No sooner had we announced the final total than I received another cheque from a sponsor. Now don't get me wrong Every Little Helps (as Tesco will tell you), however checking the date of the cheque and the post-mark of the envelope I realised it was posted on September 10th. This envelope had taken over 10 weeks to travel from Peterborough in Lincolnshire to my office on the Surrey-Hampshire border -- some 118 miles:

That's less than 0.07 mph!

Okay we had a postal strike a few weeks ago, but that started 3 weeks after this letter was posted and finished nearly 4 weeks ago! Anyway here's the revised total:

Any advance on that?

Thanks again!

Here we are almost 5 months since we did the hard part of walking 100km in just under 28 hours. Most of our physical injuries have repaired or forgotten about and most of the money pledged has been collected (we had around £50 of unreachable/non-responding sponsors which on the grand scheme of things isn't too bad).

So without further delay we can announce that our final fundraising total will be:

which this includes a chunk of money donated by Sun through the Match Giving scheme.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us, if you'd like to take part in Oxfam's Trailwalker event yourself (I think most of our team-members are taking at least a one year break) entry has now opened at: the Oxfam website.

Next week we'll be able to announce our final fund raising total.

Meanwhile we thought we'd entertain you with some of the team's best and worst bits from the day:

JohnTZ Best Final straight Bacon sarnies Team "rest-break" on the hedge Worst Knowing that Brian has injured himself Reaching the Jack and Jill checkpoint soaked through

Craig Best The welcome we received at each checkpoint, with the Gurkhas clapping us in Worst The pain in my knees when walking downhill

Andy Best Crossing the finishing line Spag bol served up by our cheerful support crew Oh and the paracetamol and pro-plus! Worst Blisters! PS: I got very drunk and the following morning while suffering from a hangover I said "never again" But I did. I walked 60 miles on 'Trailwalker 2007' and while suffering from multiple blisters and aching legs and feet I said "never again".........

Neil Best Seeing you finish with a smile on your face Worst The drive home having had 1.5 hrs kip

Colin Best Finding enough energy for the last burst on the final stage and overtaking lots of teams -I know it wasn't a race but sometimes you can't help yourself! The extra break we all had just after the Spag Bol break - you really had to be there! Steve's finding his true vocation - see photo on RHS.... The buzz of staying up all night Looking back in the middle of the night and seeing a steady stream of hiker's torches behind us Reaching the end knowing whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger;-) Worst The rain that arrived when I was just 500m from Jack and Jill checkpoint and getting thoroughly soaked through Just before the end of the longest stage, still kitted out in full wet weather gear, baking Sunday morning sunshine, worn out, and worst of all I'd got mud on my Merrels! Staying up all night (4am was the worst point)

So finally the big day was here: 14th July, the day we were all due to start walking from Petersfield and not stop until we reached Brighton the following afternoon. We weren't alone, almost 2000 other walkers, making up over 400 other teams were up for the challenge too.

To accommodate the numbers there were three staggered start times: 6AM, 8AM and 10AM. We'd managed to negotiate 10AM start times for both our teams, which helped our combined support team from a logistics view point and also helped us get a little more sleep the night before; only having to wake up around 6AM!

Kit-Check

Several months earlier we'd been issued with a kit check-list which we duly lugged down to the check-in desk for it to be inspected by the Gurkhas. We had absolutely everything on the list, though given the guys at the desk only saw a few of the items, I can only  think we must all have very honest looking faces, say no more!

That done with it was time to dump what we didn't need with us for the time being (waterproofs, fleeces, hats, gloves and torches) with the support crew and head down to the start for a photo opportunity.

Stage1: QUECP-Harting Down
Distance: 9.5km; Elevation: +300m -210m; Record Time: 51m; 24hr Pace: 2h16m
Our time: 2h05m (10h00 -12h05 + 15mins rest)

On the stroke of 10AM we were off and for a few moments led the pack. There were lots of teams running and speed walking passed us, but we'd made a pact (sic) to stay as a single group and not to get carried away. We were quite familiar with this first section through Queen Elizabeth Country Park, but just before we came to the boundary of the park, a Trailwalker sign at a fork directed us left, as opposed to staying on the South Downs Way (SDW) proper. We knew from the instructions that the route Trailwalker route deviated from SDW occasionally but hadn't expected this detour so earlier, and presumed that it was a short additional up hill section to help spread the field out a little more.

After around 15 minutes up hill climb, we turned sharply to the west (the route runs west-to-east) so we pulled up, as did a few dozen of the other hundreds of walkers. A quick phone call to RaceControl and we established that there was no deviation from the SDW route in this stage and that they should probably send a team out to the north-most region of the park to deliver the bad news to the several hundred walkers who we couldn't shout to. 15 minutes later we back on SDW, 30 minutes lost, but this had (1) put us on our guard and (2) happened at the start when we were all fresh and not in the middle of the night!

We reached CP1 without further incident.

Stage 2: Hartling Down-Hilltop Farm
Distance: 10.3km; Elevation: +290m - 390m; Record Time: 52m; 24hr Pace: 2h27m;
Our time: 2h00 (12h20 -14h20 + 25mins rest)

Having walked/ridden SDW several times in the last few months it was bizarre to find the checkpoints populated with  50+ vehicles parked up on Harting Hill,  Gurkhas to help us cross the road, Gurkhas clapping us in, Gurkhas checking our tracker bands, porta-loos, several hundred other walkers, no to mention our support team: Jarod, Neil and Steve waiting with camping chairs, fresh-water and talk of cups of tea at the next check-point. Of course this meant we stayed longer, why wouldn't you? It was a jolly nice view, it was sunny, in fact as Andy put "Four of us, three of you, I make that Pimms O'clock!". Luckily we were out of Pimms so we got a crack on with Stage 2.

After a fairly 'bumpy' first stage, this one was a little more level, with the exception of a very steep hill after around 2km, so walking poles were the order of the day. Surprisingly this particularly steep hill (it practically has steps) wasn't as much of a bottle-neck as expected (too many people still at CP1 soaking up the view!). After a detour into Philliswood to avoid Treyford Hill, this part of SDW just plods across seemingly endless kms of identi-kit moorland with indenti-kit sheep, although we did see a dog and some large farm-machinery towards the end!

The end arrived a lot sooner than anticipated; the moorland finishes and we dropped down onto a long farm-track heading towards Cocking from where CP2 was in full view, though still someway off. Had we phoned the support-crew when we'd first seen the CP, maybe the kettle would have boiled before we left rather than shortly afterwards!

Stage 3: Hilltop Farm-Littleton Farm;
Distance: 8.3km; Elevation: +190m -175m; Record Time: 41m; 24hr Pace: 1h56m;
Our time:  1h55 (14h45-16h40 + 20mins rest)

With feet freshened and water-bottles filled we were off again. This stage kicks off with a steep climb along farm-track before leveling off to quiet woodlands for almost 7km.  When walking through the same scenery for mile after mile, you have little reference of distance, and again the CP arrived as something of a welcome surprise!

Stage 4: Littleton Farm-Amberley;
Distance: 9.0km; Elevation: +180m -300m; Record Time: 48m; 24hr Pace: 2h12m;
Our time: 1h50 (17h00-18h50 + 30mins rest)

Brain was probably the most relieved to see CP3. He was finding the going very difficult due to severe back pains. He decided not to risk further injury and retire at this checkpoint. We spoke to him later in the evening, he was laying down on a hard floor and looking forward to some pain killers and sleep. Never mind Brian, there's always next year!

Although when we'd previously walked this section and we knew the altitude profile was a little misleading for this section, it didn't pan out too badly. This was probably because we knew that when we reached CP4 Neil's Meal (aka homemade bolognese and pasta) would be waiting for us. We did have to keep an eye on the downhill speed cause it would have been all too easier.

Stage 5: Amberley- Washington;
Distance: 12.1km; Elevation: +280m -220m; Record Time: 1h15m; 24hr Pace: 2h56m;
Our time 2h50 (19h20-10h10 + 15mins rest)

Once again the location of the checkpoint was a welcome change from previous travels along SDW, even if we did have to walk to the bottom of the hill to swipe-in and then half-way back up the hill to our support crew's camp. It was worth it though, we were being served the afore mentioned  Neil's Meal! It was delicious,well done Neil, if the tech-support gig ever goes belly -up you've got a plan B there!

Because the support crew needed to have some proper rest (they were finding the 2 hours between CPs soon passed by after packing up and driving to the next CP). Therefore we agreed they would go directly to CP6, have some sleep and be ready for our arrival sometime around midnight. Therefore, despite it still being daylight, we had to take on board all of our night time gear: fleeces, hats, gloves, torches etc.

Having been fed and watered, we were off again. After a brief pause to take in the scenery, we trotted over te River Arun, and up to Amberley Mount, looking down on the castle, and then onwards to Rackham  and Springhead Hill as the sun started to set.

By the time we reached Washington darkness was up on us. However our hi-vis bibs were not up on us, because we'd left them with our support crew. We improvised with single file and a rear-facing  head-torch on our last walker until we made our way to CP5. We were a little lost when we reach the CP as the support crew weren't around, although each of the CPs had plentiful supplies of hot and cold drinks provided by the Gurkha Signals Reginment.

In lieu of our missing hi-vis vests the Gurkhas kindly gave all our team members glow-sticks, on the understanding we made haste to Brighton and caught a few good night clubs.

Stage 6: Washington-Botolphs;
Distance: 10.4km; Elevation: +210m - 270m; Record Time: 1h01m; 24hr Pace: 2h30m;
Our time: 2h35m (10h25-01h00 + 40mins rest)

Glow-sticks clipped to various ruc-sacs and zippers we headed off into the still humid night. The hi-vis bibs were for use whilst road-walking, fortunately very little of this stage was anywhere near the highways. We headed upto Cross Dyke, through the cloud and mist to Steyning Round Hill and Steyning Bowl and then down Botolphs, looking back every so often to see the steady stream of head torches following us along the path.

Finally we arrived in the village of Botolphs, and into CP6 where Neil, Steve and Jarod were waiting with tea, coffee, hot-chocolate, soup and hi-vis bibs!

Stage 7: Botolphs-Devils Dyke;
Distance: 8.8km; Elevation: +330m - 130m; Record Time: 1h07m; 24hr Pace: 2h09m;
Our time: 1h55 (01h40-03h35 +  30mins rest)

This stage took us into Upper Beeding for a couple of km before climbing a long narrow path upto BeedingHill (a very long detour to avoid crossing the A283 and an much easier climb, but such is the life of the charity event participant!). At the car-park on Beeding Hill we were entertained to a few minutes of Drum'n'Bass as a small rave was under-way. Never have I been so happy to hear Drum'n'Bass!

We then had a long walk up a long road over to Tottington Barn and the transmitters of Truleigh Hill before heading over towards Fulking and towards CP7 where the Gurkhas were providing pasta and soup.

From a personal viewpoint, at this stage the Gurkhas could have been providing cheese-on-toast,  I really couldn't get enthused. It was by this stage the second aspect of Trailwalker was coming into the play, that being the lack of sleep, apparently I looked ready to drop when I turned up at CP7!

Stage 8: Devils Dyke-Jack and Jill;
Distance: 6.5km; Elevation: +190m -230m; Record Time: 0h52m; 24hr Pace: 1h35;
Our time: 1h35m  04h15- 5h50 + 30mins rest)

Amazing what 30 minutes rest and a bit of banter does for the spirits!

Off we set onto stage 8, one of the shorter segments, just before sun-rise. Before long we'd shed our fleeces, hi-vis vests and soon caught sight of the Jack and Jill windmills overlooking Clayton. As we approached Clayton we started to hear what we hoped wasn't thunder. As the daylight broke a look to the south revealed a hellish-looking cloud hovering over the English Channel just off Brighton.

No amount of finger-crossing could help us. The cloud approached the main-land and without any drizzle-build-up it burst, and we all got very very wet. Some of us (again writing from a personal viewpoint) had banked on the next stage being dry and had left our waterproof gear with the support crew.

The support crew we just readying the gazebo when the thunder and lightning started and erecting a metal frame on a hilltop during a thunderstorm isn't exactly what we'd call best practice so when we arrived on-site, soaked through (again from a personal veiwpoint!) we were grateful that the Gurkhas didn't mind us using their admin tents for shelter!

Stage 9: Jack and Jill-Spring Barn Farm;
Distance: 13.8km; Elevation +220m -380m; Recrod Time: 1h18m; 24hr Pace: 3h23;
Our time: 3h45 (06h20-10h05 + 40 mins rest)

Amazing what not having 30 minutes rest and a bit of banter doesn't do for the spirits!  Although we were dried out and had a fresh change of clothing (right down to a new pair of walking boots in some cases!) we headed off into the rain again, albeit a little lighter than when we'd arrived on-site. A proper rest would have been better as this stage was by far the longest, evident by the presence of a water-station midway through the stage. The knowledge that this stage would take around 4 hours to complete didn't help either!

Around 9km into the stage the sun came back out and around the same time we started to come across pedestrian traffic of other Trailwalkers coming down off Plumpto Plain towards Lewes. The tailbacks were due to the route taking a narrow rain-soaked path which had already seen several hundred walkers since the earlier rain-storm.

When we did our first training walks back in Feburary we thought it pointless training any more on overly-muddy tracks as this wouldn't be the sort of terrain we'd find in July. How wrong we were!

After an near-eternitity we reached CP9, and this mean bacon sarnies a cup-of-tea and a good sit down! Hurray for Sunday mornings!

Stage 10: Spring Barn Farm- Woodingdean;
Distance: 5km; Elevation: +180m -110m; Record Time: 27m; 24hr Pace: 1h14m;
Our time: 1h35m (10h45-12h20 + 10mins rest)

Time to bid the support-crew farewell until Brighton Racecourse, CP10 is located literally in the middle-of-nowhere. At least these next two stages had a combined distance less than that of the previous stage, and if that wasn't sufficient to keep the spirits high, it was no sunny once more, oh the English summer - you really can't beat it!

Well it might have been sunny, we might have been almost there, we might have had more than enough water and fluid onboard, but man was this a tough section. People over taking us, people thinking other people were about to collapse, people thinking they themselves were about to collapse, and even with sun-hats and sun-cream the route was so exposed to the sun, it was draining and dragging.

Although Woodingdean, the location of CP10 was off all tracks, including the beaten track, bless the Gurkhas; they'd transported a row of porta-loos along side the regular swipe-in, water and first-aid tents.

Stage 11: Woodingdean-Brighton Racecourse;
Distance: 6.4km; Elevation: +180m - 140m; Record Time: 48m; 24hr Pace: 1h31;
Our time: 1h25m (12h30-13h55)

So after a good sit-down, we were off again, using our secret weapon to ensure we made the finish line before the 30-hour deadline: put Colin at the front.  If transpires that Colin only has two speeds: so slow you think he's going to keel-over and flat-out! Despite blisters and strained calves a concerted-effort was put in to reach the summit of Bullock Hill before easing off the power a little. Shortly after we reached a Gurkha-manged road-crossing where we confirmed we had around 2km left to go.

Legs went into auto-pilot until we reached the edge of the racecourse and we knew we'd make it after all, and may be inside 28 hours. At 200m we were met by an Oxfam marshall, to let us know that the next marshall would take our team numbers to be passed onto the MC to broadcast on the PA system. At 100m we let them know there were two 3-man teams, teams 200 and 255 and then we were on the parade-straight of the racecourse in-front of the grandstand, bagpipes playing and we were over the line and swiped each team in.

Our final timings were:

We then took the podium as a 6-man team and were presented with our medals by a nice man from Oxfam, had our photos taken, were presented with a bottle of something sparkling by our support crew and then promptly disbanded!

Coming up in the next blog entry: our best-bits, our worst-bits and our thank-yous!

Just a quick note to say, 3 members of each team made it to Brighton Race-course in around 27h55m. We had one non-starter (due to illness and one retirement due to back problems). The rest of us are still trying to figure out just how we managed it!

We're all recovering with blisters, and lactic-acid build up, but there'll be a full account of how we got on in the next day or so!

With our event less than two weeks away, we're hoping to get some more donations coming in to help us meet that £4,000 target.

If you've come to this blog to donate, can we suggest that if you work in or regularly visit Guillemont Park it more beneficial, financially, to sponsor us directly (in person, write your name on a sponsor form) than using the website (which takes their own little cut!).

If you don't recognise anyone from the photos, please just email the address at the top of this page (you'll need to remove the spaces) or email me directly, you'll see my name at the bottom of this posting. We'll then let you know where to find us.

We really appreciate all the help and donations we've received so far and hope we can reach our target before the walk starts!

Many Thanks

Niagara & Solaris Trailwalker Teams

Apparently it was billed as Training at 40 percent of full distance, but it meant getting up earlier than ever!

Last week we headed out on our longest group training walk yet, starting from QUECP and walking all the way to Checkpoint 4 near Amberley Station. We managed to meet up only a little behind schedule with a couple of cars parked at the end, without any complications this time;-)

The walking day started off a little overcast but was warm although the pace was held up (probably to our benefit) by around 200 walkers on an organised ramble heading in the opposite direction along the South Downs Way. After around 101 "good morning"s and "hello"s we resorted to French, German and Spanish salutations!

We hit the first checkpoint around 10h30 (30 minutes ahead of schedule) and took 10 minutes break to attend to feet, food and the view of South Harting:

Lunch stop was at Cocking. Stuart had turned up with only his camel-pak for company, and had thought we'd be going through Cocking, but the route stays up on the ridge, so he jogged downhill into the village to get some lunch, I asked if he'd be kind enough to pick up some milk whilst he was out. I didn't actually expect him to turn up with a pint of semi-skimmed. For a fully-skimmed drinker I found the influx of a pint of relatively fatty milk a little hard to walk on! That'll teach me!

Mid afternoon we had a phone call from the Oxfam Trailwalker office. They were just calling to see how the fundraising was going, but were quite impressed to hear we were actually on the route, not the sort of place you expect to find someone on a Thursday afternoon!

Around this point the weather was looking a little ropey, we were expecting rain at some point during the day. Luckily for Stuart he'd brought some rainwear:

Onwards towards the end, although we had a rest around Bignor Hill, which was probably a little lengthy given how tight our muscles were when we got going again.

Part of the support information we've received from Oxfam include a map-guide which features an Altitude Profile for each section. The profile for Stage 4 looks like this:

Well that's nice, but it seemed to have been uphill or flat at the very least for the last 3 miles or so. This was especially unwelcome as most of us were finding the flint-pebbles in the track were quite uncomfortable underfoot, new insoles all round please!

Finally we made it to Amberley around 6pm just about spot on target for the 24 hour target-times and 2 and a half hours inside the 30 hour target time. Guess that deserves a drink:

We're off again on another training hike on Thursday with six of the eight walkers. We're tackling the first 38Km of the route upto Checkpoint 4 near Amberley Station.

The distance is around 24 miles, a chunk more than the last two training hikes. Looking at the altitude profiles of the sections, they don't seem to be too severe, once the route rises it doesn't drop too far back into the valleys, in fact for most of the last section we're slowly going down hill. The published estimate time for a 24 hour pace is just under 9 hours, so it's still going to be a long day; but not as long as July 14th!

So if you know any good pubs in Amberley twitter us!

Just a quick update to announce we've passed through the £500 mark.

Also it's probably a good idea to just recap what this blog is all about...

We've entered the Oxfam Trailwalker Event pledging to raise £4,000 for two charities: Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. The event is a mass-hike for teams of four from Queen Elizabeth Country Park (QECP), near Petersfield in Hampshire to Brighton Race Course in Sussex, that's a distance of 100km or 60 miles.

We (two teams of four Sun staff each) will be leaving QECP at 10AM on 14th July following the South Downs Way hopefully reaching Brighton Race Course within the 30 hour timelimit; that gives us until 4PM on 15th July.

You might be wondering who the Gurkhas are and why are they related to the event? Gurkha are the people from the State of Nepal and are notable for their history of bravery and strength serving in both the British and Indian Armies.

The Gurkha Welfare Trust is a British charity providing aid to about 10,000 Gurkha ex-servicemen and their dependants in their homeland of Nepal, who are not eligible to a military pension.

The Trailwalker event originated in Hong Kong, where it was a military drill for Gurkha soldiers up until 1986 when it was opened to the public as a fund raising event co-organised by Oxfam Hong Kong. Since then Trailwalker events have been established in UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. With Hong Kong handed back to China in 1999, the British Army Gurkhas left the territory. Since then the Queens Gurkha Signals Regiment have jointly run Trailwalker UK with Oxfam.

If you'd like to help us reach our £4,000 target please click top right on:

So last Saturday we held our first group training hike on the Trailwalker route proper: starting at Checkpoint 5 near Washington along to Checkpoint 8 (next to the Jack and Jill Windmills).

This is the section we'll be covering overnight on July 14th/15th, so besides becoming familiar with the general terrain of the route, covering this section was also useful in becoming familiar with the lay-of-the-land so we have more clue where to put our feet when we're walking by torch-light!

We'd hoped to be walking by 8AM, however due to a slight mis-navigation to the start by one of the other team-members (he was supposed to drive to the end and give John and Colin a lift back to the start, weren't you Phill!) but we eventually started walking around 9:30AM.

We reached Checkpoint 6 30 minutes ahead of the published 24-hour-pace, although we could have easily passed it without knowing (see the photo on the left: it's just an empty field 51 weeks of the year!).

At the start of May John and Colin, cycled the entire route, and despite having only covered the path on this one previous occasion, it was amazing how familiar the route was; it definitely helped make those hills seem a little shorter. It was also quite apparent that cycling (or at times trying to cycle) up those hills was a lot harder than just walking up them, although the downhill stetches weren't as much fun on foot!

We had a short lunch-stop on Edburton Hill and then continued over to Devils Dyke, resisting the urge to stop at The Devils Dyke Inn, this might have been a good move if the reviews at beerintheevening.com are anything to go by (and they usually are!).

Maybe it was the previous knowledge of the route, but it didn't seem much longer before we saw sight of the windmills just beyond Pyecombe. The Trailwalker route teases a little on the approach to Checkpoint 8, but we reached the Jack and Jill car park at 3:05PM. This was around 30 minutes longer than training walk #1 which was around 3 miles shorter and infinitely flatter!

We're clearly going in the right direction walking-wise; probably time to start working on that fundraising total!

At the end of April two members of Team Niagara took time off to perform a recce (recon) of the entire South Downs Way route, but on bikes rather than on foot...

We started around 9AM Sunday morning having been dropped off by my other half in little village called Chilcomb across the motorway from Winchester. I'd included a photo at this point, but the camera seemed to have issues focusing!

We'd ridden less than a quater mile before we encountered the first hill of the trip, which took us up onto the route proper; that's one of the problems with the South Downs Way, it's a Downland based landscape, specifically an "area of open chalk hills", so there's a lot of slow climbs followed by fast decents!

We met up with one of John's friends close to Petersfield, where we stopped for lunch at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park cafe (very reasonably priced food BTW). QECP is the start venue for the Trailwalker, from what we can tell the starting line is at the foot of a rather long hill, but we won't tell the others! If you ever find yourself in QECP with a mountain bike be sure to take a ride up to the top of Buster Hill, it's a great view from the top but the two minute 30mph ride back down to the bottom is what it's all about!

Before leaving QECP I did a bit of luggage rearrangement (my Topeak handlebar bag was too heavy, coming down Buster Hill, it was scuffing on the front tyre when my suspension was fully compressed - great motorbike type sound, like when you used to tape card to your bike spokes as a kid!).

We continued in sunshine for the rest of the afternoon, much better than the forecast, onto our first overnight stop at the Blue Bell Inn, Cocking (that's the name of the village!), West Sussex, around 20km into the Trailwalker route and close to Check Point #2. Our stats for day one were:

• Start: 9AM
• Distance: 33.4 miles
• Riding Time: 4h55m
• Ave Speed: 6.8mph! Atrocious, but so was the terrain!
• Stop: 5PM

Started Day Two, looked to be another scorcher - so much for the forcast rain, and up a main road hill to get back onto the 'Way, don't mind hills but not with heavy traffic. It was good to get off the road, especially for the relatively level ground of Heyshott and Graffon Downs edging into Charlton Forrest towards Trailwalker Check Point #3 (around 28km into Trailwalker).

We had a rather long stop to try to fix my gears (John likes a challenge, when dropping into the lowest front cog, they would either not change down, the chain would jam or the chain would come right off). We then had a not so short stop to attend to a puncture on Johns rear wheel. Amazingly this was the only puncture either of us picked up, depsite nearly all the terrain being plentiful of jagged flint; to that end, Johns tyre had only picked up a thorn.

These delays impacted us quite a bit, we held until 20 miles before stopping for a very quick lunch break at around 3PM. Then it was a long slog up the summit of Devils Dyke; this was tedious, due to the cross winds (on your right: the English Channel; on your left:low lying land for around 30 miles; in the middle: you, open to all the elements, which even on a hot sunny day, isn't too much fun).

This took us past Trailwalker Check Point #5 (68km) and onto our second overnight stop at the Jack and Jill Inn, Clayton. BTW, their website looks off-kilter compared to their bricks'n'mortar site. Our stats for Day Two were no better:

• Start: 9AM
• Distance: 34.38 miles
• Ave Speed: 6.4mph! Getting slower!
• Stop: 7PM

The pub couldn't/woudln't serve breakfast before 8:30AM so we left at 12 hours after we'd arrived at 7AM to start Day Three, still no sign of anything but lots of unbroken sunshine (days of endless sunny weather, takes me back to my days living in the Bay Area!).

Another long climb up a long main road to get back up to the trail, and along the picturesque Jack and Jill windmills, and the site of Trailwalker Check Point #8 (75km). Then onto Ditchling Beacon, with excellent views of passenger jets stacked up waiting to land at Gatwick Airport.

We had a narrow miss shortly after crossing the A27(T) at Housedean Farm, we just missed having breakfast at a mobile cafe, unfortunately it was across the wrong side of the carriage-way by the time we noticed it; crossing 4 lanes of rush hour traffic was less tempting than a Fried Egg and Bacon Bun!

If we'd been doing the Trailwalker route, the next climb would have been our last around Check Point #9 (90km), but we weren't so it was onwards onto Eastbourne. Finally we got to visit a quaint little village today: Alfriston Old Post Office does very tasty handmade sandwiches, and reasonably priced too! To be honest anything would probably have been tasty by this point.

Of course Alfriston is in a valley, so after lunch we had another climb over Windover Hill down to Jevington (via a detour as a landowner had erected an illegal notice stating that the SDW didn't cross his land - but it does!) and then up out of Jevington towards Willingdon Hill.

You know how with most hills, every time you turn a blind bend or reach a blind summit, you see another climb? Well I liked Willingdon Hill, cause as I reached the blind bend, I saw John stood by the Trig Point and Eastbourne laid out behind him; IT'S ALL DOWN HILL FROM HERE!

Final Day Stats:

• Start: 7AM
• Distance: 32.5 miles
• Ave Speed: didn't note, but it must have improved!
• Stop: 4PM

After reaching Eastbourne station, thanks to the locals who gave us directions, we caught the train to Brighton. We had a quick celebratory drink on the seafront and then another train back home. Our total distance was 101.3 miles.

In one word: PUNISHING!

More photos at flickr, or see how we got on here:

Last Wednesday most of our teams were able to take the day off work and headed down/up/across towards the Test Valley for the first of our Training Walks.

After a slight delay arranging cars at either end of the route, we left St Mary Bourne only 20 minutes behind schedule at 10:20. We did better than the GPS (which had some issues before we'd even got a sweat on) so we weren't able to keep tabs on exactly how far we covered, but according to the maps it should have been around 13 miles. Despite the route being way-marked, there were a few times when we weren't quite sure which unmarked track to follow!

We were accompanied on the day by Baxter, the lovable lab. He kept us all on track, although he's not used to such long walks, in fact his longest walk up until this point was about a quarter of a mile. He kept going 'til the end (luckily) even though he had no idea where we were going or how long it would take (he wasn't alone on that one!).

The weather turn out nice (again!) and we got to see some great North Hampshire country-side along the way. We arrived in Stockbridge spot on 5 hours for a well earned drink! All in all, better even than a day at our office!

See how we got on right here: