Length and Breadth of it

Length and Breadth of it

This article comes with a warning. There you are, on a comfy sofa, with the glowing warmth of a fire, the good company of an old friend, and maybe with a drink. God is in heaven and all is well with the world. It is at such a moment, it is so easy to be agreeable and simply say yes.

I should explain;  after walking  my first Long Distance Path, Offa’s Dyke Path with my father, I did quite naturally progress to walk further National Trails, the South West Coast Path, the Cleveland Way and the Pennine Way. I joined the Long Distance Walkers Association and  their  London Group  walking regularly 18 to 20 miles each Sunday. Who could resist  such challenging walks as the Malvern Marathon, 14 Greens Canter or the Gower Gallop.

On the Hertfordshire Hobble I fell into walking with a tall woman with a gawky gait and spectacles. She was a former engineer, a subject I knew nothing about, but she had an interesting perspective on things and we made each other laugh. After the walk finished, I was taken aside; Did I realise who I was talking to? Only Ann Sayers! I know, who on earth is Ann Sayers? Only in the days of Google did I find out Ann Sayers is the fastest woman to walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats. In 1980 she walked Land’s End to John O’ Groats in 13 days, 10 hours and 1 minute, a record that still stands. (There are faster records by runners, but not for only walking.)

Before the Millennium was complete it felt important to mark the occasion with doing something significant. Not easy when leave from work was not plentiful and had to be planned carefully. I set off by bike from Land’s End and cycled northwards. I sent my mother, who had no idea where I was going, a postcard every day. Apparently she said to my sisters when she got a card from Lancaster, that if the next post came from Scotland, I must be cycling to John O’ Groats. The next card that came was from Gretna Green. I did cycle to John O’ Groats. When I next met my mother, all the cards were arranged in order, in pride of place. After she passed away, they were found in a neat bundle, with her personal treasures.

I then came across the National Trails Register, kept by the Long Distance Walkers Association and discovered I had already walked 11 out of the 19 designated walks. I carefully planned my leave over the years to complete the other 8 walks; Hadrian’s Wall Path, Southern Upland Way, Speyside Way, Cotswold Way, Glyndŵr’s Way, Pennine Bridleway, Great Glen Way and West Highland Way, to get my Diamond Level certificate for walking all the National Trails.

What do you do after that? Well I walked the 100 top peaks of Wales (Dafydd Andrew’s ‘Cant Cymru’) and walked my first walk abroad, the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites of Italy. I walked many other routes getting close to walking a 100 long distance trails.

After Covid, it felt like a new beginning. So I restarted walking with my first National Trail, Offa’s Dyke Path and other Welsh routes; the Heart of Wales Line Trail, Penrhys Pilgrimage and North Wales Pilgrim’s Way. In 2022, I set out to exceed a 1,000 miles target, including walking the Camino de Santiago from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago and then Finisterre on the Spanish Atlantic Coast. My total mileage for the year was 3,450 miles. This year I have completed 5 National Trails and 374 miles of the South West Coast Path from Land’s End to Bournemouth.

So I was sitting on a comfy sofa, besides a warm fire with a whisky in my hand  and my dear old (longstanding)  friend, the Rev Gill  Evans for company, explaining that next year I planned to walk John O’ Groats to Land’s End via the Great Glen Way, West Highland Way, Pennine Way, Cotswold Way and South West Coast Path to become the 1st person to register completing 2 rounds of all 19 National Trails. She looked at me lovingly, fluttered her eyelashes and in deep warm tones, asked if I would be willing to be sponsored for her charity Cross Road for Human Development. I simply melted and said yes.

I am fundraising for two organisations. I have a good friend from a country where gays are banned. In many countries around the world, LGBTQI+ people face violence and oppression simply because of who they love or who they are. Rainbow Railroad helps them get to safety

Please consider sponsoring me for 2 charities close to my heart, for walking the length (John O’ Groats to Land’s End) and the breadth (Inverness to Fort Wiliam) of Britain:

1. The Cross Road for Human Development (https://crhd.org.uk/) is a charity providing Primary School Education for Dalit (outcaste) children in the village of Turukanadoni,  in  South India

For donations
David’s Just Giving fundraiser for CROSS ROADS FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

2. Rainbow Railroad (https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/) is  a charity that helps gay people persecuted for being gay in their own country, to get out to safe country. Last year they got 12,000+ gay people out of Afghanistan.

For donations
https://donate.rainbowrailroad.org/fundraiser/5118850

You can follow my progress on the walk between 19 March and 19 July 2024 on Facebook using the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/884575563012302/permalink/884589796344212/?sfnsn=scwspmo&ref=share

David Stockwell