I Would Walk 1000 Miles

OK, here’s a weird one. I was walking through Bratislava today, as you do, when I came across some posh cars (and a Rover) with little Union Jacks flying from them. Obviously something slightly diplomatic. As I strolled past, I heard a voice say something. It was a gentleman in somewhat smarter clothing than mine commenting on my Newcastle shirt. We got talking very briefly. It turned out he’s a Member of Parliament in the UK and I am a mad Brit about to do a charity walk. And courtesy of the generosity of one Mr Brian Binley (MP for Northampton South), the fund is now 1000 Slovakian Crowns (approximately $US40) better off. I don’t know about this guy’s politics, but I can’t fault his generosity. Brian - thank you.

A huge thank you to two Swedes I met in Krakow, and who I caught up with again in Prague. Tommie and Michael gave me a little gift to help me on my way on the walk - a new cap! My old Darwin one had definitely seen better days and "old faithful" could do with retiring. I met the guys for a few beers last night and they presented me with a new headcovering - and it’s personalised! I’ve promised that I will wear it for the entire duration of the walk, so look out for it. I will try to get a photo on here when I’m able (done!), but it’s a nice plain white (that won’t last…) with their message on the front. Guys - you’re probably the best Swedes in the world!

Another quick catchup to let people know I’m still here. A few more members of my family have kindly donated some cash to the walk, bringing the current total to $200 plus £500. Please, please go to the How To Donate page and add to the total. Over the last few days I have been in Poland. Thanks to a good friend (and ex work colleague), I have been tramping around some lovely mountains and definitely broken my boots in. Thank you, Gosia! I have calluses where I’d normally blister, which is a good sign! I reckon we walked around 9 miles on Saturday, a lot of it along some very dodgy broken up stones, taking around four hours if you knock out the stops and photo breaks. Given that a lot of this was up some very steep hills, this is a good speed. Distances measured with the pedometer kindly supplied by Sheilah. I’ll be mainly plodding around cities for the next week or so before hitting the south of France. I expect to be doing a lot of hiking with Delphine while I’m there, which should also be good preparation.

I will put up a better post shortly as I’m very short of time right now, but a huge thank you to the Kudos Adventure Store on Castle Street in Cardiff for giving me a huge discount on a new rucksack and sleeping mat. The Israeli security guards at the airport pretty much destroyed my old rucksack. Grr. Please, Cardiffians, support your local independent camping store!

Teeny minor update just to let you know I’m still plugging the walk! Quite a few people have said they’ll have words with other people they know and I even got a free advert up in Siem Reap (see the photo). Don’t worry, the pub I was in provides marker pens specifically for such a purpose! My dad also sent me a list of people back home who’ve offered cash and I’ve added them to the Donations Received page. The current total stands at £450 and $US 200 with a handful more people promising something but with no amount confirmed as yet. Thank you one and all! As ever, please keep passing the word on and getting people to come to the site. And also, if you do donate, please let me know with a mail so that I can keep tabs on how much money this walk is raising.

I am currently in Hanoi. A couple of nights ago I mentioned the Walk to Mike, one of the owners of the Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel. Mike was a) drunk and b) generous and straight away said "put us down for 200 bucks". True to his word and despite Max, the other owner and definitely the guy who knows how to wheel and deal blowing a fuse (kidding!), Mike invited Michael from Blue Dragon over and handed him the cash. Mike is on the left of the picture, Michael on the right. So now I have to do the walk or Mike’ll be after a refund! The money is effectively already spent. A few months ago, the Foundation successfully put a young man through a drug rehabilitation course in Ho Chi Minh City. Recently, a friend of his in the same dire situation approached them and asked for help. This clinic is not cheap and the money kindly donated by Mike and Max will go towards paying for this. So, thanks guys. And if I can promote the hostel any more than I’ve already been doing for the last 8-9 months, I’ll do it!

…I’ve created two new pages. One with all the donation information on and one with all the donors listed.

I think I need to come to a decision as regards donation-making. I would have loved ot use JustGiving or FirstGiving, but they require a charity to be registered in the UK/US and then further registered with themselves. As Blue Dragon is registered in Vietnam, this is a problem! It’s also a shame as both organisations allow citizens of their native countries to add a tax refund to donations, maximising the amount collected. Another option would be just to put a PayPal link on the blog. I don’t want to collect the money directly myself as I incur charges from all transfers - I had to "upgrade" my PayPal account some years ago to accept a credit card transaction. I could just link direct to BDCF’s PayPal, but then I’d have no way of keeping track of how much the Walk is raising. So, here’s a suggestion. I’ll link you all to BDCF’s Donation Page. Please choose the best method for yourself - there are ways of donating tax-free for US and Australian citizens. We hope to have a similar procedure for UK taxpayers soon, but we’re waiting to hear back from a third-party charity. Donate through this page and CONTACT ME as well to let me know how much you’ve been kind enough to give. If you just want to pledge an amount and cough up when the walk is over, then please also let me know so I have a running total. Also, let me know if you want me to put your name, link to a web page, or whatever online. I’ll try to keep a list of the sums and donors (where they’ve given permission for their names) on a separate page. But the important thing, in the immortal words of Bob Geldof: "Give us yer f***in’ money!"

Hopefully we’re on to a roll here, folks. The kind people at Dymocks, the best book store in Australia ever, have donated a 2007 AA Road Map of Europe to me for use in planning the walk, and (hopefully) aiding me in not getting lost while on it. So I’d like to say a huge thank you to Margaret, Janet and everyone else who has helped. I can now spend the next couple of days plotting routes and getting more and more panicked as I realise exactly how far 1000 miles really is.

Marina just let me know that the kind folk at Elastoplast have sent me a letter (via herself) saying that they can’t help with the whole trek but have mailed me a bundle of plasters, sunscreen and the like as a kind gesture.

Thank you, people! I’m sure I’ll need them all!