Note; as two of the people who are taking part in the walk are both named Brian, they will be referred to as Mr. Murphy and Mr. Johnson from here on.
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My name is Brian Johnson and at 34 - I am the oldest in the group. I work for Rocket Training Limited in Liverpool as a Senior Entry to Employment tutor were I work with 16 - 19 year olds who do not have any employment or academic qualifications to support them into gaining employment.I started my outdoor career as an instructor in the scouts, gaining qualifications in hillwalking and climbing. Since then I have gained nine other outdoor qualifications and have spent nearly two decades taking groups out into the outdoors to participate in a variety of pursuits from land and water based to geology, industrial ecology and archeology and geography. I have undertaken numerous walks in different areas of Great Britain including some time spent in Southern Spain mountainbiking, kayaking and climbing.
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My name is Andy Pickering and I’m age 30. Unlike Mr. Johnson I am not the oldest. I live in Worcester but work in Birmingham for Hsdataline Ltd which specializes in computer networking and cabling.I love playing football and watching MOTD. I run a 5-a-side football match for my local church, were we play every Friday 7-8pm. I have a wonderful wife who supports me with all my wild ideas and an amazing son who takes my breath away at least once a week.
I started my outdoor experience for my stag weekend back in 2003, as Mr. Johnson was my best man so he took all of us to climb a mountain. The mountain in question was Snowdon all 1085mtrs of it. We completed the Llanberis track took us 10 hours there and back, with a break at the top. Then onto Bangor for a night of drinking.
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Brian Murphy, age 30. Still to come
It all started with Andy and Mr. Johnson talking about their next walk, as they had recently completed the Worcestershire Way [31miles] in 1 day for St Richards Hospice.
Andy had always wanted to see Hadrian’s Wall and 84miles of it would really stretch his legs and give him a good progression from the Worcestershire way.
The lads initially were not going to do it for a charity and just as a holiday, it was Andy’s wife’s idea to walk the wall and to raise money for a local charity at the same time. She suggested the charity which was Acorns Children's Hospice Trust.
Andy approached Acorns via there Acorns web site and sent them an email, I believe it was the next day he had a reply from a very nice lady called Jane Hartnell, Fundraising Administrator, they thought the idea was fantastic and were really helpful with getting all the paper work e.g. Sponsorship forms. She even sent them T-shirts to wear.
Mr. Murphy was not involved until a few months latter, this happened when Andy asked him to come walking with him for training, as walking on your own is never fun. While they were walking Andy started telling him about what Andy and Mr. Johnson were going to do and he really wanted to be apart of it.
Jane Hartnell passed on Andy’s contact details onto another nice lady called Sophie James, Community Fundraiser. With Sophie’s help the lads managed to organise an article being put into the Worcester News.
Quick overview of the walk.
Andy and Mr. Murphy are traveling by car to Liverpool to meet up with Mr. Johnson. Then by National Express to they all travel to Carlisle.
Where they are to walk to Solway and then they will be catching the bus back to Carlisle for our first nights stay. They then walk to Birdoswald YHA for their next nights stay; from there they travel to Gibbs Hill Bunkhouse.
Their next stop is at Riverside Campsite, then onto Houghton North Farm.
Finally they get to Newcastle where they stay at the local YHA. The final day the lads catch a Coach back to Liverpool.
Hopefully this will all be completed with them all being able to walk and in a fit state to return to work.
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Here is a little about Acorns and the great work they do.
Acorns Children’s Hospice currently provides support to 500 life-limited children and their families across the West Midlands and surrounding counties through our network of care through three hospices in Birmingham, Walsall and Worcester, and their community team.
Sadly, the children that they care for are expected to die before they reach adulthood since a cure for their illness is not possible. Therefore, Acorns is dedicated to making the most of a life that is limited, not just for the child, but for the whole family.
Every day, it costs £450 per bed to provide the specialist care and support that every Acorns child requires as well as £225 a day to provide a community team member to visit and give practical and emotional support to Acorns children and families.
If you would like to know more about Acorns and the work they do then you'll find load of information on there web site; www.acorns.org.uk
If you would like to sponsor the lads then please visit their web site;
http://www.justgiving.com/5days1wall
or email me at
anypickering76@gmail.com
July 23, 2006
Andy sends email to Acorns;
“Me and a friend are planning to walk the entire length of Hadrian's Wall in 5 days, as this is our idea of a break. My wife pointed out to me that it would be nice to do it as a break, but to also raise some sponsorship money for yourselves.”
July 25, 2006
Andy gets his reply from Acorns;
“Hi Andrew. What wonderful news that you have chosen to fundraise for Acorns! We rely heavily on the generous support of the public to continue our work with life-limited children and their families.”
September 22, 2006
Mayflex sponsor us £300, its are first big sponsorship. All goes toward sponsorship and none goes to equipment or expenses.
October 19, 2006
Are article goes into Worcester News with the tile of “Men are to walk wall for children” By David Paine
January 01, 2007
We have our first sponsorship online £2o, Thank you Mr. Mogg
http://www.justgiving.com/5days1wall
January 20, 2007
Mr. Murphy finally buys his boots, but leaves them at his parents.
February 19,2007
Send out 20 letters to outdoor shops in the Worcester area. Fingers crossed.
Haven’t head anything from the news paper article.
March 16, 2007
HSD sponsor us £100, its just in time for the NEC.
March 17, 2007
All 3 lads attend “the outdoors show” at the NEC, get some much needed kit.
March 23, 2007
After a few weeks of telephone calls and emailing spreadsheets to one another Andy and Mr. Johnson finally have a completed accommodation agenda.
A big smack on the back for Mr. Johnson and all his hard work.
March 31, 2007
Andy buys his rucksack and his entire sock requirement ready for the trip.
April 3, 2007
Not long to go now. So far we have raised £565, but after talking to Mr. Johnson he thinks he has raised another £200.
We have also been in contact with National Express to see if they would be willing to help with our tickets so we can donate the cash we would of used to Acorns another £41.50.
Mr. Johnson calls round accommodation sites and some are fully booked, he is in search of alternatives or alternatively it’s a 30mile walk in one day or worse still cancel walk/reschedule.
April 4, 2007
Unfortunately National Express are unable to help us.
Mr. Johnson [Mr. Fantastic] has sorted out accommodation issue’s he requires £60 from each of the lads for bookings.
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Well we have completed Hadrian’s Wall all 84miles of it, saying it was hard would be an over statement, It was do able but only because of the training we did before, by the end of the week I could of walked it again if it hadn’t been for the blisters on my feet.
Just so you know we carried all our equipment the average weight of the rucksack was 16 kilograms.
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The first day was hard as we had the 3 hour coach trip from Liverpool to Carlisle. Then we had the bus to Bowness-on-Solway to the start of the wall and the start of our walk. 16+ miles latter we ended the walk in Crosby on Eden and camped at Bluebell Campsite which turned out to be the front lawn of the mansion house.
The second day, we woke with the dawn and packed our tents/bivi bags away and set off for Bankshead Bunkbarn.
The walk was mostly agriculture land with a few road walks in between, this was the first time we would see some of the wall. Bankshead Bunkbarn was just East of Banks, at £6.50 per person we were surprised at what we found. It was clean with lots of room; the bedroom was sleep 12 people easy and with a separate large kitchen diner area. The only down side we could say about it was that if you hadn’t brought as sleeping & sleeping bag you would be sleeping on wooden flooring.
After a sleepless night for me, this was before I found the ear plugs [Yes the other two did snore all night]. We headed off to Birdoswald fort for our 3rd stamp in our passports. We were there a full 1 hour before the fort opened, so it was a good stop for breakfast. We then headed off to Once Brewed Youth Hostel in the heat of Northumberland National Park. We stopped at Gilsland for a late lunch and to send postcards to family. Then for the last 4 miles we hit what can be described as postcard Hadrian’s wall pictures, with the heat and the constant up and downs of the route we were all drained and ready for our beds. This is where I got my first blister.
Day four, we headed off for our 2nd day of the hardest part of the route. We were in good spirits as we had slept in proper beds [Yes the mattress was fantastic]. Luckily the hilly part of the wall was the start of the day with us all refreshed, but the 13miles to out next stop at Houghton North Farm was really hard going and felt more like 30miles. Houghton North Farm was amazing and would recommend it to anyone.
Five! Nearly done it, we all woke and ready for our final push into Newcastle and to Wallsend. By far this was the hardest day out of the whole journey, the miles and miles of tarmac and housing estate after housing estate seemed to go on for ever, but we were making our best walking time 3miles per hour. We made it into Newcastle Town and were ready to drop and just wanted to take our rucksacks off, but Wallsend is 6 miles east of Newcastle. This almost made us get a taxi who would know.. oh yeah we would. So we carried on, we made it to the end with 20miles before the Segedvnvm centre closed.
We then got our certificates and badges and called our taxi [One of us suggested walking it.. the funeral is next week] to take us to the YHA.
Our last day in Newcastle, this was the best day. The coach was at 14:45 and got us into Liverpool at 22:10, yes that’s right 7 hours on a coach, but when you have 7 blisters on your feet it was great just site there with your boots off and chill.
This was our trip, it had ups and downs and we argued a few times but Yes I would do it again.
Many Thanks
Andy
