I Would Walk 1000 Miles

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!

One thousand flipping miles. Ask my feet. Just within the city limits of Utrecht this afternoon on a moderately boring stretch of the N237, my pedometer clicked over to show three miles. Added to the 997 other it had counted its way through, this hits the magic four-digit number. I won’t stop walking, though. With just Amsterdam, Ijmuiden and Newcastle to go (roughly 45 miles altogether) it’d be daft to stop now. And besides, I want to make sure I’ve definitely done the thousand, taking into account miscalculations, inaccuracies and the like. In the meantime, I’m settled in at Andrea’s with a cute bunny, a mad cat and two friendly flatmates. Tomorrow I get to see Esther again for the first time in many months. And for the record, in case nobody else has reached this conclusion yet: I ROCK!!! (See the magic moment in all it’s YouTubey goodness here)

I’m currently sat using Margreeth’s laptop to catch up on email and stuff, when I got a message from Celeste at Idealist.org. The Podcast I recorded with her while I was stopped in Geneva has just gone online. If you can bear to listen to me waffle on about Blue Dragon again then you can listen to it here.

Thanks time again! Tamara in Arnhem, Dagmar and her girlfriend Arianne in Nijmegen, Margreeth in Zeist - thank you all for accommodation, food and company. Celeste - thank you for the publicity!

Details of what I’ve seen and done over the last couple of days will be up on the Tour Blog very shortly.

I’ve just uploaded about eight new videos to YouTube. The link to all my videos is permanently down the sidebar there –> as I can’t be bothered with their rubbish interface for the Channels and so forth.

To save you looking to the side, just this once - there all here.

That question comes up a lot when I tell people that I walk for upwards of 8 hours each day. The other question is “what is the biggest problem you have” or “what is the best / worst thing to happen”. Graham Mack never seems to tire of asking me these questions when he calls me each week for the breakfast show on TFM so I’ll try to answer them here for those who don’t live in the broadcast area.

The thinking thing varies. A lot of the time I’m thinking about blog posts, and how I can relay to you lot on here and on the tour blog how I’m doing and what it’s all like. Sometimes I’m thinking how much further I can walk in the damn rain until I reach shelter of have to unpack a waterproof. I confess that a lot of the time I do still think about “the ex” and how it all fell apart and what minuscule fraction of a percentage chance I have of getting back with her and if there is genuinely a number that close to zero as to actually exist.

I think about what I’m looking at, how far I have to go and how much my shoulders hurt. My feet don’t hurt too much any more - thanks to all who keep asking! I think about the kids in Vietnam. I know this sounds “obvious” or maybe a little soppy but they really do keep me going. That’s what the walk’s about and I do spend a few minutes here and there remembering the little blighters making a complete fool of me at football. And beating me at Jenga. And being cheeky. And tickling me.

Hey, why am I helping them again?
Right now I’m so close to my goal that I have that annoying, aching, “so far but not quite” feeling. One entire hemisphere of my brain seems to be having the same effect of a busload of 7-year-olds all screaming “are we there yet!?” behind a driver who’s taken them from Bognor Regis to Bratislava. I am so near, but still have just a little bit too far to go to feel complete relief yet. It’s almost a physical pull in the chest. Imagine that feeling you get around 3pm on a Friday afternoon when you have the best weekend in the world lined up but you can’t leave till 5:30. Now magnify.

I have also tried counting steps and comparing them to my pedometer to see if 1 mile on there really matches 1.6km on the road, but my stride and its reckoning are out. Or I lose count. But it does while away the time. If my mind wanders in unexpected directions I dig out my notebook and jot some things down. These random brain dumps often make their way into blog postings somewhere.

What are my problems? One is the above - thinking about Louise far too often. Well, you asked. Another is how sick I’m getting of camping. From now on it is reserved purely for festivals! I may relax this rule should I ever get or have to look after kids. That could be fun. But I’ll have an inflatable mattress if I ever camp again. I’m sure I’ve permanently bruised my hip bone. My feet are as fine as can be expected after the agony and disfigurement around Turin. They ache a bit and I sometimes get blisters (I think the pair of socks I wear actually makes a difference) but nothing serious. My shoulders also aren’t as bad as they were, but are still the most frequent excuse for me to stop for a break.

As for the “best / worst” things… Tough. The worst was the pain when I got to Turin, or perhaps losing a load of pictures and video when my camera’s memory card fritzed. The best was probably getting to the top of the mountain pass in the Gran Paradiso two hours behind schedule and not dying. Or meeting and being hosted by such amazing people. None of them knew me from that guy in chapter one of the Bible. You know, the one with the apple fetish. Yet every one opened their doors, fold-down sofas and larders to the mad Englishman with the smelly feet.

If you’ve yet to host me and I’m heading your way, please ignore the bit about smelly feet.

I hope that answers some of your questions. Like I said, those are the most common ones. If you have any more, click on the comments button and ask, ask, ask!

This is the most common question at the moment. How far have I walked? Well, I spent some time this evening going over this. I’ve checked my readings from the pedometer and compared them against Google Maps as closely as I can follow the route I walked. Allowing for differences, averages, skipped corners, map inaccuracies, pedometer inaccuracies and so forth… 962.29 miles. This means I should pass the 1000 mile mark by the time I reach Utrecht!