Roman And His Boots!

I tried Roman’s boots on him properly today and took him out for a walk in them. He was absolutely hilarious when I put them on him for the first time – he didn’t quite know what to make of it and had a look of bewilderment about him! He walked really funny and was almost bounding around at first – I think that he thought maybe they would come off if he was enthusiastic enough.

I took him for a short walk in them just to see how he got on so we went over to the field for a bit. It took him a little while to get used to them and I don’t think I’ll be letting him run around the field in them – he slipped a couple of times but I am sure that this is natural for a dog that runs around like a nutter. He must be so used to being able to use his claws to grip that it must be strange for him to try and stop.

Once we were back on the path he seemed to be a little bit better. The apprehension he had showed at first didn’t seem to be so obvious and he seemed a little more relaxed in them. I don’t think it helped that I didn’t take him out yesterday and his general exercise levels have been low recently due to his recent paw problems. I will be trying him again tomorrow on a road walk and will see how he does walking five miles in them. I think once he gets used to the feel of them he will go back to normal.

I’m looking forward to getting back into the routine of lots of decent walks with Roman. It’s nice to be able to laze around, so to speak, but it’s of no real benefit to either of us. The week ahead is going to be a busy one but I need to make sure that we are walking twenty miles a day by next weekend ready for the start of our journey. I am 99% certain that he will not struggle with the physical side of it as he has managed so many long walks before but I definitely wanted to make sure I had some form of protection for his paws if the need arose.

I am playing football tonight for the six a side team I play for in our penultimate game of the season. Our last game will be next Sunday evening, the day before we leave, so I will have to be careful not to pick up an injury. I hope I don’t jinx myself by saying this but an injury at this point for me would be disastrous! I would still go ahead but it would certainly throw a spanner in the works.

A few people have asked why I simply didn’t finish playing last week but that’s not me. I really enjoy football and I think the physical exertion really helps me to take away any stresses that have built up in the week. Also, as the season finishes next Sunday and we are in the middle of a relegation dogfight, I don’t want to let the lads down. If there is a chance we can stay up then I will do all I can to help even if I am not going to be there next season.

The lads from football have decided to take me out tonight for a bit of a send off – I just hope it’s not too messy! No matter what happens, I will definitely be getting back into the intensive walks tomorrow – after all, if I get drunk one night when I have set off then I will still have to walk the following day so I need to make sure that I am in the right frame of mind to not let something like that get in the way.

Day Nine

Our ninth day of walking will be another long slog and we will be walking about 26 miles in total throughout the day. I am keen to try and make a little bit of time up so that if we run into any problems nearer to Dover then we have a cushion to ensure that we still arrive in plenty of time. Ideally, it would be good to arrive in Dover on the evening of the 29^th and this would mean that we would have the following day to relax before checking in for the ferry at 6pm.

The walk to Dartford will see us pass briefly through London and we will be going pretty close to the Tower Of London. It will be our first day of walking that will be pretty much all in built up areas with people about. I am thinking of getting some sort of board attached to the stroller with some advertising for what I am doing – I will be seeing a lot of people on this day so it would be good if I could raise the profile of our walk.

A Heavy Night And A Lazy Day!

Today has been a really lazy day for me – after the meal last night I invited a couple of my brothers and a few of my friends around to have a few drinks so we popped to Asda on the way home and picked up some booze. We got a bottle of black Sambuca, a bottle of Southern Comfort, some lager and some cider. All of the alcohol has now gone and it was quite a night!

We ended up having an all nighter and I didn’t go to bed until about 9.30am! I got out of bed just after 2pm as I didn’t want to sleep all day and not be able to sleep tonight. I will be starting the walks with Roman from tomorrow now I have his boots and I can’t wait to get them on him and get out. We haven’t been out at all today – I have not been ill but I have certainly not had the same energy levels that I usually do!

Once we all woke up this afternoon we just sat around watching films and looking at videos on YouTube. I have not had a day like this for ages, I seem to be busy most of the time but it was really nice to just take a complete break from everything for the day and just relax. It will be my last chance to do this before I go as I will need to make sure that everything is sorted before I leave.

I don’t have to go to the dog training class tomorrow as last week was the last session before the summer break. I think I will miss going there – even if I did have a bad track record of actually making it regularly! It was really good for Roman to get interaction with other dogs in a controlled environment and I feel it has helped both him and me.

As today has been such a lazy day there really isn’t much else for me to write about today. Apologies for not having much to say but we all have to have a lazy day from time to time! Weekends tend to have less to write about anyway at the moment as the majority of things are happening during the week when I am able to contact people.

Day Eight

Our eighth day of walking will take us from Dunstable to a place called Cockfosters, just outside of Barnet. The day’s walking will be around 25 miles in total and I think we should be arriving some time around 5pm. The first half of the walk will not really see us go through any decent sized towns but we will be passing through St Albans, London Colney and Potter’s Bar during the afternoon.

Surprise Family Meal!!

My family and friends surprised me tonight – I was meant to be going out for a meal with my mum, two of my brothers and one of my brother’s girlfriend but it ended up being a surprise bash with about twenty people there in total! I was pretty surprised as I was just expecting a nice quiet meal! It was really good and I had a really nice time – it was nice to see so many of my friends and family all together at the same time.

I managed to get hold of Roman’s dog boots today – a friend of mine, Lou, had ordered them off the internet and they arrived on Wednesday but she lives next door to my mum about 12 miles away so I couldn’t get them until today. I can’t wait to put them on Roman and take him out in them – I’m sure he will find them a bit strange at first but, once he is used to them, they will be invaluable.

The boots look really cool and everybody is really impressed with them. They may have been quite expensive at about £50 but I am sure they will be worth every single penny. If they protect Roman’s paws then they will have done their job. I will only put them on him when I am walking along the path – if we are on grass then I won’t put them on him so that I can make sure that the grip on the bottom lasts as long as possible.

My nan has been in hospital for a few weeks now so me and my mum popped to see her for a bit before we popped up to her house for a bit. I went to see my granddad who lives just down the road for a bit afterwards as he wanted to give me some money to help me out with my expenses along the way. He gave me £50 and I am really grateful for that. Any money that my family give me to help me along the way will be very helpful.

Other than that there hasn’t really been a lot going on today. My laptop arrived earlier today and I am really happy with it. Again, the laptop will really help me along the way and I can’t wait to get started and using it to update my blog each day!

Day Seven

After a couple of days of longer walks we will only be walking about 21 miles on our seventh day of walking. We will set off nice and early from Stony Stratford and will be aiming to get to a town called Dunstable by the end of the day. We will be passing by Milton Keynes and Bletchley along the way but will not be passing through any sizeable towns along the way.

Euro Rates

I decided to check out what kinds of rates I can get when I change my money into Euros today. As I will be changing quite a lot I was hoping that I may be able to get a better rate as a result – I wasn’t wrong! It wasn’t a massive increase but it will certainly make a difference. I was actually surprised at just how different the rates are depending on when you go. I was quoted as high as 1.151 Euros per £ but also as low as 1.125 Euros per £. I’m glad I decided to take a walk around as I now know which places are the most flexible and will be trying to get them into a war with each other for my business when I do change it!

I am trying to sell some of my things at the moment to boost my funds such as my televisions, DVDs, books, etc. I am hoping I can raise up to £750 extra by doing this and this would certainly help a fair bit. Using the conversion rate of 1.151 I was offered today this would equal about 860 Euros which would easily cover a month’s rent when I get to Rome. I have been looking at some estate agents in Rome to see what sort of stuff is available for when I get there and it looks like I will be paying around 800 Euros per month. This is pretty expensive compared to what I am used to so I will have to be quick finding a job!

I am hopeful that, by the time I reach Rome, I will have just over 4000 Euros left so I will have a little breathing space but it certainly won’t last a long time and I will have to be very careful with my money! I’m no stranger to living on a budget though, I have had to do it many times in my life due to certain circumstances so I guess I will just have to be disciplined again for a while until I can get myself a decent job.

I am resigned to the fact that whatever jobs I do find I am suitable for are not going to be great in terms of pay but as long as they enable me to get a foothold in the country I will be happy enough. I am sure that the first six months to a year will be pretty difficult and will certainly not be the free living I will become accustomed to on our journey but I am sure it will all be worth it once I have established myself there properly. Nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy!

I bought a couple of phrasebooks today whilst I was in town comparing Euro rates. I got one French phrasebook and one Italian phrasebook. I can remember bits of French from when I was at school but I am sure that a phrasebook will come in very handy. As for the Italian, I am improving each day but a phrasebook is a must for me for when we arrive. I downloaded a couple of teach yourself Italian things last night and have now organised them in my iTunes library so I will be able to put those on my iPod.

The solar charger I ordered arrived today and I must say I am surprised at the size of it. I thought it would be much bigger than it is but it’s quite compact really. It’s roughly the same size as a hip flask, maybe a little bigger. It will be invaluable to me on our journey and will enable me to be able to carry on learning Italian whilst we are travelling. It is imperative that I am as good at Italian as possible on the day we arrive.

I ordered myself a new laptop too last night and that should arrive either tomorrow or the day after. I was considering the practicalities of updating my blog weekly from an internet café and, normally, this would be pretty straightforward. Once you throw a 55kg Rottweiler into the mix it becomes a little more complicated! Not all establishments, if many at all, will be happy for him to be with me so I had to consider this possibility. I decided that if I organised my photos and wrote a piece for my blog each night on my laptop then I would be able to sit outside the café using their internet access solving that problem altogether. Another benefit is that I may not have to stop in one place for quite so long – if it is all organised on my laptop then it may just be a 30 minute job to update my blog.

I played in a football match tonight for the team I played Sunday league football for last season. It was our second preseason friendly. Although I will not be there for next season it’s a good way for me to keep in shape whilst Roman cannot be walked so much. I should get the boots for him tomorrow evening so we can start walking properly again on Saturday. I can’t wait, it’s been far too long already!

Day Six

Our sixth day of walking will be a slightly more intensive day than the last. As P&O Ferries are only able to supply us a ticket for the evening of the 30^th August I need to make sure that we allow ample time to reach Dover in time so I decided to add a few miles onto a few of the days’ walking. Our sixth day will see us walk about 24 and a half miles from Kilsby to a place called Stony Stratford, just outside of Milton Keynes.

It will be another pretty much unremarkable day of walking and I don’t expect to see much of interest along the way. I think the largest place we will walk through will be a place called Towcester but there will be a rather humorously named town that we pass through – Weedon. I will be sure to get a photo of Roman and I by the sign welcoming us to the village!

Vango And Roman's Boots

It’s just my luck that as soon as I give up on a cause it comes through. That’s exactly what happened today – I got an email this morning from Vango apologising for the delay in responding to my request but advising that they would like to try and help providing, of course, there would be a commercial benefit to them. After a couple of emails back and forth it seems that they may be able to strike up an agreement with the store I bought their products from for me to take it back and have it replaced by Vango themselves as the store are a major stockist of their goods.

Holly, the lady that emailed me, seems to be really good. She advised me that she would be off on holiday for a couple of days but should be able to give me a definitive answer by Monday afternoon. I will be delighted if this comes through as it will mean that I get £141 back towards my funds! This will be a great help to me as, I’m sure you can understand, every penny really counts for me. I only have a limited budget to work with and I have to think about being able to pay to rent somewhere and to be able to live once I get there if I don’t manage to get a job immediately.

The weather here has been superb today for a change and it has given me a rare (of late anyway) opportunity to get my shorts on and catch some rays. I am sure I will have plenty of time for that on my travels but it can’t harm for my skin to get used to the sun again! I will have to make sure that I get plenty of suncream for the journey though as it would be really bad if I burnt early into my adventure. I have a history of being careless with this kind of stuff so I will be making a conscious effort to change this!

I have had Roman out a couple of times today; I am still only taking him running on the field by our house but it’s something at least. My friend rang me a little earlier to inform me that Roman’s dog boots have arrived so I should get my hands on them pretty soon so our proper walks can start again as soon as I have them. I have really missed our walks together and can’t wait to get started again but am glad that I have been extra cautious with Roman whilst his paw has healed.

His paw does seem to be much, much better now so I think I have done the right thing by him, even if I have felt really cruel at times! I think we take our feet for granted but it has really made me think about how I would cope if I didn’t wear shoes and injured my foot. Also, can you imagine walking around barefoot on tarmac roads when it is 25 degrees with the sun beating down? It would be horrific!

I am hoping to get the bicycle trailer / stroller some time this week but it could take until early next week to arrive. As soon as it arrives I will be practising walking with Roman with it so that he is used to it before we set off. I am sure he will have no problem as he doesn’t seem to be fazed by anything really. I’m pretty sure that he will happily walk at my side behind it but it’s always best to allow a little time beforehand for him to get used to it.

Day Five

Our fifth day of walking is all set to be a rather unremarkable affair. We will be walking about 21 miles from Nuneaton to a place called Kilsby. There are no big towns along the way and there seems to be very little of interest along the whole of the journey. As a result, it will probably be a rather boring day for us but I’m sure there will be a few more days like that along the way, I just hope the sun is out so that it doesn’t make it a miserable day too!

Today Has Been Productive..... But Expensive!!

Today has been a rather productive day for me and I have managed to acquire some much needed equipment for our journey. I have been looking at tents and the like for a while now and considering what would suit our needs best. Whilst I obviously have to be mindful of weight and packed size I also need to make sure that there will be more than enough room for myself, Roman and anything that I decide to take with us.

I decided to go for a Vango Swift 300 pop up tent. It is a three man tent so there is a substantial amount of room inside for us but it also means that I will not have to worry about where we are going to keep all of our stuff. A two man tent would barely have been big enough for Roman and I so I decided, now that I know I won’t have to carry everything, to go for the larger model.

I bought the tent from the Great Outdoors shop on Sealand Road just outside of Chester and it cost £99 – quite a bit more than I was hoping to spend if I am honest but I felt it was worth it to know that we were getting a quality brand tent with more than enough room for us. Whilst I was there I decided to pick up a sleeping bag, sleeping mat and some waterproofs.

The sleeping bag cost £19 and, again, that is a Vango. It advertises itself as being a pretty good sleeping bag and would be suitable for temperatures as low as -8 degrees but is recommended to be used in temperatures between 7 degrees and 20 degrees. This should perfectly cater for what I need it for. I decided to pick a Vango sleeping mat also and opted for the self inflating one – I can’t be bothered with blowing things up! The mat cost £22 but I am sure it will be worth every penny if it ensures my comfort at night.

The waterproofs were perhaps the most difficult thing to choose. I wanted something that was reasonably lightweight but also capable of providing warmth just in case I needed it. After much perusal I opted for an Adidas Gore-Tex jacket that also has the Clima Cool feature, much like modern football shirts. I think this will provide warmth when I need it but also ventilation in the important areas. The jacket cost £69 but I feel this will be money well spent. Another added bonus of this jacket is that it is a very bright orange so will ensure that I am seen when walking in it!

As for the waterproof pants, I eventually decided to purchase a pair of Berghaus. They’re not particularly fancy but they have both zips and poppers up each leg – this means that if the rain subsides I can undo the zips to provide ventilation if I feel that the rain will be returning pretty soon. The trousers cost me £40 which, again, was probably more than I originally wanted to spend but I am happy with my purchase. Well, Great Outdoors must like me – I spent £249 in total!

I also decided to order the bicycle trailer / stroller today. I had not received a response to my email but managed to find the same model on another site that confirmed the answers I was looking for. Including postage it is costing me about £70 so it’s a pretty reasonable price all things considered. For a similar model from a bike shop or Halfords I would probably pay between £100 and £150 so it’s a bargain when you look at it like that. When you consider how much easier it will make things for me it’s definitely money well worth spending!

I had also been mulling over for quite some time whether or not to buy a solar powered charger so that I would be able to take my iPod with me. The more I considered it the more it made sense. Although I have been making progress with Italian I am definitely not near the standard I will need to be when I arrive. I decided to download some Italian discs so that I could upload them to my iPod and then I will be able to use these on our walk to help me learn as much as possible for when I arrive.

After having a good look around for a few hours on the internet I finally decided to purchase a model called the Freeloader Solar Charger. It comes with a whole host of adaptors to enable you to be able to charge all sorts of different devices and, most importantly, includes the adaptor for my iPod. It charges fully within as little as 8 hours and can power an iPod for up to 18 hours on this charge. I think I will charge it each day and then use the iPod each evening to brush up on my Italian. In total this cost me £35.

So, in total, I have spent £354 today – that’s quite a commitment really! There’s still quite a lot I need to make sure I have before we leave and I will be focusing on ensuring we have everything we need before we leave. I will be (attempting) to draw up a kit list in the next day or two so that I can tick everything off as I go along. I am hoping to get some help of a guy I have mentioned here before, Benedict Protheroe, on that one. He walked from Canterbury to Rome last year so has first hand experience that will help me no end.

Day Four

Our fourth day of walking will be slightly more intensive than the previous three days as I hope for us to cover about 25 miles. The day’s walking will take us from our starting point of Brownhills West right through to Nuneaton, passing through Tamworth on the way. I have a friend who lives in Nuneaton so I will be trying to get hold of him to see if he fancies putting us up for the night – fingers crossed!

Dog Food, Dog Boots, Ferry Tickets And The Stroller

Roman’s dog food arrived at the vets this morning so I got my brother, Rich, to give me a lift there to pick it up. The vets have also kindly donated a couple of things for us. They have given us a flea treatment called Advocate that will last Roman for about 3 months – hopefully the duration of our journey. They have also given us a Scalibor collar. These are to keep sand flies away as they can be pretty dangerous to dogs. We don’t get sand flies in this country but they are quite common on the continent.

The vets have been really good in supporting us through the whole of our preparations for this walk. They have been happy to help whenever I have needed advice and have really gone out of their way to help us. If you are ever in need of a good vets near Chester then don’t hesitate to give them a go – the vets I use are Storrar vets and they are right next door to Bill Smith’s Motors in Boughton. The whole establishment is a credit to the vet profession – the reception staff are really polite and really helpful and they all love animals completely, whether it be a cat, a Yorkshire terrier or a Rottweiler! I have always been made to feel very welcome there and I think the family run heritage is probably a big reason behind that.

I have given up in my quest to get a company to provide Roman’s dog boots for free – either I manage to speak to someone and I get the good old “We’ve already picked our charities for this year” script or I email and get completely ignored! It’s really very frustrating at times! I have taken up my friend on their offer and they have ordered the boots for Roman today so they should be with us pretty soon. I’m quite excited about them to be honest (sad, I know!) and I reckon Roman will look quite dapper in them!

The search for a bicycle trailer / stroller continued today too. I have managed to spot a few knocking about and they range from quite expensive models in online stores to much cheaper versions of pretty much exactly the same things on ebay! I have spotted one for £72 on ebay and will be ordering it as soon as I have had a couple of questions answered by the company. I just wanted to be sure about the weight limit on the stroller and also wanted to confirm that the attachments needed to convert it to a stroller are included.

Roman’s paw has not given him any trouble today – in the past he was suffering the day after exercise but he has had no problems at all. I took him out on the field earlier so that he could run around for a bit and get rid of some of his excess energy before going to see my parents. It’s been a while since I have been up to see them and there aren’t too many days to go until I go now so I will have to make the most of the time I have here.

I have been practising a new way of walking Roman over the past couple of days as suggested by Gemma at the vets and Angela at FIDO (the dog training place). I have a double ended lead for Roman and I have been attaching one end to a link about two thirds of the way around the lead and the other end to Roman’s harness. I then place the lead over my shoulder, much like you would with a record bag. Doing it this way means that I can walk him without actually holding the lead – I will need both hands for pushing the stroller!

As soon as I have the stroller I will be practising walking Roman with that, firstly so that Roman can get used to having something in front of him but also so that I can get used to how he behaves with it. Angela got me to try pushing a buggy around in a training class once but it’s hard to judge how Roman took to it as there were so many other dogs about to distract him! I don’t think he will have any problem with it though.

I got a reply from Natalie at P&O Ferries this morning to advise that they would not be able to provide a ticket on the morning of 31^st August due to heavy bookings as a result of the bank holiday weekend. Instead she suggested that we could travel over on the evening of the 30^th August and my friend could then return the following morning. I have decided to get the 7pm ferry over and then my friend will return on the 10.55am ferry the following morning. I am sure it will be a pleasant change to have some company for an evening!

Day Three

Our third day of walking will see us depart Newport and head for a place called Brownhills West. The total distance covered will be approximately 22 miles on the third day. I have been thinking about our rest points along the way and have decided that I will walk for an hour and then rest for half an hour. I think by doing it this way we should reach our final destination each day by about 4pm or 5pm so we will be able to work out where we will be staying and where I can eat!

I think this will be a nice way of doing things as it will mean that we can just relax once we have stopped safe in the knowledge that we are done for the day. I have decided that I will take a few books with me so that I don’t get bored in the evenings. One of these books will definitely be an Italian book so that I can continue learning whilst we are travelling!