Monday 31st October 2011

Last week I said that the sponsorship has dried up a bit - what a difference a week makes!!!  One friend who wants to remain anonymous has been very very generous with a cheque for each of our charities.  A really BIG THANKYOU!!!! So now our fundraising has leapt to £2,559 in total with £1,175 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and £1,384 for Water Aid.  But continued thanks to EVERYONE who has donated.  It makes it all worthwhile!

As I predicted back in the summer when we started, doing the steps is getting more difficult as winter draws nearer.  David has had a horrible cold all week but by Saturday, when we had planned another section of the Rutland Round, he was feeling a bit better. I on the other hand woke up at 7am, it was dark and I had a sore throat and runny nose - I had caught it!  When the alarm went off at 7.30, it was so hard to get out of bed, get ready and get in the car to drive to where we were to start walking!  I can honestly say if it was not for this charity challenge, we would have turned over and gone back to sleep.  But off we went and it was glorious and we both felt much better for getting out in the fresh air.  We walked 7 miles (14,000 steps each!) from Lyddington to Barrowden and we will think of this as the railway section: going under and by the side of old, now unused local railway lines and with wonderful, if misty views of Seaton Railway Viaduct.  A few facts about   the viaduct: 70ft high, 82 arches, built in just 2 years between 1876 and 1878 by 3,000 navies and it has been calculated (by some person with a lot of time to kill!) that 20 million bricks  were made locally to build it.  It is still in use for mainly goods trains, however, once when the main line was blocked, the Leicester to London train I was on was diverted over the viaduct - a long but very impressive diversion. 

One thing I have not yet mentioned is that for our weekend walks, we try to start walking at about 10am and aim to finish by 1pm with lunch at a pub.  So if anyone wants any recommendations of where the best ploughman's lunches are in Rutland - just ask us!  

Finally, where are we with our steps?  David is just over 1,500,000 and I am just over 820,000 - so going well towards the 3 million (2 million + 1 million) by Christmas.

More next week

Jean (and David)

PS both now coughing and wheezing - the Penny household is not currently a healthy place to be in!

PPS according to the stats on this blog, 771 people (excluding me) have viewed it - WOW!!!!!!!