1st Leg - Didsbury

This evening we went for a walk in Manchester, along the river Mersey. We went with Alice and Julie. I would love to say that the weather was great for this time of year, but I can't. It would be a lie. Sleet and nearly snow would be nearer the truth.

Here is our route of 3ish miles.

I was delighted that Alice had baked a vegan chocolate and banana cake, which we had on our return home. Fabulous! Thank you Alice! And thank you Julie for a lovely tea :)

Only 200 miles to Hobson (and the end of the 1st leg!)

Haigh Country Park

We walked with some new team members today! Hollie, Sue and Daniel walked 3.04 miles with us this afternoon. That brings us to a grand total of 148 miles since we started on 7th March. Christmas Pie House here we come!! 218 miles to Hobson :)

Here is the route we took this afternoon Dan! Cool huh?!

And, just so you know we are not cheating, here are the week's stats:

1st leg - Unusual Team Member(s)

While we were walking this week, during a 3 mile loop, in the middle of this field...

... we saw this little thing.

Do any of you nature experts out there know why a toad would lay eggs in the middle of the field and then hug them? Or is it doing something else? Eating someone else's eggs? I have no idea! Please advise (leave a comment at the bottom...)

The nearest water is way over there. Looks like those little tadpoles will be doing their own 1Voice1Walk. That's got to be well over 1000miles in tadpole distance...

Sunday Stats on a Monday

At the risk of being a geek, I think I have worked out why the software was shortening our walk. It's to do with rounding off the edges of the walk. So we are going to use the sports analyser which seems to take a mid point. And we have 11 extra miles done! Yay!

If we walk 100 miles in 2 weeks, it's no wonder I get through wellies at a rate of knots. 11 month old wellies is starting to look like excellent quality!

1st Leg - Sunday Summary

Today on our evening walk, we met up with Jonathan and Jovi who accompanied us for part of the way. They were out for a run, so they joined us for a little bit.

As it is Sunday, it is time to do a running total. Unfortunately, I have messed up the GPS both Saturday mornings, which I think should add on about 2 lots of 6 miles. We will try to do the same route again this coming Saturday and see how far it it, then add it into the total.

I am also inquiring into why the two lots of statistics on my GPS give different totals depending on which software I view them with! I have used the smaller amounts so far, so as not to be cheating, but obviously I want to use the correct distance. So it could be 87 miles so far or it could be 100, depending on the outcome of my enquiry... For now, I am very happy with 87 miles, plus the missing estimate of 12...

Also, if you are reading, you can leave Team 1Voice1Walk a comment by clicking on comments below. You don't need to sign in, just choose the "Name/URL" option. You don't need to enter anything into the URL box. It would be cool if you left your name. Or you can be anonymous if you prefer!

1st Leg - Rainiest

 

Our Saturday morning walk was doomed again, on so many levels! Firstly, it was nearly canceled because I had to wait in for the washing machine men. The good news was that they came at 7am, so there wasn't too much waiting involved and we could still meet our friends. Next, it poured with rain and my coat and waterproofs showed themselves to need reproofing. Badly. And finally, the GPS ran out half way through (which means with last Saturday and next, we may potentially have 12 extra miles to add to our running total.

Today we were joined by the stoic team above.

I think we will ring in a weekly total on a Sunday.

1st Leg - Muddiest

The disadvantage of having no rain is that we have more mud, and the dog's  water hole is now a mud patch.

 

I hereby declare today's 3.9 miles of evening walk the muddiest yet

I'm sorry to say we also saw a dead fox floating in the canal, but you probably don't want to hear about that.

1st Leg - with a Crufts Star

Today, we went for a long walk, but I had forgotten to switch the GPS off yesterday so there was no memory left! (lesson learned). We will do the walk again next week and double the distance. Our friends (above) will vouch for us. It was a special day for little B2 because yesterday he came 2nd and 5th in his classes at Crufts! We were so happy for him and were proud to walk round with him today.

Yesterday we walked 2.6 miles in the morning and 2.6 miles in the evening, which means so far, 333 miles still to go to Hobson.

28 Miles Done....

This evening we did the thing that this sponsored walk is all about: we walked with friends.

We met up with our friend J and her dog Alfie. Evenings are still darkish, but you can still make out the Big Dog hogging the photo and all the dog treats. Luckily, Alfie was sharing his hypoallergenic food, so everyone was happy! You can see the lights of The Town in the background.

As you can see, our route took us up into some hills. It was too dark to properly see where we were!!

We clocked up 2.306 miles, which totalled with the last couple of days (see below), we are now up to 28.06 mile), means we are only virtually 337.94 miles to our virtual destination of Hobson (and then another 700 miles odd-ish to Christmas Pie House)

 

Our stats for last few days are:

Tuesday 9th March: 2.615 miles in the morning, 3.898 miles in the evening

Wednesday 10th March 2.628 miles in the morning, 1.438 miles in the evening

Thursday 11th March 2.655 miles in the morning (including spotting a family of deer)

We are thrilled that we have had our first donation via our JustGiving page. Don't be shy everyone!

JustGiving

We now have a JustGiving page so you can donate easily! (and securely, and be sure that I don't pocket the dog doesn't eat your donation gets to 1Voice safely. hahha. I'm just kidding of course)

Click on that widget on the right hand side of the page and ping me a pint (or monetary equivalent)

Thank you so much - it will make a huge difference to 1Voice

Tamsin

1st leg - uneventful (thank goodness)

7.159 miles down... 358.159 miles to Hobson!

(and about 1,000miles to Christmas Pie House)

Stage 3 - We're off!

I have had a great chance to play with my new GPS gadget and this is our first walk.

4.413 miles down... 361.587 miles to go!

(hmm, average speed of 3mph doesn't sound great)

Here is the youngest member of Team 1Voice 1Walk hitting the trail.

Leg 1 Sandwood Bay to Hobson 366 miles

Here is the first proposed leg of our virtual journey down Britain - Sandwood Bay in Scotland, to Hobson in Newcastle Upon Tyne

Just to be clear, we are not actually going to these places. We are going to walk different places and add up the miles to do the equivalent distance (although having googled Sandwood Bay, I wouldn't mind going there at all.)

Thank you to Kate, Jamie & Ben for our starting point and Jacqui, Ian, Bridget & Niamh for our first location!


Google map tells us it is 366 miles and just for your info, here are the directions! (You don't have to read them, just don't want you think we are cheating or something)

Boots are on, kendal mint cake in our pocket, and WE SET OFF TOMORROW MORNING!

Head southeast 0.8 mi; Turn right 0.2 mi; Turn left 381 ft; Turn right 1.2 mi; Sharp left toward B801 3.3 mi; Slight left at B801 0.6 mi; Slight right to stay on B801 3.7 mi; Turn right at A838 4.6 mi; Turn left to stay on A838 34.1 mi; Turn right to stay on A838 0.5 mi; Turn right at A836 13.0 mi Turn right to stay on A836 4.0 mi Slight right at B9176 12.4 mi Turn left to stay on B9176 2.7 mi Turn left to stay on B9176 184 ft Turn right at A9 Go through 3 roundabouts 126 mi At Inveralmond Roundabout, take the 2nd exit and stay on A9 heading to Stirling/Glasgow/Crianlarich/A85/Edinburgh/Dundee/M90 2.5 mi At Broxden Roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto M90 heading to Aberdeen/Dundee/Edinburgh/Braemar/Blairgowrie/Co. Angus 2.5 mi Take the exit toward Edinburgh 0.8 mi Merge onto M90 26.4 mi Continue onto A90 (signs for Edinburgh) 4.6 mi Continue onto A8000 2.4 mi Take the ramp onto M9 1.9 mi At junction 2, exit onto M8 toward Edinburgh/A720 4.2 mi At Hermiston Jct, take the 3rd exit onto the A720 ramp to Edinburgh W/Kilmarnock/W Calder 0.2 mi Keep right at the fork, follow signs for A720 and merge onto A720 Go through 1 roundabout 10.7 mi Take the exit 0.2 mi At the roundabout, take the 2nd exit onto A68 Go through 3 roundabouts Entering England 63.9 mi Turn right to stay on A68 Go through 1 roundabout 21.4 mi Slight left onto the A69/A68 ramp to Newcastle/Darlington 0.4 mi Merge onto A69 2.5 mi At Styford Roundabout, take the 4th exit onto A68 heading to Darlington/Riding Mill 1.5 mi At Broomhaugh Roundabout, take the 1st exit onto A695 1.4 mi Turn right at B6309 5.8 mi Turn left at A694/Front St Continue to follow A694 2.4 mi Turn right at B6310 148 ft Turn left at B6310/Longclose Bank Continue to follow B6310 2.1 mi Turn right at Syke Rd 0.1 mi Slight right to stay on Syke Rd 148 ft Slight left to stay on Syke Rd 0.8 mi Turn left at A692/Front St 0.3 mi Turn right 269 ft Hobson Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne And Wear, UK

Stage 2 - The Route

Having put out the plea on Facebook, "give me a place name in the UK" my friends have not let me down. Why am I not surprised that the virtual route will include Piddle, Sandy Balls and Pratts Bottom? The final destination is to be Christmas Pie House in Kent, in time (hopefully) for Christmas. The route will be as follows:

 

We aim to walk the equivalent distance of:

Sandwood Bay - Hobson - Ambleside - Lancaster - Ramsbottom - Bootle - Llanfairpwllgwyngyll etc - Tenby - Gower Peninsula - Tolpuddle - Piddle - Sandy Balls - Pratts Bottom - Christmas Pie House

If my calculations are remotely correct, it will be between 1000 and 1200 miles (I can't seem to work it out as one journey on google maps, so have had to calculate each leg of the journey and add them up. My maths skills aren't what they used to be)

Stage 1 - The Idea

Stage 1 is the idea.

I wanted to raise some money for 1Voice and also raise awareness of the achievements of and issues relating to people who use communication aids.

A good friend, Hazel, has recently done a virtual swim across the English Channel and so it seemed like a great idea to do a virtual walk to raise money for 1Voice. Jenny suggested trying to finish before Christmas so we could make a bid for any Christmas card charity donations!

The Process:
Friends will suggest destinations in the UK
I will plan a route
We will set up a Just Giving Page
Team 1Voice 1Walk will walk the equivalent distance
Anyone who takes part will get a mention, a photo if they want, and the responsibility of spreading the word and trying to get a few more sponsors!

The blogging will be our official record and I hope to rope in several helpers over the next few months to walk pretty much the length of Britain. We will be Team "1Walk, 1Voice"

I also have an idea to use a little gadget to help us. I am such a geek!