is no problem to us and I am now happy that everything is definitely ok on that side. It would be tragic if we had got to Dover and been refused board for whatever reason!

I have also been communicating with Holly from Vango today and she has advised me that my stuff has now been sent out so I should receive all of that either tomorrow or Friday. I can’t wait to put the tent up and introduce Roman to it! I am sure it will be a bit of an alien concept at first but he seems to adapt to most situations pretty quickly so I am hopeful that he will have no issues. I will let you know on that!

I received a message on Twitter last night enquiring about what I will be doing about food on our journey so I promised to divulge in tonight’s post. The plan regarding food is to pretty much pick it up as we go along. I am hoping to find pub type places along the way for evening meals and it would be great If we could stumble upon some supermarkets to pick stuff up for each day. Ideally, I would like to pick up four or five ready made pasta meals to consume during the day – I will need a lot more than normal given the high exercise levels. I will also be taking some whey protein powder with me to be mixed with water as I want to be safe in the knowledge that I am covered for all of my protein needs if I can’t find something substantial in the evening.

Days Twelve and Thirteen

If everything has gone strictly to plan by this point, which I am sure that it will have done, then we will be enjoying a much needed day of rest on our twelfth day. I will use this as an opportunity to do some (probably much needed) washing and also to locate an internet café to be able to update the blog. It will be nice to relax for a day and I am sure that we will feel much better for it!

Our thirteenth day will see us depart Canterbury and head for Dover. The walk is only (I say only but it’s still far!) about 15 miles so we should be able to do this fairly quickly and arrive reasonably early, probably mid to late afternoon. Again, I may use this as an opportunity to update my blog – I am sure there will be a lot of pictures by this stage so it may be easier to spread it over a couple of days.

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