I Would Walk 1000 Miles

Another one of those "thank you"s that I’m throwing around like confetti to all those who’s cash I’ve received. I’ll see some of you in the next week or so, and to the rest - can you please either send a cheque, make a bank transfer or donate your pledge direct to Blue Dragon? Current donations stand at: £1678, $US830, SKK1000. Details can be seen on the donations page. There is more to go on there as well. Helen’s fiancé has a jar at work which needs totalled up, and I have some from friends and family that needs gathered. PayPal means fees, bank transfer and cheque don’t - please get in touch for the details of those methods. We’re going to try and get as many (if not all) of the donations as possible before transferring the funds direct to Mike and the kids in Hanoi. Hopefully this will be done in the next two weeks. And, yes, I’m already thinking of other ways to raise awareness and money for Blue Dragon…

Another quick “thank you”, this time to my aunt Isabel who has been fundraising while I’ve been away. She just delivered a wodge of cash to my parents after a night she organised with raffles, pass-the-parcel and so on. The sum raised was a fantastic £480!

With luck, I should know the full amount raised within the next couple of weeks. I have a handful of donations still to collect, some people are still donating and I have to catch up with some of them to get the money.

The last handful of videos are up at YouTube. You can find them on pages 4 and 5 of the 1000 Miles playlist, or at the top (in reverse order) of my complete video list.

This video from YouTube almost had me in tears. Thanks, everyone. It was my pleasure!

Well, I assume it’s the final lot. BBC Radio Newcastle gave me about 3 mins on their drivetime show yesterday, but the Chronicle went further than I could have hoped and gave me the entire of page 3! A shame they forgot to put a link in to the blog or Blue Dragon’s website… A slightly abridged online version of the article has a nice big picture of me which I pinched (hope that’s OK, folks!). To make up for that small act of larceny, if you want to buy copies of that photo (or any of the others they have available), pop to the icNewcastle Photo Order page and do a search for "Purdie". I have a feeling my mum will end up with the whole set. On canvas. Signed. The mention on NUFC.com has generated at least one donation that I’m aware of, and an email conversation with someone I used to go to school with. All good stuff. I doubt there’ll be more publicity unless someone else wants to give another organisation a kick. I’m off up to Perth to steal *cough* borrow my mum’s car then off down to the Big Smoke next week. I’ll post all my "thanks" stuff shortly, and hopefully have the final steps of the walk on YouTube tomorrow.

Roughly 1030 miles, 9 countries, just over 2 months, one pair of (very smelly) shoes…

I landed at North Shields around 9am this morning where I was greated by a photographer from the Evening Chronicle, two excitable dogs, a father and a tearful mother. The parents and the dogs were a surprise! After hugs and so forth were exchanged (not with the photographer), some pictures were taken for tomorrow night’s edition and then I began my hike into town - only 2 or so hours away.

I’ve got a ton of footage to upload to YouTube which I’ll try to do tomorrow. The walk in was pleasant, the weather just right. By way of a small detour onto the Tyne Bridge (habit, superstition, call it what you will), I made it to The Strawberry, where the staff very kindly laid on two bottles of Newcastle Brown… in a wine bucket with ice! They’d also hassled the Chronicle to ensure I got some attention and another photographer was there waiting for me (with my folks and two good friends, Tony and June) to take some more snaps, this time around St James’ Park.

After my liquid lunch, my parents had to head back to Perth (the original one, not the one I was in more recently in Oz) and I was driven down to Durham were I’ll be staying for a couple of days. BBC Radio Newcastle gave me 2 minutes on their drive-in show and Tyne Tees Television I think are wanting to do something tomorrow. NUFC.com and Black And White And Read All Over have both featured me on their pages as well. It all helps!

What can I say? There is more info to come (mainly on the Tour Blog and most of what I have left is a huge list of “thank you”s. I’ll add these to the Acknowledgements and Thanks page shortly. Well, tomorrow. Briefly, though, as well as those mentioned just from today - everyone I’ve couchsurfed with. You’ll all get a mention somewhere! And to all those who donated, the biggest thanks of the lot. If you haven’t then please do!

The stage lasts till Ijmuiden, but I have made it to the Dutch capital of Amsterdam where I’m enjoying a couple of days with a very good friend of mine - Esther, who I met in Darwin, Oz. She’s recently moved here herself, originally being from Groningen - somewhere I did originally want to go on the Walk as it’s twinned with Newcastle, but it was just too far out of the way. In fact, I just checked. It’s not moved. It’s still too far. I now have my ferry booked from Ijmuiden. I will be on the 6pm boat on October 2nd, arriving at North Shields at 9am on Wednesday 3rd. Allowing for getting over seasickness, I then expect to be back in Newcastle itself outside of St James’ Park by midday. I will then ensconce myself inside The Strawberry and imbibe as many bottle of Dog as anyone cares to buy me. I won’t be "falling down at the door" (to paraphrase the song) of the woman who inspired the Walk. She’s decided to fly off to New Zealand to spend time with the guy she started dating while I was in Vietnam working for Blue Dragon. Which is nice. I would like to thank DFDS who gave me a 20% reduction on my ticket after I begged at them on the phone for a while!